By Love Possessed: Analysis of Major Characters
**By Love Possessed: Analysis of Major Characters** offers an in-depth exploration of the complex relationships and moral dilemmas faced by the characters in the narrative. Central to the story is Arthur Winner, Jr., a respected lawyer in the small town of Brocton, whose life is influenced by the loss of his first wife and the challenges presented by his second marriage and family dynamics. Arthur grapples with his responsibilities, particularly concerning an affair and the suicide of a colleague, all while attempting to balance reason with the emotional turmoil surrounding him.
The character of Noah Tuttle, an elderly law partner, reveals the tension between tradition and contemporary moral standards, especially after his unethical mismanagement of trust funds comes to light. Meanwhile, Julius Penrose, a friend and fellow lawyer, confronts his own bitterness and the impact of his physical disability, ultimately choosing to aid in the cover-up of Noah's actions and Arthur's indiscretions. Other notable characters, such as Marjorie Penrose, struggle with personal demons including addiction and emotional instability, which further complicate their interactions.
Helen Detweiler's tragic path underscores the repercussions of familial obligations and personal despair, culminating in her suicide. In contrast, Clarissa Winner, Arthur's second wife, introduces a nurturing presence, while their daughter Ann navigates her own coming-of-age challenges. Each character's journey reflects the overarching themes of love, responsibility, and the struggle against overwhelming emotions, making the work a poignant examination of human relationships and moral complexity.
By Love Possessed: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: James Gould Cozzens
First published: 1957
Genre: Novel
Locale: The New England town of Brocton
Plot: Social realism
Time: A September in the 1950's
Arthur Winner, Jr., a lawyer. He has lived his fifty-four years in Brocton, a small county seat town near the Delaware Valley. He is highly respected in his profession, his church, and his community for his wisdom, capable advice, and willingness to serve. He has been married twice, first at the age of twenty-five to Hope Tuttle, who died in childbirth eight years before the time of the story. Of their children, Warren is dead from a foolish training accident in World War II, Lawrence is a tax lawyer in Washington, and Ann is a teenager living at home under the tutelage of Clarissa, Arthur's second wife, to whom he has been married for four years. He has modeled his life on his deceased father, the “Man of Reason,” yet his life is tempered by love of family, friends, and Brocton's institutions. In his legal work and personal relationships, he contends with the circumstances into which his clients have been placed by their inability to control passions and emotions, an inability referred to as their “possessions” by these forces. At the end of the novel, he struggles with the degree of his responsibility for an adulterous affair with Marjorie Penrose, for Helen Detweiler's suicide, and for consequences of his discovery of Noah Tuttle's illegal acts. Though weary, he resolves that he will continue to pit reason and strength against the tangles of passion and to be content with inevitable compromises.
Noah Tuttle, the dean of the local law profession. He is eighty-two years old, grumpy, and failing in health and memory. He strongly resists the moral standards of the present generation. A distinguished scholar of estate and trust management and for forty years the partner of Arthur Winner, Sr., he is now senior partner of the firm of Tuttle, Winner, and Penrose. Because he has been trusted and respected for his administration of many local trusts, it is shocking when it is revealed at the end of the novel that he has commingled money from many trusts with his own account, in personal and well-intentioned, but illegal, attempts to protect from financial disaster those who had trusted him.
Julius Penrose, the third partner in the law firm. Since joining the firm thirteen years earlier, he has become Arthur's closest friend. Although he is thought by many to be hard and cynical, Arthur finds their long legal and philosophical discussions very congenial. His paralysis from polio ten years earlier has increased his bitterness about the course of his life. Arthur admires Penrose's courage and sensitivity when he finally reveals that he has kept secret his knowledge of Noah's embezzlements and Arthur's affair with Marjorie, his wife. He convinces Arthur to join him in concealing Noah's misappropriation of funds and in attempting gradually, with luck and skill, to maintain control of the unsavory tangles.
Marjorie Penrose, the wife of Julius Penrose, possessed by wild emotions, nymphomania, and alcoholism. Her seduction of Arthur soon after Hope Winner's death has led to a guilty fear of death and a conversion to Roman Catholicism to structure her penitence.
Mrs. Pratt, a college friend of Marjorie. After twenty years, she has returned to assist in Marjorie's conversion. Her religious beliefs and vicarious interest in the sexual activities of others are distasteful to Arthur, who must suffer the revelation that she knows of his affair with Marjorie.
Helen Detweiler, a secretary to the law firm. After the accidental death of her parents, she devoted herself to rearing her younger brother and to serving Noah and Arthur. Now twenty-nine years old, she is fearful of unpleasantness and uncertainty. When her brother Ralph demonstrates his inca-pacity to deal with his life, she commits suicide by poison.
Ralph Detweiler, Helen's brother. At the age of eighteen, he is weak, immature, and spoiled by his sister. He has impregnated one girl, Joan Moore, and is accused of raping another, Veronica Kovacs. Arthur manages his defense and arranges bail. Ralph steals money from one of Helen's boarders and flees.
Clarissa Winner, Arthur's second wife. Formerly the beautiful, athletic director of a summer camp for Brocton girls and now in her mid-thirties, she has taken over the role of mentor to Ann Winner and reintroduced supportive love in Arthur's life.
Ann Winner, Arthur's fifteen-year-old daughter. Her growing sexual and social maturity frequently enters her father's consciousness.
Dr. Whitmore Trowbridge, the new rector of Christ Church. He seeks counsel from Arthur, a vestryman, on many matters, including removing the control of the Orcutt trust (which supports the church) from Noah to a Diocesan Investment Trust.