CRUELTIES
Starting Point. Edwina Stanton Babcock says that “Cruelties” was written around the figure of the spinster, Frenzy, at whom she has had peeps for nearly eighteen years. Her formal and carefully elaborate English,—her garden, and her worries over it—all are drawn from what Miss Babcock considers story material “for any one.” Mrs. Tyarck and Mrs. Capron were painted in contrasts, and “little Johnny Tyarck and what went on inside of his wispy head at prayer meeting was put in because of my own ceaseless wonder as to what goes on inside the heads of the Johnny Tyarcks of this world.”
“Cruelties” took a long time to crystallize and it seemed to me that the dénouement never really consummated. I longed to have the wayward girl more of a person, but the confines of the story would not allow it. I wrote four drafts of it, cutting out quantities each time.”
Plot. Compared with “The Excursion,” this story possesses a framework more substantial and of better architecture. Though most readers will be interested in the personality of the characters, rather than in the action, nevertheless they will enjoy the steady and perceptible progress to the solution of the slight complication. This complication the author has effected through the entangling of two interests. The first is the one-sided struggle which arises between the women, Mrs. Tyarck et al, and Miss Giddings—one-sided, inasmuch as the former are active, while the latter is passive. It is motivated by Frenzy’s attempt to rid her roses of worms. (Is this motivation sufficient to account for the animosity? What circumstance abets it? What value has the fact that Mrs. Capron is a tract distributor?) The second line of interest has to do with the young girl’s downfall and rehabilitation. The fact that Miss Giddings becomes her champion increases the petty animosity. The outcome of the complication shows Frenzy triumphant, in the scene between her and Mrs. Tyarck.
Are you satisfied with this dénouement? Why?
What motivation has Miss Babcock employed to explain the girl’s taking refuge with Miss Giddings? Is it adequate and convincing?
Initial Incident: Two phases, each suggesting an individual line of interest. 1. Scene in Frenzy’s shop; the women see the girl pass. 2. Scene in Frenzy’s garden, emphasizing the struggle between Frenzy and insects. (What significance has the fact that the ladies enter into relations with the fly-paper? What symbolic part has the cherry tree?)
Steps toward the Dramatic Climax: Mrs. Capron prays the Lord to “keep us from needless cruelties.” The author summarily indicates that Frenzy becomes the butt of petty spite.
Dramatic Climax: First phase, as narrated, lies in Miss Giddings’s metaphorical burial. Her enemies are at the highest peak of their mean triumph. The second phase, intensifying the first, indicates the girl’s downfall. (Point out the forecast to this dramatic climax.)
Steps toward the Climax of Action: 1. The incident of the girl’s return. 2. Miss Frenzy keeps her, as an assistant. 3. Mrs. Tyarck, in disapproval, takes her patronage to the “other” store; Mrs. Capron bestows tracts.
Climax of Action: Frenzy turns the tables in completely routing her enemy. (Scene between Mrs. Tyarck and Frenzy.)
Dénouement: Frenzy’s conjecture about the cherry tree closes the story.
(What does the author lose in summarizing, rather than in dramatizing, her dramatic climax? What does she gain in relative values by its subdual?)
Characterization. By emphasizing physical traits Miss Babcock has differentiated her characters unmistakably, if a bit obviously. Frenzy’s stiffly refined diction (in contrast to the slangy speech of coarse Mrs. Tyarck), and Mrs. Capron’s hawking illustrate her method. Tabulate the characteristics of the chief figures.
How has she individualized them by their acts? In connection with your study of personal appearance, evaluate the use: 1. Of the “two large pins of green ... like bulbous, misplaced eyes”.... 2. Of the wing on Mrs. Tyarck’s hat. 3. Of the girl’s red sweater.
The only masculine figures who appear on the stage are little Johnnie Tyarck and Mr. Bloomby. Is the fact that their male presence contributes to background, or to realistic effect, a sufficient gain for shifting to their respective points of view?
Which of the characters is most frequently found in every day life?
Local Color. To what extent do the details of setting (including customs, dialect, dress) typify any American rural community? Can you justify the full paragraph on the buttons?
Time Element. How has the author handled the flight of months without seeming unduly to prolong the action or to break the unity of effect?
Atmosphere. Realistic, it reflects the mood of the author who sees life as it is, rather than of the author dominated by so-called “temperament.” She sees characters and events, for the most part, through the kindly glow of humor.
What double cause for smiling exists in the title of the tract delivered in the first scene? Point out other examples of humor.
“Usually in beginning a story,” Miss Babcock says, “the first paragraph sets a sort of mechanism going in me and controls the tone and atmosphere of the story. Thus, you see, I almost have to begin with a paragraph a little long. My great difficulty is my love of description and painting of pictures—I despair of characters because I know that one really never gets the whole character into the story, any more than one gets it in life. I think the writer must make the character act like its description. A spit-curl character must have spit-curl ideas and behavior. The more I write the more I am convinced that the writer is a slave to two contradictory convictions; that is, that he must give the truth of the story as he has visioned it, and that there is no truth but that the story-telling art has its very beginning in creating illusions.”