Daily Reflections for Gosse

Gosse 1

Father and Son A study of Two Temperaments by Edmund Gosse was a work that

differs greatly in style and content from the previous writings covered in class. He

uses the very fist sentence to identify the theme of his work, a “record of a struggle

between two temperaments, two consciences and almost two epochs. (1)” These

two temperaments are his and his Dad’s, and the relationship between them

provides the primary uniting agent amount the writings of the work. Gosse starts

out by giving some context. His mother and father were both from wealthy families

whose wealth had deteriorated with time. Despite this, both parents were well

educated writers and his father was a successful zoologist. He says he grew up a

somewhat deprived childhood under parents that were very devoted to their

religion. He was not told fairy tales like those of Little Red Riding Hood or

Rumpelstiltskin, but seems to have seen this as a misguided well-intentioned effort

on the part of his parents, saying, “I can but think that my parents were in error

thus to exclude the imaginary from my outlook upon facts. They desired to make

me truthful; the tendency was to make me positive and sceptical. (8)” He did,

though, have access to works of a scientific and factual nature.

One aspect that particularly seemed like an oddity was his father. In our course

readings, we have not yet come across someone so acquainted with science that he

writes books, yet is so fanatically devoted to his religion in ways that may

sometimes cause them to contradict (as the late 1800’s was also the time of

Darwin, another figure in natural history). His father was also shown to be

somewhat of a disciplinarian when he punished Gosse when Gosse was only six

years old, “by giving me several cuts with a cane (14)”. Gosse was angry, but saw
it as justified as per the bible- this seemed to hint at additional underlying tension

that would follow. Lastly, his mother falls ill. He takes care of her, but she

eventually dies a tragic death. This is an important moment, but has a longer

lasting effect in that it cements the focus of the story between Gosse and his father.

Gosse 2

The next three chapters of Gosse’s book focus on Gosse’s growth and spiritual

development. With his mother dead and his father having been put into a position

in which he would have to travel the countryside giving lectures in order to support

himself, Gosse is forced to move in temporarily with a paternal cousin’s family in

Bristol. Gosse made it clear that this was an influential event on his childhood,

saying, “For the first time, when half through my eighth year, I was thrown into the

society of young people (22).” He also refers to the spiritual laxity of the family,

even being the opportunity to fire a pistol, and savors many of the moments he had

at Clifton.

He moves on to talk about the time he spent with his father after he leaves his

cousins. It is here where a lot of the substance of the story is. Gosse’s father,

although a scientist who respected people like Darwin, puts religious doctrine before

contemporary ideas. His fanatic beliefs seemed weird as some points, when

referring to Christmas dinner, Gosse said, “My Father had given strictest charge that

no difference whatever was to be made in our meals on that day (34).” Gosse and

his father studied scripture together, with Gosse describing his father as giving him

“theological meat which it was impossible for me to digest (25).” Gosse also talks

about Ms. Marks briefly, and the fact that they did get along but he felt guilty about

not affording her the respect she deserved. The story then goes on to a particularly
interesting discussion of Gosse’s Father’s ideas of science and religion intersected.

Philip tried to reconcile the scripture idea of creationism and the scientific idea of

the fossil record with a work he published called 'Omphalos' . He proposed that God

put fossils in rocks to tempt people towards infidelity. This work was criticized by

both creationists and evolutionists, and “…atheists and Christians alike looked at it,

and laughed, and threw it away (31).” It crushed his father and this added to the

stress of the relationship between Gosse and his father.

Gosse 3

In the seventh, eighth, and ninth chapters of Gosse, the pressures Philip puts on his

son to be a model Plymouth Brethren become very apparent and clearly contribute

to the schism between Gosse and his father/father’s faith. Gosse felt that his father

was forcing the faith down his throat, describing himself as “a being to whom the

mysteries of salvation had been divinely revealed and by whom they had been

accepted (45)” when referring to what his father thought of him. It appeared to me

that his father took his son to represent an extension of himself. Since Philip was

now in the service of a Christian congregation, any religious failings of his son would

represent a failing of himself. It seemed like his father took ‘Omphalos’ as a lost

child and was hoping to selvedge his own son possibly through encouraging him

towards a clergy career.

Gosse was publicly baptized as a child and says, “I felt like a small and solitary bird,

caught and hung out hopelessly and endlessly in a great glittering cage (57)” when

referring to how he felt about being pressured into the faith. It was perhaps this

perceived loss of freedom and independence that was the turning point of Gosse’s
mindset from following in his father’s faith to moving away from it. In regards to

that baptism, he says, “Everything, since the earliest dawn of consciousness,

seemed to have been leading up to it. Everything, afterwards, seemed to be leading

down and away from it. (53)” I believe this is one reason why free will is such an

important component in many modern faiths. It is this spirit of free will and the

individual arriving at a faith conclusion for him or herself that is sometimes lost. For

example, one can look at the Catholic sacrament of confirmation. By the fact that it

is public and expected of young and baptized Catholic adults, there is an inherent

social pressure to partake of it that may lead some to feel as though they were

pressured into the sacrament and thereby possibly weaken their commitment to the

faith.

Gosse 4

The last part of Gosse’s story covers his apostasy from Christianity. The event came

as no surprise, since the undertone of the first part of the book hinted at this and

Gosse confirmed he was taking this path not too far later on. It is very ironic in that

the very things that Philip did to try to keep his son’s faith within the church- the

pressuring and the various antics- are what contributed to Gosse’s leaving the

Church. An event in the last part of the book that deserves celebration is Philip’s

remarriage. When referring to Brightwen, Gosse said, “She was a very well-

meaning pious lady, but she was not a fanatic, and her mind did not naturally revel

in spiritual aspirations. (64)” She brings joy to Philip while being well-liked by

Edmund, thereby acting as a common agent in the relationship between Gosse and

his father. Gosse had found some comfort in literature, saying, “The great subject
of my curiosity at this time was words, as instruments of expression. (79)” He

became a fan of such authors and playwrights as Shakespeare, and his step mother

contributed to this joy by the books she brought with her.

One particularly interesting moment in the narrative comes near the end, when

Gosse says, “I gazed up into the tenderly-coloured sky, and I broke irresistibly into

speech. 'Come now, Lord Jesus,' I cried, 'come now and take me to be for ever with

Thee in Thy Paradise. (86)” It appears that Gosse is trying God, and expectedly

nothing special happened. Gosse then says, “From that moment forth my Father

and I, though the fact was long successfully concealed from him and even from

myself, walked in opposite hemispheres of the soul, with 'the thick o' the world

between us'. (86)” This last sentence before the epilogue is the culmination of all

that the book had been about…it is when Gosse would like us to think he had lost

his faith for good.

Gosse, Edmund. Father and Son: A study of two temperaments. Project Gutenberg:

Nov, 2004.