In the Midst of Life · Chapter
The Applicant explained
On Christmas Eve, an old, impoverished man applies for admission to the Abersush Home for Old Men, but is denied by Superintendent Silas Tilbody, who delivers the trustees' decision that his presence would be 'peculiarly embarrassing.' The
What happens
On Christmas Eve, an old, impoverished man applies for admission to the Abersush Home for Old Men, but is denied by Superintendent Silas Tilbody, who delivers the trustees' decision that his presence would be 'peculiarly embarrassing.' The old man wanders off into the snow, and the next morning his body is discovered by a young boy.
Themes in this chapter
Social Cruelty and Hypocrisy
Mr. Tilbody's self-righteous denial of the old man on Christmas Eve, under the guise of charity, highlights institutional hypocrisy.
Death and Mortality
The old man's death in the snow, discovered the next morning, underscores the fragility of life and the ultimate failure of the Home's promise of refuge.
Fate and Irony
The philanthropist Amasa Abersush dies as a rejected applicant at his own institution, a bitter ironic twist of fate.
Characters to notice
- Silas Tilbody
Superintendent of the Home who denies the old man's application on Christmas Eve.
- Amasa Abersush
The philanthropist who founded the Home; his body is found in the snow the next morning.
Key passages
“If the Home was a place of punishment for the sin of unthrift the veteran offenders sought justice with a persistence that attested the sincerity of their penitence.”
If the Home was meant to punish the poor for their lack of thrift, the old men seeking entry showed they truly repented their poverty.
Bitter commentary on the moral judgment embedded in the charity.
“Mr. Tilbody was so full of the spirit of the season that his fat face and pale blue eyes, whose ineffectual fire served to distinguish it from an untimely summer squash, effused so genial a glow that it seemed a pity that he could not have lain down in it, basking in the consciousness of his own identity.”
Mr. Tilbody was so smugly cheerful that his face glowed with self-satisfaction.
Satirical description of Tilbody's hypocritical holiday cheer.
“And that is how it happened that the next morning, when the church bells of all Grayville were ringing with an added unction appropriate to the day, the sturdy little son of Deacon Byram, breaking a way through the snow to the place of worship, struck his foot against the body of Amasa Abersush, philanthropist.”
The next morning, as church bells rang for Christmas, Deacon Byram's son found the body of the Home's founder in the snow.
Final ironic revelation of the dead philanthropist.