Father Melancholy's Daughter by Gail Godwin

First published: 1991

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Domestic realism

Time of work: 1972-1988

Locale: Romulus, Virginia, and Charlottesville, North Carolina

Principal Characters:

• Margaret Gower, the protagonist and narrator
• Walter Gower, Margaret’s father, the rector of St. Cuthbert’s church, who suffers from frequent and severe depressions
• Ruth Gower, Margaret’s mother, who is driven away by the overpowering neediness of her husband
• Madelyn Farley, a set designer and Ruth’s old friend
• Old Farley, a famous landscape painter, Madelyn’s father
• Adrian Bonner, the pastoral counselor at the larger Episcopal church in Romulus

Form and Content

Father Melancholy’s Daughter tells the story of one young woman’s search for her own best self. Margaret Gower defines herself—and is defined by others—primarily in relation to her father. Walter Gower is an Episcopal priest who is subject to serious bouts of depression, and over the sixteen years covered by the novel, he comes to rely more and more on his daughter for his physical and emotional well-being. Unlike her mother, Ruth, who abandons her family, Margaret is never able to escape the demands of her father’s neediness—until his sudden death. At this point, near the end of the novel, she is forced to cast about for her own direction in life.

The story is narrated by Margaret herself, who begins by recounting the events of the day that her mother left home. The story is told with careful attention to details: the shape of the buttons on the dress that Margaret wore as Ruth walled her to the school bus, the angle of sunlight on Ruth’s face at breakfast, the name of the book that Margaret and Walter were reading together. For Margaret and Walter, the small details of a life are instructive. The progression of the novel is not linear: Often Margaret will stop her story and back up to explain a key point, share old letters, or repeat conversations.

While Margaret is at school that day, Ruth decides suddenly to drive to New York with Madelyn Farley, an old friend. Madelyn is a theatrical set designer, unmarried and independent, dynamic and brusque. Ruth has some undeveloped talent as an artist herself, but she devotes herself to caring for her depressed husband and small child. To Ruth, Madelyn’s life seems exciting and fulfilling, so she decides to go with Madelyn for a short “vacation.” She never returns. Several months after she leaves, she is killed in a car accident in England, where she and Madelyn had taken a cottage.

For sixteen years, Walter and Margaret ponder every detail that they can remember about Ruth, trying to understand why she left and to determine whether she would have returned. Margaret’s yearning for her mother and her attempts to make sense of life are clearly depicted; her internal life is as sharply drawn as external events. Being contemplative, however, is not the same as being wise. Walter and Margaret attribute Ruth’s leaving to various causes, but never discuss the most obvious reason for the betrayal: Ruth was simply bored.

Margaret grows up with no close relationships except with her father. There is a best friend and two older women advisers, but they are kept at a great distance. In college, Margaret takes a lover, but he does not really interest her; the men with whom she enjoys talking are closer to her father’s age. She is her father’s friend, caretaker, laundress, psychologist, and spiritual adviser, and she simply does not know how to deal emotionally with other people.

Intellectually, however, she is always on solid ground. Like Walter, Margaret intellectualizes everything—even her spirituality. Much of the novel consists of conversations between Margaret, Walter, and various friends as they reflect on their roles in the church, in the community, and as children of God.

When Margaret is in her early twenties, Walter suddenly dies. Without the organizing force in her life, she is forced to establish an independent identity. She forms an acquaintance with Madelyn Farley and asks the questions that she has always wanted to ask. Able at last to put aside the past, Margaret is now ready to begin building a future.

Context

Like Godwin’s seven previous novels, Father Melancholy’s Daughter explores a woman’s search for an independent identity. This is not to say that Godwin’s work is repetitive; each of the novels examines a different facet of the complex problems human beings face in working out their best self. I Father Melancholy’s Daughter, the protagonist is struggling primarily with her role as the child of her parents: What is her duty to them, and how can she fulfill it without losing herself?

Godwin’s protagonists are women, and even the minor supporting characters are drawn as real, individual, people. Margaret Gower does not stand for a “typical” young woman; she is a particular person with her own history and set of circumstances. Some of those circumstances may be unique to women. Yet, unlike the motherless girls in Margaret’s literary “collection,” including Cinderella, Snow White, and the title character of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847), Margaret Gower has many more options than marriage. In fact, the kind of life work she settles on at the end is one that Jane Eyre could never have considered—the ministry.

Growing up with only a father—and one who always treats her as his equal, or even his superior—Margaret avoids falling into some of the traps that imprisoned her mother. Margaret develops a keen mind, and even as a child she can hold her own in philosophical discussions with her father and his male friends. She is also a charming and gracious hostess and a nurturing friend. She yearns for her mother and can be led too easily by older men with good intentions, but in her one sexual relationship she is not desperate, not vulnerable. Godwin would never say that Margaret displays “feminine” and “masculine” qualities. Instead, she demonstrates that a woman of thought and character at the end of the twentieth century could, if she wished, create a satisfying life by drawing on all of her resources.

Although Godwin’s seekers tend to be women, she does not hold men responsible for women’s difficulty in establishing independence. Many contemporary feminists hold organized religion highly accountable for women’s oppression; Margaret Gower finds the best expression of her spiritual and nurturing side in studying for the priesthood. The world is changing, Godwin says, and a woman today has more with which to struggle—but more good choices awaiting her as well.

Sources for Further Study

Chicago Tribune. March 19, 1991, XIV, p. 1.

Godwin, Gail. “A Dialogue with Gail Godwin.” Interview by Lihong Xie. Mississippi Quarterly 46 (Spring, 1993): 167-184. In this interview, conducted after Father Melancholy’s Daughter was written, Godwin describes her ideas about writing “major-key” and “minor-key” novels, both types about women trying to find their own identities. She reveals that all of her novels have dealt with the spiritual aspects of the central characters; if Father Melancholy’s Daughter is unusual in this regard, it is because she has used a formal religious setting to explore that spirituality.

Hill, Jane. Gail Godwin. New York: Twayne, 1992. The first full-length critical study of Gail Godwin’s work, this book examines the autobiographical elements in the novels, the theme of the young woman looking for an independent life, and the importance of the South. Father Melancholy’s Daughter was unfinished as Hill’s book went to press; it is mentioned only briefly. Includes a chronology, a bibliography, and an index.

The Hudson Review. XLIV, Autumn, 1991, p. 500.

Library Journal. CXVl, February 1, 1991, p. 103.

Los Angeles Times Book Review. March 3, 1991, p. 2.

Mickelson, Anne Z. Reaching Out: Sensitivity and Order in Recent American Fiction by Women. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1979. This book tries to determine whether a “new woman” has emerged in the fiction of American women writers since the rise of the modern women’s liberation movement. The chapter on Godwin proposes a major theme: the struggle to be independent while maintaining union with others. Although Father Melancholy’s Daughter was written more than a decade after this study, Margaret Gower’s story is an expression of the same struggle.

The New York Times Book Review. XCVI, March 3, 1991, p. 7.

Southern Living. XXVI, May, 1991, p. 83.

Sternburg, Janet, ed. The Writer on Her Work. 2 vols. New York: W. W. Norton, 1980-1991. Godwin’s chapter, “Becoming a Writer,” tells the story of her decision, at the age of five, to follow in the footsteps of her mother, a professional writer of stories. Godwin’s own life resembles a novel, with divorce (her mother’s and her own), suicide, romance, and the struggles of a young writer to be published.

Time. CXXXVII, March 25, 1991, p. 70.

The Times Literary Supplement. May 24, 1991, p. 21.

The Times-Picayune. April 7, 1991, p. E6.

The Washington Post Book World. XXI, March 17, 1991, p. 4.

Wimsatt, Mary Ann. “Gail Godwin’s Evolving Heroine: The Search for Self.” Mississippi Quarterly 42 (Winter, 1988): 27-45. Wimsatt describes the typical Godwin heroine: a woman struggling (often in the South in the late twentieth century) for self-determination in spite of the family and romantic ties that hold her back. Although this study was done a few years before Father Melancholy’s Daughter appeared, readers will find insight into the character of Margaret Gower.