Tom’s Husband, a short summary

This is a short story that is recently studied....

‘Tom’s Husband’, written by Sarah Orne Jewett in 1884, is a short story of a couple, Tom and Mary, who make changes to the marital roles supposed by the society.

Tom and Mary both come from a business family whose fathers managed manufacturing factory. Tom has got a stepmother and a sister, Alice. He is not interested and has no talent in business; instead, he is good at managing the house which he spends most of his time doing before his marriage with Mary. Adversely, Mary is inborn with business talent. Before getting married, she was ‘always her father’s right-hand man’, meaning she was a good assistant of her father’s business. Doing business is her favorite and is what she can only do. Household chores are difficult stuff for her. However, they cannot do what they like after their marriage since the society demands that man earn money to support the family and woman do housekeeping. Both of them feel really uncomfortable with the new order of things.

Since his father’s death, Tom has stopped running the factory due to his inability and illness and has been thinking of selling it if a reasonable price is offered. One night, a mail from his sister in Japan arrived, suggesting restarting the mill so that she can get more money to support her husband. This is also agreed by his stepmother who and he are the executors of his father’s will. However, Tom feels pessimistic and discouraged. After long negotiation, Mary proposed to run the mill and is finally allowed even though Tom feels that people might laugh at them since the role is reversed.

Mary seeks help from experienced people such as Jack Towne and some old clerks who used to work for Tom’s father. At first, people do laugh at her; however, they soon have to respect her talent and success because she can learn things very fast and manage to earn some profit just at the end of the second year. Meanwhile, Tom also enjoys his quiet life at home and does his favorite things.

In the early days of her business life, Mary consulted important business matters with Tom who was also trying to show interest in business which he actually didn’t. Gradually, they seem to spend less time together than before because Mary is busy with her business rather than staying around with him. He started to hate doing housework and finally asked Mary to leave the mill for a while and have a six-month trip to Europe with him. Mary agreed understandably.

The story implies that women can also do what men can and even better. Also, a person’ talent should not be blocked by society’s restriction, stereotype, or preconception. We can never know whether we are able to do it or not if we don’t have a try. What is more, we should do what we think is right and is good for us but not we are supposed to do, and we should not be afraid of how people will look at us because they will soon realize that we have been doing the right thing.