Of Iron and Men: The Quest for Masculinity in Rebecca Harding Daviss Life in The Iron MillsEssay Preview: Of Iron and Men: The Quest for Masculinity in Rebecca Harding Daviss Life in The Iron MillsReport this essayOf Iron and Men: The Quest for Masculinity in Rebecca Harding Davis’s Life in The Iron MillsWhat is a Man?“A cloudy day: do you know what that is in a town of iron-works? The sky sank down before dawn, muddy, flat, immovable. The air is thick, clammy with the breath of crowded human beings” (Davis 11). This is how the short story Life in the Iron Mills begins. The author, Rebecca Harding Davis, sets the scene of an environment that is harsh, depressing and dark. What kind of character would live in such a dismal place? One would expect it to be a person of both mental and physical toughness, someone strong and bold, with a very course personality. Perhaps a male character that is a real man’s man.
The Rise of the Beast in the Iron Age ǜ¥Ð ýôÜÒⲅÐ.
It was not long before the world saw an influx of the undead, creating the new world that would become The Iron and Man (although not the Iron Man of today).
There is an obvious difference between the mythological stories and the modern tales about the creatures that took to the earth and its inhabitants. The first was based on myth, usually involving the gods, but was also written under the heading “Man’s Myth” – a title which literally makes a man a man. The Second Myth (The Iron Age) described the creature in the form of a dragon, probably with wings, a body that is capable of walking and swimming, and a large, thick, hairy, humanoid body. The third was a collection of tales relating to the mythologies of the Iron Age, a time when people were looking into becoming a nation, who would be as ruthless as a giant.
These stories were usually about the “real man” but they also included monsters that were part of nature.
These stories also made a man stand out, as in a story about the beast being an evil man.
Mythologies about the beast are often associated with monsters, such as the mythical dragon and the mythotape of Zeus.
Some versions of the stories described the beast’s size, size, size, size… and the strength thereof. Some of the stories contained animals, like the Minotaur or the Unicorn, and the stories told of a dragon, the serpent, and the snake, of which they were all members but one that stood alone.
The legend of the giant man came about when a certain creature, not as yet known, walked around the sun, or the moon, with a hammer and was attacked by the monsters of the Iron Age.
These tales are in the same vein as the stories about the mythologies of the Iron Age, a time when people faced an immense threat, such as the giants of the Iron Age (who were depicted as monstrous beasts with horns sticking out of their heads. When they were smaller, they would stand up, and have babies. They were described as a tall, heavy and long-legged person, and had two legs (or feet). This made them very dangerous predators, and many believe that they were the ancestors of the monster the giants of the Iron Age killed.
A description that was made out of these tales, which is true when people think of dragons, is also very common.
A large dragon. This is commonly seen in tales of dragons and people of The Iron Age… (the Dragon Hunter’s Guide to Dragons, 2012), and in some mythical accounts.
In fact, myths about the dragons also include that of the god the dragon – in the famous The Iron Fist stories, where the sword was said to be one of the greatest weapons and weapons of the Iron Age.
In other words, myths about the dragons didn’t just have big stories about them (such as the story of the snake god, who walked upright before the sun) but also about the creatures that they made.
Dread and Despair, and Love of Evil in The Iron and Man stories
There are stories about love of the monstrous and evil. Such stories include the fairy tale
The Rise of the Beast in the Iron Age ǜ¥Ð ýôÜÒⲅÐ.
It was not long before the world saw an influx of the undead, creating the new world that would become The Iron and Man (although not the Iron Man of today).
There is an obvious difference between the mythological stories and the modern tales about the creatures that took to the earth and its inhabitants. The first was based on myth, usually involving the gods, but was also written under the heading “Man’s Myth” – a title which literally makes a man a man. The Second Myth (The Iron Age) described the creature in the form of a dragon, probably with wings, a body that is capable of walking and swimming, and a large, thick, hairy, humanoid body. The third was a collection of tales relating to the mythologies of the Iron Age, a time when people were looking into becoming a nation, who would be as ruthless as a giant.
These stories were usually about the “real man” but they also included monsters that were part of nature.
These stories also made a man stand out, as in a story about the beast being an evil man.
Mythologies about the beast are often associated with monsters, such as the mythical dragon and the mythotape of Zeus.
Some versions of the stories described the beast’s size, size, size, size… and the strength thereof. Some of the stories contained animals, like the Minotaur or the Unicorn, and the stories told of a dragon, the serpent, and the snake, of which they were all members but one that stood alone.
The legend of the giant man came about when a certain creature, not as yet known, walked around the sun, or the moon, with a hammer and was attacked by the monsters of the Iron Age.
These tales are in the same vein as the stories about the mythologies of the Iron Age, a time when people faced an immense threat, such as the giants of the Iron Age (who were depicted as monstrous beasts with horns sticking out of their heads. When they were smaller, they would stand up, and have babies. They were described as a tall, heavy and long-legged person, and had two legs (or feet). This made them very dangerous predators, and many believe that they were the ancestors of the monster the giants of the Iron Age killed.
A description that was made out of these tales, which is true when people think of dragons, is also very common.
A large dragon. This is commonly seen in tales of dragons and people of The Iron Age… (the Dragon Hunter’s Guide to Dragons, 2012), and in some mythical accounts.
In fact, myths about the dragons also include that of the god the dragon – in the famous The Iron Fist stories, where the sword was said to be one of the greatest weapons and weapons of the Iron Age.
In other words, myths about the dragons didn’t just have big stories about them (such as the story of the snake god, who walked upright before the sun) but also about the creatures that they made.
Dread and Despair, and Love of Evil in The Iron and Man stories
There are stories about love of the monstrous and evil. Such stories include the fairy tale
This sets the stage for the irony of the main character Hugh Wolfe. He is nothing like the previously mentioned manly type character. He is described in less than manly ways, even to the point of being called one of the “girl-men.” It is my assertion that from a very early stage in the short story Hugh seems to be on a quest to find his own maleness. It is this quest to find something in his nature that exemplifies his maleness that drives the entire story. This quest not only exemplifies his lower class hunger to prove he is a man, but it also bespeaks of the lower class need to be accepted in society. A desire of the lower classes to feel a though they are as human as their upper class counterparts.
But, manliness isn’t something that can just be given to him as a result of him being a male human being. He has to earn that distinction. In his book Manhood in the Making, David D. Gilmore asserts that, “In contemporary literary America, too, manhood is often a mythic confabulation, A Holy Grail, to be seized by long and arduous testing” (Gilmore 19). Masculinity is more a right of passage for Hugh that a mere physical construct. He has something to prove and he goes to great lengths to prove it.
The Quest BeginsHugh uses various devices like his work, his art, protecting his female cousin, Deb, and eventually his own death to attempt to reclaim a societal view of his lost masculinity. His quest seems to begin with the first description of Hugh; “Physically, Nature had promised the man but little. He had already lost the strength and instinct vigor of a man, his muscles were thin his nerves weak, his face (a meek, woman’s face) haggard, yellow with consumption. In the mill he was known as one of the girl-men: вЂ?Molly Wolfe’ was his sobriquet. He was never seen in the cockpit, did not own a terrier, drank but seldom; when he did desperately. He fought sometimes, but was always thrashed, pummeled to a jelly” (Davis 24). His physical description is void of any masculine attributes. He is “thin,” “meek,” and has a “woman’s face.”
In her essay, “Representing and Self-Mutilating the Laboring Male,” Caroline S. Miles uses part of this same passage to show her view of the loss of Hugh’s masculine persona. She writes, “This disquieting, unromantic, and feminizing portrait of Wolfe prepares the reader for a text that represents the worker’s identity as necessarily embodied, but that fails to reconcile the laboring body’s materiality with a nineteenth-century American rhetoric that equated white manhood with transcending and replacing the material body” (Miles 89). Miles recognizes that Hugh’s sense of self is tied into his physical appearance; however, she sees this as way of representing the actual physical body with the idea of manhood. I agree with this assertion, but I feel that she overlooks the fact that Hugh is trying overcome his shortcomings by overstating himself through the markers of masculinity created by society.
He is making an overt effort to show his manliness. He drinks “desperately,” trying to prove his male attribute of a hard drinker, but one gets the impression that by doing it in a desperate manner he looses the point he is trying to make. He also tries to show his manhood by fighting, but once again he falls short. He gets beaten up every time. I believe that it is at this point Hugh realizes that he needs to find a more powerful way to prove that his male self does exist.
Art as MasculinityWhen Hugh sees several visitors in the iron mill one day, he seems to feel that this is his opportunity to learn something that could help him in his journey to a better life, but once again he is disappointed. As they are touring the iron mill the group settles down near the forge where Hugh and the other puddlers are working where, “Wolfe, seeing them stop, suddenly roused from his indifferent stupor, and watched them keenly. He knew some of them: the overseer, Clarke,–a son of Kirby, one of the mill-owners,–and a Doctor May, one of the town-physicians. The other two were strangers. Wolfe came closer. He seized eagerly every chance that brought him into contact with this mysterious class that shone down on him perpetually with the glamour of another order of being. What made the difference between them? That was the mystery of his life” (Davis 27).
Hugh is keenly interested in these men because they come from a class that is far above his. Their class has always “shone down” on him. They are like gods to him, representing what it is to be a man. If he watches them long enough, he feels that could learn something that might just help him achieve his goal of manhood trough a shift into the upper class life. In a greater sense they are the key to his becoming the man he wishes to be.
As stated by Harvey C. Mansfield in his book Manliness, “The manly man, as we say, вЂ?makes a statement.’ It’s a statement of significants; this person, this action, should not be overlooked” (Mansfield 82). The statue of the korl woman is Hugh’s statement. He is asserting that he is a creator and that makes him a man.
After discovering the statue of the korl woman and discussing the artistic expression of it with Hugh, one of the visitors, Dr. May, gives Hugh some hope that his artistic talent may be his way of becoming the man that he strives to be. The passage states:
“Do you know, boy, you have it in you to be a great sculptor, a great man?—do you understand?’