The Younger Wife

In The Younger Wife, Sally Hepworth explores the instability of appearances by contrasting the Aston family’s public image of success with their private reality of dysfunction and abuse. The novel critiques the notion of a perfect facade, revealing how social status and reputation can be used to conceal moral corruption. Through the Astons, Hepworth demonstrates that the most polished exteriors often hide the deepest fractures.

The family patriarch, Stephen Aston, embodies this theme. Publicly, he is a revered heart surgeon, a charity board chairman, and a doting father whose family is known for doing things “nicely. Civilly. And a little bit absurdly” (10). This cultivated image of respectable civility allows him to maintain control and deflect suspicion. In private, however, Stephen is a violent and manipulative abuser. His anger, which leads him to strangle both his first wife and his fiancée Heather, is carefully hidden from the outside world. His affable, self-deprecating persona is a meticulously crafted mask that conceals a history of patriarchal violence, fooling his community and, for a time, even his own daughters. This duality highlights how easily esteem and social standing can obscure a dark and dangerous reality.

Stephen’s daughters, Tully and Rachel, also maintain their own deceptive facades; however, for them, it is a matter of hiding what they see as shameful secrets that undercut their societal standing and images.