Personal tools
Talk:John Wakefield
From Harper's Globe Wiki
Is this significant?: The name "Wakefield" has a history in American literature. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's story/essay, "Wakefield," the title character, "under pretence of going a journey, took lodgings in the next street to his own house, and there, unheard of by his wife or friends, and without the shadow of a reason for such self-banishment, dwelt upwards of twenty years. During that period, he beheld his home every day, and frequently the forlorn Mrs. Wakefield. And after so great a gap in his matrimonial felicity--when his death was reckoned certain, his estate settled, his name dismissed from memory, and his wife, long, long ago, resigned to her autumnal widowhood--he entered the door one evening, quietly, as from a day's absence, and became a loving spouse till death." Regarding Wakefield's motives, Hawthorne also puzzles at "how an influence beyond our control lays its strong hand on every deed which we do, and weaves its consequences into an iron tissue of necessity." (link to full text of "Wakefield," by Nathaniel Hawthorne)----(added: 11:37 EST, 16 May 2009)
- This would be an oblique reference, but sometimes writers have obscure sources.--198.82.17.6 21:27, 18 May 2009 (UTC)