Manly Thor's Day Special: George Darrow

(To read all posts about The Reef click here.)

You don't have to read or have read The Reef to get this. It's a post about a guy in the book who is, I think, a bit off-putting for many. George is not a good guy. He isn't a hero and you certainly wouldn't pick him as a role model. But the portrait Wharton gives of him is surprisingly charitable. She doesn't want to hate him.

Not to beat around the bush, George Darrow is one of those guys you sometimes see a woman having an affair with and you scratch your head and wonder why. Or maybe you bang your head against a  wall and scream, "Why! Why! Why!" Either way, you can't explain it.

And one of the things we hope for when guys like George Darrow show up in books and movies is that they will be exposed and humiliated. We want to learn that he is sexually inadequate, a coward and a swine. But if we read The Reef we get all the way to the end without every getting any of that. Worse, the two women at the centre of the novel both still appreciate him, they may even both still love him.

There is only one guy in the novel who might hate George but he, Anna's stepson, is a pitiable character.

It's as if Edith Wharton set out to rub our faces in the general unfairness of life.

So let's have a look at George. 'Cause I think we might find him a lot more intriguing if we could get over our resentment of the guy. And we just might find that he has a lot in common with that guy we see in the mirror over the bathroom sink everyday.

1. He's a guy who doesn't think about ends. It's not an accident that he's a diplomat. If it seems appropriate to bring two parties together, and he'll do it. Come back a day later and if, because the situation is changed, it seems a good idea to drive a wedge between them, he'll do that. Don't make too much of this just because you want to disdain him. He'd never be a concentration camp guard. But he's a guy who does stuff and not a guy who sits around thinking about the big picture or the meaning of life.
2. He's a manager with good people skills or, to put it less charitably, he is good at manipulating people to reach certain ends. Ends he doesn't think about.
3. He is an aesthete. Insofar as he has a notion of an overall goal or purpose in life it's an aesthetic vision. He sees himself working for the day when he can have a nice collection of books, meaningful hobbies, a comfortable house and so forth. He is not like Henry James' aesthetes who spend their lives desperately staving off boredom. George Darrow is genuinely satisfied as a result of his aestheticism. Part of the reason he is genuinely satisfied is, again, because he doesn't sit around questioning whether these ends are good or true.
4. He is a womanizer even though he is no Don Juan. He isn't a great success as a seducer and the one seduction we see him accomplish in the book he sort of blunders into. First of all, he succeeds largely because he enjoys playing the gentleman and this is taken as incredible kindness by the woman involved. Second, while the thing is unquestionably intentional on his part he is never honest with himself about seducing Sophy. It's sort of "passive aggressive" in that he floats along not really desiring her with any intensity but keeps doing what is necessary to keep the thing moving forward when it really counts. Third, never really having cared about the woman as an end in herself but only as a means, he bores of her quickly. And he doesn't tear himself up about it worrying about her or her feelings; it's just something he did and now it's over.

And boy you could hate that guy if he seduced the woman you were in love with couldn't you? Why even if he seduced her ten years ago and it was long over it would bother you because you wouldn't want to be part of any club that would allow a member like that inside. But why all the resentment? He's not really that bad a guy when all is said and done. And put yourself in her place, you can see how such a guy might become the focal point for self-assessing herself as a woman, as a sexual being.