is almost meaningless upon hearing Laura say “It did look like the treasure . . .” (ibid.). Many characters—especially those who shy away from parties out of “divorce, drink, nervous disorders, and adversity” (Cheever 139)—have believed in this statement and kept pushing themselves forward. Ralph also finds that "the shine of the gold" he has been pursuing for ten years or so "seem[s] to him to be all around [Laura’s] arms" (ibid.) Ralph is the only
important character who is able to face the truth and himself in the four short stories. He thus ends the pain and suffering caused by desire—or in Emerson’s word, “want” (39).
In this story, Cheever represents the solution with a whim of epiphany. It is not elaborated how Ralph finally decides to get out of the repetition of investments that other bourgeois characters carry on in this story. Cheever himself was not satisfied with “The Pot of Gold”’s “sentimental resolution” despite earning the “O. Henry Award Prize Stories and Best American Short Stories” (Bailey 164). This thesis argues that Cheever still persists on experimenting the solution to be out of the control of the middle class society in his journals and finds out that acceptance is the key. He then elaborates his understanding of spiritual freedom from his daily life to forge “Oh What a Paradise It Seems,” his last work, which is about helping others obtain spiritual freedom. Further discussion of these will be expounded in Chapter Two and Three.
II. “The Hartleys”
“The Hartleys” describes a skiing vacation gone wrong. It all starts with Mr. and Mrs.
Hartley and their daughter Anne’s going to Pemaquoddy Inn for a vacation in the snow.
While the tempo appears casual and the atmosphere light, as in the beginnings of many of Cheever’s short stories in this thesis, the comfort and relaxed feeling at the beginning of the
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story is sharply contrasted with its tragic ending: Anne’s death.
The Hartleys belong to the upper middle-class who used to be wealthy and lead a tasteful life. However, after Mr. Hartley loses his job, the Hartleys are unable to face the truth. They try their best to maintain their dignity, vanity, and to escape from the painful fact.
During their stay in the hotel, we can see that the couple have various behaviors in order to strive for the approval of others. We can tell that the Hartleys care a lot about how other people think of them by the fact that they frequently exhibit their knowledge of luxurious goods to people around them. So, the connotations of the “marker[s]” (Aron 5)—ones that show someone as privileged, respectable middle class, and “distinguish [the person] from members of the working class” must have been of vital importance to the Hartleys (ibid.).
They want to do whatever they can to fit those “marker[s]” (ibid.).
First of all, the motivation of their vacation is an act of gaining approval because the ability to vacation is a basis upon which others would use to measure whether you belong to the middle class. Vacationing, according to Aron, is an important “marker” of being a member of the middle class (Aron 5). Next, the ability to show one’s “genteel style” is another clue for people to judge whether a person is among the middle class since the 19th century. Bushman argues in The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities (1993) that
“[b]y the middle of the nineteenth century, vernacular gentility had become the possession of the American middle class. . . . All who aspired to simple respectability had to embody the marks of the genteel style in their persons and their houses” (xiii). Mr. Hartley utilizes jokes or knowledge of luxury goods to win everyone's love and hint at his own taste. But he is described to have “intense and polite manners” (74). This clearly shows that he cares a lot about what other people think of him. This is also true for Mrs. Hartley, who likes to suggest
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the properties her parents and grandparents have. In addition, Cheever suggests that Mrs.
Hartley “seem[s] anxious to be friendly and she plunged, like a lonely woman, into every conversation” (75). She is often shown absent-minded, and the guests in the inn “[get] the feeling that this characteristic [is] the result of some misfortune that [has] shaken her self-possession” (75).
We can see that this couple regards their social status as important. The reason why this occurs is due to their lack of confidence, that is, “self-reliance”.
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connexion of events. . . . And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark. (Emerson 11-2)
Emerson asserts that there is no other person who can become one’s master but oneself.
Everyone or anything else cannot determine his/her joys and sorrows. Obviously, the Hartleys cannot be their own masters because of lack of “[t]rust” (11) or confidence in themselves.
Lacking self-reliance is lacking confidence. People who lack confidence cannot face themselves and face the truth. The Hartleys have been trying all they could to prove
themselves. But doing so, judging from Emerson’s theory, means a lack of self-reliance and ability to resist effects from people around them or incidents that strike them. Also, judging from Cheever’s narration, Cheever suggests their failure to do so, too. For example, the snow
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storm that gradually encloses the inn shows that the Hartleys’ situation does not grow any better. The challenge raised by Mrs. Hartley in the quarrel directly reveals the answer: “What good has it ever done?” (77). Their situation is getting more and more difficult. Cheever shows that if people evade themselves and escape the truth, they will gradually move toward a dead end.