The Effective Use Of Tone In Edith Wharton's A Journey

Edith Wharton’s short story “A Journey” tells the story of a husband and wife as they travel from Colorado to New York in a train. The first section of the story compares the relationship the couple had before the husband was sick to when he is sick. The second section conveys the negative experiences of the wife when interacting with the passengers on the train. In “A Journey,” Edith Wharton’s use of tone and imagery revolving around the wife, conveys the negative impact the death of a husband has on a woman to interact with others.
One person the wife struggles to interact with in a calm manner is the porter because through the tone and imagery used when the wife talks to the porter, it shows how the porter’s presence causes her to struggle

The porter starts by saying, “Are you very tired?” followed by the wife replying, “No, not very.” The porter then says, “We’ll be there soon now.” The wife responds with “Yes, very soon.” (Wharton 418). Here, the narrator is providing us with insight to the wife’s first interaction with the porter. The 2 phrases “No, not very” and “Yes, very soon” develops a rigid tone through the concise and short sentence structure which shows how the porter’s presence only allows the wife to speak a certain amount of words. This emphasizes her inability to speak up for herself confidently. After the first encounter, the porter leaves for a while, then returns. He begins questioning the health of the husband and asks upon the wife for information on his well being. The porter asks, “Ain’t he going to get up? You know we’re ordered to make up the berths as early as we can.” She turned cold with fear. They were just entering the station.” (Wharton 421). The imagery created by the phrase “cold with fear” illustrates the wife trembling which shows how speech involving the husband causes her to feel disturbed. This emphasizes how the words of porter is able to control the wife and

After the porter finally leaves the wife alone, the wife is then confronted by various passengers, the first of which was a woman. This woman asks the wife about how she takes care of her husband and feels sympathetic towards her. The wife responds “I—I let him sleep.” The woman responds, “Too much sleep ain’t any too healthiful either. Don’t you give him any medicine?” The wife then says, “Y—Yes.” (Wharton 422). The author’s use of em dashes once again, which represents stuttering, demonstrates the wife’s lack of courage when afflicted by her husband’s death. The development of a frightful tone for the wife, emphasizes how disinclined the wife has to be to keep her husband’s death a secret. After speaking with the woman, the wife also has encounters with an overweight man and a child, both who are concerned for her husband. The wife, fearful for the suspicion that has arisen, says “If they see I am not surprised they will suspect something. They will ask questions, and if I tell them the truth, they won’t believe me! It will be terrible.” (Wharton 424). The petrified tone of the wife shows how the realization of the passengers’ unsurprised responses towards her husband’s death causes her to idealize a “terrible” consequence for her hiding the