Turn-of-the- Century Perceptions of Manliness and Religion: Frederic’s Jeremiad in Theron Ware

Abstract

Examines the intersection of religious faith and conceptions of manhood in turn-of-the-century American culture, a period during which many American men investigated the limits of manhood, scrutinizing its qualities and evaluating what was manly and what was unmanly. Claims Frederic’s best-selling novel considers precisely such issues; Frederic conceives the novel as a jeremiad, lamenting the ascendancy of a shallow, spiritually vacuous modern form of masculinity that he felt was supplanting an older, religious, essential form of manliness. Argues the novel explores the contentious nexus of religious faith and manliness existing at the start of the modern period.