English Language and Literature ETDs

Publication Date

5-30-1968

Abstract

This dissertation proposes that the quest for self-realization in love is an essential meaning in most of Howells' novels and that his elaboration of the theme through them makes a main interpretation of life. It suggests that the workings of the theme must be understood for appreciation of his individual works and whole accomplishment. The first chapter surveys his books to show that his prevalent story is the love story and that it usually concerns his characters' quests for fulfillment. The survey follows his development from his initial affirmation of romantic love, through his qualified acceptances and denials of it and alternative conceptions of love during his middle years, to his conclusions about the comprehensive meaning of love toward the end of his career. It indicates the implications of his changing understandings for the self-realization of the characters in the books through the sequence, and it sketches the interpretation of life which the whole development makes. The five chapters which follow examine further a selection of works showing phases of his evolution. Within the chapters the purpose is to enlarge upon the senses of love in the books discussed and to show how the love-quest theme informs them. Together, the chapters are intended as an expanded outline of the development of the theme. Considered in the logical order of that process, Chapter III treats the endorsement of young romantic love in The Undiscovered Country. Chapter II discusses the mixed attitude in Their Wedding Journey, which presents young love attractively but finally approves a more mature relation. Chapter IV concerns the rejection of young love-making and acceptance of mature marriage as ideal in Indian Summer. Chapter V deals with three short novels revealing further disillusionment: The Day Their Wedding criticizes marriage and asks whether spiritual love in celibacy is not preferable; A Parting and a Meeting answers that neither can give perfect happiness; and An Open-Eyed Conspiracy contrasts an idealistic view of young courtship with a realistic view of marriage in middle age. Chapter VI considers the stories of young and middle-aged courtships in The Son of Royal Langbrith in their demonstration that mating means vital happiness in youth but loses such meaning in time. Generally, the study regards these phases as stages of man's adult life in love. As the books tend to do, it finally emphasizes the meaning of love to the important male characters--to Edward Ford in the first book, Basil March in the second, Theodore Colville in the third, March again in the sixth, and Justin Anther in the last. It supposes they represent spiritual ages in love. In the account, all have a sense of romantic love as the heart's ideal; but they also show a progressive awareness of the impossibility of finding fulfillment through it. Since it remains the vital concern, their change means diminishing involvement in life. The whole story of the quest for self-realization in love tells of man's inability to find happiness of the kind most meaningful to him. It is a story of failure which ends in the total failure of love and identity in death. Ideal self-realization in love is possible only temporarily; it is doomed by the internal and external changes time inevitably brings. Finally, the love story may be Howells' essential tragedy, the story of man's reductive plight in life.

Degree Name

English

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

English

First Committee Member (Chair)

George Warren Arms

Second Committee Member

Ernest Warren Baughman

Third Committee Member

Hamlin Lewis Hill Jr.

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

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