Miniver Cheevy

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1910

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Discontentment with Modern Life

The overarching theme of “Miniver Cheevy” is discontentment with modern life. Miniver is unsatisfied with modernity, preferring romantic notions of past eras—even those that are actually fictional. His mishmash of references (Thebes, Camelot, King Priam, the Medici) shows a shallow understanding of the past, but it is no matter: Anything is preferable to the current time for Miniver.

By the early 1900s, Americans had increasingly left behind life on the farm for factory work in the city. Whereas farmworkers could obtain satisfaction from seeing their labor bear fruit during each harvest, factory workers were cogs in a larger machine, only having a hand in a small fraction of the process. Whatever odd “labors” (Line 10) Miniver begrudgingly engages in to pay the bills do not leave him with a sense of fulfilment or accomplishment, which is why he turns to his elaborate fantasies of the past for comfort. Moreover, the Gilded Age of the late 19th century was a time in which the wealth gap between the rich and the poor grew considerably. Money is a sore subject for the underachieving Miniver, contributing to his discontentment.

Miniver’s nostalgic beliefs resemble the philosophy of antimodernism, which arose in the late 19th century as a reaction to Realism. Proponents of antimodernism criticized realistic literature because it did not provide the escapism and grandeur of past eras of literature. Like Miniver, Antimodernists preferred chivalric “medieval-style romance” and thought that modern literature (and society) had become too feminized and therefore passive (Winifred H. Sullivan, “The Double-Edged Irony of E.A. Robinson’s ‘Miniver Cheevy’”, 1986. Page 186). All the references that Miniver worships in his fantasies are examples of stereotypical masculinity: knights on the battlefield, Camelot ruled by King Arthur, King Priam of Troy, and the patriarchal Medici dynasty that ended after no male heirs were born.

Miniver sees himself as being a potential peer of these men, if only the modern era had not lost such masculine ideals. Miniver’s alignment with antimodernism is therefore comically ironic. He may hold the past in high regard, but he exemplifies none of its ideals with his passive nature.

The Hazards of Denying Reality

In the second and third stanzas, the poem’s narrator shares two defining aspects of Miniver’s character: He “loved the days of old” (Line 5) and “sighed for what was not” as a result (Line 9). Through these descriptions, his fatal flaw is revealed. Miniver is unable to accept reality for what it is rather than what he wishes it could be, which keeps him stuck in his unhappiness.

Miniver’s tendency to escape into fantasy worlds of the past is a way of coping with the present. It is easier for Miniver to blame the circumstances of modern life than for him to accept that he is the cause of his own problems. This lack of accountability leaves him in a loop of avoidance that seemingly takes over his entire life. He would prefer the drastic—and impossible—change of society reverting in time than making any positive changes to himself. Miniver is as inflexible as the “iron clothing” he so admires (Line 24).

Miniver’s flights of fancy are not as harmless as they may seem at the beginning of the poem when he happily dances in his daydreams (Lines 7-8). By the end of the poem, Robinson shows Miniver coughing and drinking, which conveys a sense of foreboding for his future (Lines 31-32). Should he continue on his current path, Miniver may end up dying before seeing the error of his ways.

Robinson’s warning against escapism reflects the poet’s practice of realism and antimaterialism. His poetry depicts the unpleasant realities of human existence, despite critics who dismissed him as being too pessimistic and depressing. Robinson spent his life seeking the truth above all and rejected material values for spiritual ones.

Thus, Miniver is not a failure because he is poor, but because he shields himself from the truth. His failures have the possibility to teach him important spiritual lessons, but his delusion keeps him ignorant and stuck in his ways. “Miniver Cheevy” serves as a timeless cautionary tale of the dangers of avoiding reality.