Consider Mary’s role as Rendle’s muse and its relation to this problem–a person who inspires another person’s work but may not benefit from himself/herself–more generally. What is Wharton’s commentary here? To put it another way: what exactly is the muse’s tragedy in this case? What is most tragic about this story?
The muse’s tragedy, in this case, is Mary Anerton’s one-sided love for Vincent Rendle. Mary Anerton is a critic of Rendle’s books and she offered advice on his work. They had been together for almost fifteen years. Rendle never saw Anerton as a potential lover, but only as a friend and a muse. He grew quite comfortable around her and will often hang out with her. This led people to think that they were lovers and that Rendle wrote his poems of love based on her. Anerton supposedly represents “Silvia” from his sonnet. She wished that the rumors were true, and that Rendle had loved her but she knew he never loved her. She described Rendle’s actions as only from a friend to another friend, “he treated me as one man treats another…He never made love to me… The sonnets to Silvia, you say? But what are they? A cosmic philosophy, not a love-poem; addressed to woman, not to a woman!”. This shows that only Anerton understood the true meaning of the poem, and instead of revealing the truth, she went along with it.
Anerton lives a life with a false perception of herself and from others. She became famous and people worshipped her as a celebrity just because they assumed she was Silvia. Anerton also wished it was true and built her life on that lie. She purposefully published their letters in a way that reveals that they had secretly loved each other. Deep down, however, She know it was all lies and struggles with her inner self that knows the truth and her outer self that is hopeful of their love. The most tragic element of this story is unrequited love that she never received and the battle between appearance and reality.
I had answered the same question as you and I couldn’t agree more. However, I think the overall muse’s tragedy is much simpler then unrequited love and blurred appearances. It’s the fact that these people become connected to the artist that chose them and to the world their worth becomes measured by this title of being called a muse. The second Mary Anerton was rumored to be Rendle’s inspiration suddenly everybody wanted to know everything there is to know, but not about her, instead about her connection to the poet. This is most evident as she writes, “people made up to me in the hope of getting to know him”. This being said as the title of “muse” lays heavy on Mrs. Anteron she too starts to question if her worth is only that of a muse and not Mary Anerton. This can be seen when she writes, “At first I was afraid — oh, so much afraid — that you cared for me only because I was Silvia…”. The true muse’s tragedy is the idea that they lose their own identity as it intertwines with the artist that made them their inspiration.