A Counterfeit Presentment by Willian Dean Howells
William Dean Howells, an American author and playwright, wrote A Counterfeit Presentment in 1877. The play is a realistic comedy about an accidental meeting between a young woman, Constance, and a guy whom she misidentifies as her ex-lover, Bartlett.
But, until he gets to know Constance more, Bartlett is unaware of her neurotic behavior. Her actual personality emerges only when she forces Bartlett to remain with her in the hotel so she can pretend he is her ex-boyfriend.
Howells employs humor to highlight the situation of unmarried middle and upper-class women in the nineteenth century.
Act One: An Extraordinary Resemblance
The first act begins with Bartlett and his friend Cummings discussing Bartlett’s love life at the Ponkwasset Hotel in Boston. Bartlett is despondent and has become a misanthrope because a girl he went on a date with is no longer interested in him.
Cummings tries to cheer up his friend as he curses all women and expresses his hatred for the entire female race. He tells him the story of a girl who is still upset about a breakup from two years ago in the hopes of proving to Bartlett that women do, in fact, have emotions.
General Wyatt storms in, yelling and cursing at Bartlett and orders him to leave the hotel immediately. Constance faints at the sight of Bartlett when she and her mother enter the room.
General Wyatt, on the other hand, understands as he approaches Bartlett that he has made the awful mistake of yelling at a man he has never met before.
Yet, Bartlett is angered and concerned by the incident and rushes out of the hotel. Cummings stays to speak with General Wyatt and discovers that the general is deeply contrite for his previous behavior.
When they are alone, General Wyatt explains to Cummings why he acted the way he did. Mrs. Wyatt brought Constance to Paris two years ago, and Constance fell in love with an American guy.
But, when General Wyatt saw the man, he was wary of him and soon discovered that he was married.
General Wyatt compelled this man to stop all connections with Constance as a result of this tragic revelation, leaving her extremely miserable and feeling a tremendous level of animosity towards her father that has lasted for the past two years.
Strangely, Cummings had just finished telling Bartlett about this very story a few minutes before. Although General Wyatt first orders Bartlett to leave the hotel grounds in order to protect Constance, when Bartlett returns, the general begs him to stay at Constance’s request. Despite his reservations, Bartlett agrees to stay.
Act Two: Distinctions and Differences
Constance and Mrs. Wyatt have a private talk in their chamber to begin the second act. Constance is a very dramatic young woman who enjoys making a commotion and continuously seeks the undivided attention of everyone around her.
She, like many other women in the late nineteenth century, is primarily concerned with getting married and starting a family. Constance believed that the man she met in Paris would become her husband, and that she had completed the race to marriage.
Constance, on the other hand, has yet to accept that her relationship with that man is gone. She enjoys feeling sorry for herself in front of others and frequently tells her mother that she believes she is an evil vampire who despises all men.
Mrs. Wyatt, unable to bear listening to Constance’s minor issues any longer, switches the subject to the schism in Constance’s relationship with her father. Constance had blamed her lover for her sorrow and loneliness ever since her father forced them to cease their relationship.
General Wyatt and Constance used to have a wonderful connection, but they are now estranged, and Constance is open about her feelings of bitterness toward her father.
Mrs. Wyatt chastises Constance for her frigid treatment of the general, saying, “How can you treat your father so coldly? If you must torment someone, give me the agony. But spare your father, spare the heart that loves you so deeply, you wretched girl”.
She tells her that General Wyatt did everything he could to protect Constance and that she should have more self-respect in order to be happier, as well as greater respect for her father, her ultimate defender.
When Constance is finally alone, she invites Bartlett into her room to study and question him in order to identify any similarities between Bartlett and her former boyfriend other than appearances.
Bartlett initially fails to recognize Constance’s motives, but when he does, he storms out of the room in a rage. Mrs. Wyatt returns to Constance’s room after Bartlett and General Wyatt leave for a walk to the docks. Almost immediately following Mrs.
From the window, Wyatt and Constance watch four men bringing someone up the hill. Constance, true to form, creates a massive, dramatic scene. She stands up and declares that her father has died: “Yes, yeah, yes!” Papa has arrived! It’s my dear, wonderful, and generous papa! He’s drowned; I chased him away; I murdered him!”
It’s hard to say if she was delighted or heartbroken at the potential of her father’s death. Bartlett is perplexed by such dramatic and ludicrous actions by an apparently proper young woman, and he considers his decision to stay at the hotel.
Act Three: Not at All Alike
Six weeks later, the play’s third and shortest act begins. When Cummings returns to the motel, he discovers that Bartlett has been residing with the Wyatts for the previous six weeks, much to his astonishment.
As is customary, Bartlett begins talking about his feelings with Cummings and admits to falling in love with Constance.
Apart from his feelings for Constance, Bartlett is secretly angered by Constance’s actions toward him—he has gradually realized that the only reason she enjoys his company is because his looks remind her of her past sweetheart.
Cummings counsels his emotional friend, Bartlett, to speak with Constance and express his actual thoughts to her.
When Bartlett sits down to speak to Constance and finally tells her that he has significant feelings for her, Constance promptly rejects him, putting on her usual melodramatic, self-pitying performance: “When he left me I seemed to die.
Now I’m some unhappy ghost clinging for all eternity to the memory of my lost unhappiness… If I had lived, I might have loved you”.
Constance’s obsessive conduct irritates Bartlett, who accuses her of just befriending him to pretend she was still with her previous boyfriend, which sends Constance into a bitter, sobbing rage. As General and Mrs.
Wyatt hears Constance’s cries, they rush into the parlor room. As he sees his distraught daughter, General Wyatt understands he must reveal a truth he has kept from her for the past two years.
He shows Constance a note that her previous admirer wrote to General Wyatt, in which he stated that he had no difficulty severing all contact with Constance immediately.
Receiving this note and learning that her old partner never genuinely loved her instantly relieves Constance of all the problems that have plagued her for the past two years.
All of her problems with her self-image, her father, and her mother vanished. She smiles at Bartlett and agrees to go on a date with him.
Characters in “A Counterfeit Presentment”
Bartlett: Bartlett is the young artist whom the Wyatts mistook for the man Constance had an affair with two years before in Paris. He is a very emotional man who has only ever been injured by women, leading him to harbor a grudge against the entire female race. For a brief while, we observe a twist in Bartlett’s temperament, as he is not initially as devoted to Constance as he is to other women—he is frequently unhappy with her and does not treat her well. Nevertheless, this growing character strength is undermined when he stays with the Wyatts for the following six weeks and falls head over heels for Constance, despite the fact that she clearly uses him to remind her of her old boyfriend.
Cummings: Cummings is a clergyman in Boston who is connected to Bartlett. He is aware of the Wyatts’ troubles with Constance because his cousin is in contact with General Wyatt due to their service in the same artillery during the Civil War. Cummings serves as Bartlett’s conscience and also serves as a therapist to his sensitive companion.
General James Wyatt is married to Mrs. Wyatt and the father of Constance. He commanded the 34th Artillery during the Civil War. General Wyatt disapproved of Constance’s involvement with the American man in Paris, and when he discovered that he was married, he pushed the guy to cease their relationship. This conduct produced a significant split in the relationship between father and daughter, and General Wyatt is clearly upset about it. General Wyatt is a fairly passive man who can appear domineering at times. He does, however, everything he can to keep his wife and kid happy and safe.
Mrs. Wyatt: Constance’s mother and General Wyatt’s wife, Margaret Wyatt. Because the Wyatts’ children all died during the Civil War, she, like General Wyatt, is too protective of Constance. Mrs. Wyatt, on the other hand, is brutally honest with Constance and is not afraid to hurt her feelings in order to make Constance see how pitiful she has become.
Constance is the melodramatic and neurotic Wyatt’s daughter. She had a brief romance with an American man in Paris two years ago, and despite the fact that the relationship terminated due to his infidelity, she remains enamored with him. Constance has been obsessed with Bartlett because he resembles her former beau, but aside from appearances, the two have nothing in common, which is highly upsetting to Constance. When General Wyatt caused the breakup, Constance comes to despise him and constantly expresses her feelings to her mother. Mrs. Wyatt and Constance get along well, however Constance becomes frustrated with her mother when she is brutally honest. Constance exemplifies the lonely woman who is obsessed with marriage and motherhood because she believes it is her main purpose in life. Her inability to meet these standards is extremely stressful and has most likely led to her becoming anorexic.
Themes of “A Counterfeit Presentment”
William Dean Howells’ novel “A Counterfeit Presentment” was released in 1892. The novel delves into a variety of subjects that were important to American society in the late nineteenth century. Some of the major ideas of “A Counterfeit Presentment” are as follows:
Social and class hierarchy: The story examines the social and class hierarchy in late-nineteenth-century American society. Howells investigates how people’s behavior and views of others are influenced by their social standing and income.
Art & culture: “A Counterfeit Presentment” delves into the function of art and culture in contemporary American society. Howells explores how art may be used to represent social and political views, as well as a kind of social critique.
Gender roles: The story investigates gender roles and expectations in the late nineteenth century. Howells depicts women as bright and capable, but often constrained by societal norms and preconceptions.
Morality and ethics: “A Counterfeit Presentment” investigates American society’s moral and ethical values. Howells investigates how humans traverse complex moral and ethical quandaries, as well as how society judges and punishes those who break its moral rules.
Political corruption in American society is also addressed in the novel. Howells condemns politicians’ unscrupulous actions and says that the political system has to be reformed to prevent corruption.
Essentially, “A Counterfeit Presentment” is a sociological satire on late-nineteenth-century American culture, examining different subjects that were pertinent at the time.