Blog Post #4

“The Tenth of January” by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps is a very touching, tragic story that brought up many emotions and reactions that I haven’t felt from a piece of literature in a long time.  While all the parts of the story were great, reading about the actions of Richard Cross are what really kept my interested.

                Dick is introduced in the story as a hard working young man who just came from his father’s farm to the city in search of work and a place to stay.  It puzzled me why a young man like Dick would immediately become so closely bound to Asenath when nobody else wanted her, but in the story when it said “[. . .] he for the first time saw what she was [. . .] his blue eyes widened [. . .] a pity like a mother’s had crept into them [. . .]”, it became painfully clear that Dick only stayed with Asenath out of a since of obligation.  This observation is further solidified when Asenath see’s Dick with Del Ivory on the river bank where it is obvious that there’s something going on between them.  I figured Dick stayed with Asenath so as not to hurt her by leaving her for Del, and while this isn’t a very good base for a relationship, Dick knew how much he meant to Asenath and all she did was give him love in return, so that was at least something.  For the time being, I thought Dick was a respectable guy.

                Through al her ups and downs Dick stuck by Asenath and it seemed as though he was a genuinely good person.  But all that changed with the collapse of the mill.  When Dick pulls Del from the rubble, he completely forget about the girl still stuck in the burning debris, the girl that was able to get out of bed every morning because she had him in her life.  When Dick ran Del to the hospital and left Asenath “tombed alive” in the furnace, I had never been so infuriated with a character in a story.  To just leaver her there like that was awful and unforgivable.

                Phelps was able to take a character I was rooting for the whole story and make me despise him in just one paragraph.  And while this did anger me, it really highlights the skill of Phelps writing and makes “The Tenth of January” a story I won’t soon forget.