The Contrast: Luxury, Frugality, and Patriotism

I connected The Contrast with Henri Bergson’s Laughter when Bergson brought up the idea that laughter, in a community, is supposed to be corrective for the whole community. Royall Tyler wrote The Contrast as a satire of modern America at that time. Each character represented or brought up some vice or something Tyler saw in American society that he believed to be wrong.  Colonel Manly was portrayed as what Tyler believed to be a good man.

In The Contrast, Colonel Manly gives a speech on why greed and luxury is bad for America. (pg.38-39) One of the things he says is “…Luxury! Which enervates both soul and body, by opening a thousand new sources of enjoyment, opens, also, a thousand new sources of contention and want…” Personally I both agree with this statement and disagree.

Luxury under some circumstances is good and helpful such as when someone goes on vacation. The time off of work and from a busy life is needed and the luxury of staying in a hotel, not having to cook for yourself etc. is really nice for a short period of time. When it gets dangerous is when people continually live this way and expect these luxuries instead of seeing them as such. 

So why then does Colonel Manly seem to think all luxury is bad, even things that aren’t necessarily luxury but common in society? His sister Charlotte urges him to get his military coat tailored to the height of common fashion. Considering most men and women kept up with what clothes were popular, this wasn’t exactly a luxury so much as a common occurrence. However when Colonel Manly replies he says, “…there was a time when this coat was respectable, and some people even thought that those men…, at least deserved that the poverty of their appearance should not be ridiculed.” (pg. 23) So in essence, Colonel Manly doesn’t tailor his old coat not because he’s too cheap, but because he wants to show his patriotism for his country and for the men who fought with him. With this being said he seems to further extrapolate this idea into all of his life; living meagerly and not gambling or spending money where it doesn’t need to be spent. Colonel Manly has seen and lived in true depravity and so chooses to honor his experience, along with the men who died next to him, with frugality and meekness.

Manly: A True American

In 1787, when The Contrast was published, America had been removed from the Revolutionary War for four years and the America we know today had not been established yet. As a newly independent nation, America was trying to establish its own identity. I believe that Royall Tyler created the character of Colonel Manly as a true American and wished for those in the audience to be influenced by this man’s character.

Colonel Manly shows the traits of an American throughout the play. In ACT II, scene 1, Charlotte criticizes Manly’s clothing because it is not what society finds acceptable, “your coat looks as if it were calculated for the vulgar purpose of keeping yourself comfortable…now another type of coat is fashionable.” Manly wears the coat so he remembers the brave men who fought in the war and the government they had helped create.

In Act IV, scene 1, Dimple criticizes the amusements of America and says those in Europe are far better. Manly is once again defending his nation against Europe as he had done in war by saying, “I love my country; it has its foibles undoubtedly; some foreigners will with pleasure remark them…we, her [America] children, should blush for them in private, and endeavour, as individuals, to reform them.” I read this as Manly saying that if foreigners find errors in America, we must strive to correct them and show the world that no nation is superior to our own.

I believe that Tyler wrote this play as a way to make the citizens of America more patriotic. True Americans must be like Colonel Manly and honor the soldiers who gave their lives fighting in the Revolutionary War and not make it their goal to criticize the faults of their country, but identify those faults and fix them in an attempt to make this great nation better. I believe that Tyler created the characters of Charlotte and Dimple as a way to show what happens to Americans who are not fully detached from Europe. They become selfish, evil, manipulative, and become blind to the greatness of their own country.