The Monster by Stephen Crane
"The Monster" by Stephen Crane is a poignant narrative centered on Henry Johnson, a black carriage hand who saves the son of a respected small-town doctor, Dr. Trescott, from a devastating fire. In the course of the rescue, Henry suffers severe burns, resulting in a grotesque transformation that leaves him with an almost unrecognizable face, save for a single "winking eye." As Henry recovers, he becomes a source of fear and stigma for the townspeople, who view him as a "monster." Despite Dr. Trescott's moral obligation to care for Henry out of gratitude, this decision leads to personal and professional repercussions for the doctor and his family, including a decline in his medical practice and social standing.
The narrative explores themes of obligation, societal fear of the unknown, and the complexities of human relationships in the face of tragedy and transformation. Dr. Trescott’s internal struggle is highlighted as he grapples with the consequences of his actions and the isolation that stems from his compassion towards Henry. Ultimately, "The Monster" serves as a reflection on the nature of humanity and the societal tendency to ostracize those who are different, prompting readers to consider the moral implications of their perceptions and judgments.
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The Monster by Stephen Crane
First published: 1898
Type of plot: Realism
Time of work: The early twentieth century
Locale: A small town in New York
Principal Characters:
Dr. Ned Trescott , a respected doctor in a small townGrace Trescott , his wifeJimmie Trescott , their sonHenry Johnson , the Trescotts'carriage hand
The Story
In its barest details, Stephen Crane's "The Monster" is the story of a black carriage hand who saves the young son of his employer, a respected small-town doctor, from certain death in a fire that destroys the doctor's home. In the process of the rescue, the black man, Henry Johnson, is horribly burned. When he recovers under the doctor's healing hands, besides apparently losing his mental capacity, Henry loses his face as well; in fact, the only recognizable feature in his scarred countenance is a single "winking eye."
Because of his debt to Henry, Dr. Trescott insists on arranging for the injured man to be cared for by a black family. This family, however, as well as everyone else in the town, is terrified by Henry's monstrous appearance. Eventually, Henry runs away from his caretakers and frightens a number of people whom he encounters in town before he is caught and returned to Dr. Trescott. Henry lives relatively undisturbed with the Trescotts, but his presence in their household has repercussions for the doctor, his wife, and his son. The boy, Jimmie, gains notoriety among his peers through the strange figure of Henry that inhabits his yard. Dr. Trescott, however, steadily loses business so that his practice and status in the community noticeably decline, and Mrs. Trescott is subjected to the scorn of her lady friends, who refuse her customary invitation to tea on Wednesday afternoon.
Although Henry, via his radical change in appearance from a dapper young man sporting lavender pants to a grotesque figure, is central to Crane's story, its main action involves the change in relations among various figures in the town—a change wrought by Henry's metamorphosis. Of primary importance is the alteration in Dr. Trescott's relation to the town. Dr. Trescott appears initially as a benevolent judge in matters of human conduct. When, in the story's opening episode, little Jimmie breaks a peony in the family garden while pretending to be a locomotive, the doctor renders a gentle but just punishment: "Well, Jimmie," he says, "I guess you had better not play train any more today." Both Jimmie and Henry, to whom Jimmie retires when he suffers an "eclipse" from his father's favor, perceive Dr. Trescott as "the moon"—a beacon of right behavior, a moral eminence. Trescott, moreover, enjoys similar admiration within the town where he is, in the beginning, "the leading doctor." The fire and disfiguring of Henry Johnson, however, change this.
Feeling duty-bound to employ his skill as a physician to heal the man who saved his son, Trescott becomes a kind of Dr. Frankenstein. An old friend, Judge Hagenthorpe, advises him against intervening in the natural course of events:
He is purely your creation. Nature has evidently given up on him. He is dead. You are restoring him to life. You are making him, and he will be a monster, and with no mind.
The doctor, however, sees only that Henry "saved my boy." His sense of moral obligation springs from this immediately self-evident and incontrovertible fact; he acts morally, without fear of Henry's image or concern for the town's fears or opinions. For everyone else, though, Henry is a monster and a devil. His escape, made ironic by his apparent lack of self-consciousness—his seeming ignorance of or innocent disregard for the way he looks to others—utterly (and, from the narrator's perspective, humorously) disrupts the town's secure complacency. Subsequently, the doctor and his wife bear the burden of Henry's image. The menfolk of the town approach Dr. Trescott, asking him to send Henry away; it is not they who really want this, they say, but the women. Moreover, they do not want to see the doctor further ruined by Henry's presence; he has already slipped from being the town's leading doctor "to about the last one." Dr. Trescott, however, holds resolutely to his sense of the good. He refuses to send Henry away.
In the story's final episode, Dr. Trescott experiences in full measure the moral isolation of the monster. Arriving home on an autumn day, he finds Jimmie alone indoors absorbed in a book. His wife, half-hidden in her drawing room, cries softly. Going to her, Trescott notices the serving table set with dishes and uncut cakes. The gentle but godlike authority with which he assuaged Jimmie's guilt in the story's opening episode gives way in this scene to the muted solace he offers his wife. Completely immersed in the moral dilemma occasioned by his creation of "the monster," Dr. Trescott holds Grace's head on his shoulder and tries to count the unused teacups—"there were fifteen of them."
Bibliography
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