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Illustrated portrait of The married teacher and his wife

A character in A Boy's Own Story

The married teacher and his wife

Intellectual mentors whose respectable household makes denial look like a possible adult solution.

What they want in White’s narrator’s account

To guide the narrator toward the cultured, respectable life they understand.

The book

Cover of A Boy's Own Story by Edmund White
A Boy's Own StoryEdmund White, 1982

A boy learns shame early and tries every available way to turn himself into someone else.

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Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

The cultivated couple welcome the narrator into a book-lined adult world. The teacher’s claim that marriage, religion, and discipline carried him beyond homosexual desire gives the boy false hope.

How The married teacher and his wife Is Portrayed

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • CultivatedBooks and conversation make their home an intellectual sanctuary.
  • WarmTheir welcome makes the model emotionally persuasive.
  • RespectableMarriage gives the teacher’s story the appearance of social success.
  • AmbiguousThe example may show discipline, concealment, or both.

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