Home: Leila Rosen—English Teacher and
Aesthetic Realism Associate
Sue
is determined to find some way to have Johnsy give up her desire to die, and talks
to their neighbor, Mr. Behrman—who, “regarded himself as especial
mastiff-in-waiting to protect the two young artists.” He was, the author says,
“a failure in art....He drank gin to excess, and still talked of his coming
masterpiece,” though he hadn’t painted a single stroke on it in 25 years. When
Sue tells him of Johnsy’s situation, he “shouted his contempt and derision for
such idiotic imaginings.”
“Vass!....Is
dere people in de world mit der foolishness to die because leafs dey drop off
from a confounded vine? …Vy .
. do you allow dot silly pusiness to come in der brain of her? Ach, dot
poor leetle Miss Yohnsy.”
"She is very ill and
weak," said Sue, "and the fever has left her mind morbid and full of
strange fancies.” Mr. Behrman is intent
on trying to help: “Go on, I come mit
you....Some day I vill baint a masterpiece, and ve shall all go away. Gott!
yes.”
Sue shows Behrman the fateful ivy vine. “They looked at
each other for a moment without speaking. A persistent, cold rain was falling,
mingled with snow.” Sure that the rain would strip the last leaves from the
vine, Sue pulls down the shade to prevent Johnsy from looking out the
window—but to no avail. The next morning, Johnsy, insists Sue raise the shade.
But, lo! after the beating rain and fierce gusts of wind that
had endured through the livelong night, there yet stood out against the brick
wall one ivy leaf....Still dark green near its stem, but with its serrated
edges tinted with the yellow of dissolution and decay, it hung bravely from a
branch some twenty feet above the ground.
“It is the last one,”
said Johnsy. “I thought it would surely fall during the night...It will fall
today, and I shall die at the same time.”
I see this story, and Johnsy’s determination to make these
leaves stand for herself and her own certain death, as symbolic. Aesthetic Realism explains: we punish
ourselves when we want to put aside the world, represented here by this ivy
vine. These leaves put together
reality’s opposites: delicacy and strength, fixity and motion, bright and dark.
Had Johnsy wanted to get rid of that world—and is she now punishing herself for
this? From O. Henry’s description, I think this is what is happening.
Another
day and another stormy night pass and, the author writes, “Johnsy, the merciless, commanded that the
shade be raised.” But despite her terrible determination, the leaf is still
there. As she sees this little ivy leaf, which has endured so much, yet
persists, she takes it as some criticism of herself. "I've been a bad girl,
Sudie," she said.
“Something
has made that last leaf stay there to show me how wicked I was. It is a sin to
want to die.”...Later she said: “...Some day I hope to paint the
Johnsy’s
hope to like the world is winning out; she wants to live. The doctor is
encouraging, but says he must see another pneumonia patient downstairs. It is
Mr. Behrman. He says, “The attack is acute. There is no hope for him; but he
goes to the hospital to-day to be made more comfortable.”
Johnsy
grows stronger. The story ends, with large feeling, along with the kind of
ironic twist O. Henry is known for. Sue sadly tells her friend of Mr. Behrman’s
death:
“He
was ill only two days. The janitor found him...helpless with pain. His shoes
and clothing were wet through and icy cold. They couldn't imagine where he had
been on such a dreadful night....Then they found a lantern, still lighted, and
a ladder..., and some scattered brushes, and a palette with green and yellow
colors mixed on it, and—look out the window, dear, at the last ivy leaf on the
wall. Didn't you wonder why it never fluttered or moved when the wind blew? Ah,
darling, it's Behrman's masterpiece. He painted it there the night that the
last leaf fell.”
Though this has sorrow, Mr.
Behrman’s masterpiece, a tiny leaf painted on a wall, arose from the most
beautiful form of determination, good
will, which was the same as his greatest self-expression.
Women today can learn from Aesthetic Realism to have this
proud determination—and it is my fervent hope that they do!
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