The Virginian

The story begins at Medicine Bow, a small frontier town in the dry, rolling hills of southeastern Wyoming territory. Its denizens are a rowdy collection of cowboys, proprietors, traveling salesmen, and women of less-than-stellar repute. The town, though fairly new, already looks decrepit; piles of trash dot its outskirts; drinking, carousing, and card games are its entertainment. Medicine Bow represents the many small towns that dot the West in the 1870s; it stands in stark contrast to calmer, quieter ranching communities to the north. The town also represents the early life of the Virginian, before he meets Molly Wood and sets aside the debauchery of his younger days. 

The plains and deserts, with their gently winding rivers, vast skies, and occasional settlements, have a beauty all their own, but it is the mountains that express the grandeur of the West. Rising through forests to snowy alpine crests, the great ranges of Wyoming have a timeless character that makes puny the problems and passions of the humans who dot the valleys below. It is through the high passes that the Virginian travels to hunt both animals and criminals; his musings on life and its challenges reach heights of inspiration among the tall peaks. For his honeymoon, he brings Molly to his favorite high-country retreat, and she appreciates it as much as he does. The massive mountains echo the newlyweds’ great love for one another.

Pedro is a pony owned by Shorty, who loves it and treats it with warm affection. At one point impoverished, Shorty is forced to sell the horse to Balaam, a rancher who believes all animals must be whipped into obedience. Under pressure to return borrowed horses quickly to the Sunk Creek Ranch, Balaam tries to force Pedro to travel faster, finally beating the poor creature senseless. Witnessing this, the Virginian grabs Balaam and thrashes him. Balaam later shoots Pedro by accident and must kill the creature to put it out of its misery. Pedro’s tragedy stands in for the fate of livestock, and perhaps the wilderness itself, at the hands of overly ambitious settlers.

The first thing the narrator notices when he arrives in Medicine Bow is a corral of ponies, one of whom refuses to be lassoed. This pony is crafty; it watches the men the way a boxer watches an opponent. None can catch the horse until a man drops down from the gate and, holding his lasso low, snakes it out to capture the horse on the first try. The pony follows him willingly, as if happy to submit to so worthy an opponent. The pony’s spirit exemplifies the spirit of the West that will not be tamed except by those who understand it, respect it, and demonstrate a will and character worthy of leadership. 

Molly owns a picture of her great-grandmother, “a little miniature portrait of the old Molly Stark, painted when that far-off dame must have been scarce more than twenty” (91). Dating from 1777, the portrait shows a lovely young woman, the bride of a famous Revolutionary War hero and something of a hero herself for saving troops from smallpox. She looks remarkably like her great-granddaughter, Molly, who likes to look at the portrait from time to time and take inspiration from her feisty ancestor who bravely pursued her dreams. Molly searches the painting’s face, hoping for clues as to how she should treat the opportunity and the danger of her connection to the Virginian. At one point, Molly decides to move back to Vermont, packing everything in crates except for the portrait, which stares back at her, almost accusingly, as if judging her for cowardice in refusing to accept that the Virginian is what he truly desires. Later, after she rescues and nurses the Virginian, he, too, consults the portrait and promises to it that he will take good care of Molly.

Molly Stark was a real hero of American history, as was her husband, General John Stark. 

The Virginian likes pranks. During the story, he plays four of them, each for a specific purpose. The first he carries out on a bet, using guile and humor to convince a traveling salesman to abandon his bed in an overbooked boarding house. The next prank involves switching around the babies who sleep in a room at a neighborhood party. The third begins with the capture of a sack-load of frogs, which are cooked and fed to hungry train passengers while the Virginian tells a story about California frog ranches that turns out to be a tall tale designed to make a fool of Trampas, who otherwise would have convinced the Virginian’s crew members to abandon him. The final prank is played on a stuffy, long-winded preacher who would plague Judge Henry’s ranch guests for a week except that the Virginian engages in an elaborate ruse that infuriates the cleric and causes him to depart early.

These pranks act as mile markers in the Virginian’s progress as a maturing adult. The first prank is showy and juvenile; so is the second. On realizing that he must grow up if he is to be worthy of Molly, the Virginian thereafter limits his jests to things that improve situations. He saves the ranch many of its employees with a simple story that foils a mutiny, and he relieves his employer of a week of grief from a problem guest by creating a ruse that causes the infuriated visitor to leave early. 

Railroads make access to the Western territories possible, and Easterners flock to Wyoming either to visit or homestead. Visitors bring their citified ways with them, so that a delay caused by a bridge washout can bring out their spoiled impatience.

The railroad represents the spreading tendrils of civilization into the wilds of Western America. The trains bring a swell of settlers, and with each arrival, the West becomes a little more tame.