Deconstructing
the American Dream
William Dean Howells
The Rise of
Silas Lapham (1885)
William Dean Howells (1837-1920)
-
born in Ohio as the second of eight
children (father was a newspaper
editor & printer)
- started writing poetry in 1858 and
worked as a translator (German/English)
-
was rewarded for his campaign
biography of Abraham Lincoln in 1860
-The Dean of
American Letters
-
close friend of Mark Twain since 1869
- Realism
-
as a literary critic he helped launch the
careers of Hamlin Garland, Stephen
Crane, Frank Norris, Emily Dickinson,
and Sarah Orne Jewett
- Idealization of the
“common man”
Realism
What is realism?
-
the depiction of subjects as
they appear in reality, with
minimal alterations or
interpretation
When did realism start as a
movement in the US?
-
after the Civil War (1860-65)
along with the spreading of
photography
What are its main goals?
-
a.) tell the „truth“ to society
-
b.) subvert and discredit the
irresponsible – the romantic,
artificial,
the purely
artistic
Grant
Wood, American
Gothic
(1930)
Realism is nothing more and nothing less than
the truthful treatment of material. […]
We must ask ourselves before we ask anything
else, Is it true?
William Dean Howells, Criticism and Fiction (1891), pp. 229-241
The simple
The plain
The common
What is unpretentious and what is true is
always beautiful and good, and nothing else is so.
William Dean Howells, Criticism and Fiction (1891), p. 194
“the life of actual men
and women”
Realism
-“a strategy for
imagining and
managing the threats of
social change”
(Amy Kaplan 1988, p. 10)
Works by William Dean Howells
Fiction
-
The Wedding Journey (1872)
- A Modern Instance (1882)
- A Hazard of New Fortunes (1882)
-
A Traveller from Altruria (1892)
Non-fiction
-
Criticism and Fiction (1891)
-
My Mark Twain (1910)
The Rise of Silas Lapham
(1885)
Narrative
-
the rise of Silas Lapham,
from rags to riches
-
a barefooted son of a poor
farmer in Vermont, Silas
becomes a selfmade man in
Boston
-
in the moment of his
greatest success, he kicks
out his partner Rogers,
but is haunted by remorse
afterwards
-
when the paint factory goes
bankrupt, Silas rejects an
immoral offer that might
avert his financial ruin
The Rise of Silas Lapham
(1885)
Narrative
-
the rise of Silas Lapham,
from rags to riches
-
a barefooted son of a poor
farmer in Vermont, Silas
becomes a selfmade man in
Boston
-
in the moment of his
greatest success, he kicks
out his partner Rogers,
but is haunted by remorse
afterwards
-
when the paint factory goes
bankrupt, Silas rejects an
immoral offer that might
avert his financial ruin
Themes and symbols
-
struggle of conscience (greed vs.
morality)
-
aristocracy vs. democracy
- the „rise“ – is a moral one
(Silas loses everything, but he
remains a decent man)
-
-
the paint factory –– symbolizes the
artificiality of aristocratic society
Lapham‘s local dialect (vernacular) -points to his simplicity and decency
(in contrast to Bartley Hubbard‘s
unscrupulous behavior)
Democracy in literature […] wishes to tell the
truth, confident that consolation and delight are there;
it does not care to paint the marvelous and impossible
for the vulgar so many, or to sentimentalize and falsify
the actual for the vulgar few.
William Dean Howells, Criticism and Fiction (1891), p. 282
I hope the time is coming when not only the
artist, but the common, average man, who always has
the standard of the arts in his power, will have also
the courage to apply it.
William Dean Howells, Criticism and Fiction (1891), p. 198
Commonplace? The commonplace is just that
light, impalpable, aerial essence which they’ve never
got into their confounded books yet. The novelist who
could interpret the common feelings of commonplace
people would have the answers to the “riddles of the
painful earth” on his tongue.
William Dean Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885), p. 179
Hitherto, the mass of common men have been
afraid to apply their own simplicity, naturalness, and
honesty to the appreciation of the beautiful.
William Dean Howells, Criticism and Fiction (1891), p. 197
The true realist […] feels in every nerve the
equality of things and the unity of men; his soul is
exalted, not by vain shows and shadows and ideals,
but by realities, in which alone the truth lives.
William Dean Howells, Criticism and Fiction (1891), p. 201
The novel’s climax:
a dinner party at the Coreys:
Lapham gets drunk and mortifies
the refined society with his coarse
vocabulary and rude behavior.
The next day, he apologizes
to Tom Corey:
“Did they talk it over after I
left?!” asked Lapham, vulgarly.
“Excuse me,” said Corey,
blushing, “my father does not talk his
guests over with one another.” He
added, with youthful superfluity, “You
were among gentlemen.”
“I was the only one that
wasn’t a gentleman there!” lamented
Lapham. “I disgraced you! I
disgraced my family! I mortified your
father before his friends!”
His head dropped. “I showed
that I wasn’t fit to go with you. I’m not
fit for any decent place.”
William Dean
Howells, The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885), p. 179
The characters
-
Silas Lapham – the epitome of
the humble, common man; he
loses a fortune, but retains his
dignity
-
Bartley Hubbard: corrupt &
immoral journalist
-
Tom and Penelope: „people of
good sense and - right ideas“
I ask not for the great, the
remote, the romantic […], I embrace the
common.
Ralph Waldo, “The American
Scholar” (1837)
For the next session
America as a
Reverted Utopia:
Read and prepare
Mark Twain
From
A Connecticut Yankee in King
Arthur’s Court (1889)