Wakefield Flashcards

by Nathaniel Hawthorne — tap or click to flip

Flashcard Review

Flashcards: Wakefield

Where does Wakefield take lodgings after leaving his wife?

He takes lodgings in the next street over from his own house in London, remaining just one block away for the entire duration of his absence.

How long does Wakefield tell his wife he will be away?

He tells her to expect him back by the return coach, or at most three or four days, and definitely by supper on Friday evening.

What does Wakefield do to disguise himself during his absence?

He buys a new reddish wig and selects different garments from a secondhand clothing dealer, adopting a fashion unlike his usual brown suit.

What happens when Wakefield almost walks back to his own door on the first morning?

Guided by habit, he walks unaware to his own doorstep and is only aroused by the scraping of his foot on the step. He then hurries away in agitation, and this backward step effectively seals his prolonged exile.

What signs of his wife's declining health does Wakefield observe from afar?

He sees her passing with a heavier step, paler cheek, and more anxious brow. In the third week, an apothecary enters the house, followed by a physician's chariot, suggesting serious illness.

How long does Wakefield stay away from home before finally returning?

He stays away for more than twenty years before one autumn evening he walks through his own door as though returning from a day's absence.

What prompts Wakefield to finally re-enter his home?

On a gusty autumn evening in the twentieth year, he sees the warm glow of a fire through his parlor window and feels a shower of cold rain. Rather than stand shivering outside, he ascends the steps and walks in.

How does Hawthorne describe Wakefield's intellectual nature?

Wakefield is intellectual but not actively so. His mind occupies itself in long, lazy musings that either lead nowhere or lack the vigor to reach a conclusion, and his thoughts seldom become energetic enough to seize hold of words.

What does Mrs. Wakefield privately recognize about her husband's character?

She is partly aware of a quiet selfishness, a peculiar sort of vanity, a disposition to craft that produces only petty secrets, and what she calls "a little strangeness, sometimes, in the good man."

What is the last image Mrs. Wakefield has of her husband before his disappearance?

After closing the door, he thrusts it partly open again, and she sees his face smiling at her through the aperture before it vanishes. This parting smile haunts her memories for years.

How does Wakefield's physical appearance change over the twenty years?

He becomes meagre, with a low, deeply wrinkled forehead and small, lustreless eyes. He moves with an oblique gait as if unwilling to display his full front to the world.

How is Mrs. Wakefield described when she and her husband accidentally meet on the street?

She is described as a portly woman considerably in the wane of life, carrying a prayer-book, with the placid mien of settled widowhood whose regrets have either died away or become essential to her heart.

What does Hawthorne's final moral about "stepping aside" mean in the context of the story?

Hawthorne warns that by stepping outside one's place in the social system, even momentarily, a person risks losing that place forever. Wakefield's self-exile demonstrates how fragile one's connection to community and identity truly is.

How does the story explore the theme of habit versus free will?

Wakefield's departure begins as a willful act, but habit and inertia transform it into a prison. He continually tells himself he will return "soon" but keeps postponing, suggesting that routine and passivity can overpower conscious intention.

What does "Wakefield" suggest about the nature of human connection?

The story suggests that human bonds are surprisingly fragile and that once a chasm is made in human affections, it closes quickly rather than remaining open. Wakefield retains his feelings for his wife, but she gradually fades him out of her heart.

How does the story treat the theme of self-knowledge?

Wakefield lacks self-awareness throughout. He acts without understanding his own motives, fails to perceive the singularity of his conduct, and keeps believing he is the same man as ever, even as twenty years of isolation fundamentally transform him.

What narrative technique does Hawthorne use to tell Wakefield's story?

Hawthorne uses a metafictional frame, presenting himself as a narrator who recalls the anecdote from an old magazine and invites the reader to imagine and interpret the events alongside him, blurring the line between fiction and essay.

How does Hawthorne use direct address in "Wakefield"?

The narrator frequently breaks the narrative to address Wakefield directly, as in "Wakefield! whither are you going?" and "Stay, Wakefield!" These apostrophes create dramatic irony and a sense of helpless foreknowledge.

What is the significance of the recurring crafty smile in the story?

The crafty smile appears as Wakefield departs and again when he returns twenty years later. It serves as a motif linking his departure to his return and symbolizing his misguided belief that his absence is merely a clever joke.

How does Hawthorne use autumn and weather as symbols?

Wakefield departs on a dusk October evening and returns on a gusty autumn night twenty years later. The autumnal settings symbolize decline, the passage of time, and the chill of emotional distance that defines his self-exile.

What does "portmanteau" mean as used in the story?

A portmanteau is a large traveling bag or suitcase, typically made of stiff leather and opening into two equal halves. Wakefield carries one when he departs, suggesting he intends only a short journey.

What does "whimwham" mean in the phrase "this long whimwham"?

A whimwham is a fanciful or whimsical notion, a trifling object or pursuit. The narrator uses it to characterize Wakefield's twenty-year absence as an absurd, prolonged caprice.

What does the word "apothecary" refer to in the story?

An apothecary was a person who prepared and sold medicines, functioning similarly to a modern pharmacist. The apothecary's visit to Mrs. Wakefield's house signals that she has fallen ill.

Who says "Wakefield! Wakefield! You are mad!" and in what context?

Wakefield himself cries this out after accidentally encountering his wife on a London street after ten years of separation. The meeting forces a sudden, painful awareness of the strangeness of his life.

What is the meaning of the narrator's warning: "It is perilous to make a chasm in human affections; not that they gape so long and wide--but so quickly close again"?

The narrator warns that the danger of abandoning a relationship is not that the wound stays open, but that it heals over too quickly, closing the absent person out permanently.

What does the closing line mean: "Like Wakefield, he may become, as it were, the Outcast of the Universe"?

Hawthorne warns that anyone who steps outside their appointed place in the interconnected human system risks permanent exile. Wakefield's fate illustrates how self-imposed separation can make a person an outsider even amid a crowded city.