The Iowa Review
Volume 14
Issue 3 Fall
Article 62
1984
Review of "Confidence Men and Painted Woman:
A Study of Middle-Class Culture in America" by
Robert F. Sayre
Robert F. Sayre
Follow this and additional works at: http://ir.uiowa.edu/iowareview
Part of the Creative Writing Commons
Recommended Citation
Sayre, Robert F.. "Review of "Confidence Men and Painted Woman: A Study of Middle-Class Culture in America" by Robert F. Sayre."
The Iowa Review 14.3 (1984): 205-211. Web.
Available at: http://ir.uiowa.edu/iowareview/vol14/iss3/62
This Contents is brought to you for free and open access by Iowa Research Online. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Iowa Review by an
authorized administrator of Iowa Research Online. For more information, please contact [email protected].
Review
Robert F. Sayre
Karen Halttunen.
ed Women:
inAmerica,
1983. xviii
In the last ten years or so, much
on
American
work
19th-century
women.
by
least
so it seems
Or
262 pp. $19.95.
of the most
literature
and original
challenging
and culture has been done
to a
male professor,
raised (at
middle-aged
the canon of American
first
literature
on
in
Confidence Men and Paint
A Study ofMiddle-Class
Culture
?830-?870. Yale University
Press,
school)
graduate
and then refined by the
and F.O. Matthiessen
by D.H. Lawrence
leading literary critics of the 1950s and '60s (also mostly male). Those
as Nina
of Beset Manhood,"
male
"Melodramas
has
critics'
Baym
of
American
theories
have
called
their
literature,1
mischievously
begun
to seem more and more
In comparison,
limited and repetitious.
the work
Kish Sklar, Nancy
of Annette
Cott, and now Karen
Kathryn
Kolodny,
is like a breath of fresh air . . . or like new voices in the room.
Halttunen
selected
to categorize
have been so different
that it is impossible
as
the work just
and yet it does focus, in different
"feminist
criticism,"
on
version
of
the
of American
male
the
limitations
ways,
literary history
Their
voices
and the need
to re-discover
we will
the experience
of women. Whether
to the re-evaluation
the
fiction
of
of the many
also get around, someday,
women
writers
very popular
early American
(e.g., Susannah Rowson,
Hannah
Harriet
Foster, E.D.E.N.
Southworth,
Child,
Lydia Maria
as Haw
Beecher
damned mob
of scribbling women,"
Stowe?"that
it is one of the
thorne called them) is another question.
Paradoxically,
Henry Nash Smith, in Democra
major male critics of the last generation,
towards doing that, and already
cy and theNovel, who has recently moved
a lot has been
So
instruction
for
the
of some of my more
accomplished.
new book, let me
and
the
better
of
this
brothers
appreciation
benighted
give
a condensed
Kathryn
Kish
chronology.
Sklar's Catharine
Beecher: A Study
inAmerican Domesticity
(1973) begins the list (and also makes a good starting point for the
uninstructed)
because
it identifies
'"Melodramas of Beset Manhood: How Theories
Quarterly, vol. 33 (Summer, 1981), 123-139.
some of the most
of American
prominent
Fiction Exclude Women
issues
Authors,"
in
American
205
University of Iowa
is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to
The Iowa Review
®
www.jstor.org
the eldest of Lyman Beecher's
women's
lives. Catharine,
19th-century
career on women's
her
established
thirteen
children,
long, illustrious
of her father's
from men
and on the transforming
differences
rigid
Calvinism
education
women
an advisor
on
from
gospel. As
everything
a
she
role
for
architecture,
greater
promoted
to
of American
because they were
guard the health and morality
American
would
the
character
They
shape
by taking responsi
into
a social
to domestic
society.
children,
bility for raising and educating American
in their early formative
years against the dishonesty,
of commerce
and politics. To a modern
selfishness
Beecher
that Catharine
is an ambivalent
thus guarding
and
aggressiveness,
I am
feminist
heritage,
women
she helped
domesticity,
imprison
praising
and church. But she also led in getting
young
their first middle-class
school
teachers,
paid
them
sure
a tainted
hero.
in
kitchen,
as
work
single
parlor,
women
In
To do so,
occupation.
their superior gentility
but also their
she urged not only
to
at half the
school districts
financially
availability
pressed
salary of
or
not
to
since they did
have spouses
children
men,
support. Even more
however,
to her father's Calvinism,
is Catharine's
since in some
relation
complex
to
its
she
and
ways
severity while
destroy
helped
partriarchal
privilege
was
so
in matters
in other ways
she kept it alive. She
of theology
sharp
the barriers
that she could have been a minister
for
herself,
except
against
women.
In 1975, in The Lay of the Land, Annette
took on the whole
Kolodny
one
in the reading of American
literature by analyzing
male
tradition
the
of
The
of its most
land-as-woman.
important metaphors,
metaphor
of "virgin" wilderness
that could be taken as a "bride" and
availability
in America
into or used as nurturing
made
"mother," made pastoralism
not just a dream but an
American
This
led
the
male
reality.
expected
to nature, where
and escape
violation,
reject society
possession,
and
the logic of the
further
within
followed,
frustration,
exploitation
it shaped. Kolodny's
and the experience
the
book proved
metaphor
or
American
this
and
delusion
of
dream
artificiality
irrationality,
to
turned-nightmare
done. The male
206
critics
of pastoralism,
and experience
in some fundamental
way
archetypes
too identified
Ann
of a male
innocence
of
tragedies of
of the same
as the work
the heroes.
also kept
They
ten or twelve male writers.
Douglas'
The Feminization
critic
the
somehow
frontier
in American
with
going
of American
could
not have
and the
myth,
literature
seemed
the enigmas,
ironies, and
over and over the work
Culture
(1977)
went
back
women
to the
between American
the decline
of
writers,
relationships
rise
of
liberalism
Sklar.
and
the
Calvinism,
already opened by
religious
in the American
Her thesis was that with
these events also came changes
in which
lost power.
and women
So they
both preachers
economy
the sentimental
banded together to produce
culture of the pre-Civil War
in advice books,
and ladies
that was marketed
novels,
period
popular
so
its
culture
that became
that
second-class
prominent
magazines?a
status,
to men
its submissiveness
the superior
Stressing
these writers
glorified
virtue
was
and business
of domestic
the woman's
as
sometimes
masked.
to commercial
life,
opposed
role but gave up intellectual
rigor
sentimental
benevo
values?feeling,
and real power. They championed
and domesticity?and
lence, self-sacrifice
made
"culture"
in America
and effete.
genteel
'
it was first
book got a lot of attention when
but
published,
Douglas
as
To
view
its weaknesses
become
apparent.
sentimentality
increasingly
or romanticism
as bold,
and
and
realism
weak-minded,
pious,
genteel
is a classic male way of
and unflinching
the world.
rigorous,
dividing
on the attitudes of the male critics like
Perry Miller
just carried
Douglas
novelists
like Hemingway.
She did not give the
and the anti-feminist
a
sentimentalists
really fair hearing.
in "The Female World
of Love and Ritu
Carroll Smith Rosenburg
Cott in The Bonds of Womanhood
reached very different
al"2 and Nancy
at
diaries
and letters, they saw
conclusions.
Looking mainly
unpublished
women
from
the
of sentimentality
gaining many
ideologies
advantages
Women
established
and domesticity.
very close ties with other women.
Their
believed
in order
in raising children
virtue were
and promoting
domestic
to the success of
and
used
these roles
democracy,
they
to raise their status in other areas. "The Bonds ofWomanhood,"
roles
crucial
a
Cott
took from the letters of Sarah Grirnke
phrase Nancy
women
had two meanings:
down
Parker,
things that bound
a "woman's
bound them together. Operating
within
(and from)
women
sphere"
ty. Thus
could
assert
and gain
ideas of women's
influence
was
based upon
it excluded
them
to Mary
but
also
sphere,"
rights. The "woman's
rather than equali
difference
But
and activities.
occupations
further
from many
based on their special female
qualities,"
an advance.
"The ideology of woman's
it did give them a "social power
this was
and for many women
sphere formed
a necessary
2Signs:A Journal ofWomen
stage in the process
in Culture and Society, vol.
1 (1975),
of shattering
the hierarchy
1-29.
207
of sex and, more
in softening
directly,
the hierarchical
relationship
of
marriage."3
This
new
extends
the study
book, Confidence Men and Painted Women,
to women,
It examines
"woman's
the
advice
given
sphere."
in ladies magazines,
about four of the areas of middle-class
of Cott's
mainly
culture
women
were
the major
arbitors or consumers?
in dress, rules of etiquette,
the rituals of mourning,
and parlor
fashions
an
even
it
does
with
this
and
theatricals.
humor
Moreover,
good
not
the
contradictions
and
but
astuteness,
ironies,
seeing
acting morally
an informative
is
It also
It
sometimes
and
very
superior.
absorbing book.
in which
of Romantic
has reproductions
and parlor games
The
"sentimental
middle-class
It was
culture."
America
"progressivism"
American
culture
not
comparison,
a
degree
provide
still such offensive
culture
and Sentimental
and plays.
context
broad
of all this advice
scenes,
and behavior
was, Halttunen
says,
taste
style
dominating
1830 to 1870, as,
perhaps,
be said to have dominated
the general
and
from
approximately
"modernism"
might
in the early and middle
or
hers, which
of objectivity.
funeral
fashions,
I make
twentieth
both
as an
century. This ismy
and to
illustration
are
and "sentimentality"
to some
to treat this
that it is difficult
words
people
But Halttunen
shows that we must,
if we are to under
fairly.
stand a great deal of
the American
American
Nineteenth-century
of it, was
thought
meline
Grangerford,
"Sentimental"
that it shaped.
the present
as we have
sentimentality,
previously
past
and
in Huckleberry
Finn's portrait of Em
epitomized
with
her genteel
her "Ode to Stephen
language,
and
her
Bots, Dec'd,"
Dowling
graveyard
(" 'I Shall Never
drawings
we
It
Hear Thy
Sweet Chirrup More
Alas' ").
was,
think, foolish,
and effeminate
and also, like the Grangerfords,
who
talked
humorless,
of good-breeding
cal. But Halttunen
while
shows
and killing,
feuding
fundamentally
hypocriti
were as aware of their
that true sentimentalists
as any of their detractors?and
on
constantly
guard
hypocrisy
was
were because one of their
against it. They
sincerity,
primary values
a
and reality, word
between
and deed,
that
appearance
consistency
a
to
virtue.
other
all
had
this
seemed
necessary
Sincerity
prerequisite
possible
the sentimentalist,
because
importance
believed
"the Man of Feeling,"
ancestor,
like
3Nancy F. Cott, The Bonds ofWomanhood: "Woman's Sphere" inNew
Press, 1977), p. 200.
University
208
his
or her
in the natural
18th-century
benevolence
of
England, ?780-1835
(New Haven: Yale
or woman.
man
was
to fulfill
its
really
the
and
humankind,
injustices
destiny
was
then
this
natural
of
sincere,
Europe,
goodness
precisely
inequalties
to be sheltered,
in the young,
and constantly
what
needed
developed
as a social force.
expanded
unaffected
true,
as a new
chance
If America
for
free
of
came when
the proponents
of sincerity
looked for ways
it. Being
sincere about one's feelings
and inner character
to
social forms. Sentimental
after all, certain
dress attempted
required,
reveal the "transparent
beauty" of the inner self, with good health and
as "moral cosmetics."
a
manners
Sentimental
serving
good disposition
The
conflicts
to express
to avoid
and
while
also promoting
dissimulation,
in wear
self-restraint."
and emotional
Sentimental
practices
"physical
one were
sincere
contradictions.
and
similar
If
faced
ing mourning
then the wearing
of black should not
showed one's feelings,
openingly
sought
affectation
But a mourner
be necessary.
still needed ways
loss to strangers and the insensitive. Mourning
to announce
sheltered
his or her
the sensitive
outsiders.
crude, unfeeling
were also
so concerned with fashions,
and mourning
etiquette,
People
seems
to
about
have
concerned
rivaled
Indeed, gentility
very
gentility.
was
to
one
in which Americans
the way
for it
another
sincerity,
proved
status.
for middle-class
their qualifications
the
could
Only
fully
genteel
from
to be
and only those who wished
and refinement;
in
make
the effort. For, says Halttunen,
would
"Gentility
genteel
was seen as the
not of fortunate
America
birth
but
product
republican
a great deal of sentimental
culture
effort"
of middle-class
(p. 95). Thus
actors
was a kind of
in which
the different
for
performed
play-acting
success or failure.
one another's
their
acknowledging
approval, mutually
cultivation
recognize
The
rituals
of mourning,
intimate
tivity, which
"The capacity
to
for example,
friends
experience
proclaimed
the mourner's
sensi
acknowledged
by extending
sympathy.
true
demonstrated
gentility"
(p.
deep grief
144).
But
the
was
nowhere
in the rituals
sentimental
of
this acting
the middle-class
drama.
As
more
shows, than
stylized, Halttunen
was a kind of stage for
which
parlor,
room
it was
in most
the front
houses,
the cold anonymity
of the street and the
rooms.
neat for company,
it
and
family
intimacy
Kept
was a
taste and
of the family's
Established
wealth,
breeding.
display
set up the rules for
convers
hours and customs for "calling"
entering,
came
not
A
did
and
pry into the
ing,
polite guest
promptly,
leaving.
physically
between
halfway
of the kitchen
209
affairs
and
secrets
in the other
or incident
of
rooms,
and
tactfully
turned
from
away
shame.
any subject
That the actors of sentimental
the dramatic nature
culture recognized
the
in the
their game is proven, Halttunen
argues, by
development
the
Fashion
late 1850s and 1860s of parlor theatricals.
Following
play
Anna
Cora
which
criticized
the preten
Mowatt,
humorously
(1845), by
a
to
sions of middle-class
culture,
worldy
people began "giving way
social
and
ceremonial
ritual as
of
formalism,
acceptance
self-display,
So the earlier
of middle-class
expressions
appropriate
position"
(p. 153).
of
to
and puritanical
objections
in
Mas
acting yielded
good-natured
formality.
pleasure
the
of
historical
tableaux
scenes,
vivants,
shows,
acting
querades, puppet
to and
attention
called
and other kinds of conscious
theatricality
legiti
posture of moral
to a more
"sentimental
earnestness"
of everyday
the rituals of
life. Even
theatricality
as the undertaker was
theatrical,
replaced by the embalm
er and the funeral director. The first made corpses suitable for
viewing
more
to the
services
made
and
the
other
funeral
expensive
end!),
(genteel
such changes
With
the sentimental
culture
of the
and prolonged.
the subliminal
mized
burial
became
antebellum
period
passed
on
into
the even
greater
ostentation
of
the
Gilded Age.
that the genesis
of
part of this book is the argument
was
a
men
fear
of
the
sentimental
culture
"confidence
and painted
referred to in the title. Halttunen
the advice-writers
women"
represents
as
to be sincere in order not to become
confidence
asking their readers
men or
not to be too open in order
but
also
them
women,
painted
telling
The
weakest
was
defense
of
Sincerity
society's
deception.
was
the individual's
both seemed
itself,
defense, when
good character
a
threatened
urbanization.
she
the
However,
admits,
by
fast-growing
term confidence man "was
New
first
the
coined
York
press
by
probably
to be vulnerable
not
to
as
of the arrest of a swindler
named William
coverage
was nineteen
after
the
That
of her
years
Thompson"
(p. 6).
beginning
man may, as she says,
The
confidence
study's period.
accurately
identify
seems
the whole
the villain
of the age, but to name
book for him
in 1849 during
misguided.
Perhaps
the
title was
could
be
a
chosen
just
for
its catchiness.
reluctance
But
to confront
a
deeper
American
continuing
as a social
in
its
full
Halttunen's
sentimentality
analysis of it
complexity.
to our
its
But
drama brilliantly
reveals
the
word,
very
complexity.
connotes
We
can't
it
over-intellectualized
believe
ears,
yet
simplicity.
explanation
210
could
so many
faces and conflicts?even
like Goldsmith,
Sterne, Irving, and Dickens
so
can't believe
that something
seemingly
have
though
We
the work
of
surely proves it did.
was once
ridiculous
authors
serious issues like American
bound up with
attitudes
towards
integrally
of a native culture,
and cultivation
of republi
nature, the development
can
to
tastes. Halttunen
shows that it was, even
aristocratic)
(as opposed
as
at one
of
"the
point
Cooper's
Leatherstocking
speaking
fulfilling
.
.
.
were
His manners
sentimental
idea of politeness.
easy and natural
a
WHAT!
I said to
because
from
heart"
they sprang
right
(p. 101).
the wish
of all us male
that. . .Leatherstocking,
fulfillment
critics,
as a sentimental
Let's hear more. But Halttunen
ideal?
Leatherstocking
that
did not pursue
the point, as she abandoned
several other inquiries
status.
and
have
aesthetic
academic
sentimentality
given
might
higher
is that Halttunen,
like Ann Douglas,
conclusion
may
My
puzzled
have an abiding male bias against her subject. As a woman
scholar, she
that sentimental
has either
the intellectual
culture
just can't believe
substance
or the radical
criticism.
political
content
Parlor
needed
for a modern
theatricals?
Domesticity?
Gentility?
Etiquette
ion? It all looks sugar-sweet,
and sick.
superficial,
I suspect, is that Halttunen's
But a large part of the problem,
feminist
and fash
sources,
culture in its most favorable
', do not show sentimental
no
American
culture
looks very noble or
light. Probably
period of
or
when
reconstructed
from
radical
rigorous,
exciting
etiquette manuals,
the
like Godey's Lady's Book. How would
advice books, and magazines
and The
1920s and '30s look if you only read Emily Post, Dale Carnegie,
can
an
Saturday Evening Post? A careful reading of such documents
give
It can give a sense of a
idea of the issues that were on people's minds.
does this. But full appreciation
And Halttunen
of
period's vernacular.
like Ann Douglas
a
as a whole
culture will
sentimentality
require
reading of those late
Nor
attention
novelists.
has much
been
18th and early 19th-century
as
so far to
and
historical
docu
letters, except
given
autobiographies
ments. When
and when
sentimental
male
these are read thoughtfully,
are
we will,
writers
and
Hawthorne
like Cooper,
Irving,
re-appraised,
view of American
I think, have a very different
and so
sentimentality
of early republican
literature and culture.
211