Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

nor it wasn’t disdain, it was infinitely funnier than either of thosevirtues, as if old Abraham had come to see the show, and thought itwas all very well, but a little excess of monkey.The wife of this Abraham seems to have been a nonentity (“I neverhad a mother”) who gradually lapsed into invalidism. Two facts should besufficient (by the play of opposites) to reveal the extent to which the squirewas a strong and frustrated man with a compelling effect upon his children:one, it appears that he had never kissed his son or daughters; and, two, hisson was later to dye his blond hair red and later still to wear a red wig, thecolor of his father’s hair.What was it that Emily Dickinson wished to win from this man? Thesame thing that he wished to win from her and which he could find nowhereelse—love, attentive love, and the sense of one’s identity rebounding fromsome intelligent and admired being. Oh, he watched her, and naturally inhis case the watchfulness could chiefly express itself only in rebuke. Of herreading:Father was very severe to me. … he gave me quite a trimming about“Uncle Tom” and “Charles Dickens” and those “modern literati.”… we do not have much poetry, Father having made up his mind thatit’s pretty much all real life. Father’s real life and mine sometimescome into collision but as yet escape unhurt.Of her gardening:I got down before Father this morning, and spent a few minutesprofitably with the South Sea rose. Father detecting me, advised wiseremployments, and read at devotions the chapter of the gentlemanwith one talent. I think he though my conscience would adjust thegender.And she watched him.Many a patriarchal father has misjudged his role in this game,particularly when he has long since quenched any spontaneous femininityin his wife. (Unquestionable authority is an offense against love, as it isagainst anything else, and it is ever seeking new territories to overwhelm.)This game can be played by the eyes alone, even in the grimmest face. NewEngland was formerly filled with women whose imaginations had been thus220