Semansky is an instructor of literature and composition and publishes regularly in literary journals and magazines. In this essay, Semansky considers the function of the narrator in Hawthorne 's story.

Although "The Wives of the Dead" is a story about events surrounding two widows in early eighteenth century colonial America, it is the narrator who sets the tone of the story and filters information in such a way as to shape the reader's understanding of events. The narrator is not Hawthorne but a persona created to tell the story. Think of a persona as a mask. Hawthorne puts on a mask and tells the story from behind it. Readers must suspend their own doubt and believe the mask is a real person. The persona that Hawthorne uses as his narrator to tell the story of Mary and Margaret is one of a wise, gentle man who is...