When reading Ernest Hemingway’s short story The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife, I was struck by the odd dynamic between the two characters referenced in the title -- the doctor and his wife. The title makes the story seem like it’s going to revolve around these two characters, but the wife is only present for a small part of this story. Thus, it’s important to pay close attention to the doctor and his wife’s limited interactions.
The doctor and the wife seem like a very odd, mismatched couple. He is a medical professional -- a man of science. One of the first facts that we learn about his wife is that she is a Christian Scientist. This sect of Christianity is known for avoiding medical treatment and trying to solve all ailments through prayer instead. From this information alone, it seems like the doctor and his wife have completely different ideologies on how they view the world.
Additionally, relating to the wife’s religious beliefs, she tries to preach to her husband and shouts moral proverbs at him. After her husband returns home and she hears of his “row” with Dick Boulton, she tells him, “Remember, that he who ruleth his spirit is greater than he that taketh a city” (25). The husband does not respond to this comment and instead starts to aggressively clean his shotgun.
Overall, the couple seems to have a unhealthy, frustrated relationship. The wife’s probing questions seem annoying, and the doctor is frustrated with being hassled by her. He gives her curt answers such as “yes,” “no,” and “nothing much” (26). Additionally, the whole conversation is in two separate rooms. In fact, the doctor and his wife never even see each other! This seems like there is some sort of disconnect and distance in their relationship. Similarly, the wife seems to live her life obsessing and fretting over her husband. In the middle of the day, the wife is “lying with the blinds drawn” in a room, waiting for her husband to come home. When he arrives, she bombards him with a litany of questions. Finally, before the husband leaves, the wife asks him, “If you see Nick, dear, will you tell him that his mother wants to see him?” (27). The doctor finds Nick and delivers the message, but Nick doesn’t want to see his mother. The doctor allows Nick to disregard and disrespect his mother’s wishes by not going to see her.
The doctor and his wife seem to have an odd, unhealthy, and frustrating relationship. I think this dynamic will be key to keep in mind as stories continue to unfold about the doctor, his wife, and Nick.
I think you make good points about the couple and how even in such a short passage we are able to see the issues in their relationship. I hope that the dynamic of the two comes up again later in the book, because I am curious as to whether this behavior is typical or a one time thing. Another important aspect of the story that you talk a little about is the how the father allows the son to disobey his mother. I believe that the relationship between the son and his father will also effect the dynamic between the Doctor and the Doctor's wife.
ReplyDeleteNice post, Zina! I agree that the doctor seems to be annoyed with his wife in this chapter, but I don't think that she's trying to bother him. I think she just cares about him very much (maybe so much that it's frustrating). Maybe the doctor isn't directly trying to disrespect his wife's wishes. Perhaps being with Nick makes him happy and after a long day he just wants to satisfy himself instead of worrying about what other people would like.
ReplyDeleteOne way to read the title is not as a reference to the two "main characters," but with the emphasis on "the doctor"--and how "his wife" shapes and affects his behavior. You do a great job of drawing out the subtext to this tense conversation. We've talked about these early stories as reflecting young Nick's emerging ideas of masculinity (and the implicit shame in seeing his father try to get tough and self-assertive and then back down when his bluff is called--even worse than not trying in the first place), and it might be interesting to think of this dysfunctional conversational dynamic as background for a story like "The End of Something," or Nick's solitude and itinerant lifestyle in "The Battler."
ReplyDeleteI think Hemingway is very intentionally with how he addresses/calls each character- giving them names/not giving them names all seem to have a meaning. Like even in "Hills like White Elephants," the characters are "the American" and "the girl". Again in "In our time", "the doctor" gets a title and his wife is only addressed in relation to him. This story was relatively short so I think there's a lot to be said in the things that aren't explicitly stated. There's a lot to be inferred from the husband not telling the truth and his lack of response. I'm interested to see how his relationship with his wife plays out... and if she doesn't come back up again, even his relationship with other women in the book.
ReplyDeleteYou make some very good points about this story. I too felt that the title of the story is very interesting, considering the relatively minor role that the doctor's wife plays in the narrative. When I read the story, I must confess I did not fully realize the implications of the wife's faith in contrast with the doctor's profession. You mention in this post that you wonder how the dynamic between these characters will play out in later stories. At the time of my writing this comment, we are almost done with the book, and it did not reappear in any significant way. However, I wonder if the tensions in his household between his mother and his father could have anything to do with Nick's struggle with depression later in life.
ReplyDeleteI thought this post was a great explication of what occurs in the story "The Doctor and The Doctor's Wife" and a good insight into the relationship between the two. The dynamic we talked about in class between the two main characters in "Cat in the Rain" seems very similar to the relationship you describe in your post. Though there are certainly several differences, both stories have one character, the wife, portrayed as sort of nagging and constantly a disturbance to her husband. Seemingly, this feeds into the traditional or stereotypical idea of the American housewife; however, whether Hemingway's sympathies lie with the husband or wife in both stories seems somewhat unclear.
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