T.S. Arthur, “Confessions of a Platonic Lover” (1838).” Ed

T.S. ARTHUR, “CONFESSIONS OF A PLATONIC LOVER” ( 1 8 3 8 ). DAVID SANDERS, THOREAU, EMERSON, AND THEIR CIRCLE, THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON, SPRING 2006. Introduction before Arthur wrote The Hand but Not the the same time (189). She refers to the “af- Heart, he was also dealing with the topic of fectionate expansions of [her] heart” and T.S. Arthur rose from educational adversity marriage and fidelity in his “Confessions of describes a kind of prophetic sense of her and humble means to become one of the lit- a Platonic Lover.” “destiny” which shall overcome the bound- erary stars of the nineteenth century. Born “Confessions” was published in a volume aries of “the permanent marriage” (189). on June 6, 1809 in Orange County, New that was a collaboration between members Much like James to Miss R., Emerson York, he had an affliction which endan- of “The Seven Stars” who met during the found himself unusually drawn to Marga- gered his eyesight (Miller vii). After moving early 1830s in a tavern (Miller ix). The story ret Fuller as an intellectual equal (Emerson to Baltimore at age eight and encountering appears in The Baltimore Book: a Christmas 549). According to scholar John Bard Mc- further educational hurdles, Arthur tried and New-Year’s present (1838). The book Nulty, Emerson saw himself as “a hermit,” his hand at various trades, including tailor- was edited by W.H. Carpenter and T.S. Ar- avoiding sentimental human relationships ing and banking (Miller viii). Arthur saw to thur, then members of a literary circle that (390). When Fuller accused him in letters his own self-education and used a common- included Poe (Johnson). Poe contributed of “frostiness toward his friends,” Emerson sense approach to make his own way in the the story “Siope – A Fable.” The book pres- sought to distance himself from her (391). field of literature (Johnson, French 56). He ents Baltimore literary talent in a fashion When describing “her idea of Platonic af- was married to Eliza Alden in 1836. He be- similar to The Boston Book and The Phila- fection,” Miss R. goes on to state that it can came friends with Edgar Allen Poe during delphia Book, published around the same occur even if “the sexes be the same” (112-13). the 1830s, but their relationship soured as time (E.A. Poe Society). The Baltimore This ideal aspect of platonic love can be seen Arthur became financially successful and Book represented some of Arthur’s early in Margaret Fuller’s “Autobiographical Ro- Poe declined into poverty. work, both as an editor and writer. mance.” Fuller explains that her relationship Arthur balanced his writing career with In the opening paragraph of “Confes- with Ellen Kilshaw, which featured regular efforts on behalf of various social causes of sions of a Platonic Lover,” the narrator conversation on art, literature, and music, his day, including temperance and femi- warns that this story intends to “startle” was superior to “passionate desire” (Fuller nism (Johnson). He was a member of the the reader “from an infatuation” that will 159). As Miss R. describes it in Arthur’s story, Baltimore Temperance Society in 1827 ruin their lives (Arthur 97). This narrator no love is “purer or more holy” (113). (Miller viii). He later became an early sup- remains unidentified; he is not the same Kilshaw is described as “the first angel” porter of the Washingtonians, a grass-roots as James, the confessor in “The Narrative” of Fuller’s life (Fuller 157). Fuller presents temperance organization. In 1854, he pub- (97). James tell the story of a devoted hus- platonic love as acceptable for children, fur- lished the book Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, band who is endangered by his growing ther illustrating the idea that she regarded and What I Saw There, a fictional eye-wit- intellectual admiration and affection for platonic love as a natural stage in the de- ness account of various tragedies resulting another woman. His feelings are initially velopment of human love relationships. from alcoholism. Arthur’s “Confessions portrayed as a platonic love relationship, The platonic lover as an angel represents a of a Platonic Lover” (1838) can be seen as but by the end of the story these feelings kind of innocence and purity. In the earlier a forerunner to his successful temperance give way to passion which has terrible con- part of “Confessions,” James describes his novel, pointing out the dangers of platon- sequences (119). wife as having the “perfections of an angel” ic relationships in the same way that Ten The concept of the platonic lover in “Con- and truly being “an angel” (102). When he Nights in a Bar-Room highlights the woes of fessions” is one which may seems ideal, but gives in to desire for the other woman, she drinking. It is this moral aspect of Arthur’s which Arthur reveals as inevitably destruc- has the “face of an angel” (119). His platonic writing that has caused many modern crit- tive. Miss R. describes “Platonic affection” love also appears to ideal and innocent— ics to have “dismissed” him “as a temper- as that which “springs up in superior minds” until it is exposed by the brother of Miss R. ance tractarian” (French 56). (113). She goes on to insist that it is affec- As Arthur carefully puts it, the face of Miss While Arthur, who died in 1885, is re- tion which does not threaten the relation- R. only “seem[s] to glow” with an angelic membered for Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, ship between the husband and wife, or their light (119). his literary career went well beyond that “connubial prerogative” (113). The narrator, Another useful comparison for Arthur’s novel. He published “a total of 150 novels James, claims he “was cursed with moral “Confessions of a Platonic Lover” is the and short-story collections” (Johnson). He blindness” regarding Miss R. (113). short-story “Eleonora” (1841/1850) by his worked extensively as an editor in Balti- “Confessions” anticipates a letter sent by Baltimore peer, Edgar Allen Poe. The nar- more on publications such as the Baltimore Ralph Waldo Emerson to Margaret Fuller in rator in “Eleonora” experiences love in Athenaeum and Young Men’s Paper, the October of 1840. They appear to have expe- two stages, both as part of childhood and Baltimore Literary Monument, the Balti- rienced a “platonic friendship” not unlike early youth (Benton 295). The platonic love more Saturday Visitor, and the Baltimore what Arthur describes in his story. Emerson which is felt for Eleonora occurs during his Merchant (Johnson). Arthur would go on indicates that he “could wish [the letter] un- childhood and gives way to marriage to to publish his own literary magazine. He written” (Emerson 549). He expresses his Eremengarde as the narrator grows up (Poe would write other temperance narratives, joy in being able to speak to Fuller in intel- “Eleonora”). In presenting this model of such as Danger; or, Wounded in the House ligent conversations and “exchange reason- platonic love, Poe seems to provide a more of a Friend (1875). Arthur addressed other able words” (549). In her own letters, Fuller acceptable alternative to the one seen in social issues in his writing, such as divorce indicated that she was “intoxicated with “Confessions.” in The Hand but Not the Heart; or, The Life- [Emerson’s] mind” (Fuller 189). She muses The version of the platonic lover in Ar- Trials of Jessie Loring (1858). Thirty years they have “gone so far” and “so little” at thur’s story is the reverse of the “Eleonora.” 2 MATERIALS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE, No. 12. In Arthur’s “Confessions,” James experi- Had such been the case, conscience would became enthusiastic in the pursuit of any ences the more mature version of love first, have now been seared, and my hardened thing, and never could be satisfied short of with Caroline, before he attempts to be the soul would look back with something of possession. Had my kind parents studied platonic lover of Miss R. after he has already exultation. But passion and a strange delu- my disposition as parents always should married. sion led me on—not into actual crime, but study the disposition of a child, they might As these few fictional and non-fictional into derelictions from the right and true af- have trained my mind to guard against this accounts suggest, the antebellum literary fection, which broke the heart of a dear one error, and led me to more sober and mat- scene records interest and anxieties in the who had bound herself to me in holy bond- ter-of-fact conclusions. This they could notion of “platonic love.” Ralph Waldo age, and who was half forgotten until her not have done by opposition to my wishes, Emerson is aloof and defensive in letters to bruised and humbled spirit was crushed— which was often attempted, for this course Margaret Fuller that hint at “intimate de- until the flower withered and dropped from but inflames imagination; yet, it might have tails” (McNulty 394). He remarks on being its o’erladen stem. been done by a proper training of the mind, unable to express these kinds of feelings to I have thought that, perchance, the un- and an insensible but certain withdrawl, as “‘those who we love’” (394) in his essay on varnished story of my one great error might far as possible, of all causes of an exciting “Friendship.” Fuller and Poe defend pla- be a warning to some just giving themselves tendency. Books, modern books, too many tonic love as a kind of child’s play which up to the same delusion; and for such rea- of them but offsprings of diseased and should be cast aside for the adult institution sons have I re-strung, for a moment, my en- depraved imaginations, were laid before of marriage.

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