William Dean Howells Essay, Research Paper
In the novel, The Rise of Silas Lapham, William Dean Howells makes a peculiar point about the ethical motives of an person in the concern universe. His point is that an single, such as Silas, must look into their ethical motives at the door if they have any programs to do it in the concern universe. The novel has ever been popular, partially because it presents Lapham & # 8217 ; s fiscal and societal failure as & # 8220 ; consciously and intentionally chosen & # 8221 ; when he has to make up one’s mind whether he shall rip off and remain on top in concern or state the truth and fail irrecoverably ( Gibson 283 ) . The Rise of Silas Lapham is a novel that deals with the possible moral corruptness of a adult male by money. The outward marks of Silas Lapham & # 8217 ; s corruptness are his efforts to purchase his manner into societal credence with a dearly-won house and to purchase his manner out of moral duty through the intentionally unwise loan to a former spouse and victim. The loan, made with money that his married woman prevented him from disbursement on the house, is a complication that is neither inadvertent nor fiddling. His eventual & # 8220 ; rise & # 8221 ; is a moral one ensuing from the rejection of a lawfully sound but strictly mercenary criterion. It is accompanied by a corresponding accommodation in his apprehension of the significance of societal differences, and a return to the & # 8220 ; tradition & # 8221 ; which had given his ain household life solidness and self-respect ( Bennet 150 ) . By utilizing scene, symbolism and word picture, William Dean Howells writes about the struggles of an person and the universe of large concern, in the nineteenth century.
The scene is a important portion of the narrative. The Rise of Silas Lapham is set in the metropolis of Boston, Massachusetts in the late nineteenth century. If the narrative where set anyplace else, like possibly in a little town someplace in suburban America, the secret plan would non hold the same affect. Obviously the force per unit areas of large concern would be much tougher to cover with in a large metropolis, like Boston, than in a little rural farm town, because the competition to be the best is much greater in the urban countries. The clip period in which the narrative is set, the late 1800 & # 8217 ; s, is besides a important portion of the mystifier. All throughout the early 1800 & # 8217 ; s up until the present, large concern has been on the rise. When big companies started puting up in metropoliss, people moved to where the occupations were, and shortly little towns became mammoth urban cities. The large concern is what finally causes Silas & # 8217 ; moral rise and fiscal autumn, and that is a important portion of the secret plan. If the narrative where set in a different clip period it would non hold every bit large an impact. Besides during the late 1800 & # 8217 ; s, societal standing was really of import. In those yearss a individual was measured by their societal standing, so it meant everything. The ground this is of import is because, interwoven in the chief secret plan is a secondary secret plan. This secondary secret plan has to make with the love trigon between Penelope Lapham, Irene Lapham, and Tom Corey. Everyone seems to believe that Tom and Irene are in love with each other, while in actuality it is Tom and Penelope that are in love. This secondary secret plan merely adds to Silas and Mrs. Corey & # 8217 ; s interior battles. If the narrative where non set in this clip period, the societal impact on the secret plan would besides non be as great. Another facet of the scene is the house that they presently live in, and the house they are constructing to populate in. Mrs. Lapham feels that their current house is non good plenty for their societal standing. Because Silas is now a affluent enterpriser, they should be populating in the upper category vicinity. When Silas goes and has the house built, Mrs. Lapham is non impressed with the house, and wants they could remain in their old vicinity with their old friends. This causes portion of Silas & # 8217 ; diminution. It would non hold happened in another clip period, because in another clip period a household would non hold to alter houses every clip its societal position changed.
Symbolism is besides a really of import portion of the novel. The Rise of Silas Lapham is a relatively short novel for Howells, and Howells achieved this brevity through the usage of symbols which reinforce or give emotional dimension to some deeper significance already incorporated within the model of the novel & # 8217 ; s narrative ( Johnson 938 ) . In the narrative, there are many utilizations of symbolism. One of the major symbols in the narrative is the new house that the Lapham & # 8217 ; s are constructing on the H2O side of Beacon Street. They are constructing the house, because they feel that their old house is non in melody with their new societal standing. In a manner, the house symbolizes the Lapham & # 8217 ; s move out of the in-between category and into the affluent upper category. It besides symbolizes their hereafter and how the Lapham & # 8217 ; s are traveling to be populating in the hereafter. When Silas by chance burns the house down, things start to head downhill. After the house is gone, the wealth starts to vanish and so does their societal position. So when the house burns down it foreshadows the beginning of the terminal. Howells most dramatic usage of symbolism to reenforce an already evident significance may be found at the flood tide of the novel when Lapham, after pacing the floor all dark, decides on a class of action which is morally sound, but which will destroy him financially ( Johnson 938-939 ) . This action by Silas symbolizes the good versus evil battle that appears in most narratives. It besides shows that the good interior of a individual will normally win out over the immorality in a individual.
Characterization plays a large portion in The Rise of Sil
as Lapham. Howells uses many characters in the narrative. The characters seem to be true to life, which makes for a much more gratifying and credible narrative. It besides helps demo what the concern universe was like in the late 19th and early twentieth century. Understanding the concern universe in those times, lets the reader make the connexion, as to why Silas must interest his concern to salvage his ethical motives, or interest his ethical motives to salvage his concern. The cardinal characters are steadily satirized for their idiosyncrasies and stupidities, but at the same clip they are all given a strong sense of duty and a feeling for decency ( Carrington 78 ) . The Rise of Silas Lapham is reassuring in some ways–the cardinal characters are silly, but decent–and disturbing in others–the universe they live in is non a unafraid topographic point. The Coreys build themselves a complete, graceful universe, seemingly based on solid investings and the hope of proper matrimony for their kids. But the investings cryptically shrink ; their girls are homely and undesired ; and their idolized boy marries the irreverent progeny of a Paint King. Lapham besides builds what he believes is a complete, safe universe ; but he himself destroys portion of it out of amour propre ( his lavish house ) , guilt ( his clumsy retributory engagements with his ex-partner ) , and sloppiness ( he by chance sets fire to the unfinished new house ) . The cryptic forces that rule the universe take the remainder: a depression weakens him, rivals crowd him, and the lone bidders for his last spot of belongings are so evidently the devil’s emissaries that he refuses their offers and allows another fiscal group to victimize his involvements away for him. Therefore, the hubris in adult male and the malignity in the universe combine nicely to destruct mental structurings of world ( Carrington 78-79 ) . The characters in the narrative attempt to command life ; the harder they try and the more they need to maintain their additions, the harder it is to maintain what they have or to compact the spring more tightly ; eventually the state of affairs escapes control, and life violently resumes its usual relaxed shapelessness ( Carrington 79 ) . Having lost his money and place, Silas is last seen puttering around the bouldery household farm in northern Vermont ; his shabby apparels suggest the alteration from grandiloquent merchandiser to fringy husbandman. Yet his victory is the greatest a Howells character can hold, and amply justifies the word Rise in the rubric. He has non merely acted and lift morally, but he is cognizant of what he has done and he is consciously low before the dark forces of the universe. “Seems sometimes as if it was a hole opened for me, and I crept out of it, ” he muses to Sewell, the Boston curate and active representative of the writer. Here once more is the surface image, this clip from the point of position of the adult male who fell through and was allowed to mount out. As a husbandman, Lapham is now inactive, an helper to the workings of foreign nature, instead than its opposition ; but he forthrightly faces, understands, and accepts them, and he is hence an experiential success ( Carrington 80 ) .
William Dean Howells writes about a adult male against the universe of large concern, by utilizing scene, symbolism and word picture. In most of his narratives, Howells writes about the morality of human existences, and their battle to come to footings with it. In most instances the worlds will recognize that what is of import is non ever the most popular pick, nor is it the easiest one to do. The Rise of Silas Lapham is no different. The novel, while non highly action packed or exciting, does hold a point to do. The point is one that any human these yearss should understand. That is that money may command the universe but it does non hold to command an person. If the single chooses to be all about money, so it will finally take to their ruin. If the person chooses non to allow it command them, so merely the person will be able to find the result.
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