Journal for Davis

Rebecca Harding Davis - "Life in the Iron Mills"


"Veiled in the solemn music ushering the risen Saviour was a key-note to solve the darkest secrets of a world gone wrong,-even this social riddle which the brain of the grimy puddler grappled with madly tonight." Norton Anthology of American Literature, Volume B, p.2608

"There have been a number of commentaries written on the life of Rebecca Harding Davis, but it is remarkable that few make mention of her Christian faith, and none have recognized the considerable influence that her faith has had in the formation of her stories. Raised in a middle-class Christian family, educated in a conservative women’s seminary, and influenced by the social conscious coming from the Second Great Awakening, Rebecca Harding Davis’ works are clearly address with the problems that Christians of her day were concerned with: Slavery, worker exploitation, equal education, and justice for women locked in the bondage of prostitution or sexual discrimination. "

http://www.nuis.ac.jp/~hadley/publication/rhd/RHD.htm

The influence of Rebecca Harding Davis's Christian faith is very difficult to miss in this story. "Life in the Iron Mills"is full of Biblical quotations and references, both by the narrator, and ironically also by the factory owner's son and his companions who visit the mill on the fateful night the story describes. The iron mill is depicted as the very picture of hell, with its ranging inferno and the pale multitudes who toil there day and night. The author takes on directly and head-on the contradiction between the profession of Christian faith and the inhuman conditions suffered by the miserable workers.

This is a picture of capitalism and progress that is very grim indeed. Davis takes the reader firmly by the hand right from the beginning of the story. She points out the horrors and the contradictions of class inequality and exploitation in a very direct way, making sure that she does not allow the reader to turn away from disturbing contraditions between the reality she is depicting and the teachings of Christianity as well the principles of American Democracy. The consciousness of the terrible wrongness of the social order is also perceptible to Hugh Wolfe, dimly and vaguely at first, but increasingly clearly and in religious terms as the story reaches its climax. The fact that Hugh has unfulfilled spiritual longings is expressed by the fact that he makes sculptures out of the korl, a by-product of the iron-milling process. He is isolated from the community of the workers because of his artistic stirrings, and is troubled wordlessly at first, but the sight of the rich gentlemen begins to clarify the issue in his mind.

The gentlemen are affected by the sight of Hugh's sculpture,and they sit down and have an extensive discussion about class and equality and social mobility, both in political terms and religious. The owner's son is even compared to Pontius Pilate, and the condemned figure becomes a martyr whose similarity to Christ is underlined by the author, who points out that Hugh's was the social class the carpenter's son belonged to. The story ends with a very clear religious message, with the Quaker woman who takes under her care both Hugh's body and Deborah's soul.

Journal for Melville

Sally Doane
English 48A
Journal for Melville: Bartleby the Scrivener
September 28, 2009

Author Quote:
"I can readily imagine that to some sanguine sentiments, it would be altogether intolerable. For example, I cannot credit that the mettlesome poet, Byron, would have contentedly sat down with Bartleby to examine a law document of say, five hundred pages, closely written in a crimpy hand."

Internet quote:
"Turkey and Nippers, although we may identify with them more easily, are no less mechanistic than Bartleby in the regularity, the predictability of their responses. With clockwork precision they "complement" one another's shifting moods, performing their tasks in equally servile, puppet-like fashion."
http://brainstorm-services.com/wcu-2005/bartleby-culturalcontext.html

Brief Summary:
"Bartleby the Scrivener" is the story of a lonely and miserable law clerk narrated by an elderly lawyer who has eschewed the drama and tumult of the courts in favor of doing "a snug business among rich men's bonds and mortgages and title deeds." The narrator has two other scriveners who have their limitations and inconsistencies which are humorously described in terms of their digestive predilections. He is at first very glad to have found the utterly genteel and unobtrusive Bartleby, who works without intrusions resulting from his personality. Gradually though, Bartleby refuses to perform more and more tasks, with the simple statement that he "would prefer not to." The simple emotionless passive resistance of the clerk completely unnerves and unmans the employer, to the point that he not only pays him for doing nothing but moves out of his offices himself rather than expel the man, and finally invites him to live with him at his own house. The narrator's compassion for the man threatens his livelihood as well as his professional reputation, but he cannot help himself. In the end Bartleby is evicted from the offices by the new tenants whereupon he continues to haunt the hallways and is finally taken to jail where he dies. The lawyer is completely unsuccessful at achieving any communication or connection with the man and fails to find out anything about him other than that his previous job was at the "Dead Letter Office", which he seems to feel accounts for his unaccountable depression and alienation.

Personal Response:
"Bartleby the Scrivener" can be described as an "absurdist" tale about industrial capitalism and the dehumanization of the worker. The building itself is a lifeless tower whose windows look onto walls. Bartleby and the other scriveners are little more than human copy machines. Indeed Bartleby is scarcely human at all; he doesn't eat, leave the office, have any relations or home or history - he doesn't seem to have any existence outside of the job. The other two scribes are human only by virtue of certain pecularities of temperament that, though related in a very entertaining manner, are really little more than tics. They too are nothing more than cogs in the capitalist machine, albeit cogs that stop and sputter at predictable intervals. The description of those two fellows and their approach to their work actually reminded me of a "de-duping" job I had as a temp when I first started working, where I had to scour huge galleys of mailing lists for duplicates, and the small rebellions and rituals that were necessary to maintain a sense of individuality and aliveness.

The thing that struck me the most in this story was the humor. Without the delicious humor it would simply be a dry allegory. The very first line alerts us that this is going to a be a quirky tale with a funny and personal viewpoint: "I am a rather elderly man."

I think the understatement of the above quote from the story referring to Byron is hilarious, granting that the scrivener's job probably would not be to everyone's liking, implying that it would take a soul as tempestuous and romantic as Byron's to be repelled by the tediousness of the task of proofreading a legal document of five hundred pages, and "closely written in a crimpy hand" at that. The hasty conclusion of the story is somewhat farcical too. The job at the Dead Letter Office does not really sound any more deadening than the copying job with the narrator.

I find the narrator's humanity touching. He himself is mystified by his compassion, justifying his indulgence as an attempt to "cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval." But in the very beginning of the story he says that he is going to write about an "interesting and somewhat singular set of men." It strikes me that not too many business associates of the Astors would find that particular set of men terribly interesting.