49 pages • 1-hour read
Domestic Manners of the Americans
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Part 1, Chapters 4-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary
After a few hours’ stop in Louisville, Kentucky, Trollope and company arrive at Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 10th and check in at the Washington Hotel.
In Cincinnati, Trollope is dismayed at the absence of “all the accommodation that Europeans conceive necessary to decency and comfort” (34). This is seen especially in the lack of water drainage or proper garbage disposal; trash is simply thrown in the middle of the street for the pigs to eat it up. Although admitting the city’s rapid growth from “aboriginal forest” in only 30 years, Trollope is generally disappointed with Cincinnati, finding it to fall far short of the “wonder of the west” (35) of which she was told.
Chapter 5 Summary
Trollope takes a house near the city and has occasion to visit a subsistence farm nearby. Here she is struck by the fact that the farmers, while claiming “the back-wood’s independence” (43), live in isolation from society and civilization: “[T]here was something awful and almost unnatural in their loneliness” (43).
Chapter 6 Summary
Having established a home, Trollope hires a maid to help around the house. However, she discovers that domestic service is looked down upon as an undesirable job in the United States; young girls regard it merely as a temporary occupation to be abandoned as soon as possible. This resentful attitude toward service creates difficulties with the maid, Nancy, who stays only a short while and then leaves abruptly.
Chapter 7 Summary
Trollope visits Cincinnati’s open-air market and is impressed by its abundance and variety of goods, deeming the market “the most advantageous feature in Cincinnati” (51). Trollope also visits Cincinnati’s picture gallery but is convinced that “little feeling for art” (54) exists in the city and the American frontier in general. Indeed, Hervieu attempted to start a drawing school in the city but had to quit because of the lack of discipline. Trollope comments that Americans don’t care to support ventures, like art, that lack an immediate “profitable result.”
Also in Chapter 7, Fanny Wright gives a lecture in Cincinnati on “the nature of true knowledge” (57) that excites “the most violent sensation” (56) because of her reformist ideas.
Part 1, Chapters 4-7 Analysis
The Cincinnati portion (Chapters 4–16) of Domestic Manners could be seen as the heart of the book, marking the longest stay in a single location. In many ways, Cincinnati cemented Trollope’s impression of America and Americans in general. Her dissatisfaction with the country is at its most acute in Cincinnati and her critiques at their sharpest.
In Trollope’s account, Cincinnati represents America with all its rough edges showing. As a new community—indeed, the newest part of the New World—the Cincinnatians are sensitive about judgment from outsiders; furthermore, as a “frontier people” their customs are perhaps furthest removed from European traditions, contributing to Trollope’s ideas about The Deterioration of Manners Under Democracy. Despite this, having originated in the longer-established settlements of the East Coast, Westerners are also self-conscious about aspiring to a higher level of culture and social life, as can be seen in their building of a theater, art museum, and other public institutions.
It could be argued that Trollope conducts her observations without a full awareness of this history and context, treating the American Midwest (a new “experiment”) and England (a country with ancient institutions and traditions) as if they are on an equal footing. There is also a notable lack of psychological analysis of the reasons for Americans’ sensitivity to criticism as a new nation.
This lack of historical and social context might be considered to compromise the premise of the book, which purports to present an informed criticism of America. Further, occasional remarks by Trollope—such as two that today would be considered anti-Semitic (97, 287)—undermine her own criticisms of American intolerance and lack of civility.
Essentially, for Trollope, the cultural standards fostered by the upper class in England are assumed to be the universal norm, and other standards appear wrong and in need of change. This is the guiding assumption throughout the book, although Trollope believes that the standards for which she is arguing have a rational foundation and are intrinsically worthy of emulation.
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