Degradation and forbidden love in Edith Wharton's 'Summer.'

Twentieth Century Literature, Winter, 1995 by Kathy Grafton

This imagery becomes even more explicit in the succeeding paragraphs leading up to the actual kiss:

For a moment the night seemed to grow more impenetrably black; then a great picture stood out against it like a constellation. It was surmounted by a golden scroll bearing the inscription, "Washington crossing the Delaware," and across a flood of motionless golden ripples the National Hero passed, erect, solemn and gigantic, standing with folded arms in the stern of a slowly moving golden boat.

A long "Oh-h-h" burst from the spectators: the stand creaked and shook with their blissful trepidations. "Oh-h-h," Charity gasped: she had forgotten where she was, had at last forgotten even Harney's nearness. She seemed to have been caught up in the stars. (101)

The obvious phallic imagery of the scroll and the replica of Washington, and especially the delight and "bliss" they evoke in the audience, again suggest the sexual delight and bliss that will occur for Charity as a result of a deeper physical intimacy with Harney.

The first kissing seems to arise out of Harney's genuine affection for and attraction toward Charity. It seems spontaneous enough on his part: "With sudden vehemence he wound his arms about her, holding her head against his breast while she gave him back his kisses" (101) However, it later becomes apparent that Harney's mental assessment of Charity and her position in society at this point in the story perhaps gives him leeway, at least in his own mind, to be so aggressive. Charity feels "herself possessed of a new mysterious power" over him at this point (101). What she does not realize is that this "power" is about to be lost when she encounters Mr. Royal as they are leaving.

In the next scene Chasity is irrevocably degraded in Harvey's eyes. As they are leaving, they come in contact with the drunken Mr. Royall, who, annoyed at finding them together, berates and shames Charity in front of the crowd:

He was just behind Julia Hawes, and had one hand on her arm; but as he left the gang-plank he freed himself, and moved a step or two away from his companions. He had seen Charity at once, and his glance passed slowly from her to Harney, whose arm was still about her. He stood staring at them, and trying to master the senile quiver of his lips; then he drew himself up with the tremulous majesty of drunkenness, and stretched out his arm.

"You whore - you damn - bare-headed whore, you!" he enunciated slowly. (103)

This particular scene of degradation prompts Harney to intensify his physical relationship with Charity soon afterward. In fact, the next time he sees her is the first time they retreat to the little house that becomes their hideaway.

At this point the correlation between the scene at the wharf with Mr. Royall and Harney's subsequent seduction of Charity may be unclear. Here Freud's essay comes in handy in helping us better to understand the nature of this correlation in psychoanalytic terms. To begin with, according to Freud, the male's need to degrade the love object stems from a "psychical impotence" that has occurred due to an unacknowledged incestuous desire for his mother and/or sister. This desire is fundamentally unacknowledged because the male holds these two family members in very high esteem; thus, this type of desire seems entirely unacceptable to him. He then finds it necessary to separate feelings of desire from feelings of true affection and esteem. As Freud points out, "The erotic life of such people remains disassociated, divided between two channels, the same two that are personified in art as heavenly and earthly (or animal) love. Where such men love they have no desire and where they desire they cannot love" (207).