22 pages • 44 minutes read
O. HenryOne Thousand Dollars
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1919A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Historical Context: Wealth Disparities in 1900s New York City
New York City in the early 1900s, the period when this story is set, was a bustling metropolitan center of 4 million people. There was a huge divide between the poor and the wealthy. While millions struggled to survive, the wealthy few lived luxuriously and at leisure. In 1908, O. Henry published a collection of short stories set against the backdrop of New York City, The Voice of the City: Further Stories of the Four Million, with the belief that all the people who resided in New York City, rich or poor, had a story to tell.
Gambling, which plays a central role in “One Thousand Dollars,” was mostly illegal in New York at that time. As Gillian’s behavior and reputations suggest, however, gambling was prevalent across the city and not only among the upper class. Poor people played card and dice games in small gambling parlors, while the rich gambled in expensive private clubs. While the existence of these clubs was well known, the owners bribed local police and judges to avoid prosecution. The city’s middle class, by contrast, generally opposed gambling and wished to see the laws enforced. In “One Thousand Dollars,” Septimus’s lawyer Tolman reflects these attitudes.
Additionally, in the early 1900s, $1,000 was worth much more than what it is now. A new car was approximately $600, and the newspaper was only a nickel. While the owners of factories were becoming wealthier, however, the average worker only made $490 a year with an average wage of 37 cents an hour. A thousand dollars would have been life-changing for many during this time.
Cultural Context: Gender Roles
While the women’s rights movement was gaining momentum in the early 20th century, women during this time were severely limited in terms of their ability to support themselves. Most careers were not open to women. In the story, Miss Hayden was financially dependent on Septimus. Without Gillian’s gift, she would have continued to depend on others for her survival. In this context, Gillian’s gift is even more significant: He gives Miss Hayden freedom, completely changing her life.
Gillian’s attitude toward Miss Hayden conveys another aspect of gender at that time. While women had little power in the political and economic spheres, they were often considered morally superior to men. People believed women to be more sensitive, refined, and compassionate than men, and they were considered the guardians of family life and social cohesion. Gillian’s worshipful attitude toward Miss Hayden reflects the era’s widespread belief that women are pure, innocent, and good.
The economic changes mentioned above may have especially hindered women like Miss Hayden. As the Industrial Revolution accelerated and some people became very wealthy, women no longer had to work outside the home. This change produced increasingly distinct gender roles that probably, for a time, decreased women’s influence in politics and the economy. Rather than husbands and wives working together to meet their families’ needs, husbands became the breadwinners while wives remained at home as protectors of the domestic sphere. The financial dependence of wives on their husbands at this time makes Miss Hayden’s rejection of Gillian even more notable.
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