The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail

Waldo is a fictionalization of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who was the founder of American Transcendentalism and Henry David Thoreau’s real life mentor. In the play, Waldo is a round character, though he doesn’t change in the course of the action and remains static. He is Henry’s foil—he inspires Henry with his fiery words and new ideas, but Waldo’s activism fails to go beyond his lectures and essays. When Henry is young, he decides that he wants to be just like Waldo; he says that when Waldo speaks, “a hush falls over all of Harvard. And there’s a light about him—that comes out of his face. But it’s not the light of one man […], it’s the light of all Mankind!” (8). However, he becomes disillusioned with Waldo when he realizes that Waldo doesn’t live according to the principles he preaches. On the other hand, Henry’s deep commitment to these ideas impresses Waldo, who refers to Henry as his “walking ethic.” Waldo lectures about nonconformity, but he doesn’t really practice it; he has a big house, not a tiny cabin, and he lives in town, not as a “hermit” in the woods. He also doesn’t lecture people unless they have paid him to do so. He is not abrasive, openly critical, or hostile, as Henry can be.

Moreover, Waldo insists on “work[ing] within the framework of our laws” (88), awaiting the American government’s decision to end the war and abolish enslavement. He thinks that voting for the candidates he prefers is the extent of his ability to affect the government and its policies, asking Henry, “What more do you expect me to do?” (84). He understands the apparent hypocrisy of his actions when compared to his words, but he insists that just because he doesn’t “rant” doesn’t mean he isn’t “outraged;” he does, he says, “what can be done!” (87). Waldo knows Henry’s choices affect Henry’s reputation, and he suggests that Henry’s antisocial attitude is why he fails to affect others. Waldo also criticizes Henry by pointing out that he cannot affect change by isolating himself from society. He tells Henry: “You pull the woods up over your head. You resign from the human race. Could your woodchucks, with all their wisdom, have saved Henry Williams? Are your fish going to build roads, teach school, put out fires?” (88). Waldo argues that society would fall apart if everyone behaved like Henry, and this is an insinuation Henry cannot refute.

Bailey is Henry’s cellmate in the play. He is a flat character who changes little. He initially believes Henry is a “loon,” but after Henry teaches him how to write his name and stands up for Bailey’s right to a speedy trial, he develops a real liking for Henry. Bailey’s insistence that he just wants to “get along” and not make trouble prompts Henry to instruct Bailey on the dangers of conformity, introducing Henry’s ideas to the audience (13). The respect with which Henry treats Bailey, an illiterate vagrant, also helps to illuminate Henry’s own essential fairness.

In the play, time and space are suggested only by lighting and the movement of actors, so Bailey’s character is a useful signal that action is taking place in the present. Henry and Bailey’s conversations also connect past and present, as they raise topics that often precede Henry’s recollection of some past event.

John is two years older than his brother, Henry, and he is one of the few people who understands and accepts Henry. He doesn’t let Henry take life too seriously, teasing and wrestling with him. When Henry angers Deacon Ball, it is John’s voice Henry hears, telling him to offer a “penny apology” so the school board “won’t cut [Henry] off from the class” (21). John is a voice of reasonableness and moderation for his somewhat rigid, principled brother. When Ellen comes to their school, she immediately distinguishes John from Henry, whom she calls a “thundercloud.” When Henry shouts at her, it is John who cautions him; when Henry suggests she is too old to be a member of their class, John says, “Henry, a young lady is never too old for anything” (25). John understands social graces and Henry is willing to be corrected and softened by him.

Henry is deeply affected by John’s death since he looks up to him. When Henry asks Ellen to accompany John to church, he tells her: “If you find a single syllable in me worth writing in a notebook, you’ll find paragraphs of it in John! […] Where I am thorns and brambles, he is a garden” (39). Henry is angry that God fails to see John’s “godliness” and grant the man a long and happy life.

Lydian is Waldo’s wife, and though she remains faithful to her husband, her empathy for and attraction to Henry suggests that she shares his reservations about Waldo’s choices. She is younger than Waldo, and the play describes her as being “handsomely patrician” and obviously intelligent. In the play’s opening pages, her future life as a caretaker for her aged and senile husband is hinted at when she must remind him of Henry’s name and explain what an umbrella is. When her son, Edward, tells her that he’s asked Henry to be his father, Lydian dutifully attempts to dismiss Henry from the Emersons’ employ while Waldo is away. Henry tells her not to be “afraid” of him, and she asks, “Shouldn’t I be?” in apparent recognition of their mutual attraction and the impossibility of its fulfillment (76). When Henry enthusiastically collects an audience for Waldo after Williams’s death, Waldo sends Lydian in his stead to say that he wants more time to prepare his speech. Henry is angry and disappointed on hearing this, and though “Lydian shares Henry’s feeling, […] her loyalty to her husband is unshakable” (90).

Lydian is much more traditional than either Henry or Waldo. She insists that her family attend church, despite Waldo’s dislike of Unitarian services, and she makes Edward call Henry “Mr. Thoreau,” though Henry prefers to be addressed informally. Lydian tells Henry that he must “go along” to get along in society, encouraging him to be less abrasive so that his ideas have a better chance of being met with acceptance.