Can Such Things Be? · Chapter
Chapter II explained
This chapter provides background on Halpin Frayser's youth in Nashville, Tennessee, his family's social standing, his dreamy and literary nature inherited from his great-grandfather Myron Bayne, and the deep, almost romantic bond with his m
What happens
This chapter provides background on Halpin Frayser's youth in Nashville, Tennessee, his family's social standing, his dreamy and literary nature inherited from his great-grandfather Myron Bayne, and the deep, almost romantic bond with his mother Katy. It recounts a prophetic dream Katy has about Halpin's departure, his subsequent journey to California, being shanghaied, shipwrecked on a South Pacific island, and his eventual return to San Francisco, where he lives near St. Helena.
Themes in this chapter
Fate and Inevitability
Katy's prophetic dream foreshadows Halpin's departure and subsequent misfortunes, suggesting an inescapable destiny.
Identity and Self
Halpin is seen as a spiritual successor to Myron Bayne, and his identity is shaped by family legacy and his own dreamy nature.
Death and the Supernatural
Katy's dream includes imagery of a face cloth and marks on the throat, hinting at death and supernatural premonition.
Characters to notice
- Halpin Frayser
Protagonist; a dreamy, indolent young man from Nashville, deeply attached to his mother, who later becomes a sailor after being shanghaied and shipwrecked.
- Myron Bayne
Maternal great-grandfather of Halpin Frayser; a Colonial poet whose character is said to have revisited Halpin.
- Jane
Halpin's mother, referred to as Katy; shares a deep, romantic bond with Halpin and has prophetic dreams.
Key passages
“In his youth Halpin Frayser had lived with his parents in Nashville, Tennessee. The Fraysers were well-to-do, having a good position in such society as had survived the wreck wrought by civil war.”
Halpin Frayser grew up in Nashville with his wealthy family, who maintained their social standing after the Civil War.
Establishes the family's background and post-war setting.
“Young Halpin was of a dreamy, indolent and rather romantic turn, somewhat more addicted to literature than law, the profession to which he was bred.”
Halpin was a lazy, romantic daydreamer who preferred literature over his intended career in law.
Highlights Halpin's personality and divergence from family expectations.
“Between him and his mother was the most perfect sympathy, for secretly the lady was herself a devout disciple of the late and great Myron Bayne, though with the tact so generally and justly admired in her sex... she had always taken care to conceal her weakness from all eyes but those of him who shared it.”
Halpin and his mother shared a deep bond, both secretly admiring the poet Myron Bayne, a fact she hid from others.
Reveals the secret affinity between mother and son.
“Did I not lie awake a half of the night weeping because, during the other half, Grandfather Bayne had come to me in a dream, and standing by his portrait—young, too, and handsome as that—pointed to yours on the same wall? And when I looked it seemed that I could not see the features; you had been painted with a face cloth, such as we put upon the dead.”
Katy recounts a dream where Myron Bayne pointed to Halpin's portrait, which was covered with a burial cloth, foreshadowing death.
Key supernatural premonition driving the narrative.
“While in San Francisco Halpin Frayser was walking one dark night along the water front of the city, when, with a suddenness that surprised and disconcerted him, he became a sailor. He was in fact 'shanghaied' aboard a gallant, gallant ship, and sailed for a far countree.”
In San Francisco, Halpin was kidnapped and forced into service on a ship, beginning his long voyage.
Describes the turning point leading to his shipwreck and survival.
