“The Wife of His Youth”
During the Realist Era of literature, America was going through significant changes with repercussions that affect society even today, including the Civil War and reconstruction. During the Civil War, “as many as 620,000 Americans died in the war, roughly 360,000 Union and 260,000 Confederate troops, and that more than 400,000 were wounded,” (Belasco and Johnson 1102-1103). After the war was over, came the era of Reconstruction, which essentially reinvented the plights of slavery. Although the North won the war, Jim Crow laws, Plessy v. Ferguson, and president Johnson vetoing the amendments that would give African Americans rights allowed the South to continue their pre-war ways. This created a split within the African American community. “In the face of widespread racism and discrimination, African Americans divided over the ways in which they might seek to gain equality and civil rights in the United States,” (Belasco and Johnson 1108).
Realism placed emphasis on representing things as they actually are. Charles Chestnutt’s “The Wife of His Youth” does exactly that by showing the inner conflicts of classism and colorism within the black community. The story follows Mr. Ryder who is a lighter-skinned black man who is a part of the Blue Vein Society, an exclusive and influential group in the black community. Although not an official requirement, all of the members have skin fair enough to see their blue veins. Mr. Ryder becomes infatuated with Mrs. Dixon because “she possessed many attractive qualities. She was much younger than he; in fact, he was old enough to have been her father, though no one knew exactly how old he was. She was whiter than he, and better educated,” (Chestnutt). He decides to throw her a ball to propose because “his marriage with Mrs. Dixon would help to further the upward process of absorption he had been wishing and waiting for,” (Chestnutt). However, an older, dark-skinned woman with a thick southern accent named Liza Jane comes into the picture looking for her husband from when she was enslaved. At the ball, he tells his side a story of how a couple was separated 25 years ago and asks the crowd if the man should accept the woman as his wife even though it was a long time ago and the marriage wasn’t valid. The crowd believed that the man should, and so introduces her as the wife of his youth, (Chestnutt). Chestnutt’s short story is a powerful tale because it shows how during this time in the black community, having lighter skin was more desirable and deemed more attractive. Being light-skinned came with more opportunities to rise on the social and economic ladders. That is the reason Mr. Ryder wanted to marry Mrs. Dixon so badly. Not because he loved her, but rather because he knew being married to a white-passing woman would elevate his social status and he’d be closer to his goal of being accepted by whites. However, Liza Jane shows up and reminds him of how he used to be married to a slave and wasn’t always a member of the high society. Realist themes include classism and morality and in “The Wife of His Youth” Mr. Ryder faces a decision of right and wrong: whether to accept Liza Jane and lower his social status or to go along with his original plan of winning over Mrs. Dixon which would elevate his status.
Chestnutt’s story adds to the development of the African American voice because now black authors are sharing the inner conflicts of their community, which diversifies the existing voice comprised only of slave narratives.