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Worthy Lady: Dilemmas of Love and Language in Early ChicagoSteven Caton Abstract This paper analyzes a correspondence that took place between two persons of the early to mid-nineteenth century United States, John Dean Caton and the young woman he wanted to marry, Laura A. Sherrill of New Hartford, New York. They only met once or twice, and then very briefly, before they were married. Though I am interested in the singularity of their situation, it was not by any means unique in the annals of nineteenth century American history. The letters had to construct love before it could be secured and they had to do so fervently or ecstatically in the absence of any face-to-face gestures or communication. But this sentimental excess was simultaneously constrained by certain epistolary conventions of the day as well as by religious and social ones. I argue, that whatever the case may be, the stiltedness was nonetheless strategic. For it to be expressed at all, such love had to be couched in a highly constrained fashion and sexual interest had to be alluded to in obscure ways. But the very excess of the conventions had the paradoxical effect of reinforcing the impression of a great passion that needed to be contained or curbed, thus reassuring the reader of the other's honor and love. And so I would argue that we need to pay attention to the very language of the correspondence itself if we are to understand how the love between John and Laura was made possible at all. |