Thursday, March 25, 2010
Miss Channing and Henry
There were times in the story that I found it remarkable how noble was Henry's admiration for Miss Channing, that he recognized her beauty but could better judge her as a teacher, mentor, friend. At times I thought Miss Channing and Mr. Reed were more like Henry's substitute parents. And yet Henry was nearly ready for college and Miss Channing quite young herself, that it seemed likely they only had six or seven years of an age difference. Was it odd to you at all that he didn't see her through a more sexual perspective, or could that have been rooted as deep as his other inhibitions, something he would be too polite to imply?
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Yes, it was odd to me, especially because kids that age are so prone to crushes on teachers. I couldn't figure out whether he was in love with her but just didn't DARE to think of it in those terms (I actually lean that way) or whether he was in fact just enamored of the romance between the two adults. It's hard to imagine that his only deep emotional investment was in the happiness of two other people.
Maybe the fact that the beautiful Miss Channing could fall in love with the craggy, crippled Mr. Reed fired his imagination for what the world of love had in store for him. Who knows? If Mr. Reed had been athletic and gorgeous and nicknamed Skip, maybe Henry's response would have been jealousy and resentment, not "collaboration."
I wondered the same thing. Even when his father asked him if he thought he was in love with Miss Channing, Henry didn't express his feelings either way. I wondered if his drawing the portrait of her as a seductress didn't betray his hidden feelings somewhat.
I like your assessment, kc, about how Mr. Reed changed things. His being crippled and old before his time made it seem like more of a romantic "great love" than if they were just two hot-blooded, good-looking young people. Living vicariously through them was enough for Henry that he didn't need to feel jealous.
Oh yeah, I had forgotten that his father asked him point blank. I'm glad you mentioned that, because there were a few allusions to the fact that maybe Henry's father had his own crush on Miss Channing and was able, after a small struggle that Henry observed, to divert his inappropriate feelings into the "proper" channels of self-denial and acceptance. He had chosen a woman to marry and had resigned himself to his fate, no matter how cold, bitter and emotionally (and presumably physically) unsatisfying.
"If Mr. Reed had been athletic and gorgeous and nicknamed Skip, maybe Henry's response would have been jealousy and resentment, not 'collaboration.'"
Oh, how perfect. If Mr. Reed's name was Skip, yeah, we would have a totally different story!
(Sorry, I think I have been calling him Leed. I never have the book by me when I log on.)
I also think it's possible, as I had mentioned, that they had become substitute parents for Henry, with Sarah rounding out the family. And between the two teachers, they had the answers for the kind of life Henry wanted. So the eventual tragedy would be pretty hard for a kid to process if the gateways to freedom seemed to fall upon themselves. Anyway, like Erin said about living vicariously through them, maybe the two became sort of a package unit for Henry to idolize, and so that jealousy about Miss Channing wouldn't have materialized.
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