The Ultimate Sacrifice

Cheerver's 1949 short story "The Hartleys" depicts a brief ski trip taken by a dissatisfied family, in effort to repair their broken marriage. The story is told as a mere snap shot by an absent narrator, who is unable to capture the emotions of the characters. Besides knowing that the Hartley's had previously stayed at Pemaquoddy Inn eight years ago, one knows no outside information. Because of the third person perspective, Mr. and Mrs. Hartley are depicted completely through their actions, leaving one to question the emotions behind those actions. For example, Mr. Hartley is constantly helping his family with driving, carrying bags, and taking care of Anne, yet one is never privy to his thoughts, and whether his actions are sincere. The only character who is open with her emotions is seven year old Anne, but her emotions can be attributed to her young age, which ultimately does not provide insight into the characters situation.

The Hartley's lack communication and passion for one another, but one assumes there must be deeper issues that initially broke their marriage. On page 63, the maid overhears their private conversation, and discovers, that this trip was taken to revisit a place, where they once thought they were happy. The key word being "thought". Mrs. Hartley is determined to undermined the entire trip, and begs for a separation. She sounds like a child, when she begs her husband to let her take Anne, "Why can't I..." causing one to wonder whether she was jealous that her daughter prefers to be with Mr. Hartley?

So... where does that leave us? Basically one is left with seemingly little information into this family's situation. Therefore, when Anne suddenly dies at the end, one is shocked, because the beginning of the story does not prepare for a tragic ending. Now, would be a good time for Cheever to provide insight into the Hartley's emotions after this tragedy, but in keeping with the story, the parents are minimally described as following the hearse home. However, the last line describes Mr. Hartley as "arranging the blankets" over his wife's legs, which depicts an intimate relationship. This small action, provides the ultimate question of whether their marriage will go back to how it was eight years ago, before Anne was born? Was Anne the ultimate sacrifice, to save their marriage?

Breaking the Cycle

Throughout The Hartleys, it is apparent the family feels themselves trapped in this vicious cycle of pretending to be happy and putting on a show for those around them. It is remarked that they seem to have suffered a loss, which reveals itself as a loss of love the between the couple. Mrs. Hartley’s misery is demonstrated in her climatic outburst the maid overhears, “Why do we have to come back? Why do we have to make these trips back to the places where we thought we were happy? What good is it going to do? What good has it ever done?” (pg. 63). The hopelessness embedded in her questioning reflects the desperation of their situation. In essence, what good is it to pretend to enjoy life? Phrases are repeated throughout the story, and the couple continues to return to places or people they associate with the cheerfulness they once possessed. These actions of repetition are an attempt to cling to the last vestige of happiness from their past, a happiness that existed before the monotonous litany that envelops their love and passion through a majority of the story’s progression. The reader can only assume this restlessness is a result of the child, Anne, considering the couple’s last memory of true contentment was the time before she was born. Therefore, Anne appears to serve as the force ensnaring the Hartleys in this state of despondency where they “search again and again in the same sand” (pg. 64) for the life they once had. Her death serves as their freedom from the “frayed rope” of their lives, and the “continuous cycle of movement” they were forced to endure. However, the question arises whether this is a true freedom, or simply a temporary pleasure experienced from the break in the plaintive cycle and repetition of the events of their daily lives? Was the despair that burdened the couple a consequence of the stress of Anne’s presence, or the dull permanence she represented as related to the couple’s relationship? In other words, was the sense of renewal the Hartleys experienced after Anne’s death a result of the absence of her difficult nature, and if so, will this new found rejuvenation endure throughout their marriage, or will it fade back into its previous tedious repetition?

Gender and Class

 During the story, the man’s role in a middle class family is portrayed as the one in charge. For example, when the Hartleys first arrive at the inn, Mr. Hartley checks them in while Mrs. Hartley and their daughter stand by. Also, whenever Mr. or Mrs. Hartley discussed their father’s they illustrate pictures of authority. Mrs. Hartley said that her father was a doctor, and Mr. Hartley described a time when his father was carving the meat. While on at the inn, it becomes clear that Mr. and Mrs. Hartley are not enjoying themselves and have not in a while. She says:

                “Why can’t we separate again? It was better that way. Wasn’t it better that way? It was better for Anne – I don’t care what you say, it was better for her than this. I’ll take Anne again and you can live in town. Why can’t I do that, why can’t I why can’t I, why can’t I…” (63).

                Why did Mr. and Mrs. Hartley get back together if they were happier separate? And why is Mrs. Hartley unable to separate from her husband again? Does her gender hinder her from being able to raise her daughter on her own?

Cycles

"That afternoon was a continuous cycle of movement. There was a single file to the left of the slope, holding the frayed rope and breaking from it, one by one, at the crown of the hill to choose their way down, going again and again over the same surface, like people who, having lost a ring or a key on the beach, search again and again in the same sand."

This short passage seems to be a metaphor for not only the Hartley's marital problems but perhaps for broken relationships in general. According to Mrs. Hartley's emotional outburst earlier in the story, the couple have already separated once and their current attempt to reconcile is not going well. Her reiterated question "Why do we have to come back?" is a foreshadowing of the ski slope scene, the "continuous cycle of movement" that characterizes these lives, from the mundane to the intimate. Instead of simply admitting that what they previously had is lost, they "search again and again in the same sand," spinning out the same cyclical story, coming back around to the same obstacles, breaking and coming together again at the same places, creating a revolving wheel of dysfunction. Nothing is ever healed or solved or changed in any way. The fact that their daughter's neck is broken against an actual wheel seems heavily symbolic of this.

Discussion Question: What solution do you think that Cheever is proposing for a disintegrating relationship, if any? That is, what the Hartleys are doing to repair themselves- revisiting people and places that had made them happy in the past- is obviously not working. What do you think he's saying they should have done?

continuous cycle

Time is at the crux of The Hartleys and how the rich waste time in a circular fashion trying to reproduce feelings and lifestyles that they simply prefer.

" 'Why do we have to come back?' Mrs. Hartley was crying. 'Why do we have to come back? Why do we have to make these trips back to the places where we thought we were happy? What good is it going to do? What good has it ever done? We go through the telephone book looking for names of people we knew ten years ago, and we ask them for dinner, and what good does it do? What good has it ever done? We go back to restaurants, the mountains, we go back to the houses, even the neighborhoods, we walk in the slums, thinking that this will make us happy, and it never does. Why in Christ's name did we ever begin such a wretched thing? Why isn't there an end to it? Why can't we separate again? ....' "

In this paragraph alone, we travel back to many places in an attempt to rediscover feelings that they want to have, but no longer do. If the Hartleys were from a modest background, then they wouldn’t have the means to be traveling constantly in an attempt to find these feelings. They could move passed whatever love or anger they have towards one another and find a way to love one another or simply separate. The wealth that appears to be behind them is what is actually moving them to try to rediscover their feelings in this fashion.

Can everyone look for lost feelings by traveling through the past in the present?

A Cheevarian Happy Ending

Ah…what a feel-good story! Warms the soul, yes?

At the risk of sounding more macabre than I actually am, I will make the odd argument that various dreary aspects of The Hartleys function to produce a rather happy-ish ending.

The effect of Anne’s death is one of intense shock and sorrow, yet I could not help feeling that something had been restored, even rectified, in the last paragraph. The last line describes Mr. Hartley’s altered behavior,

“He helped his wife into the car, and after arranging a blanket over her legs, they started the long, long drive.”

Up until now an emotionally distant figure to Mrs. Hartley, Mr. Hartley has become reconnected to his wife, gently and lovingly caring for her. Some vague themes in the story leading up to this point are the chaos of modern life, emotional disconnection, intense loneliness, and the idea that the present is damaged and the desire to revive past happiness. It is clear that the Hartley’s were very different people 8 years ago, when they visited Pemaquoddy for the first time. Anne’s age of 7 suggests she might have even been conceived at the Inn, and perhaps that conception, or at least the intimacy related to it, is what Mr. Hartley refers to when he speaks of the “wonderful time” he and his wife had. The Hartley’s return to the Inn only differs in the addition of Anne. Cheever depicts Anne as difficult and demanding, as well as a human rift that has emotionally separated her parents. Even the guests note that the Hartleys gave them “the feeling that they had recently suffered some loss..”.

Coming back to the last line, why would Cheever present a reconnection in such a bleak way? While I recognize that it is just as likely that this moment of tenderness from Mr. Hartley does not represent a permanent change, and the death of the daughter could distance the couple even further, this is not the picture Cheever paints in the last lines.

If the aim of all art is to achieve the ‘universal’, or to have ‘meaning’, Cheever is successful in reminding us of the complexity of our emotions. We feel guilty recognizing the couple’s rediscovery of each other, uncomfortable that it came at the cost of an innocent child’s gruesome death. By emphasizing the tension between very different themes in The Hartleys, Cheever reveals the unforgiving and chaotic reality of the modern age.