: In “The Wife of His Youth” by Charles Chesnutt, Mr. Ryder makes a statement
about identity. He notes that “Self-preservation is the first law of nature” (7). In the final
scene, wherein he relates the hypothetical dilemma of the imaginary husband, he quotes
Shakespeare’s famous advice: “This above all: to thine own self be true / And it must follow,
as the night the day, / Thou canst not then be false to any man” (Ham. 1.3.78-80). He then
asks his guests, the “Blue-Veins,” what the hypothetical protagonist should have done. Mrs.
Dixon, whom he has planned to marry, and the other guests, reply, “He should have
acknowledged her” (23). Mr. Ryder responds: “It is the answer I expected, for I knew your
hearts” (23). He then brings her into the room, acknowledging her to his guests as “the wife
of [his] youth” (24). Mr. Ryder’s response (especially the Shakespearean quote) suggests that
he made his decision to acknowledge Liza Jane before the ball.
Write an essay in which you analyze the meaning at the heart of writing an essay in which you analyze the meaning at the heart of this final scene, and
what it may signify for Mr. Ryder’s future as well as the future existence of the Blue
Veins. Y