Essay Questions

What exactly is the mesmeric healing which Selah Tarrant practices upon patients—and as a means of preparing his daughter Verena before her speaking engagements?

Not without a good deal of irony is Selah Tarrant described as having made some “miraculous cures” as a result of his mesmeric healing. The term originates from theories and practices founded by Franz Mesmer. The one scene which depicts Selah’s actual practicing of his craft is done in the service of preparation for his daughter's public speech on women’s rights. The description of Verena resembling a “moving statue” as her father places his hands upon her head is factually accurate. Mesmer had originally applied magnets to the body in his attempt to control unseen but natural forces impacting the body in much the same way as gravity. Eventually, he decided the magnets were unnecessary and that the practitioner need only apply his hands to the patient. Although it is dismissed for the most part by every other character in the book—and as pure quackery by its real-life critics—mesmeric healing has since come to be viewed as a precursor to modern-day theories of serious psychological hypnotism. The description of Verena under the treatment certainly does bear a resemblance to how patients undergoing hypnosis often react to the process.

The story takes place in the aftermath of the Civil War, but in its depiction of the burgeoning feminist movement, what is the novel suggesting about the true civil strike separating America?

The title is not actually a direct reference to people from Boston, but is rather a metaphor for a certain ambiguously defined philosophy of life. To be “Bostonian” seems to mean a great many different things, but the one unifying element is that all those to which the term is applied are women. Ultimately, “Bostonian” comes to be an ill-defined but clearly intended term for progressive reform that rejects unsound arguments favoring traditionalism. To one degree or another—ranging from the explicitly literal to the more allusively symbolic—the story touches upon a variety of issues related specifically to women subverting traditional values and roles in the name of progressive social evolution. The backdrop of the Civil War is instrumental in this theme of subversion. For instance, the central issue of the war—the abolition of slavery—is presented as being an institution maintained by males in the figure of Basil Ransom. At the same time, because of their dominant presence in the abolitionist movement, women are presented as the actual gender responsible for bringing slavery to an end rather than Union soldiers that defeated the Confederacy on the battlefield. An example of a more allusive subversion of tradition is the implication that the close bond between Olive and Verena is more than merely platonic. By the end, the story has suggested that a civil war is taking place in America between men and women.

What does the final line of the novel suggest about the outcome of this civil war between the sexes?

The image upon which the novel comes to a close is that of Basil Ransom leading Verena away from a hall crowded with women who will never hear the speech that Verena was to give. Ransom has used “muscular force” to physically steal her away from Olive’s plans to lead her onto the stage. It is not the muscular force with which he leads her out the building, failing to notice her tears beneath a hood covering her face. It is the collective force of an opponent infinitely stronger than Confederate soldiers softened by having slaves do their labor. The strength of the Confederate and Union soldiers working together to preserve their patriarchal expectations and privilege proves to be impenetrable. The final line of the story ends with the prediction that tears will henceforth be a regular companion to Verena. That line begins with the book’s final allusion to the actual Civil War sharing space within its literal description of the impending marriage. “It is to be feared that with the union, so far from brilliant…” contains more than a hint of corrosively ironic commentary on the likelihood that the rebels will lose the next civil war as well, but this time to the detriment of society.