A Country Love Story by Jean Stafford
"A Country Love Story" by Jean Stafford explores the complex dynamics of a marriage between May and her older husband, Daniel, a college professor recovering from an illness in a rural setting. The narrative unfolds in an old country house to which they have moved in hopes of aiding Daniel's convalescence. Initially, the couple grapples with feelings of isolation and dissatisfaction, symbolized by an antique sleigh they fail to remove from their yard. However, as winter approaches, their love for the countryside and shared interests rekindle some intimacy, reminiscent of a second honeymoon.
The story takes a turn with the arrival of autumn, as Daniel becomes more engrossed in his research, leaving May feeling unfulfilled and lonely. This shift reveals underlying tensions, marked by Daniel's passive-aggressive behavior and unspoken fears about mortality stemming from his illness. As May subconsciously copes with these changes by creating an imaginary lover, the narrative culminates in a poignant realization of her solitude and Daniel's dependence on her. The tale ultimately reflects on themes of love, loss, and the impact of illness on personal relationships, presenting a nuanced portrayal of a couple facing the challenges of aging and emotional disconnection.
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A Country Love Story by Jean Stafford
First published: 1950
Type of plot: Domestic realism
Time of work: About 1950
Locale: Rural New England
Principal Characters:
May , a housewife, nearly thirty years oldDaniel , her husband, a college professor, nearly fifty years oldDr. Tellenbach , Daniel's Swiss physician
The Story
"A Country Love Story" focuses on a couple, May and her much older husband, Daniel—a college professor recuperating from an illness (presumably tuberculosis)—and their relationship set against the rural isolation of an old house in the country, to which they have just moved to aid in Daniel's convalescence.
Though the story begins with emphasis on May's and Daniel's failure to follow through on their plan to remove an antique sleigh that stands in the yard (a symbol of both erosion and hope that resurfaces throughout the story), on their increasing silence as winter comes on, and on May's original lack of enthusiasm for the seeming exile from Boston, these negatives are balanced by the couple's love for the country house, their regained intimacy ("it was like a second honeymoon"), and their mutual pleasure in reading, gardening, and repairing the new home. The crucial change occurs with the arrival of autumn, when Daniel withdraws to his historical research and May finds that she has nothing to fill her days; her complaints elicit from Daniel a heretofore unrecognized tendency toward passive-aggressive behavior. He puts May on the defensive and keeps her there by means of his self-pity, his preoccupation with blame, and his condescending to her as childish.
May does not seem to understand the sources or implications of his changes: His year in the sanitarium Dr. Tellenbach describes as "like living with an exacting mistress," an image that hints at Daniel's suspicion that May had an affair during their separation. It also does not occur to her that the year's illness has made mortality very clear and personal to her husband and that he now resents her for her youthfulness and health. All this is disguised as repeated attacks on her mental state. May does seem to understand subconsciously, however, for she creates a lover where none existed before and through the winter concentrates on bringing him more and more to life, until finally he sits in the sleigh, a pale young man from an earlier era, a kind of romantic and antique image of Daniel himself.
In the final scene, Daniel unwittingly but appropriately superimposes himself on the image of the lover in May's dream, bringing May back to the unpleasant reality and the shock of admitting that he is "old" and "ill" and now very much dependent on her, that the imaginary lover is gone forever, and that she is "like an orphan in solitary confinement." There is not the smallest spark to brighten this last morning.
Bibliography
Austenfeid, Thomas Carl. American Women Writers and the Nazis: Ethics and Politics in Boyle, Porter, Stafford, and Hellman. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2001.
Goodman, Charlotte Margolis. Jean Stafford: The Savage Heart. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.
Hulbert, Ann. The Interior Castle: The Art and Life of Jean Stafford. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.
Roberts, David. Jean Stafford: A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1988.
Rosowski, Susan J. Birthing a Nation: Gender, Creativity, and the West in American Literature. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999.
Ryan, Maureen. Innocence and Estrangement in the Fiction of Jean Stafford. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987.
Walsh, Mary Ellen Williams. Jean Stafford. Boston: Twayne, 1985.
Wilson, Mary Ann. Jean Stafford: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne, 1996.