George Stransom dealt with issues of fidelity and infidelity among his dead, the woman and with himself. Throughout the story, George viewed the dead as his sole priority and they were all he focused on, that is, until a mysterious woman came into his life. After the woman, came into his life, he had a problem distinguishing his priorities and an inner conflict ensued within him where he became confused. From the beginning of the story, he has a direct point of view of the his dead and of how they should be "treated". He treated the dead as if they were the living, and the living as if they were dead, where they really had no importance to him and lived in an imperfect state.

George was very keen on being loyal to his dead wife. He has yet to meet another woman since her death and he frequently visits her grave. He shuns society and is pretty much on his own with no one to share his life with, whether it be romantically or social. He lived as if being faithful to his wife as if she were still alive and did not do "this or that" for fear that it would somehow affect his relationship to his wife. George's dead wife was still, in his mind, his possession, prized possession at tha

He goes on to say that she was a mere object for the purposes of pleasure or for "external" use.

So we see, not only did the clergymen, in a way, betray God, but we also see that George was playing a hand in them doing so. He seemed to be playing devil's advocate and tempting the priests by offering them gifts and money so that they may sell to him the altar. Eventually, the priests gave in to his charm and his temptations and George was able to purchase the altar. These clergymen were not only cheating the church and God, but they were also cheating themselves in that they were being hypocritical by giving into something that they would preach against.

Not only is there infidelity apparent, but also there is one example where it is not notably pointed out by neither George nor anyone else in the story. The priests of the church where George worshipped were also guilty of infidelity, not to anyone present, but to God. This is so because of the manner in which George went on to purchase an altar in the church. Altars, for one, are not usually up for sale to the general public. In one passage of the story, James describes the time and effort George put into purchasing the altar from the clergymen:

Aside from the clergymen, I really don't think that there is any infidelity occurring between anyone in the story. The only infidelity comes from the mind frame of George Stransom, and if we look at it from his mindset, the only group of people that were being loyal were the dead themselves. They were this way, loyal and faithful, because they cannot say or do anything that they can be held accountable for. In this way, the dead are perfect beings that are no longer existent in our world but in the world of George Stransom because they are not capable of betraying him. When I say this, I refer to "his" dead; Hague was not part of his dead because he refused to light a candle for him. In the end, we see that George went from opposing the living to embracing them. He looked down at Paul Creston for meeting another woman, but now, he too is with another woman. He realized, perhaps, that it is better to move on rather than to hold on to something that no longer exists in the physical world and something in which he can have no grasp on. George's views were not coming from a distorted point of view, but just based on his own beliefs and his religion. His eyes were opened and, perhaps, led him to kind of bend the rules a little.

George's thoughts of staying loyal to those who have passed are apparent with the encounter of his old friend, Paul Creston. But, before I discuss the relationship of Paul with that of George's beliefs of loyalty, it is also here where we see George's possessiveness of his dead wife. Here, George is admiring a jewelry piece and is fantasizing the thought of her wearing it. Again, this displays how George is almost living with the notion that the dead, his wife here, is still alive to him. While looking at

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Approximate Word count = 1987
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)