Sullied Heroes

There was a story in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago about how Charles Dickens, involved in an affair with actress Nelly Ternan, tried to put away his wife of twenty years in an institution. (Link to that story.) Oh, and she'd delivered his ten children.

It's depressing, isn't it? The more we learn about people the more we discover that they're ... people.

I've long loved Dickens' work--I've read all of his novels, most of his other works. For a few years I took my middle school classes in Aurora to see A Christmas Carol in downtown Cleveland. Right now, looking in on me, is a Dickens decal in my study window. (See pic above.)

Oh, he was a gifted guy--not just on the page but onstage. A talented amateur actor. He did a reading tour in the US in 1842--Edgar Poe interviewed him while he was here.

And he tried to put his wife away so he could proceed unimpeded with his affair.

Jerk.

But "Jerk," I fear, is a word we could employ for about just about any writer. I've read countless biographies of writers, and every time I do, I groan and moan with disappointment in them. Jack London had some racial issues. Mark Twain may have had a thing for little girls (later in his life). Mary Shelley, at 16, ran off with a married man. Percy Bysshe Shelley, married, ran off with a 16-year-old girl. Edgar Poe was a drunk and druggie; he married his first cousin, a teenager. Melville wasn't faithful. Norman Mailer stabbed one of his wives.  Saul Bellow was continuously on the make. Robert Frost had an affair--in the lovely, dark, and deep woods? Faulkner was unfaithful. Hemingway? (Need I say more!?!)

It's a good thing we don't know more about Shakespeare than we do. If we learned a bunch of darkness about him, would we end the productions of Romeo and Juliet?

Oh, we do know a few things ... he lived apart from his wife in London (she was back in Stratford-upon-Avon)--so for whom did he write those sonnets? (Speculation about the identity of the so-called "Dark Lady of the Sonnets" has raged for centuries.)

All of these assorted failures, of course, belong, as well, to artists, musicians, politicians, lawyers, doctors, teachers, et al.

To you?

To me? (I'm running out of space--too bad I can't really get into it.)

So .. what do we do about it? Banish from the curriculum all writers and others who violated moral and/or ethical standards? And if we were to proceed with those excommunications, who would be left? Anyone?

So ... what do we do? I guess we go case-by-case. We draw a line. If the person has crossed that line, well, too bad for him or her?

I do think we need to be generous with those lines, however. As I said, if we exclude all who are less than perfect, then our classrooms will be empty: no curriculum, no teachers, no students. And every other profession will be pretty much unpopulated as well.

Right now, as you know, we're having some intense cultural and social debates about what is tolerable. Lots of people have fallen--many, no doubt, deservedly so.

But, as I said, if we become too rigid--if we draw our lines too close to the edge of perfection--will we really like the result? Will our lives be better? Or worse?

Just asking ...