63 pages • 2 hours read
Mark Twain, Charles Dudley WarnerThe Gilded Age: A Tale of Today
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1873A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The City of Napoleon
Beriah Sellers imagines a bustling city arising in the location of Stone’s Landing, its growth spurred by future railroad and steamboat trade along the Columbus river. However, routing the railroad through Stone’s Landing is impractical, and costly improvements to the river are required to make it navigable. In spite of these barriers, Beriah builds the city in his mind, investing great amounts of time and energy in its realization. Even the name he gives to his imagined city, Napoleon, suggests a desire to bend the world to his will as Napoleon did. The unrealized city therefore symbolizes the metaphoric act of Building Castles in the Sky. This idiom refers to creating hopes or plans that are impossible or unrealistic. Several characters do this habitually throughout the novel, but the city of Napoleon is the most concrete representation of the idea. Beriah figuratively erects the entire city without a foundation of reality beneath it.
The envisioned city’s name contributes symbolic meaning as well. In those days, as the narrators note, men named their children after their most revered historical and literary figures. Beriah’s devotion to his planned city suggests he values it like his own child and would thus name it after a historical figure he reveres. Napoleon Bonaparte is perhaps most known as a conquering military ruler, ambitiously expanding his empire by force. Beriah’s choice to name his city Napoleon suggests he sees it as a way to conquer the land, dominate commerce in the growing frontier, and create his own legacy.
The Ilium Mining Operation
The name of the Pennsylvania town of Ilium, in which Philip Sterling surveys a tract of land owned by Eli, alludes to the Latin name for the mythical city of Troy. In Homer’s Iliad, the great city endures a lengthy siege by Greek forces but is ultimately defeated. Philip’s mining operation on the Ilium land is a central aspect in his character arc. It moves him from his initial state of entitlement and irresolute idleness to his final state of toil and perseverance. As the Greeks in The Iliad had to persevere in their siege for 10 long years before achieving victory, Philip must persevere in his efforts to find the coal he believes is in the mountain. The mine defies his hopes for easy wealth, symbolizing the defenses around the city of Troy. It also symbolizes an idea tied to the theme of Greed, Dishonesty, and the Metaphor of the Gilded Age—that “striking it rich,” a concept so pervasively alluring in this era, is a fantasy.
Racism
Recurring depictions of racism contribute to the book’s thematic exploration of Greed, Dishonesty, and the Metaphor of the Gilded Age by showing how these traits motivate racist attitudes and inequality. Dan’l and Jinny—and African Americans in general—are seen as ignorant by society, yet when it comes to improving their access to education, Southerners raise fierce opposition. Beriah says of African Americans, “They are a speculating race, sir, disinclined to work for white folks without security, planning how to live by only working for themselves” (107). His comment shows that opposition to educational access is rooted in efforts to keep African Americans subjugated and dependent on systems that will continue to privilege white society.
Both the character of Dilworthy and the subplot of the Knobs University bill suggest that white politicians’ public advocacy for African Americans was often insincere, used to disguise selfish motivations. Using the plight of African Americans for personal gain, whether by supporting slavery and racist views or by a pretense of advocacy for civil rights, is presented as merely another manifestation of the same greed and corruption seen throughout the narrative.
Depictions of similar attitudes toward Indigenous peoples play the same role in the narrative. Federal funding allocated to various tribes is stolen by “noble statesmen” like Senator Balloon (192), who used the money to build a saw-mill that made him rich. The tenant of Newspaper Row who lauds Senator Balloon speaks of “feeding and clothing” the tribe members, “whose land had been taken from them by the white man in the interests of civilization” (191). The authors’ satiric portrayal playfully combines an acknowledgment of Indigenous land being stolen with the hallmark language of ignorance in society. These scenes also draw a connection between racism, greed, and corruption.
Sexism
Discussions of sexism and social limitations placed on women form another motif in The Gilded Age. This is most overt in Ruth’s storyline. She wants to study medicine and achieve financial independence, but she feels hemmed in by society’s expectation that women stay home, rely on their husbands’ income, and tolerate the greed and corruption of a society ruled by men. She tells her father she’d like to “break things and get loose!” (74). This desire to break society’s gender norms is what enables her to eventually be happy with Philip, knowing her love is “a free act, and not in any way a necessity” (137). At first Philip questions Ruth’s career goal because he worries it means she’ll never marry him. These conversations provide the authors opportunities to express views supporting gender equality.
Nancy Hawkins may be said to represent the other end of the spectrum, the status quo of gender norms. She accepts total financial reliance on her husband and refuses to let her daughters work. Because of this, she’s forced to live much of her life in poverty. Through society’s responses to her misfortunes, Laura Hawkins illustrates the pervasive influence of gender stereotypes. After killing Col. Selby, for example, the public either loves her as a champion of wronged women or hates her as an evil temptress. Laura’s complex, dynamic character belies the simplistic, stereotyped impressions others form of her. Taken together, the book’s female characters demonstrate the nuanced complexity, strength, and resilience of individual women, even if many of the male characters view women in misogynistic ways.
The Dog and Its Reflection
In one of Aesop’s fables, a dog carrying a piece of meat sees its reflection, takes it for another dog with a better piece of meat, and, wanting both pieces, opens its mouth to attack. In doing so, the dog drops its meat into the river and is left with nothing. The moral is that someone who tries to have it all often loses everything. A similar story plays out time and again in The Gilded Age. The novel’s characters are unsatisfied with what they have, and their efforts to get more cause them to lose it all.
Both Silas and Washington Hawkins refuse lucrative purchase offers for the Tennessee land at the last second because of a desire to get a higher price. Their confidence that a higher price will be offered consistently proves misplaced, and in the end they lose out on the sale altogether. Eli’s desperation at the failure of his investments brings him to the verge of a wise and practical decision—to sell his excess property and start living within his means. A telegram from Philip, however, prematurely indicates he’s found the main coal vein. Eli once again loses all financial restraint, leading to his bankruptcy. This motif coalesces into a warning about Greed and the Metaphor of the Gilded Age.
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