The Courtship of Miles Standish: / With Suggestions for Study and Notes

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

THE CHARACTERS.

Miles Standish and John Alden are introduced together, for the reason, no doubt, that the traits of the one may serve to set off those of the other. Miles Standish is a soldier by nature; and a lifetime spent in camp and field has brought out the soldier spirit in him in all its completeness. The character of John Alden is less marked, though it is made sufficiently intelligible, first by his employment as scribe and correspondent of the colonists, which leads us to infer that he was better fitted for the occupation of the scholar than for the struggles of the pioneer; secondly, his youth and delicate complexion are mentioned, and we gather that his physique is not robust nor hardened. The Puritan predominates in John Alden as the soldier does in Miles Standish. The latter attributes the saving of his life to the good steel of the breastplate, while the former attributes it to a direct interposition of the Lord in slackening the speed of the bullet. We feel that if Alden had been left to spend an anxious hour or two alone, he would have turned for consolation to the Bible and not to “the ponderous Roman.”

The Captain is a man of strong personality and firm integrity. He is an organizer of the colony’s defense; his voice prevails at the council; he is a resolute and able defender, who rises equal to emergencies of sudden and imminent danger. He is also capable of entertaining sentiments of tenderness (58-60) and magnanimity (949-973). Yet the author has indicated that, in the conventional sense, he is not to be taken as the hero. The personal description of him (11) points to this; so also his almost ludicrous inconsistency (36-115 and 163-168). His avowed affection for Priscilla could not have struck deep roots in his heart, for only two or three months have passed since he sustained the loss that made his life “weary and dreary” (36). Moreover, this matter could not have been upper-most in his mind very long, for he would then have observed that Alden had frequently gone on a lover’s errand in his own behalf (252-258). Neither could his inclinations have been very ardent, for while Alden is gone he spends the hours without anxiety, absorbed in the campaigns of Cæsar. He misunderstands and underestimates the sterling nature of Priscilla when he thinks that the winning of her is largely and mainly a matter of phrases (169) and elegant language, “such as you read of in books in the pleadings and wooings of lovers.” All this helps us to become reconciled to the Captain’s discomfiture.

John Alden is the most typical Puritan of the leading characters. His tendency towards a fatalistic view of life and to self-accusation seem almost too strange to be accounted for by any doctrine or belief. As a Puritan he had been brought up and trained in submission to his elders, which may partly explain his lack of self-assertion. His position as a dependent in the household of Miles Standish made him more ready than he otherwise could have been to go on the Captain’s delicate errand. There are situations in which we find Alden insufficient (182, 558, 559). He has little opportunity, in so far that the part assigned to him is mainly passive. Yet there are possibilities of stern manhood in him; and, with reference to the main issue, he is certainly strong in those very respects where Miles Standish is weak.

Priscilla presents a contrast to the other two. She is full of healthy, joyous life. Neither the sternness of her associates nor the hardships of the pioneer life that she had experienced had been able to detract from her cheerful, buoyant disposition. During the winter she had become an orphan, and yet she appears to have been potent as a ray of sunshine amid the gloom and distress incident to the condition of the colonists. The fact that she is a trifle more frank in her conversation with John Alden than strict conventional form would require detracts nothing, but rather places her among such ideals of women as Miranda, Imogen, and Elaine.

I.

In the first eighty lines designate the means used in describing Miles Standish. Which reveals his character most effectively—the author’s direct description of him, his talk, his weapons, or his books? Are there any details in this description that you would like to see altered if the Captain were to be the hero of the story? The Miles Standish of history is said to have been thirty-six years at this time; in what direction has the poet changed his age? Why?

II.

What position of authority does Standish hold in the colony? Why has the poet made him and Alden household companions (15)? What character-contrast in 25-33? Why should the maxim of line 37 be reiterated (114)? How does the Captain’s inconsistency (164) affect the tone of the narrative? Is the reply in 168 to the point? How does the Captain’s reliance on phrases and elegant language change our opinion of him?

III.