Essay Questions

What evidence does Mark Twain present on Henry’s Imaginary Order?

Joe informs the narrator, “We drug him to sleep, or he would go wild; then he's all right for another year -- thinks she's with him till the last three or four days come round; then he begins to look for her, and gets out his poor old letter.” Henry subsists in an Imaginary Order where he feels that his wife is with him the whole year save for the four days that he anticipates her to come back from her journey. The letter is part of the Imaginary Order which convinces Henry that his wife is in existence. Furthermore, Henry’s assertion: “"All her work” indicates that he sees her daily in their cabin. Therefore, the cabin epitomizes Henry’s Imaginary Order which bolsters Henry’s wife’s presence.

Explain the sentence: “Did I hear horses' feet? Have they come?" using the Psychoanalytic lens.

Henry articulates these words while sleeping. Arguably, he is dreaming about the horses because they are the mode that would bring his wife home. The sound of the “horses’ feet” supports the attainment of Henry’s unconscious yearning for his wife to arrive at the cabin safe and sound.