Miles Standish and John Alden are introduced together, for the reason,
no doubt, that the traits of the one may serve to set off those of the
other. Miles Standish is a soldier by nature; and a lifetime spent in
camp and field has brought out the soldier spirit in him in all its
completeness. The character of John Alden is less marked, though it
is made sufficiently intelligible, first by his employment as scribe
and correspondent of the colonists, which leads us to infer that he
was better fitted for the occupation of the scholar than for the
struggles of the pioneer; secondly, his youth and delicate complexion
are mentioned, and we gather that his physique is not robust nor
hardened. The Puritan predominates in John Alden as the soldier does
in Miles Standish. The latter attributes the saving of his life to the
good steel of the breastplate, while the former attributes it to a
direct interposition of the Lord in slackening the speed of the bullet.
We feel that if Alden had been left to spend an anxious hour or two
alone, he would have turned for consolation to the Bible and not to
“the ponderous Roman.”
The Captain is a man of strong personality and firm integrity. He is an
organizer of the colony’s defense; his voice prevails at the council;
he is a resolute and able defender, who rises equal to emergencies
of sudden and imminent danger. He is also capable of entertaining
sentiments of tenderness (58-60) and magnanimity (949-973). Yet the
author has indicated that, in the conventional sense, he is not to
be taken as the hero. The personal description of him (11) points to
this; so also his almost ludicrous inconsistency (36-115 and 163-168).
His avowed affection for Priscilla could not have struck deep roots in
his heart, for only two or three months have passed since he sustained
the loss that made his life “weary and dreary” (36). Moreover, this
matter could not have been upper-most in his mind very long, for he
would then have observed that Alden had frequently gone on a lover’s
errand in his own behalf (252-258). Neither could his inclinations have
been very ardent, for while Alden is gone he spends the hours without
anxiety, absorbed in the campaigns of Cæsar. He misunderstands and
underestimates the sterling nature of Priscilla when he thinks that
the winning of her is largely and mainly a matter of phrases (169)
and elegant language, “such as you read of in books in the pleadings
and wooings of lovers.” All this helps us to become reconciled to the
Captain’s discomfiture.
John Alden is the most typical Puritan of the leading characters. His
tendency towards a fatalistic view of life and to self-accusation seem
almost too strange to be accounted for by any doctrine or belief. As a
Puritan he had been brought up and trained in submission to his elders,
which may partly explain his lack of self-assertion. His position as a
dependent in the household of Miles Standish made him more ready than
he otherwise could have been to go on the Captain’s delicate errand.
There are situations in which we find Alden insufficient (182, 558,
559). He has little opportunity, in so far that the part assigned to
him is mainly passive. Yet there are possibilities of stern manhood in
him; and, with reference to the main issue, he is certainly strong in
those very respects where Miles Standish is weak.
Priscilla presents a contrast to the other two. She is full of healthy,
joyous life. Neither the sternness of her associates nor the hardships
of the pioneer life that she had experienced had been able to detract
from her cheerful, buoyant disposition. During the winter she had
become an orphan, and yet she appears to have been potent as a ray of
sunshine amid the gloom and distress incident to the condition of the
colonists. The fact that she is a trifle more frank in her conversation
with John Alden than strict conventional form would require detracts
nothing, but rather places her among such ideals of women as Miranda,
Imogen, and Elaine.