The reaction of the two characters to the whole situation, gives the reader the possibility to infer that in fact, they both knew John Wayward very well. In first instance there is the wife, who affirms to be completely indifferent to Jonh’s dead, but who, with her tone and manners, demonstrates the contrary. In this case, it’s what she doesn’t say, what gives her dialogues a double meaning. Although she tries to convinces her husband of not feeling anything towards John, is noteworthy how her expressions betray her. “Yet still her lips were limp and wan, / her face still held aside, / as if she had known not only John.”(38-40) In the other hand there’s also the husband and what it isn’t said about him. The fact that the reader isn’t able to know why he chose the piece of coffin to be the workbox or how he got it, creates a suspicion about his relationship with John.…show more content… When he shows the present to his wife, he seems as he’s already trying to cause her some degree of discomfort. “See here’s the workbox, little wife” (1), where the husband appears to be using “little wife” in a condescendent tone of voice, which goes perfectly with the mischievous personality he appears to have. As the conversation between the husband and the wife, continues, his attempts on provoking her become more and more noticeable. To the point where she has the reaction he was waiting for. “But why do you look so white, my dear, (?)” (21). With this question, he’s pressuring her to obtain the desired answer. Why does she care so much? Wasn’t it true that she didn’t even know John? All this surreptitious provocation, it’s aiming to force the wife to exhibit her relationship with him and demonstrates to the reader that the husband is perfectly conscious of
