Passing Of Grandison Analysis

In America, there is a hunger to be cast as a hero, especially to those whom a person loves and admires. In both William Dean Howell’s “Editha” and Charles W. Chesnutt’s “Passing of Grandison”, the authors show the absurdity of this obsession with heroism near the turn of the 19th century. Through the use of character foils, Howell and Chesnutt use their secondary characters to show the severe consequences of heroic measures for the sake of impressing another, which is especially important “Passing of Grandison” as Chesnutt reveals that true heroism comes from fighting for the freedom of yourself and others.
Howell illustrates Editha as a naive young woman. Editha lacks her own opinions and rather gathers them from the biased yellow journalism of the late 1800s. Editha, blind to the realities of war, focuses only on the romantic notions of having a man fight for what she says is “in the order of Providence” (372). Editha faces not only the reality of her fiance, George’s death but breaking the news to his mother. George’s mother, Mrs. Gearson, serves as a foil to Editha. Although she is described as weak and feeble in body, “not well enough to write herself,” (378) she finds the strength to criticize Editha’s naivety when she arrives. Her conviction about the realities of war are so strong that she manages to “[lift]
Without Mrs. Gearson, the reader is still able to understand the naivety of Editha’s attitude. Her frivolty of her fiance’s life is clear as she continues with her high ideals, disregarding Mrs. Gearson’s reprimand entirely. Dick Owens provides a lense through which to see inequality. While Dick sees himself as entitled to the comfortable life he leads, Grandison uses each opportunity given to him to reach towards freedom. Grandison seems to be playing a game of chess as he sacrifices in order to later thrive and achieve his goal. This would be impossible without the foil of Dick