The Gates Between
By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
The evening before we parted, I ventured—for we sat at the sheltered end of the piazza, away from the patterers and chatterers, a little by ourselves—to ask her a brave question. I had learned that one might ask her anything; she had originality; she was not of the feminine pattern; she had no paltriness nor pettiness in her thoughts; she looked out, as men do, upon a subject; not down, as women are wont.
She was a woman with whom a man could converse. He need not adapt himself, conceal himself, and play the part of a gallant at real matters above gallantry. He could confide in her. Now, it was new to me to consider that I could confide in anyone. In my calling, one becomes such a receptacle of human confidence—soaks up other people’s lives till one becomes a great sponge, absorptive and absorbing forever, as sponges should. Who notices when the valuable thing gets too full? That is what it is there for. Pour on—scalding hot, cold, pure, or foul—pour away. If one day it refuses to absorb any more and lies limp and valueless—why, the Doctor has broken down, or the Doctor is dead. Whoever thought anything could happen to the Doctor?
One thing in the natural history of the sponge is apt to be overlooked. When the absorption process reaches a certain point, let the actual hand touch the worn thing and grasp it correctly, and lo! Back rushes the instinct of confidence, out, not in. Something of this sort had happened to me. The novelty of real acquaintance with a woman who did not need me affected me that perhaps few outside my profession can understand. This woman, indeed, required nothing of me. She had not so much as a toothache or a sore throat. If she had cares or troubles, they were her own. She leaned upon me no more than the sunrise did upon the mountain.
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Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward (August 31, 1844 – January 28, 1911) was an early feminist American author and intellectual who challenged traditional Christian beliefs of the afterlife, challenged women’s traditional roles in marriage and family, and advocated clothing reform for women.
Biography.
In 1868, three years after the Civil War ended, she published The Gates Ajar, which depicted the afterlife as a place replete with the comforts of domestic life and where families would be reunited—along with family pets—through eternity. In her 40s, Phelps broke convention again when she married a man 17 years her junior. Later in life, she urged women to burn their corsets. Her later writing focused on feminine ideals and women’s financial dependence on men in marriage. She was the first woman to present a lecture series at Boston University.
During her lifetime, she was the author of 57 volumes of fiction, poetry, and essays. In these works, she challenged the prevailing view that a woman’s place and fulfilment resided in the home. Instead, Phelps’ work depicted women succeeding in nontraditional careers as physicians, ministers, and artists. Near the end of her life, Phelps became very active in the animal rights movement. Her novel, Trixy, published in 1904, was constructed around vivisection and how this kind of training affected doctors. The book became a standard polemic against experimentation on animals.
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
