The Rise Of Silas Lapham Analysis
As Boston flourished in the 1800s as a trading center and a financial hub, the influx of wealth allowed various individuals to climb up the socioeconomic ladder. This new class of wealthy individuals often clashed with the established “old money” Brahmins living on the Southern Slope of Beacon Hill, and this conflict is exemplified in the novel The Rise of Silas Lapham, by William Dean Howells.
In the novel, the Lapham family rose up the social ladder due to having a successful mineral paint business. Their daughter Penelope, is being courted by Tom Corey, a member of a prominent family on Beacon Hill. In an interaction with his father, Tom Corey remarks to him that, “I mean that I saw it wouldn’t be quite fair to test him by our standards”
(Page 89), about Silas Lapham. The significance behind Tom’s comment is that it shows how the Brahmins of the South Slope did not find those with “new money” to be as cultured as them. Standards are important because they are the principles and norms that one expects others to follow. If one does not fit their standards, then their seen as outsiders. This idea is reinforced when elder Corey responds to Tom by saying “Then he knows-and then only-that there can be no standard but ours” (Page 89). Furthermore, the weight behind the word “quite” is significant. By saying it, Tom is implying that it would not be fair to judge Silas Lapham with Brahmin standards, because he is not capable of understanding them given his background. Additionally, this classist remark questions Silas Lapham’s intellectually capability, and the comment basically regards him as beneath the standards of the Corey family.
However, when given the actions of Silas Lapham at the dinner party that the Corey family invited him to, it is fair to see the reasoning behind Tom Corey’s comment. At the party, Silas Lapham got drunk and embarrassed himself, showed his lack of manners, and insulted the guests; “He thought of him the night before in the company of those ladies and gentleman, and he quivered in resentment of his vulgar, braggart, uncouth nature” (Page 297). Given that all the other guests at the dinner party where used to high class events like it, and the fact that it was the Lapham’s first dinner of such nature, then it is not surprising that Silas behaved the way he did. Though he rose through the social ladder quickly due to his businesses, he did not know the proper etiquette of the Brahmins, legitimizing Tom Corey’s comment. Furthermore, as stated in the novel, “The very innocence of Lapham’s in the direction in which he erred wrought against him in the young man’s mood: it contained the insult of clownish inexperience” (Page 297). Through the way Silas had lived his life in the past set him up for failure because he was not used standards that those who lived on the Southern Slope of Beacon Hill abided by. Therefore, while Tom Corey’s comment can be viewed as classist, it was justifiable.
In the novel, the Lapham family rose up the social ladder due to having a successful mineral paint business. Their daughter Penelope, is being courted by Tom Corey, a member of a prominent family on Beacon Hill. In an interaction with his father, Tom Corey remarks to him that, “I mean that I saw it wouldn’t be quite fair to test him by our standards”
(Page 89), about Silas Lapham. The significance behind Tom’s comment is that it shows how the Brahmins of the South Slope did not find those with “new money” to be as cultured as them. Standards are important because they are the principles and norms that one expects others to follow. If one does not fit their standards, then their seen as outsiders. This idea is reinforced when elder Corey responds to Tom by saying “Then he knows-and then only-that there can be no standard but ours” (Page 89). Furthermore, the weight behind the word “quite” is significant. By saying it, Tom is implying that it would not be fair to judge Silas Lapham with Brahmin standards, because he is not capable of understanding them given his background. Additionally, this classist remark questions Silas Lapham’s intellectually capability, and the comment basically regards him as beneath the standards of the Corey family.
However, when given the actions of Silas Lapham at the dinner party that the Corey family invited him to, it is fair to see the reasoning behind Tom Corey’s comment. At the party, Silas Lapham got drunk and embarrassed himself, showed his lack of manners, and insulted the guests; “He thought of him the night before in the company of those ladies and gentleman, and he quivered in resentment of his vulgar, braggart, uncouth nature” (Page 297). Given that all the other guests at the dinner party where used to high class events like it, and the fact that it was the Lapham’s first dinner of such nature, then it is not surprising that Silas behaved the way he did. Though he rose through the social ladder quickly due to his businesses, he did not know the proper etiquette of the Brahmins, legitimizing Tom Corey’s comment. Furthermore, as stated in the novel, “The very innocence of Lapham’s in the direction in which he erred wrought against him in the young man’s mood: it contained the insult of clownish inexperience” (Page 297). Through the way Silas had lived his life in the past set him up for failure because he was not used standards that those who lived on the Southern Slope of Beacon Hill abided by. Therefore, while Tom Corey’s comment can be viewed as classist, it was justifiable.