Adultery
The short story, Adultery, by Andre Dubus as the name suggests explores affairs of a
married couple, Edith and Hank focused predominantly on Edith’s affair with an Ex-priest, Joe.
The short story is of perspectives and life and how choices we make say a lot about the lives we
lead. Dubus engages various themes of faith and reason in the story. The prose weave sex,
instinct, trust, consciousness, and moral knowledge seamlessly into an authentic human
experience that demonstrates typical forms of human knowing or reason. Dubus also
incorporates both traditional and nontraditional faith in the work through vocation, prayer, and
unconventional sacraments. Further, the interaction of reason and faith culminates in conflict
within and between characters ultimately creating a stimulating narrative while expertly
navigating the aforementioned themes.
Throughout the story there are clear examples of reason or forms of human knowing, the
most prominent being sex and instinct. A scene where sex is explicitly described is the night
Edith sleeps over at Joe’s apartment instead of returning late in the night as she usually would.
“Some time in the night she is waked by his hands. He doesn’t speak and his breath is quick and
he kisses her and enter with a thrust she receives…(Dubus 2821)” Sex is also described similarly
with Edith and Jack in the woods. Even Joe, in reflecting on the way women had sex, noted that
the made love out of passion and no other context was important. Sex is a basic form of human
knowledge because it is a way of knowing another person and one of the most base instincts
people have. While it was clear Hank was having affairs the focus was predominantly on the sex
Edith was having and how it made her feel.
Another element of human knowing or reason that Edith exhibited clearly was trust, or
lack of trust. She demonstrates the loss of trust in Hank when she becomes suspicious of the type
of cigarettes he is smoking and obsesses over whether or not he is having an affair. She
ultimately confronts him asking, “Are you having an affair with that phony french bitch(Dubus
2785)?” Hank tells her he is which sparks their larger conversation about fidelity, but this scene
is important in that it cements the space between Edith and Hank through his blunt delivery of
what he would consider not a lie but simply an omission that was never prompted by Edith until
now. Trust is also demonstrated by Joe. Although he is in a vulnerable state he lets Edith in and
even allows her to apply his ointment when he is pain. This is an awkward experience for both of
