Morality and Transgression in Spoon River

Imagine this: The son of a drunk and a sexually frustrated nag knocks up the millner’s daughter, then runs off to see the world. He leaves behind the pining schoolmistress who loves him and writes to him of God. Dora, the millner’s daughter, disappears after he leaves and no one knows what happened to the baby. She marries several times, getting richer by each untimely death of each of her new husbands. Finally she marries a noble in Italy who she thinks poisoned her to death. Now, this is a rich and detailed story, full of unrequited love, baby scandals, foreign lovers, and dramatic deaths. This is only a small, small part of the whole story as revealed in Master’s epitaphs. This paper will seek to unravel the cords of dissention and sedition that flow through Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology. Masters brings to life a whole cast of characters in the town of Spoon River. Through the free style poetry, the author introduces the reality and drama of small town life and the seedy underbelly of gossip, intrigue, and crime that flows through it. An undercurrent of misguided sexuality leads several characters to downfall. This interplay between the romantic and erotic lives of the townspeople and the misfortunes of real life serve to underline and emphasis a warning that actions have repercussions that echo through communities and the lives of individuals.

In order to fully begin to analyze and interpret this text, it is first necessary to understand what Masters is aiming to achieve with this poem. Masters wrote this poem intending that it be read by an audience. Masters is thought to have gotten his ideas from when he and his mother would exchange their knowledge about the people they lived near and with whom they came into regular contact. It is easy, then, to assume that at least some of the stories and intrigues to which we become unwittingly privy have antecedents in the small town folk of Masters’ own town. He named the poem for the river which ran adjacent to the town in which he lived. From these basic facts and assumptions, it can therefore be deduced that Masters’ aim with this piece was to expose the seedy underside of everyday life. Through masterful use of gravestone epitaphs, the poet strings along connected stories and shows the small and large ways that human beings socially interact and of one action by a single individual on an entire community.

It is evident that the editors of the text had no intention of putting in all of the numerous epitaphs. However, they mention Dora, the milliner’s daughter either by name or by title several times. To do so and then omit her own poem seems a weighty decision. It may be that the editors felt that her story was told enough through the poems of the other resident dead. She is first mentioned by Rueben Pantier, he says that she “made [him] trouble and out [he] went into the world” (Masters, 32). It is not stated whether he ever returns to Spoon River, but it can be inferred that he does not from the unrequited love between Emily Sparks, the schoolteacher, and Reuben himself. A.D Blood asks, “Why do you let the milliner’s daughter Dora, and the worthless son of Benjamin Pantier nightly make my grave their unholy pillow?” (Masters, 38). Dora gets Reuben into trouble by getting pregnant from their nightly graveyard romps. He runs away and the chain of events that follows eventually leads Dora to being poisoned. Reuben does not fare much better. He spends his time on wine and women, all the time secretly pining for a lost love. Leaving out Dora’s poem does not allow for the reader to appreciate the seriousness of the consequences. Otherwise, the reader would know that Dora is eventually killed by her husband, possibly as she seeks to further her own financial agenda. It begins with her indiscretions in Spoon River and continues as her actions and decisions finally lead her into the grave. This theme of sex as the downfall of the citizens continues in many of the epitaphs.

Reuben Pantier’s parents, the drunk and the nag, further the warning against sex by making it seem repulsive. Mrs. Benjamin Pantier believes she is a fine upstanding woman. She has better taste and refineries than especially her husband. On account of her enjoyment of high poetry and her dislike of “the smell of whiskey and onions” (Masters , 31), she believes she is better than the life (and the husband) with which she ended up. Further to this point, she states that she is a well endowed woman and that the only man with whom, by “law and morality” (Masters 31) she is allowed to engage in sexual activity fills her with disgust, “Every time you think of it - while you think of it every time you see him”(Masters, 31). As this married couple show, it is not just the misguided and oversexed youth for whom sex is a problem, but also the older generation. The wife wants to have sexual relations, but the only person by law and by the standards of morality that she can do so with, she finds repulsive. This repulsion forces her to drive Benjamin Pantier off to his office with his dog. He is eventually buried with the dog and maintains an anger towards his wife and her nagging and scheming. She tells her part of the story of his life, but does not tell of her own life or the circumstances which brought about her death. From Trainor the Druggist’s epitaph, the reader learns that the two of them were good people who were simply evil toward one another. The druggist says, “He oxygen, she hydrogen” (Masters, 33). The two people are vastly different and from them comes the resulting child of Reuben Pantier whose story and life have already been analyzed here. He is the “devastating fire” (Masters, 33) and the outcome of the married copulations. He does no good that the reader can see and exercises no caution or forethought. His own life can be seen, then, as the result of sex and the disastrous results of mixing of volatile genetic pools.

The third strong story in the text is that of Minerva Jones. She is the village poetess. From her father, Indignation Jones, it can be gathered that Minerva’s life was not particularly pleasant even before her troubles with “Butch“. He says, “poor Minerva, my daughter, whom you tormented and drove to death” (Masters, 34). She has a “heavy body, cock-eye, and rolling walk” (Masters, 34). Minerva has been hunted down and raped by “Butch” Weldy. This sin of unwilling sex brings down Minerva. She goes to Doctor Meyers, presumably to get things taken care of. Doctor Meyers’ epitaph explains that she “came to me in her trouble, crying. I tried to help her out-she died-” (Masters, 35). Because of his assistance with that scandalous matter and the resulting death of his patient, “they indicted men, the newspapers disgraced me, my wife died of a broken heart” (Masters, 35). It is not only the downfall of Minerva and the Doctor, but also his wife, who berates him for the sake of God and holiness. Abortion she sees as a sin and it is as much the Doctor’s sin as Minerva’s and “Butch’s”. Finally, “Butch” Weldy makes his claims about his life. He does not mention Minerva, her death, or the repercussions of his actions. From its placement within the piece as a whole, it seems that the reader is meant to infer that his accident at the canning works is somehow punishment for his lustful sin. “The Circuit-Judge said whoever did it was a fellow-servant of mine” (Masters, 36). This offers evidence that the incident at the cannery and “Butch’s” subsequent injuries and blindness are a punishment. Mrs. Meyers, the doctor’s wife, perhaps sums up the best with her admonition to keep the commandments of God.

Another character who is greatly affected by sexuality is a female novelist. Margaret Fuller Slack, the novelist who, by her own admission “would have been as great as George Eliot” (Masters, 36), if not for her unwise decision to wed. She wonders if she should abstain, marry, or be unchaste while unwedded. She is seduced by the rich druggist with promises of time to work on her writing. She marries, choosing not to abstain, nor to commit adultery. Then, they have eight children and she spends her life working as a mother and dies in the task. She claims, “sex is the curse of life”(Masters, 38). This certainly seems to have been the case for her, who wishes she had chosen abstinence, or perhaps adultery. Obviously her story only furthers Masters’ own admonition against sex. Through the inside workings of relationships that would normally never be public, Masters reveals the private lives and thoughts. He goes to pains, especially with the doctor’s wife, to show the conservative nature in the town as it rubs against the reality of everyday life.

In the fictional town of Spoon river, everyone dies and their epitaphs tell about their private lives. From these, a story of connecting lives and repercussions is told. Within this story also comes the warning against overindulgence or improper indulgence in sexuality. The people who speak about sex always have a backdrop of misadventures, tragedies, and accidents that follow it. Whether it is premarital sex, rape, or sex between volatile humans which produces a son who is a catalyst for immoral behavior; the underlying message from Masters is clear: No Sex in Spoon River.