The
Iron Rule; or Tyranny in the Household,
A
fiction by T S Arthur
The
iron rule; or tyranny in the household is a novel that was written by T S
Arthur. There are three main characters in this story, they are Andrew Howland,
Mr. Howland, and Ernest. Mr. Howland was married with Ernest and they had two
sons, namely Andrew Howland and his brother. They are being neighbors with Winters’
family, Mr. Howland disallowed Andrew to play with Emily Winters because he
dislike to her father. The character of Mr. Howland was coldness and
intolerance patriarch, if his child deviated from the right line in which they were
required to walk, punishment was sure to follow. He showed his rigid character
when he knew that Andrew had been disobeyed. He said that “you have disobeyed
me again, my son, and I must whip you for it. Disobedient children have to be
punished“, it was happened continuously.
Mr.
Howland always gave punishment even just a little fault of Andrew. However, the
way of educating his children become excess. Andrew could not go anywhere after
school and everything that Andrew did without permission was considered as a
disobedient to him. Because of his rigid, he did not permit Andrew to eat some
food, Andrew could only have some bread and water for dinner, even his wife
always persuaded him. Mr. Howland did not give an opportunity for Andrew to
reply the question or plead himself. It could be seen when Andrew struck his
classmate. Andrew could not say anything because his father never trusted him
and never admitted that his child should not be blamed from that case. Mr.
Howland believed that he needed to be intolerance of all the weakness, errors
and wayward tendencies of childhood, in order to educate his children attitude.
From
another side of Mr. Howland characterization, it could not be blamed if he
taught his children by rigid way. He did the right thing and he actually loved
his children so much. He never taught such a wrong way to his children. All of
he had done were about educating his family to be a good personality. He always
prayed to the God for his children goodness. He did not want if his children
become a protester. The way of his love to his son is always called him by the
name of “Sir”. This was actually the name for a gentleman that is respected by
many people. It could be concluded that this name was given by him as the
invocation or expectation what his son will be in the future. The used of word
“Penny” described the reader that the setting of this story was in United State.
On
the other hand, Andrew Howland is a son who was oppressed by his father’s law.
He such a boy who had an inheritance strong will from his father. He always
disobeyed his father’s law that forbidden him to go to his little friend,
Emily, despite he would be punished by his father. He tried to convince his
mother that Emily was a good friend, and there was no bad attitude of her. He
also tried to deliver any solution that if he was forbidden for going to
Emily’s home, what about Emily would come to his home. These were such the
proof that he had a strong will to do something that he likes. In order to
defend his strong convections, he argued his mother about not to meet Emily,
and always disobedient his father’s law. He did it because he knew that he
never done anything wrong by meeting Emily. He had a good responsibility,
because he never uttered an illusory and kept honest when his father asked him
whether he went to Emily’s home or not even thought the consequence would be
suffered. Another description of his strong will was when he tried to get the
pigeons. Despite he found a difficult to reach the pigeons nest, he just said “I'm sure I could do it" and continued with his effort. It was because
of his strong desire to possess those pigeons.
Andrew
is a socialist person. He helped one of his friends who were oppressed by a bigger
child. He wanted to have a good friend just like Emily, let’s see from the
dialogue “Oh! I wish I had somebody to play with”. He could not also control
himself of any temptation that is challenging. When his friend invited him to
go out for watching the music and military evolutions, he
immediately went out without his father’s permission. He did it, because if he
asked his father’s permission, the really answer is not. Besides, he also
endangered himself to climb up the roof even just for satisfying his
temptation.
Andrew is a lively boy. He did some activities to satisfy his sad
impression when he was restless. He got upon the chair and started to jump from
one to another. Then he turned somersaults on the bed, until more than a
handful of feathers were beaten out and scattered about the room. He did not
stop it yet, after that he climbed up to the roof and from this naughtiness he
finally felt down and resulted in a broken left-arm.
Andrew
is a jolly person. As a child, he naturally loved his mother and father. However,
his love to his father was rather hesitated because of his father abruptness in
educating him. Notwithstanding, he never felt vengeful to his father. After his father whipped him because of struck another boy
at school, he let it go and started to open a pleasurable conversation with his
father as there was no mistreating event: “father!” said Andrew, running up, with a happy smile upon his face, as these
thoughts were passing through the mind of Mr. Howland, "won't you buy me a
pretty book? Oh! I want one”. He actually did not want it. He just wanted to have a
conversation with his father as naturally happened in a family.
Andrew’s mother was a gentle, retiring woman with a
heart full of the best affection who could not do anything when her husbund
gave punishment to Andrew. In fact, she
loved her son so much, but she was obedient and loyal to her husband. She did
not want if her child would be punished by her husband. Sincerity of a mother
could be seen when she brought some food to Andrew secretly, she persuaded her
husband of that “ Andrew had no dinner to day, he must be very hungry by this
time. Won’t you allow him something more than bread and water?”. She
intentionally did it sincerity because she would not denied something that have
been decided by her husband.
We
have analyzed the three main characters above. Now, as the additional
characters, we will analyze some of them briefly.
Emily
winter was a good friend for Andrew. She had a good attitude that made Andrew
had a strong will to be her friend despite it was not allowed by his father.
This is because of a problem between the two families.
The
nurse of Andrew was honest, he told the fact that Andrew went to play with his
little friends “Emily”.
A
father of a boy who was struck by Andrew is a good father. He had a
responsibility to protect his son. Differently from Mr. Holland who always
blamed his son for a little matter. He also used a good manner of delivering
his complaint to Andrew.
The
teacher who wrote a letter to Mr. Holland had a good responsibility. In order
to plead Andrew that done a right thing, he wrote a letter to Mr. Holland.
After that, the teacher directly asked Andrew
about whether his father had received the letter or not. This is a good
attention to Andrew.
