318 Davis, Rebecca Harding
spiritual gift to him. This dedication to her own
path of truth is what inspires Dunstan’s lifelong
scholarly passion for the lives of saints (about whom
he writes 10 books). His saints, like Mary Dempster,
are singular figures who fearlessly walk their own
paths.
In the end, it should not be surprising that
another iconoclastic character—a female con art-
ist—should be the one who rescues Dunstan from
his lifelong guilt, thus helping him to forgive him-
self. In this novel, it is the outsiders who are able to
defy the inhibitions and sterile religious practices
of the crowd and embrace the visionary lessons of
Christian grace.
Fifth Business is a complex text. On the one hand,
the fact that 50 years of Dunstan’s life are warped by
a childish and false assumption of responsibility for
another’s act is tragic. But on the other hand, what
he learns from Mary Dempster gives him access to
a world of spirituality forbidden to the blind and
intolerant religious examples of his youth.
Susan R. Bowers
DAVIS, REBECCA HARDING Life in
the Iron Mills (1861)
Life in the Iron Mills is Rebecca Harding Davis’s
best-known work. Although Davis (1831–1910)
worked as a writer for many years, none of her other
work is recognized to have the power and strength
of this early novella. The story depicts the struggles
of Hugh and his cousin Deborah, workers in the
local iron mill. A talented sculptor, Hugh is led to
believe that his talent will allow him to transcend
his circumstances, but his hopes are dashed when he
steals some money from a wealthy man and is sent
to prison.
At the time that Davis wrote the story, slavery
and the incipient Civil War were the center of most
people’s attention, as opposed to the difficulties faced
by workers in the burgeoning Industrial Revolution.
The novella’s publication in the Atlantic Monthly
provided Davis (although she was still Rebecca Har-
ding at this point) an entrée into the literary society
of Boston. After its publication, she was recognized
as an important new writer. However, her later work
often did not fulfill these expectations.
Now, almost 100 years after her death in 1910 at
the age of 79, Davis’s importance is being recognized
again. Although she may never be known as a purely
literary writer, her work draws attention not only to
the political issues of her time—slavery, the plight of
the working class—but also, as the literary scholar
Janice Lasseter points out, to the question of the
female artist and the way in which she must resolve
any conflict she might encounter between the expec-
tations placed upon her as a wife and mother and
those she might try to fulfill professionally. Davis
herself did not always resolve those conflicts as well
as she might have; regardless, the power of this one
story is a testament to the power of literature to raise
awareness of important issues, whether they happen
to be foremost in the news or not.
Helen Lynne SchicketanzetHics in Life in the Iron Mills
The question of ethics seems to be a relative one
in Rebecca Harding Davis’s novella Life in the Iron
Mills. Any expectation of ethical behavior seems
ultimately to be governed by economics. This is a
story in which the poor are expected to behave ethi-
cally, regardless of the cost to themselves, while the
wealthy are encouraged to act with impunity, taking
only their own interests into account. Set against the
backdrop of an unnamed industrial town in the early
years of the Industrial Revolution, the story depicts a
conflict between the poor and deprived mill workers
and members of the wealthy class who control their
lives not only financially but, indirectly, in nearly all
other ways.
One night, wealthy men, including the mill
owner, visit the mill and watch the work being done.
During the course of the evening, the men become
aware of the artistic talent manifested by Hugh
Wolfe, who works as a puddler (one who purifies
pig iron to produce wrought iron). Although they
recognize both his talent and his desire to better
himself, they mock him, choosing instead to engage
in philosophical discussions about who should take
responsibility for helping the workers improve their
lot. They encourage Hugh—almost willfully, it
seems—to believe that, in spite of the debilitating
economic and social circumstances in which he is
forced to live, there might be a realistic possibility