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The Choice Summary
The Choice is a short story by Edith Wharton that delves into the moral dilemmas faced by individuals in high society. It explores themes of integrity, temptation, and the consequences of one's decisions within the social elite.
The Choice Excerpt
Short Summary: In 'The Choice,' Edith Wharton presents a tale of moral conflict as a man faces a decision that tests his principles and the very fabric of his existence within the upper echelons of society.
"Stilling, that night after dinner, had surpassed himself. He always did, Wrayford reflected, when the small fry from Highfield came to dine. He, Cobham Stilling, who had to find his bearings and keep to his level in the big heedless ironic world of New York, dilated and grew vast in the congenial medium of Highfield. The Red House was the biggest house of the Highfield summer colony, and Cobham Stilling was its biggest man. He loomed there, in his appropriate setting, as large and as comfortable as the family sofas which had grown with the growth of the family prosperity. He was the typical citizen, the man of measured speech and conservative judgment, who would have been out of place in a world of quick decisions and hazardous ventures, but who fitted perfectly into the large negative background of a community where the chief social distinctions were those of age and income. Stilling had both. He was old enough to have known the fathers and even the grandfathers of the young fry who dined with him; and he was rich enough to make it worth their while to dine with him often. Not that they didn't like him—far from it. He was too big, too safe, too comfortable an element in their scheme of life for them not to like him. But their liking for him was as much a matter of course as their acceptance of the established order of things. They could no more have lived without Cobham Stilling than without the Highfield bank or the trolley to Portsmouth. He was a part of the national machinery, a cog in the wheel of prosperity which, for the moment, seemed to be the motive power of their lives. Wrayford, who was a passing visitor at Highfield, saw all this with the amused detached eye of the man from outside. He liked Stilling, and was entertained by his talk; but he was not dazzled by the Highfield halo which surrounded him. He knew too much about bigger men in bigger places to be overawed by the local prominence of the man who sat opposite him at table, expanding under the genial rays of his own hospitality. Wrayford had come to Highfield for rest, and he found precisely the kind of reposeful atmosphere he needed. He liked the big tranquil house, with its air of established habits, its mingling of luxury and simplicity, and he liked his host and hostess all the better because they took it for granted that he liked everything else. Mrs. Stilling, large, gentle, passive, with a sweet perpetual smile, seemed as much a part of the household as the soft carpets or the shaded lamps. She was a perfect hostess because she was so simple-mindedly unconscious of being one. She liked to have people in the house because she hated to be alone, and because Stilling liked to see his friends at his table. She took their liking for granted, as she took her own happiness, her husband's affection, the general benignity of life."
