An American Tragedy

Elvira telegrams that she will do whatever it takes to get to Bridgeburg and raise funds for Clyde’s defense. The telegram is laden with religious language. The telegram office leaks the telegrams, and the press descends on Elvira. Elvira shares details about Clyde’s poverty as a child, the hope that they placed in Samuel, and her mission work. Clyde can’t help but admire his mother’s faith and commitment to helping him as he faces the possibility of execution. Clyde worries that Sondra will learn the truth about his background if she reads these interviews.

Clyde’s trial date is set. The interior monologues of the jury members make it clear that getting an impartial jury will be impossible. In the court, Clyde recognizes a few faces: Roberta’s sister and mother, the landlords of the boarding houses where Roberta stayed, Heit, and one woman who is the sole representative of the moneyed class in Lycurgus. Sondra isn’t there, and both the defense and prosecution have agreed not to mention her by name in the proceedings. Belknap tells Clyde that although their narrative isn’t true, Clyde has to act and speak like it is since he may die otherwise.

The trial begins. Mason describes Clyde as a calculating man who abandoned Roberta for the blameless, “rich and beautiful Miss X, who because of a purely innocent and kindly, if infatuated” interest in Clyde returned his affection (280). Mason reveals key pieces of evidence that he has withheld from the defense: Roberta’s letter to her mother and a person he claims is an eyewitness to the murder. The claims stun Clyde. Jephson suspects that Mason may be lying, but he tells Clyde and Belknap that even if there is a witness, Clyde can swear that he had a “cataleptic trance—no courage to do it. It’s not likely anybody can see that at five hundred feet” (283). He tells Belknap that they still might get Clyde off with 20 years instead of the electric chair.

Mason calls on friends, neighbors, landlords, family, the postal carrier, the telephone operator, and the people who sold Roberta and Clyde tickets to paint a picture of Roberta’s last days. Conveniently, that testimony drags on until November—just in time for election season. Belknap grows so frustrated with this spectacle that he accuses Mason of exploiting the case for political points. Mason makes a great show of how offensive this is. The judge tells both sides not to mention politics again.

Mason calls witnesses who testify that Clyde had a camera and tripod. He introduces autopsy photos that show that the wounds on Roberta’s face likely came from a camera. Another witness (the supposed eyewitness) says that she heard a woman scream at just the moment Roberta likely died. Mason then reads Roberta’s letters out loud, and some jurors cry in response. By the end of the day, sentiment in the court and outside of it is that Clyde is guilty of cruel murder. The newspapers offer glowing praise of Mason’s performance in the case.

The next morning, the headlines on the newspapers include “MOTHER OF DEAD GIRL FAINTS AT CLOSE OF DRAMATIC READING OF HER LETTERS” (291). Against this backdrop, Belknap begins his opening statement. Mason misled the jury on several points. Clyde never promised to marry Roberta, for example. The evidence against Clyde is circumstantial. Belknap calls on the jury members to “remember, we were once all boys. And those of you who are grown women were girls, and know well—oh, how very well—the fevers and aches of youth” (292). He then quotes scripture on not judging unless they want to be judged in kind. Belknap’s central claim is that Clyde was “a victim of a mental and moral fear complex” that has its roots in his upbringing (293). He shocks the crowd when he claims that he has his own eyewitness (it’s just Clyde). Jephson takes over the questioning and leads Clyde through a careful account of his early life.

Clyde describes how he ran away from Kansas City after he and his friends killed the little girl and his early relationship with Roberta. He repeats the claim that he never promised Roberta marriage. When Roberta told Clyde that she was pregnant, he promised to support her financially up until she gave birth. He took Roberta to the lake to break the news to her. She seemed so sad, and they were having such an enjoyable time that Clyde decided that he would marry her after all. The boat capsized when the two reached out to hug each other. The camera struck Roberta. When she fell in the water, Clyde didn’t want her to die but was just too afraid to risk himself for her. He ran away once he got to shore because he was afraid.

Mason cross-examines Clyde and shows, point-by-point, the inconsistencies in his story compared with the testimony of other witnesses. Mason has the boat brought to the courtroom. He has Clyde re-enact his actions on the boat, using his clerk—a petite woman—to act the part of Roberta. The next day, Mason pulls out his ace piece of evidence: the camera with Roberta’s hair on it. The judge overrules the objection to introducing this surprise piece of evidence. Mason systematically shows how conniving Clyde must have been to carry on with two women simultaneously. He proves that Clyde knew to the cent how much every item cost except for the rental charge that he would have to pay when he returned the boat. Mason proves that Clyde—not Roberta—chose their destination as they headed toward Big Bittern.

Belknap and Mason make their closing statements. During the deliberations, only one juror argues for acquitting Clyde, but his fellow jurors tell him that they will boycott his business and get others in the community to boycott him as well unless he sides with them. Clyde is found guilty. Clyde worries about the impact of the conviction on his mother. Everyone praises Mason. The deputies in the court watch Clyde to see how he takes the news; they intend to leak this information to the press.

When Elvira learns that Clyde is guilty, she searches her Bible for answers and finally decides that Clyde was certainly an adulterer, but Roberta was as well. Elvira asks one of the many reporters at her door if he will take a telegram message to the office. The reporter does what she asks but also publishes the contents. Samuel and his family refuse to pay the legal costs of an appeal, especially after Elvira keeps giving interviews to the papers. Samuel, his family, and the factory will move to Boston to escape the stench of the trial. Belknap and Jephson ask Elvira to come to New York to plead for her son at the sentencing. Elvira gets a newspaper to pay her travel costs in exchange for a written account of what happens in the court at the sentencing.

Clyde learns that Elvira is en route. “There was no mirror here—or anywhere” (334), but Clyde knows that his looks must be greatly altered with a shaved head and prison clothes. Elvira arrives. When she meets with Clyde’s lawyers, she tells them that she will do fundraising talks in churches and public halls to pay for Clyde’s appeal. The judge sentences Clyde to death. Elvira tells reporters about the plan to appeal the sentence. Clyde moves to death row in Auburn, New York. Several of his fellow inhabitants of death row already know who he is—Dreiser describes several of these inmates using racist slurs and stereotypes. Clyde sees these inmates as beneath him. He overhears the screaming and praying of one man due for execution soon.

Elvira visits Clyde. She encourages Clyde to take heart and seek out spiritual counsel. She tells him about her plan to raise funds for his appeal. Clyde, with no other sources of hope, clings to his belief that his mother can help him. The facility where Clyde is housed is connected to the old death row house, which the prison has converted to a visiting area and the execution chamber. This arrangement is the result of “a series of primary legislative enactments, followed by decisions and compulsions as devised by the temperaments and seeming necessities of various wardens” (336), not hatred of those sentenced to execution.

Elvira begins her speaking tour to raise funds for Clyde’s defense but finds that most churches shut her out for many reasons: the sensationalism of the case, Clyde’s obvious guilt, and their discomfort with a woman unassociated with any church hierarchy preaching. Elvira skips Catholic churches because she doesn’t see them as Christians. One of the few to volunteer space to her is a sympathetic man who is Jewish and owns a movie theater. Elvira raises half of what she needs but goes back to Denver when Asa falls ill. The lawyers take pity and file the appeal anyway. Clyde becomes accustomed to being on death row, but the grim atmosphere even gets to the guards. There is no privacy, so Clyde finally sees and hears one man make his way to his execution. He knows that the man is being electrocuted because the lights dim when a shock is delivered.

Asa recovers, but by then the newspapers have moved on to the next sensation. They won’t fund Elvira’s return to New York. Elvira sends a charismatic evangelist, Duncan McMillan, to see Clyde and save his soul. Duncan is her kind of Christian because he accepts her belief that Roberta bears some blame because she fornicated with Clyde.

Clyde’s impending execution and McMillan’s persuasive powers change Clyde’s view of faith as useless when it comes to the practical aspects of life. He sees now that what he did, starting with his sexual relationship with Roberta, was sinful. Sondra sends Clyde an unsigned note in which she says that she will remember him. It is clear that this is the last word from her. Clyde’s mood bottoms out.

Two weeks later, Clyde tells the minister that he did intend to kill Roberta but relented at the last minute. Her subsequent death was an accident. McMillan is troubled that Clyde did plan a murder and that Roberta died as a result. McMillan believes that the death penalty may be immoral, but he knows that Clyde must be called to account for his actions. Clyde loses his appeal. McMillan preempts Elvira by breaking the news to Clyde. Clyde’s last hope is a pardon or commutation of his sentence by the incoming governor; McMillan will approach the governor on Clyde’s behalf. When Clyde tries to share the news with Elvira later, she tells him that McMillan has already told her about the governor.

The governor asks McMillan point blank if Clyde deserves a commutation of his death sentence. All McMillan can muster is that he is responsible for Clyde’s soul, not the legalities of the case. The governor won’t intervene. Clyde’s faith in the afterlife wavers when he receives the news. Clyde writes an open letter repenting of his sins and calling on people to accept Jesus. McMillan revises the letter with Clyde’s approval and agrees to release it after Clyde’s death. Clyde sees the death house and guards as parts of a “horrible routine system,” and the guards, despite their little kindnesses to the men, are “mere machines, automatons, pushing and pushing and yet restraining and restraining one—within these walls, as ready to kill as to favor in case of opposition” (357). Clyde is executed. In the aftermath, McMillan suspects that Clyde’s death was neither just, nor moral, and is low when he goes to find Elvira.

Asa, Elvira, Esta’s seven-year-old son, and two young women pull out the old organ and sing the same old hymns. Onlookers make the same comments about the little boy as they made about Clyde. The Griffithses leave. Esta’s son asks if can have money for ice cream. Elvira says yes because she believes that indulging him now will stop trouble like Clyde’s later.