Childhood and Early Youth 33best way to convince her of the contrary would be to take a spoonful herself. She did,
then realized her sick friend had already used the very spoon. As soon as she under¬
stood what she had done, she felt nauseated and was gripped by a cold shudder. Her
imagination heightened both. When she noticed spots on the body of her friend, which
she recognized as signs of smallpox, she declared immediately that this event would
be her death. She laid herself down that very day and died soon thereafter — a sacrifice
to friendship.^28Wasianski, who reported this story, also said that Kant had told him this
"with the loving and tender sadness of a good and thankful son."
Is there more to this story? Does it show only love and gratitude, or does
it reveal something more sinister? Does it allow us to draw conclusions
about a secret resentment toward his own mother that Kant still felt in his
seventies? Does Kant blame both the friend and his mother for leaving,
and thus betraying him? Hartmut Böhme and Gernot Böhme have claimed
that the boy really was convinced that the death of Anna Regina was a just
punishment for her being a "bad" mother, and that he was conflicted
about this for the rest of his life.^29 They also suggest that Kant's later view
of morality as freedom from affection and desire has its roots here: Kant
blamed his mother for dying, felt guilty about this, and therefore found it
difficult to grieve. He "repressed" grief and guilt at the same time and there¬
fore did not learn to appreciate the importance of our nonrational side.^30
Perhaps, but not likely. Whatever deep psychoanalytic reading the surface
of this story allows, we must remember that it will be more appropriate as
a reading of Wasianski than as a reading of Kant. These are, after all, not
Kant's own words. Even if it were true that some of the confused emotions
that plagued Kant at the untimely death of his mother still had an effect
in his old age (or perhaps, had an effect again in his old age), this would not
allow us to draw any significant conclusions about Kant's life as a whole.
The death of his mother cannot have been easy for a thirteen-year-old, but
it does not explain his later philosophical development.
Anna Regina was buried "silently" and "poor," meaning that she was
buried without a procession and at a price that people of modest means
could afford.^31 For the purposes of taxation the Kant household had been
explicitly declared "poor" in 1740, and whereas Johann Georg had paid 38
Thalers in taxes earlier, he now paid only 9 Groschen.^32 Given this de¬
cline, it is not surprising that the family received assistance from other fam¬
ily members and friends. Thus, they got firewood from some benefactors,
and Emanuel's studies were supported by an uncle (a brother of his mother,
a shoemaker by trade) who was better off than Kant's father.^33 Later, by the