In the novel The Damnation of Theron Ware, by Harold Frederic, there is an interesting paradox as far as it concerns the nature of the self.  The paradox concerns the idea that, if a man can overcome himself, he actually is developing himself, and so he becomes a great person, but if he tries to develop himself, he really destroys himself.  This is connected to the theme of the Marsden quotation, in which he holds that people in the nineteenth century still saw the self ". . . as a spiritual entity to be controlled and overcome, rather than celebrated" [Marsden, 87].

          Theron Ware, the main character in the book, lives out this struggle as he tries to create a new self-image.  At the beginning of the story he is presented as an intelligent but simple man, a young Methodist minister who basically is happy with his life, but who also has a desire to raise himself above the common man.  He aspires to greatness and determines to fulfill this desire by writing a book on Abraham, the Biblical patriarch.  In this way he will secure his future and make a name for himself.  It is because of this longing to become something more than he is, in other words, his wish to become a great man, that he experiences his fall from grace, a fall that nearly destroys his life.

          As indicated above, people in the nineteenth century generally saw the self as something to be controlled, as something to be overcome, and not as something to be developed.  It was a view that put the common good ahead of the good of the individual taken as a lone being.  Thus the individual person was to find meaning for his life in the greater good of society and not in a selfish pursuit of his own needs and desires.  Although this view was the prevailing view of the time, it was being displaced by a view of the self that is its exact opposite. This cultural shift began with the Reformation, and it accelerated with the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century and continued unabated with the rise of Romanticism in the century following.  So the individualism of the twentieth century is a natural outgrowth of the changes in culture influencing religious life in America and in the West in general over a period of several centuries.

          In the opening of the novel Theron Ware is shown as a man who, in his original simplicity had certain virtuous qualities, but as the story progresses he moves away from his original views and tries to become something different from what he had been.  After meeting Fr. Forbes and Dr. Ledsmar he recognizes his own intellectual inadequacies, and determines to change this woeful situation through diligent study.  He wishes to fit in with these great men.  He also became enamored of the beautiful Miss Celia Madden, whose strong personality attracted him like a moth to a flame.  His own wife has the docility of spirit that Marsden talks about, but Theron Ware secretly despises this trait.  But in all his attempts to improve himself, he actually achieves the opposite and thus corrupts himself, and in doing this he loses the friendship of those whom he is trying hardest to impress.  There are two points at the end of the novel where he is told specifically that in his attempts to change himself, he had actually destroyed himself.

          The first episode involves Michael, the brother of Celia Madden, who, while dying of consumption, explains to him that the virtuous man he had been six months before was now gone.  When he had first seen Theron, he said to himself, "Here is a young man, only about my age, and he has education and talents, and he does not seek to make money for himself, or a great name, but he is content to live humbly on the salary of a book-keeper" [Frederic, 297].  This view perfectly reflects what Marsden proposes in his book, that is, the idea that the cultural paradigm of the nineteenth century extolled the concept of self-control and abnegation.  Michael's point in saying this can be connected to the teaching of Christ in the Gospel, for as Christ said, "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it" [Matthew 10:39].  Thus Michael is supporting the view of the self which sees it as something to be controlled or overcome, and not as something to be focused upon as a good to be developed.

          The Reverend Ware cannot seem to accept the truth of this view, because he continues along his destructive path and follows Celia and Fr. Forbes into New York City.  The second pivotal episode occurs when Theron goes to Celia in her hotel room and she explains quite frankly her views as to the change in his nature over the past six months.  Celia explains to Theron that when she and the others first met him, they were attracted to him because he "impressed [them] as an innocent, simple, genuine young character, full of mother's milk" [Frederic, 321], but that now he is a bore.  That he has dispossessed himself of the various qualities that intrigued them in the first place.  That they liked his honesty, his sincerity, his "general naivete of mental and spiritual get-up" [Frederic, 322].  All these elements of his character have been destroyed by his attempts to become more like them; instead, in his new persona, he comes off as egotistical and unpleasant.  In his attempts to impress her and Fr. Forbes he has stooped to "ridiculing and reviling the people of [his] church, whose money supports [him]" [Frederic, 322].  In this monologue she brutally shows him what he has become, and how he has changed himself into something despicable.  So, all of Theron's efforts to change his life in order to fit in better with the people he admired actually achieved the opposite.

          Harold Frederic wrote his novel near the turn of the century, and in it he expounded upon the changing nature of society, and how the spirit of individualism was overcoming the older paradigm of self-sacrifice for the greater good of humanity.  In a sense Theron Ware is the modern man, the man of the twentieth century; while Celia's brother Michael is a man of the nineteenth century, and to use Marsden's words, Michael ". . . had learned to die" [Marsden, 87].  One cannot help but feel that Michael, who is lying in bed dying of consumption, is a man who knows himself, while Theron Ware is trying to create himself, and in trying to do this he has actually lost himself.  Theron believes that he will find happiness in his own self-creation, but as Michael tells him, "That is the greatest pity of all . . . You are entirely deceived about yourself.  You do not at all realize how you have altered your direction, or where you are going.  It was a great misfortune for you, sir, that you did not keep to your own people" [Frederic, 298].  He goes on to explain that Theron was not prepared for the changes he had brought about in his own life, and that he should "Go back to the way [he] was brought up" [Frederic, 298].  What the novel presents is a clash between two world views, the older view that says the self is to be controlled and overcome is fading, and in its place the newer view that says a that person is to create himself is becoming dominant.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Harold Frederic.  The Damnation of Theron Ware.  (New York::  Penguin Classics, 1986).

George M. Marsden.  Religion and American Culture.  (Orlando:  Harcourt College Publishers, 2001).

The Bible:  Revised Standard Version.  (New York:  American Bible Society, 1971).

The Loss of Self:  Review of the Novel "The Damnation of Theron Ware"

by Steven Todd Kaster

San Francisco State University

History 482:  Religion in America

Dr. William Issel

22 March 2002

Copyright © 2002-2025 Steven Todd Kaster