The Eighth Day: Analysis of Major Characters
"The Eighth Day: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the intricate lives of key figures within the narrative, centered around John Barrington Ashley, a mining engineer wrongfully accused of murder. Known for his Midwestern normalcy, Ashley embodies humanitarian ideals and the virtues of Protestantism, overcoming personal and familial hardships while rebuilding his life in Chile as James Tolland. His wife Beata, of German descent, struggles with her aloofness and the societal expectations placed upon her, while their eldest daughter, Lily, navigates her own vulnerabilities and aspirations as a concert singer.
The narrative also features Roger, their son, who becomes a determined journalist fighting against injustice, and Sophia, who supports her family with resourcefulness and dedication. Constance, the youngest daughter, stands out as a principled suffragette who defies social conventions. The story’s tension escalates with characters such as Breckenridge Lansing, the incompetent mine manager whose death triggers Ashley's wrongful conviction, and his family, including his Creole wife Eustacia and their daughters, each grappling with their own struggles. Through these characters, the text explores themes of morality, resilience, and societal roles, inviting readers to reflect on the complexities of their intertwined lives.
The Eighth Day: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Thornton Wilder
First published: 1967
Genre: Novel
Locale: Chicago and Coaltown, Illinois; Hoboken, New Jersey; and Chile
Plot: Family
Time: 1880–1905
John Barrington Ashley, later James Tolland, a mining engineer falsely convicted of murder in Coaltown, Illinois, who escapes to Chile. He is “neither dark nor light, tall nor short, fat nor thin, bright nor dull”; that is, he is a typical Midwesterner. He is a creative tinkerer, a hard worker, and an active humanitarian of great energy of mind and body who deplores sloth and despair. Although he is areligious, he has faith and aids others in their religious pursuits and beliefs. He is the personification of charity, and he embodies the best virtues of Protestantism—responsibility, industry, frugality, love, dedication, and sacrifice. His constructive practicality, idealism, and moral consciousness set him apart from the ordinary, though paradoxically he is presented as a typical American of his time. Like Job, he overcomes humiliation, suffering, and the afflictions of his flesh and family, though he has to resume his life in Chile, where he is known as James Tolland, a Canadian engineer.
Beata Ashley, John's wife, a woman of German descent from a Hoboken, New Jersey, family. She is somewhat aloof, serene, and unable to become intimate with neighbors, the result of having been brought up as “royalty.” She is cultured (she plays the piano competently) and conventional, though she eloped with John and had four children in nineteen years without having been married. Her efforts at respectability preclude spontaneity and a practical solution to keeping her family without her husband's income.
Lily Ashley, their eldest daughter, beautiful, assured, elegant, and wise in the ways of the world. She reads wisely and well. She does housework by day and devotes evenings to the study of music, eventually becoming a famous concert singer. Her emotional vulnerability is suggested by her bohemianism in eloping with a boarder, Malcolm Ladislas, who is a salesman and drummer. She is practical, however, and supports herself and her son by singing in churches and on social occasions. She is without vanity, has a wry wit, and is fearless, self-confident, and admirable.
Roger Ashley, John and Beata's son, who is almost eighteen years old at the time of the trial. He leaves for Chicago, where he becomes a prominent young journalist known by his nom de plume, Trent Frazier. He has little sense of humor. He is a man of faith, indomitable in his efforts to eradicate injustice and suffering. He reads constantly and is not too proud to take menial jobs. He is not a paragon of virtue: He has affairs with girls of many races and nationalities before, at the age of twenty-four, marrying Félicité Lan-sing.
Sophia Ashley, John and Beata's second daughter and her mother's principal support. Like her siblings, she has big ears and feet. She is resourceful (she prevails on her mother to turn their home into a boardinghouse), faithful, dedicated to self-improvement, and committed to the relief of others in need.
Constance Ashley, the youngest daughter, who is appropriately named: She is stalwart in her observance of self-imposed behavioral rules, such as speaking only French on Thursday evenings. She is tranquil in disregarding social conventions regarding rank, wealth, status, class, or color. She becomes an internationally famous suffragette, marries a Japanese man, and is witty, though humorless.
Breckenridge (Breck) Lansing, the incompetent manager of the Coaltown mines, whose death erroneously is charged to John Ashley, his friend and coworker. He is a genial, hand-shaking, big, blond, gregarious socialite from a Baptist family in Iowa and had failed in attempts at a career in the Army and in law, medicine, and the church. He became an agent in St. Kitts (West Indies) for his father's patent-medicine and cosmetics business, and he met his wife on the island. He is as incompetent as a father as he is as a business administrator, and he belittles his son George's athletic abilities and his cultural aspirations. He is lacking in understanding of his wife and children, delights in being prominent, and has an inordinate pride in his patriotism, religiosity, and social importance.
Eustacia Sims Lansing, Breck's Creole wife from St. Kitts. Coaltown gossip links her to John Ashley as lovers, prejudicing the trial jury against him. She is plump, dark, voluble (her voice is like a parrot's), and a mimic. She is a miserable woman.
Félicité Lansing, their older daughter, who tells Roger that her brother killed their father to stop him from killing John Ashley and to protect his mother. She aspired to be a nun and kept a diary in Latin. She dresses with taste and distinction. She loves her brother and mother passionately, but she is laughterless and has a sense of deep suffering. She has left behind a stormy childhood and has become a woman of taste and distinction.
Anne Lansing, Breck and Eustacia's younger daughter, who has the white complexion of her father rather than her mother's Creole color. As a child, she was given to tantrums and rudeness, but she has become faithful, charitable, and hopeful.
Mrs. Wickersham, an English widow and proprietor of the Fonda, a hotel where John Ashley lives. When he is recognized by a guest, she helps him to escape by faking his funeral. She is authoritarian, “the newspaper of the Andes,” and the chief local humanitarian, running a hospital, a school, and an orphanage. A good judge of character, she senses Ashley's innocence.