Necessary Madness

THE H U M O R OF D O M E S T I C I T Y IN N I N E T E E N T H - C E N T U R Y A M E R I C A N LITERATURE

Gregg Camfield

New York

Oxford

Oxford University Press 1997

Oxford University Press

Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Bombay Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan

Copyright 1997 by Gregg Camfield

Published by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Camfield, GreggNecessary madness : The humor of domesticity in nineteenth-century American literature / Gregg Camfield. P. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-510040-9 1. American wit and humor19th centuryHistory and criticism. 2. Literature and societyUnited StatesHistory 19th century. 3. Man-woman relationships in literature. 4. Marriage in literature. 5. Family in literature. 6. Home in literature. I. Title. PS437-C36 1997 813' -309355dc20 96-26019

135798642 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

Contents

ONE

Humor in a Heartless Haven

Those Grimaces Called Laughter"

3
3 26

I. "Sudden Glory Is the Passion Which Maketh II. "Haven in a Heartless World" 14

III. "The Follies of Love Are Remedial" TWO / Home in a Rage 34

I. Washington Irving: Laughing All the Way to the Bank Handy to Cut My Throat" 48

34

II. Fanny Fern: "It's a Way I Have When I Can't Find a Razor

THREE / Tending the Home Fires 62

I. Harriet Beecher Stowe: "They . . . Must Be Allowed Their Laugh and Their Joke" 63 II. Herman Melville: "A Little Out of My Mind" 77

xviii

CONTENTS 91
92

FOUR / Home, Sweat Home

I. Mark Twain: "I Couldn't Do Nothing But Sweat and Sweat, and Feel All Cramped Up" II. Marietta Holley: "That Sweat Was the Best Thing They Could Have Done. It Kinder Opened the Pours, and Took My Mind Offen My Troubles" 103

FIVE / Madness Runs in Families

120

I. George Washington Harris: Howl in the Family 121 II. Mary Wilkins Freeman: Inherit the Will 135 SIX / Humorneuttcs 150 151

I. Truth versus Laughter II. Comic Arousal 159 III. The Mind's Jubilee

164
170 175

IV. Ideology versus Humor V. The Manners of Comedy

VI. Humor as Haven 185 Appendix Notes 193 213 187

Bibliography Index 227