Sister Soulsby: The Woman who Broke the Religious Rule

From the book, The Damnation of Theron Ware or Illumination:

• Sharp tone, talks a lot, and Brother Ware thinks the way she said it, instead of what she is saying, is wonderful.
• She is a very smart woman-“smart as a steel trap” page 127.
• Cares about her position and her reputation- she took the biggest and best room in the house.
• She gives compliments to help the hosts (the Wares) recognize she is there and very observant.
• Tells a part of her life story on page 166.
• Brother Ware believes she has youthful features, especially her eyes.
• She was born in the South and has a wealthy father who is a planter.
• She is very manipulating. Examples are as follows:
  • Planned a debt-raising convention during a revival
  • Told Brother Ware to “hands off and to leave it to her” page 135.
  • Gave Ware reasons to doubt his marriage and his wife’s faithfulness.
  • While Brother Ware was sick, she took over the pulpit and the situation into her own hands.
  • Tricked the congregation into donating for the church’s debt- “The doors would only be opened again when this had been accomplished (raising $1500)” page 151.
  • Used Erastus Winch to start the donation competition to trick the congregation into donating.
  • Explained her argument using conniving words and analogies that show the negative side of the opposing position. (Example is the paragraph on the bottom of page 151).
• Refers to her husband and herself as “good fellows” who perform like “machinery, management, and organization” and are “good frauds” page 168.

Brother Ware views Sister Soulsby as a “kindly, quick-witted, capable and charming woman who had made such a brilliant break in the monotony of life at that dull parsonage of his” page 175-6.

According to The Study Guide and Annotated Bibliography of Harold Frederic TDTW

Carrington, Jr., George C. “Harold Frederic’s Clear Farcical Vision: The Damnation of Theron Ware.” American Literary Realism 19.3 (1987): 3-26.

• “Seeing the arrival of Theron Ware in Octavius as a potential threat to their stability, most of the other characters in the novel take immediate and aggressive action toward Ware in order to maintain their positions. Of these, Sister Soulsby is deemed “the most perfect knave in the book”: she is deceptive, manipulative, and ruthless (18).”
  • These three words described by Carrington are the three words I would choose to describe Sister Soulsby as well.  This passage shows how easily Brother Ware can be taken over, even by a woman.

Luedtke, Luther S. “Harold Frederic’s Satanic Sister Soulsby: Interpretation and Sources.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction 30.1 (1975): 82-104.

• “It is his interaction with the Soulsbys in Part II that plants the seeds of his destruction. Sister Soulsby’s remarks about Alice Ware cause Theron Ware first to re-evaluate his marriage and, later, to suspect his wife of infidelity. Her lecture to Ware on the art and uses of performance prompt him to brag about his new perspective to Dr. Ledsmar and Celia Madden, alienating them in the process. Luedtke recites the Soulsbys’ long history of questionable employment and concludes that they are confidence artists for whom religion is “only the latest con game” (92). Ware believes Sister Soulsby when she tells him that she and Soulsby had “both soured on living by fakes” and were now “good frauds” (93).”
  • This passage is the exact definition of Sister Soulsby.  There were so many ways she could get to Brother Ware and after a while, he allowed this to happen.  I saw this as a great example of the type of woman Sister Soulsby is and who religious women are not suppose to follow.

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