Summary
Though everyone assures Johnny that the handle he designed
for the sugar bowl is beautiful, Johnny remains unconvinced. Before
casting the wax model in silver, he takes his design to Paul Revere,
a silversmith of great repute, to ask his advice. Johnny has never
met Revere before and is shocked to discover that the great artisan knows
his name and his face. Johnny is not aware that all of the master
silversmiths in Boston have been watching him. Revere immediately
spots the imperfection that Johnny was sensing all along in his design:
the curve of the handle is wrong, and the ornate design too large.
Revere offers to buy the rest of Johnny’s apprentice time from Mr.
Lapham for more than the normal price, but Johnny refuses the honor.
He explains to Revere that he is the Laphams’ chief breadwinner
and cannot abandon them.
Back at home, Johnny follows Revere’s advice
about the sugar bowl, and he is finally satisfied with his work.
He quickly makes the wax models and sends Dove to buy some charcoal,
but Dove returns with charcoal of inferior quality. Johnny fiercely
criticizes Dove, which bothers Mr. Lapham. Mr. Lapham lectures Johnny
about his attitude, encouraging him to be more pious. Consequently,
he forbids Johnny to work that evening. Johnny despairs because
Mr. Hancock wanted the sugar basin by Monday morning, and it is
now Saturday night. Working on Sunday is not only against the law,
but it would be a violation of Mr. Lapham’s pious lifestyle. Mr.
Lapham seems entirely unconcerned by the prospect of failing to
meet the deadline.
Mrs. Lapham, however, does not put much stock in her
father-in-law’s strict religious beliefs and casual attitude toward
work, so she urges Johnny to work on Sunday. Mr. Lapham, she points
out, will be away most of the day, so he will never know if the
religious rule to rest on Sunday is violated. Johnny’s work begins
well, but Dove deliberately hands him a cracked crucible. Dove’s
intention is to humble Johnny by making him look clumsy when the
silver spills out, but his actions result in a terrible accident.
When the crucible breaks, spilling molten silver over the furnace,
Johnny slips and badly burns his hand. Mrs. Lapham is afraid to
reveal Johnny’s sin of breaking the Sabbath, so she summons a midwife
instead of a doctor. The midwife does not bandage Johnny’s hand
correctly, and when the bandages come off, Johnny’s thumb is fused
to his palm, ruining him forever as a silversmith. Johnny walks
through Boston in an angry, bleak mood. The Lapham family’s
careful courtesy and Dove’s impudence infuriate him. When Mr. Lapham
learns that Johnny broke the Sabbath to work on the basin, he melts down
the entire piece and tells John Hancock that he cannot fill his
order, giving no explanation for the failure. Mr. Lapham also discloses
to Johnny that Dove was the true cause of his accident and asks
him to forgive Dove “like a true Christian.” Johnny, however, only
swears revenge.
Analysis
Mr. Lapham and Johnny have vastly different attitudes
toward work, religion, and humanity, and these divergent opinions
may reflect a broad difference between the older and younger colonists. Mr.
Lapham has a somewhat laid-back work ethic—he is unconcerned about
meeting deadlines and not interested in achieving fame and fortune.
He thoroughly enjoys casting silver and feels it is his moral and
religious duty to provide for his family. These motivations alone
drive his labor. Johnny, on the other hand, is fervently ambitious.
He views the Hancock sugar basin order as his chance to achieve
widespread recognition, and through that recognition, to build a
lucrative silver business. Johnny fantasizes about running a shop
outside of his home, which only the most successful silversmiths
can afford to do, and he dreams about all the important people who
will come to beg for his services. This shift in work ethic is reflected
in the difference between the dreams of the older and younger colonists.
The older colonists have small dreams: they want to comfortably
support their families, work at their trades, and enjoy religious
freedom. The younger colonists have more robust dreams, and they
desire to get all the money, rights, and opportunities. The younger
colonists are not as easily satisfied with their role in life, and
their growing needs lead to a broader dissatisfaction with English
rule. When the British try to raise revenue from the colonists in
the wake of the French and Indian War, taxing them and limiting their
self-rule, they threaten the ambitions of the younger generations,
who want to maintain control over their pocketbooks and their colonial
legislatures. The older generation might have suffered silently
under the new impositions, but the new generation protests and ultimately
revolts.
Mr. Lapham and Johnny also view religion through different lenses.
Mr. Lapham is gravely pious. He reads the Bible more often than
he casts silver, and he tries to imbue all actions in his life with the
instructions he finds in the Holy Book. Though he constantly urges
Johnny to take the advice of the Bible seriously—to rein in his arrogance
and to learn to forgive—Johnny is indifferent to these suggestions.
The Bible, and religion in general, does not interest Johnny, and
he does not use religion as a guide for how he should treat others
or live his life. He is not even reluctant to break the Sabbath,
which at that time was considered a sin and was against the law.
Mr. Lapham’s daughter-in-law, Mrs. Lapham, shares Johnny’s lax attitude
toward the Sabbath, which suggests that the shift in religious attitude
is generational. Later on, we see that these lenient attitudes toward
religion exist also among the leaders of the revolutionary cause.
The leaders meet on Sunday to conduct political business, and the
Minute Men train on Sunday.
In part, the more relaxed religious attitudes among the
younger generation are the result of the increasingly cosmopolitan
character of the colonies. During the time in which the novel is
set, Boston is the largest city in the colonies and a major international
port. However, the shift in religious attitudes was not limited
to the colonies. The eighteenth century brought on a gradual but
perceptible weakening of religious observance all over Western Europe.
Philosophers who were part of the intellectual movement called the
Enlightenment believed that truth lay in science and rational exploration rather
than in religion and faith. The new Enlightenment beliefs spread
widely and eventually influenced the colonies by way of large port
cities like Boston.
