Campbell, Donna M. “Frederic, Norris, and the Fear of Effeminacy.”
Resisting Regionalism: Gender and Naturalism in American Fiction,
1885-1915. Athens, OH: Ohio UP, 1997. 75-108.
MacFarlane, Lisa. “Resurrecting Man: Desire and The
Damnation of Theron Ware.” A Mighty Baptism:
Race, Gender, and the Creation of American Protestantism. Ed.
Susan Juster and Lisa MacFarlane. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1996.
65-80.
MacFarlane, Lisa Watt. “Resurrecting Man: Desire and The
Damnation of Theron Ware.” Studies in American
Fiction 20.2 (1992): 127-43.
Oehlschlaeger, Fritz. “Passion, Authority, and Faith in
The Damnation of Theron Ware.” American Literature
58.2 (1986): 238-55.
Campbell, Donna M. “Frederic, Norris, and the Fear of
Effeminacy.” Resisting Regionalism: Gender and Naturalism
in American Fiction, 1885-1915. Athens, OH: Ohio UP, 1997.
75-108.
Campbell combines feminist theory and genre criticism to analyze
Frederic’s The Damnation of Theron Ware. The opening
paragraphs of the chapter address the ever-widening split between
what James Lane Allen describes as the “Masculine”
and “Feminine” principles in literature. Campbell
argues that, alarmed at the growing “feminine ethic in literature,”
naturalists embraced brutish masculinity as an “antidote”
to feminine civilization (75). Campbell identifies “three
different courses of thematic development [that] emerged in naturalistic
fiction: the triumph of the brute, leading to the degeneration
of the individual; the balance of the two opposing forces, leading
to the perfect amalgamation of sensibility and ‘red-blooded’
vigor; and an excess of civilization, leading, ironically enough,
to a degeneration similar to—and in some cases identical
with—that which the emergence of the brute signals”
(77). Campbell believes the title character in The Damnation
of Theron Ware succumbs to this third possibility, becoming
“a brute in taste and outlook” (79). Tracing “Frederic’s
exploration of realism through his character’s progress
from the conventions of sentimental and local color fiction to
the harsh realities of naturalism” (80), Campbell notes
that, as a minister, Theron Ware is a “hybrid female”
(81). Subverting the “opposition between male authority
and female community common in local color” fiction, Frederic
instead focuses on the similarities between the roles of ministers
and women (80-81). Powerless, Ware’s only options, according
to the conventions of sentimental fiction, are to capitulate,
threaten, or dissemble, and his only defenses are fainting, illness,
and weeping—all feminine responses. Ware’s attempt
at illumination results in degeneration when he begins “to
see himself as a victim of impersonal forces [. . . which lead
him] into a self-delusional justification of the naturalistic
brute within” (91).
MacFarlane, Lisa. “Resurrecting Man: Desire and The
Damnation of Theron Ware.” A Mighty Baptism: Race,
Gender, and the Creation of American Protestantism. Ed.
Susan Juster and Lisa MacFarlane. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 1996.
65-80.
MacFarlane’s chapter is reprinted, with minor changes,
from an article published in Studies in American Fiction 20.2
(1992): 127-43.
MacFarlane, Lisa Watt. “Resurrecting Man: Desire and The Damnation
of Theron Ware.” Studies in American Fiction 20.2 (1992):
127-43.
MacFarlane’s article is a feminist study of The Damnation
of Theron Ware that examines the social and cultural roles
of ministers, who are viewed as possessing both masculine and
feminine characteristics.
Ministers are often referred to as “feminized,” “neutral,” or “hybrid” because
they represent “the patriarchal authority of God the
Father” while their cultural work “aligns them
socially with women” (128-29). The ambiguity of the minister’s “social
constructions of gender,” according to MacFarlane, gives
him power over both men and women (129). In The Damnation
of Theron Ware, “a series of gender-confusing triangles”—particularly
the Theron Ware-Alice Ware-Levi Gorringe and Theron Ware-Celia
Madden-Father Forbes triangles—demonstrate Theron Ware’s
unstable gender identity. In certain company, Ware takes on
the role of female, while in other circumstances, he plays
the role of the male. Even the novel’s ending is ambiguous
in terms of gender identity: Ware dreams of succeeding in politics,
a traditionally male-dominated sphere; however, when he “shivers
with pleasure” at the fantasy of enthralling the masses
with his rhetoric, he assumes a feminine identity (132). MacFarlane
suggests that Frederic’s novel may be read as “an
allegory about the social constructions of gender.” She
concludes that “[t]he feminized minister is not an androgynous
creature, selecting judiciously from an orderly list of binarily
gendered characteristics. Rather, he is an instable, fractured
being whose multiply gendered identity shifts as he negotiates
his professional and personal positions” (141).
Oehlschlaeger, Fritz. “Passion, Authority, and Faith in
The Damnation of Theron Ware.” American Literature
58.2 (1986): 238-55.
Oehlschlaeger’s article combines reader response, feminist,
and psychological criticism in an analysis of authority in Frederic’s
novel. According to Oehlschlaeger, Frederic “systematically
discredits every authority figure in the novel while simultaneously
revealing Theron’s own search for authority.” He argues
that what Frederic’s novel presents “is not an innocent’s
fall into corrupt sexuality but a critique of the way corrupt
authority poisons sexuality,” a claim demonstrated in Theron
Ware’s relationships with his wife Alice Ware and Celia
Madden (239). Theron Ware becomes “progressively effeminized”
by the novel’s “proscription of female sexuality by
male authority” (244). All of the novel’s authority
figures—the Methodist trustees; Father Forbes; Dr. Ledsmar;
Sister Soulsby, perhaps the most complex authority figure; the
Catholic Church; and even Jeremiah Madden, “the book’s
most dignified figure”—are discredited by their words
or actions (254). Oehlschlaeger acknowledges that critics have
seen Sister Soulsby “either as a Satanic figure or as a
voice for Frederic’s own supposed pragmatism” (246);
however, he disagrees with both views. First, Sister Soulsby is
neither all good nor all bad, and her pragmatism is “inadequate
to deal with the highly irrational world that Frederic depicts,”
which undercuts her validity as an authority figure (247). Second,
Oehlschlaeger does not agree with critics who have pointed to
Sister Soulsby’s pragmatism as an indication of Frederic’s
personal views. In Oehlschlaeger’s opinion, Frederic’s
views are evident in his respect for “certain religious
values” represented by the venerable church elders and the
Christian idea of repentance (253).
