Breaking the Aristocratic Cycle

The characters William Dean Howells creates live in an overwhelmingly aristocratic world. The way in which they operate toward one another quickly grows into a sickening affair founded on hearsay and opinions about themselves that they believe others share, but some characters find hope to begin a new cycle.

Characteristic of many stereotypical aristocratic environments, the Coreys’ beliefs emerge from their reaction to the trivialities of life. Intelligence, justice, and even beauty fall aside to make room for characteristics like proper social operation and birthright. Throughout the novel, Mrs. Corey dissuades Tom from associating with the Laphams in business or relationship. Bromfield, too, diminishes the importance of honesty and sound financial strategy because the Coreys who practice it do not have the proper pedigree.

The Laphams act in an inverted, but not always opposite, routine than do the Coreys. They care less for the frills that come from prestigious birth (likely because they do not possess any for themselves) and more for the self-satisfaction that comes from a climbing financial status. Their entirely subjective fashion choices during their early life in the novel prove that they operate without regard for others. Silas epitomizes the attitude with his uncomely choice in housing design in the midst of a socially ordered neighborhood. The aesthetic choices reflect his internal personality. When his business is jeopardized, many escapes appear that any sensible businessman of the time would have chosen, he adheres to his own choices—honorable, yes, but perhaps also prideful. He would rather sink with his ship than protect his business partner and family. His conscious paints him as a thief and murderer afterward, suggesting that he is not entirely convinced that he should pursue the high-flown social order (p. 332).

The Laphams and Coreys both participate in a distanced judgment of the other parties. The parents’ advice to their children grows primarily from illogical—or sometimes overly logical—evaluations of others’ actions. The mothers fabricate meaning from things that may be normally considered passive or subconscious. Their perceptions create a world in which no one truly knows the others nor do they care to know. Every person acts rightly in his or her own mind while the others are less than proper.

Tom and Penelope represent the generation striving to break the pattern their parents had entered. Although they participate in the game by telling every meeting’s affairs to their parents and requesting explanations, they eventually desert the things that are expected as “right” or “best” (p. 357-358). Penelope’s eventual abandonment of her image for love shows that the cycle of self-made perceptions and the necessity for them may be broken.

Will