The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today

Chapter 12 introduces two new characters, Philip and Harry. Philip is characterized as well-educated, intelligent, and desirous of wealth and fame. Initially, Philip seems prone to Building Castles in the Sky. He expects to become rich and famous, but he is unwilling to do the work that wealth requires and unable to decide on a course for achieving fame. By Chapter 23, however, Philip has overcome these character flaws, applying himself diligently to studying engineering and the science of railroad building, showing a capacity for transformation.

Harry is characterized as someone who cares more about appearance than substance. In addition to putting a great deal of time and energy into his looks, he presents himself to others as someone of importance, a “man of affairs” (61). He pretends to learn engineering for the effect it will have on how he’s viewed, rather than actually learning it as a means for gainful employment.

Chapter 12’s opening line, “‘Oh, it’s easy enough to make a fortune,’ Henry said” (59), uses dramatic irony to foreshadow future events and develop the theme about greed. Foreshadowing is again employed in the plot structure when the narrators say of Philip, “he learned afterwards that the woman who lays her hand on a man, without any exception whatsoever, is always acquitted by the jury” (59). This will play out in Laura’s murder trial. An internal conflict develops in which Laura’s mind and worldview are shaped by events both traumatic and ordinary. The focus given to these psychological processes and Laura’s internal struggles aligns with literary conventions of Realism, an approach that, influenced by advances in psychology, aims for more realistic and complex characters.

Chapter epigraphs include quotations from Thomas the Rhymer, William Caxton’s Book of Curtesye, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “The Princess.” They introduce topics such as social expectations, women’s access to education, and morality.

Ruth was raised as part of a religious community known as Quakers or the Religious Society of Friends. Her character arc moves her away from limitations placed on her by her religion and by society’s gender norms. Her statement that she plans to study medicine reveals her motivation as a character. A turning point in her character arc occurs when her first experience of popularity in Fallkill distracts her from her career goals.

Beriah’s penchant for dishonesty is further emphasized in these chapters. The narrators call his lies “instant creations of his fertile fancy, which were always flashing into his brain and out of his mouth in the course of any conversation and without interrupting the flow of it” (104). This description portrays him as a pathological liar, rather than merely someone who uses calculated dishonesty for personal gain, though he does that as well.

Significant changes to Laura’s character are said to be a result of her betrayal by Col. Selby, but more broadly can be read as a reaction to the powerlessness of women in her patriarchal society. She determines to take power and agency for herself, and as such her character arc intersects with the theme of Greed and the Metaphor of the Gilded Age. She’s motivated now by desire for money, for luxury, and for men to idolize her and bend to her whims, and she recognizes her beauty and charm as a form of capital. Laura’s experimental use of Harry to test her powers of fascination makes her a less sympathetic character than she once was, but it also signifies her growing agency.

Being raised with the expectation of wealth coming his way has had a predictable effect on Washington. He spends his time Building Castles in the Sky, inventing useless contrivances and dreaming of great deeds but never acting on them. Authorial interpretation indicates he has the best intentions, but a frail resolution keeps him from making anything of them.

Picturesque descriptions of rural settings, paired with Beriah’s ideas for exploiting the land and natural resources for profit, contribute to a critical tone toward society’s relationship with nature. As a setting, the future city of Napoleon exists only in the minds of Beriah and Harry, but their scheme for developing the city relies on altering the landscape, widening and deepening the Columbus River without regard for the possible ecological consequences of this action. It’s fortunate, then, that they also fail to fully consider the economic scale of the project, and thus it never comes to fruition. The imaginary city of Napoleon stands as the book’s most direct evocation of the theme of Building Castles in the Sky.

Twain and Warner’s style in these chapters continues to be shaped by humor, satiric social commentary, use of dialect, and tone. The lead engineer’s comment about the Columbus River—“If it was widened, and deepened, and straightened, and made long enough, it would be one of the finest rivers in the western country” (90)—is an example of lighthearted humor the authors intersperse with more critical satire. Toward matters of gender norms and sexism, the narrators’ comments consistently create a feminist tone. One such comment, alluding to female characters as creations of novelists, uses metafiction to prompt critical consideration of this novel’s own female characters.

Thematic concepts of greed, dishonesty, corruption, and entitlement all connect to each other in these chapters. The Montagues are a rare example of a family satisfied with what they have, thus representing the antithesis of greed. Ruth’s observation that “a large portion of the world lived by getting the rest of the world into schemes” succinctly summarizes the authors’ views about dishonesty in the Gilded Age (77). The beginning stages of Philip’s character arc are defined by his greatest flaw, his entitlement. He’s intelligent and talented, but unable to get a job because he believes he should start at the top of the ladder and shouldn’t have to bring any hard-earned expertise to the table. Eli’s sense that it’s safer to give money to Mr. Bigler, knowing he’ll lose it, than to have the man’s ill will, develops the theme of Political Corruption in the Gilded Age.

Beriah’s racist sentiments, as expressed to Senator Dilworthy, show how racism can be tied to greed and valuing personal gain above human rights. As in Beriah’s case, disparaging the intelligence and abilities of African Americans was a way to rationalize the industry of slavery in order to maintain the enormous wealth it created for its perpetrators. Depictions of racist attitudes toward Indigenous Americans in the narrative also demonstrate how such attitudes can be strategically cultivated for financial gain.