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.