Firstborn: Analysis of Major Characters
"Firstborn: Analysis of Major Characters" explores the intricate dynamics between the main characters following the birth and tragic death of their firstborn son, Nathaniel. The narrative centers on Charles, a radio advertising executive, whose journey reflects a struggle with grief and emotional vulnerability. He recalls the traumatic experience of his son’s birth and subsequent death, illustrating his feelings of powerlessness and the challenges of expressing his emotions. Katherine, his wife, emerges as a more intuitive and expressive character whose experience of childbirth profoundly transforms her relationship with both Charles and their deceased son. Although initially uncommitted to their marriage, the loss of Nathaniel acts as a catalyst, fostering a deeper connection between her and Charles, even as she grapples with feelings of betrayal over his decisions surrounding their son’s remains. The character of Dr. Harner, the obstetrician, contrasts sharply with the parents, depicted as insensitive and detached, further highlighting the emotional turmoil of the couple. Overall, this analysis offers a poignant exploration of parental grief, love, and the complexity of marital bonds in the face of loss, inviting readers to reflect on the profound impact of absence in relationships.
Firstborn: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Larry Woiwode
First published: 1982
Genre: Short story
Locale: New York City
Plot: Love
Time: The early to mid-1960's
Charles, Katherine's husband, a radio advertising executive and father. He recalls the birth and immediate death of his firstborn son, Nathaniel, from the perspective of several years later. Through his recollections, he comes to reconcile the death, to release the years of grief, and to place his own role and the role of his son within the birth-death experience. Charles is a man of feeling but not of fortitude and conviction. When a young internist describes how some men take to their own beds when their wives become pregnant, Charles and Katherine privately assent to the behavior. During the birth of Nathaniel, Charles's powerlessness makes him defer-ential, and he is ordered out of the delivery room, despite his promise to Katherine that he will not leave her. He has difficulty articulating his sentiments, and, following his son's death, he succumbs to the high-pressured recommendations of Dr. Harner, who urges him to sign the child over for hospital research before seeing Katherine. The death settles in Charles as an ache that takes years to soothe. Finally, after the birth of four healthy children, he fully accepts his son's death and feels free of his memories and his burden as he begs God's forgiveness. Through a freshly acquired awareness of Nathaniel's power to secure his parents' marriage, Charles experiences his own rebirth.
Katherine, Charles's wife and a mother. Her pregnancy and experience of childbirth metaphorically produce a marriage rather than a child. Whereas prior to the pregnancy, she had an affair and was uncommitted to Charles, her birth experience joins her with the child and then with her husband. She is more intuitive and expressive than Charles. When she tries to convey to him the lesson of the dead child, that “time and events can never destroy actual love,” she quickly recognizes that whereas she understands now, he will do so only later. Although the loss of the child depresses her, unlike Charles she immediately senses the significance of Nathaniel's arrival and his capacity to unite them. Although Katherine feels betrayed by Charles because he signed over the child's body without consulting her, Nathaniel's death becomes the seed of a new commitment in their marriage.
Nathaniel, the firstborn son of Charles and Katherine. Although he is never seen by either of his parents, his presence nevertheless floods their lives, and he functions as the catalyst in reuniting them. His entry in the story parallels a scene in the excerpt from Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace that Charles reads to Katherine as she labors in his birth.
Dr. Harner, Katherine's obstetrician. Young, heavy, and balding, he is an insensitive and pragmatic physician who provides no emotional support to his patient and her husband. In fact, he avoids personal interaction by safely deferring to his medical assessments, and he responds to patient questions either humorously or cavalierly.