Theron Ware and the Perils of Relativism

Abstract

As critical commentary on Harold Frederic's The Damnation of Theron Ware (1896) has slowly accumulated during the last fifteen years, there has emerged something of a consensus about the novel at very general levels of interpretation and evaluation.1 Most critics who have written about the novel at some length are agreed upon its status as at least a minor masterpiece of American literature and the ambitiousness of Fred- eric's effort to dramatize his sense of crucial changes in American values in the second half of the 19th century.2 Everett Carter sees the novel as a "depiction of the fall of intellectual America from innocence to knowl- edge"; Larzer Ziff describes it as "a symbolic tale of America's progress to disunity in the latter half of the nineteenth century," Theron's fate being "symbolic of the national career" and illustrating "the loss of in- nocent purpose in America"; and Stanton Garner writes of "innocent America at last confronting the complexities of Europe and the coming century."3 But if most recent critics have been appreciative of the merit and scope of Frederic's accomplishment and, moreover, have done an excellent job of placing both author and work in their intellectual and literary milieu, the work of close analysis is far from complete. Two mat- ters in particular require further examination: the importance of eco- nomic motives in Theron's behavior, especially as they affect his rela- tion to Celia Madden; and, even more crucial, the meaning of the decisive role of the Soulsbys in Theron's life. Through careful attention to these matters, the vagueness of such phrases as "psychic fall" and "progress to disunity" can be avoided and a definite meaning can be given to the idea that Theron's experience embodies Frederic's evaluation of decisive changes in American life and values in the decades following the Civil War.