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Hawthorne's "Waking Reality".(Nineteenth-century American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne)

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From: ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly)
Date: 19990301
Author:Friedlander, Benjamin

Nineteenth-century American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Wives of the Dead" is an ambiguous tale about the borders between dream and reality and the complicated relationship between the wives of two brothers. Both brothers were killed and messengers come in the night to inform the women the brothers are alive. However, one brother seems to be most important to both women.

"The Wives of the Dead" first appeared in the Token for 1832, alongside "My Kinsman, Major Molineaux," "Roger Malvin's Burial," and "The Gentle Boy." The tale remained an orphan for some twenty years ...

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