Reading “The Doctor and The Doctor’s Wife” by Hemingway, I found themes in this short story that are very familiar in modern society where we come from. The story stood out to me when Dick told Nick’s father, the doctor, that he had stolen a lot of logs and the doctor refused to admit his wrong doings. Though I have never actually seen doctors acting in similar situations defending themselves from being accused of wrongs they have done, this society definitely has many people that are not honest or have a hard time being humble when someone “lower” than them point out their mistakes. Compare Dick and the doctor, though the doctor has more to respect for, the way he treats others and himself, as well as his worldview and moral values, make the readers drawn to the other characters more.

I also found it interesting how Hemingway titled the story “The Doctor and The Doctor’s Wife”, neither “The Doctor and (someone else)” or “The Doctor and His Wife”. By focusing on the doctor and the doctor’s wife, I think Hemingway is trying to portray the relationship between husbands and wives at the times, especially among the more educated and respected couples. Clearly, by being a Christian scientist, she has different beliefs from her husband, otherwise she would have become a doctor herself. Or maybe because at the time, female doctors are rare, it was easier for females to resign to religious beliefs if they want to continue explore science the way men did. It was interesting how Hemingway purposely pointed out that the doctor’s wife’s Christian scientific books are on a table near her bed in a DARKENED room. Due to the limited lengths of his short stories, I have gradually learned to examine every word he chose to try to think about the “why”. I think in this case, “darkened” shows that her belief and her way of living life is not compatible with the doctor’s. A contrast was created between the male and female in this relationship with the female’s stand / spirit getting weakened and darkened.

Ironically, after the wife asked the doctor to bring Nick in, the doctor simply ignored her request after the son expressed his interest in going with his father. I did not quite grasp why Hemingway ended the story this way the first time I read it. I asked myself, did he really just finish a story with a father and son going off to hunt, after describing two pretty insignificant moments of the doctor’s life (in the doctor’s perspective)? I think gender roles and gender relationships are big themes in this story and Hemingway may be trying to encourage women to speak up more for themselves and to promote greater balance and respectful relationships between male and female.