The Californian’s Tale: Theme Analysis

The Californian’s Tale

Theme Analysis

By Andie Moore

In the story The Californian’s Tale there is one main theme that leads to others. This main theme is evident it is love. Henry has a great love for his wife. His love was a never-ending feeling for her. “One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love.” Henry probably had such a hard time with his wife’s death that he blocked it out of his mind and started to believe that she really was still there, and that she still loved him. The quote above describes why Henry had so much love for his deceased wife, it was because her death put so much pain and weight on his life. Henry was a gold miner. He came out to California to find happiness in wealth; hint the fact he was searching for gold. Henrys wife loved him so much that she came out to California with him, and made an old nasty cottage a home. She was probably happy without the gold. The reason she was happy was because she was in love with Henry. She was a nineteen-year old newlywed woman who was in love. Being a nineteen-year old she missed her family. So when the newlyweds were settled in their cabin she went to visit her family. She was ambushed by a group of Indians on the way and was killed. Henry soon found out that there is only one happiness in life, and that is to love and to be loved. This goes for the Lord also. Until you find the Love of the Lord you have an emptiness in your life that your try to fill with other materialistic items such as money.

When Henrys friends came over to throw the party for Henry’s wife the traveler found out how much love Henry needed. “And Saturday we all come and fix up the house with flowers, and get everything ready for a dance. We’ve done it every year for nineteen years. The first Saturday there was twenty-seven of us, without counting the girls: there’s only us now” (Twain 254). Henry’s friends Joe and Tom have love/ compassion for their friend Henry. They care about his well- being, “We drug him to sleep, or he would go wild; then he’s alright for another year…he gets out his poor old letter, and we come and ask him to read it to us” (Twain 254). Ever since her death he was never sane. Then when it comes to the days when she was supposed to return he starts to realize that she might not really be there with him. He starts to feel the pain and weight, so Joe and Tom come over and asks’ Henry to read the letter she wrote stating when she would be home, and then they set up a party for her. They do not want their friend to feel the pain that he has tries to avoid. by Andie Moore

In 1 Corinthians 13:13 it says, “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Henry had faith that his wife was still with him, and that she still lived in the cabin she decorated and made a home. He had hope that she would return that Saturday. And he loved her. It is true that the greatest of faith, hope and love, is love. Love is a never-ending feeling. You can loose faith, and hope but you can never loose love. You may think you have but it is still in you. Henry never lost the love of his dead wife. I also feel that Mark Twain wanted to get the message across that marriages are made in heaven and consummated on earth through Henry. This lesson tells us that a marriage on earth is only temporary, but a marriage in heaven to God is forever. If you think about the marriage we have with God we do consummate it on earth, with baptism. We also consummate it in staying faithful to our husband or wife on earth. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”