Editha

The portrait created of Editha at the conclusion of the story represents how Editha will forever live in the ideal. The artist’s capturing “Editha’s beauty, which lent itself wonderfully to the effects of a colorist” (11), suggests she is creating an idealized version of Editha, using “effects” to enhance her subject. This artist also dispels Editha’s “shame and self-pity” (11), from which she has suffered ever since being chastised by Mrs. Gearson over her romanticizing of war, by telling her she does not understand how anyone can criticize the war and that Mrs. Gearson is “vulgar” for having treated Editha so. Just as Editha, at these words, “began to live again in he ideal” (11), her portrait is a perfect frozen moment that depicts a romanticized Editha, who will never change despite the passage of time. It illustrates that Editha’s reverence of the ideal will never change.

After George tells Editha he will consider enlisting, Editha gathers all the letters and gifts she has received from George and places her engagement ring in the center. Then, she writes a letter in which she tells him she cannot marry him until she is sure he “love[s] his country first of all” and that “[t]here is no honor above America with [her]” (4).