29 pages • 58 minutes read
Willa CatherThe Sculptor's Funeral
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1905A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Harvey Merrick
Harvey Merrick is the main protagonist of the story. He is described as an artistic genius, his mind “an exhaustless gallery of beautiful impressions” (333). His artistic ability and gentle spirit are associated with imagery that gives him a Christlike quality. At one point, his former student notes that “[w]hatever he touched, he revealed its holiest secret” (333). Within a motif of Christian allusions and symbolism, Merrick becomes a martyr who is metaphorically crucified for his love of beauty and art by the materialistic and utilitarian townspeople.
Though Merrick is the main protagonist, the story is not told from his point of view. Rather than a typical homecoming, his return to Sand City and the Western frontier is only after his death; it is an event filled with a sense of grief and bitterness that sets the tone of the story rather than the victory that the palm leaf on his coffin symbolizes. Except for a single memory—in which Steavens describes a conversation with Merrick just before his death—the artist’s characterization is entirely dependent upon the revelations that Steavens makes from watching, listening to, and speaking with the characters that he meets at the Merrick home before the funeral.
In addition to his appreciation for beauty and artistic skill, the text juxtaposes Merrick’s goodness with the corruption that underpins the materialistic culture of the frontier town. His father notes that he was a good and gentle child, adding “only we didn’t none of us ever onderstand him” (331). Merrick’s sensitivity and his goodness were beyond the comprehension of the frontier townspeople, who rejected and ridiculed him for his lack of the pragmatic knowledge and skill required for farming life. For this reason, Merrick’s journey east was more an exile than a period of self-discovery.
Contrasted with the hypermasculinity of the townspeople, Merrick demonstrates a measure of rejection of traditional gender norms that situates his character within the context of literary Modernism. Martin Merrick refers to his son as “gentle,” while one of the townspeople describes his voice as “ladylike.” Furthermore, the “demonstrative piety and ingenious cruelty” (332) of Merrick’s mother which made him “sick ashamed” may be read as a reference to the period-typical anti-gay bias that appears throughout Willa Cather’s short fiction.
Henry Steavens
Henry Steavens is the focalizer of “The Sculptor’s Funeral,” which is told through his perspective. A friend and former student of Merrick, Steavens accompanies the sculptor’s body to the Merrick homestead in Sand City, Kansas. His admiration for his teacher is established early in the story in his astonishment at the townspeople’s failure to recognize Merrick’s renown as an artist. Steavens’s surprise is the first indication of the narrative bias that shapes the story’s perspective. As both an artist and a friend of Merrick, he conveys regard for the man and dismay at the competing interests and attitudes of the townspeople.
Throughout the story, Steavens is frequently set apart from the action. He watches and listens more than he interacts with other characters. This narrative approach is typical in works of literary Naturalism that treat characterization as a narrative experiment that results from the surrounding setting. As the story continues, his increasing grief and horror contrast with the indifference of the townspeople. Steavens witnesses the emotional displays of Merrick’s mother, which contrast with his ailing father’s grief-filled lament. He carries on a sad conversation with Laird, who originally left Sand City for the East alongside Merrick. He listens to the mocking conversation of the townspeople who describe the artist with derision. Finally, Steavens listens as Laird heatedly derides the corrupt townspeople for their callous disregard of a pure soul. Throughout these interactions, he pieces together Merrick’s troubled boyhood. Steavens’s perspective conveys the struggles that Merrick faced as an artist ostracized from society on the frontier.
Jim Laird
Jim Laird is described as a burly, red-bearded lawyer. Unlike the townspeople, he keeps himself “conspicuously apart” from the other men of Sand City, who approach him “with a certain deference” (329). Laird is clearly upset at Merrick’s death. In Laird, Steavens finds “the feeling, the understanding, that must exist in some one, even here” (332). Steavens recognizes that unlike the bitter townspeople, Laird grieves the loss of an artist with a purity of soul who found strength in beauty rather than in the settlers’ materialism.
Laird is a foil who represents what might have happened to Merrick if he returned to the frontier like the other boys from Sand City. In his view, the Western frontier lacks an artistic sensibility and prioritizes financial security and conformity over the soul. Unlike Merrick, Laird returned to the West and became a “shrewd lawyer” who uses his training to allow the settlers to exploit others for their own gain instead of the “great man” he aspired to be. Laird represents an entire generation of “disappointed strugglers.” His characterization frames the progress and modernity that the West represents as centered around materialism and corruption; survival on the frontier means the death of the soul, which thrives on beauty and art. Laird is bitter and angry at his fate.
The Townspeople: The Men of Sand City
The townspeople of Sand City, especially the men who meet Steavens at the train station to transport Merrick’s body, are a group that functions as a collective antagonist, developing Cather’s theme of The Artist Against Society. The story begins with “a group of the townspeople” waiting at the train station (329). The phrasing is noteworthy. The indefinite article “a” illustrates the lack of distinction the men possess as a group, representing a collective codependence that serves as protection from the elements. This codependence is reinforced by the phrase “the townspeople,” since using the definite article, “the,” indicates the specificity of a noun. While the men lack individual distinction, the group as a collective is specific and representative of the collective thoughts and attitudes of Sand City.
This characterization demonstrates the trend in Naturalism to shape characters in response to an aspect of the setting. Cather only briefly refers to the natural setting of the frontier in “The Sculptor’s Funeral,” but its effects upon the men are clear as they huddle together for warmth. Alongside the nervous tension and hunched shoulders, the natural world becomes more ominous than majestic as the group braces the wind. The author’s use of Naturalism and setting suggests that the townspeople must unite against the indifference of the surrounding frontier. The author’s characterization of them establishes a motif of the townspeople as a single unit that is described collectively throughout the story as “tense,” “restless,” “hesitant,” “awkward,” and “uncertain.” This characterization contributes to the theme of The Artist Against Society. The men are generally depicted as uncertain individuals who rarely step outside the group. They think, act, and even move as a unit, gaining protection, confidence, and protection through their like-minded cohesion. They symbolize the collective attitude that shapes the social expectations of the necessarily utilitarian world of the West, where Merrick’s artistic vision and accomplishments are met with confusion, misunderstanding, and—ultimately—derision. The townspeople are juxtaposed with Merrick to illustrate the dichotomy that exists between frontier materialism and civilized culture.
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