Epiphany in Astronomer’s Wife, When I consider how my light is spent and Everything That Rises Must

Epiphany in Astronomer’s Wife, When I consider how my light is spent and Everything That Rises Must Converge

The short story, “Astronomer’s Wife,” by Kay Boyle is one of perseverance and change. Mrs. Ames, because of neglect from her husband, becomes an emotionless and almost childlike woman. As a result, Mrs. Ames, much like John Milton in his poem, “When I consider how my light is spent” (974), is in darkness, unaware of the reality and truth of the outside world. However, the plumber who is trying to repair leaking pipes in her house, starts by repairing the leaking pipes in her heart. He helps her realize that the life she is living is not a fulfilling one. In short, to Mrs. Ames, “[…] life is an open sea, she sought to explain in sorrow, and to survive women cling to the floating debris on the tide” (Boyle 59). Similarly, in Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” the mother is also “cling[ing] to floating debris” (Boyle 59). She is trying to hold on to her old life, the one in which she is socially better than blacks and other women. But, like Milton and Mrs. Ames, she is soon forced to see the world in a new perspective. Thus, a new life is created for Mrs. Ames and the mother after their epiphanies, with the realization of a new world, one in which hard work and understanding can lead to change in one’s life and of one’s identity.

Before Mrs. Ames and the mother realize the restrictions of their old lives, their worlds have been full of disillusionment and ignorance. Mrs. Ames, for example, is oppressed by her husband’s silence and the search for love and tenderness from anyone, because she lives each day alone, ignored by her scornful husband. And, as a result of being left companionless, she does not mature, rather she longs for tenderness. In other words, Boyle explains her dysfunctional relationship with her husband, “The mystery and silence of her husband’s mind lay like a chiding finger of her lips. Her eyes were gray for the light had been extinguished in them” (57). That is, Mrs. Ames’ spirit remains oppressed by her husband who treats her as a child, and, in doing so, isolates her from his world.