In an exchange between Jack and Glory, Robinson points out the difficulty involved in defining forgiveness. In this exchange, Jack suggests Glory's willingness to forgive him demonstrates that she is "too kind." Perhaps attempting to search out the depths of her self-hurting kindness, to find she has limits and still forgives him, Jack asks Glory if she could forgive her ex-fiance. Glory answers, "I'm not sure I understand the question, but the answer is no"(193). Glory's confusion as to her capacity to forgive her ex is occasioned by the idea of forgiveness. Sincere forgiveness is predicated on knowledge; it's dimensions are dependent on circumstances of time and place; it takes many forms and is evidenced by no precise activity. Yet, Glory has been wounded with a certainty; no circumstances since the wounding would cause her to forgive her ex-fiance. However small or insignificant, she would be incapable of any action that might be construed by anybody as forgiving him.
The reasons for Jack's return to Gilead are mysterious, to the reader and to the other characters in the book. Most of the latter assume that he seeks forgiveness. All try to offer in various ways and with various levels of success.
Boughton seeks to be the face of the loving and merciful God. As Jack's father, he has consistently offered Jack forgiveness for his sins. When Jack gets a very young girl pregnant, Boughton is driven to the edge of forgiveness. Boughton declares "the cruelty of it! the arrogance!," and Glory observes "she had never seem him brood and mutter for days at at a time, as if her were absorbing the fact that some transgressions are beyond mere mortal's capacity to forgive"(18).
Boughton is proud and can't accept his mere mortality when it comes to his powers of forgiveness. Growing up, his children are aware that "he had always avoided fault-finding, at least in the actual words he spoke to them. But there was from to time a tone of rebuke in his voice that overrode the mildest of intentions"(84). When he's done brooding and muttering, he has failed to absorb the fact and persists in forgiveness, even beyond his reasonable abilities and to his detriment. This behavior is in keeping with his tendency to cling to his belief and block out contradicting experience.
Glory believes that "it was the sad privilege of blood relations to love [Jack] despite all"(69) while realizing "'despite all' was a dangerous formula"(70). It is dangerous to Jack. On his last trip home, before he largely disappears into twenty years of dissipation, Jack sits down with his father one last time, face to face alone, presumably to discuss what he needs to do vis a vis the very young girl he's impregnated. On the way out of that meeting, it is Glory who takes it upon herself to suggest he marry the young girl he's impregnated. One can only imagine (as Glory likely did also) that the Reverend Boughton has avoided any such harsh advice. Jack is taken aback, and replies "You've seen her." Glory asks what their father will do in that case. Snidely, Jack asks "'Do to me? Nothing. I mean, he's going to forgive me.' He laughed. 'And now I have a train to catch'"(57).
Boughton blindness on the civil rights battles going on undercuts his moral authority in Jack's eyes. Boughton is sensitive to Jack's perceptions in this area. When Ames' abolitionist grandfather comes up, Boughton dismisses him, remarking "there was a lot of what you might call fanaticism around here in early days....he was crazy when I knew him, and before that too, I believe"(204). Like Ames, Jack is moved by the elder Ames' conviction and his father warns, "certainty can be dangerous"(204). While Gilead makes clear that Ames' is partially inclined to agree with Boughton's doubts as to certainty, he also is certain that doubt and moderation carry grave moral hazards. Of course, given that Gilead furnishes us with Ames' interior while Home provides us no counterpart for Boughton, we can't be certain of Boughton's actual views.
Ames is Boughton's "alter ego, in whom he had confided so long and so utterly that he was a second father to them all, not least in knowing more about them than was entirely consistent with their comfort"(5). Glory recalls how the Boughton children made "their father promise not to tell anyone, by which [their father] knew they meant Reverend Ames"(5). After she tells Jack that his siblings were "always proud of him" and saw him "as chimerical, piratical and mercurial," Jack is quick to point out that "Ames always saw right through me. And when he looks at me, he stills sees a scoundrel"(126).
Ames' love is ultimately conditioned on some sense of justice. He does not search out imperfections but can't help but see and absorb the gross defects in Jack's character. Ironically, his love's conditional nature seems to make it a more valuable commodity in the eyes of the Boughton children, most especially Jack. Even years later, Jack has a oddly powerful desire that Ames see him in a good light. After Jack plays the piano for Ames and Boughton, Boughton praises an absent Jack, asking Glory to "'Tell Jack that was wonderful. I was proud of him.'" Glory does so. Jack asks," 'Was Ames still here when he said that?'" Glory confesses and then tries to cover: "'Not when he said it to me. Ames would have known it anyway'"(196).
Ames potentially offers Jack a forgiveness informed by certain aspects of Christian teaching on the matter. Such forgiveness demands the sinner acknowledge and see the ugliness of his sins; the sinner must undergo a painful journey. One of the classical expressions of the forgiveness Ames' offers is psalm 51 and it is interesting to note the language Jack uses in recounting his experience at Ames' church. He tells Glory that Ames' sermon on Hagar and Ishmael was designed to "appall me" and left him "aghast." It was intended to turn him "white...whiter"(206), echoing the sinner's plea in Psalm 51:"Purge me with Hysop and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."
While Jack it taken aback by Ames sermon, Ames continues to draw him. This suggests Jack has a desire for a penance, some way, real or symbolic, by which he might compensate those he hurt, make right the wrong he did. His father apologizes for being critical and Jack replies, "I had it coming...I deserve rebuke." His father refuses to accept this, advising Jack to let "the Lord decide what you deserve." He adds, "Nobody deserves anything, good or bad. It's all grace"(271). On the one hand, such sentiment might supply some comfort. However, on the other, it renders the universe a mystery and our selves as pretty powerless. For Jack, it means that he can't please his father and this is the way God intended it. There is little wonder that Jack has a love/hate relationship with his father and his beliefs.
Some part of Jack wishes to be found worthy enough to be held accountable. After Jack's suicide attempt, Glory tends a severely depressed and hungover Jack. She thinks to call Lila hoping she has a way of comforting him and relieving his hangover. She believes Lila
"might know some simple, commonplace treatment for hangover, some cool hand on the brow that would wake Jack from his sweaty sleep, as if penance were swept aside by absolution. If there were such a thing, Jack would know and would have asked for it, unless misery was the way he spoke to himself, unless he had meant to recruit his whole body to the work of misery. There would be a rightness in his grieving in every nerve."(253)
Penance inevitably is occasioned by emotions (hurt, anger) and expresses emotions (grieving, sorrow). Because Boughton suppresses a certain range of emotions, penance is made difficult. Anger and sadness are frowned upon in the Boughton home. Such emotions threaten their father's conception of himself and his family, his creation. Even as an adult returned home, Glory "was wary of certain thoughts, certain memories, because her father could not bear her unhappiness....she did no permit herself to brood....It would make him miserable"(16). In addition to sadness, she has been trained to suppress anger and disappointment. When Jack attempts suicide, Robinson almost comically notes how Glory "was almost disappointed that she couldn't be angry at him"(249). The qualifying adverb suggests the extent to which Glory's been taught to suppress negative feelings and thoughts.
Still, the stern Ishmael-Hagar sermon Ames delivers Jack offends Glory. She swears "I'll never forgive him"(211). But, Jack claims "I'll forgive him. Maybe I've forgiven him already....He might take it as a sign of character. It might look like generosity or humility or something"(211). He sees a specious forgiveness as the only "'undamaging choice left to me. Which might also have the look of virtue'"(211) and advises Glory to follow his lead to keep their father happy.
At times, in a passive-aggressive way, Boughton is inclined to punish his son. He continually brings Jack toward himself, welcoming him as it were, only to then lay bare his hurt, to lay his grievances at Jack's feet. Boughton continually misreads Jack, failing to see and accept who his son is. Yet, despite all of this, Boughton is working out forgiving his son. Within their world views, there are no protocols for forgiveness, no ceremonies of sacrifice and redemption. Instead, they attempt to forge behavior or actions that will convey forgiveness. Thus, all Boughton's evasive references to his son's past, his wariness to broach certain past events and issues, his efforts to suppress his grievance in favor a forced happiness.
Boughton is striving toward forgiveness, toward covering and ignoring Jack's sins in hopes of achieving a reconciliation and a togetherness. At points, it seems that with all their weakness and foibles, for all of their clumsy and awkward exchanges, Boughton has achieved forgiving his son, howsoever stunted the forgiveness offered may be. Ultimately, the quality of forgiveness he offers Jack is not enough to satisfy Jack. Jack wants not to be loved as a sinner; instead, he wants to be loved and trusted as the person he can become.
Boughton never quite forgives Jack in this fashion; he never pardons him unconditionally. Looking to explain the letters returned from Della, he tells Glory, "He's not a young man, not likely to change his life, and I don't think it's been a very good life. I can see why a woman might......"(231). This is exactly what Jack suspects his father thinks of him, and speaks to Boughton's harboring an unresolved animosity toward his son. This comes out at the end of the story. After first claiming not to recognize Jack, he again accuses Jack of all his misdeeds. Glory objects, "'That was so long ago. Can't we put it aside?'" Bougnton shoots back "Have you put it aside?'"(295)
While the comment above indicates that Boughton hasn't quite forgiven Jack, Glory is closer. She needs to work toward it. At points, she resists pardoning him. For Glory, his unpardonable sin seems his involvement with the girl, rather than his neglect of the child. The clear implication is that she is underage. "That was where fault lay, impervious to rationalization, finally even to pardon. Such an offense against any notion of honor, her father had said, and so it still seemed to her, and to him, after all those years"(235).
Yet, this is an emotion of the moment. After his suicide attempt, it is Glory who steps in and tries yet again to bring Jack back. He appears in that scene like a Lazarus figure, and she literally cleans filth off him. While doing so, she regrets "she couldn't be angry at him." She realizes she and her father have grown "resigned to Jack's inaccessible strangeness" to the point where even after his suicide attempt she almost automatically forgives him "entirely and almost immediately." In a bit of dark humor, she vows "I will not forgive him for an hour or two"(249).
By the end of the story, Glory has come to a more expansive and sincere forgiveness of Jack. She knows his sins, acknowledges them, but still tells Jack, "Your soul seems fine to me." She adds, "I don't know what that means...Anyway, it's true"(288). Jack's is a troubled soul that still strives. It is what it is and as such is touched with something divine. Glory sees and accepts it as a part of God's creation, even with it's self-imposed defects. She recognizes the truth of what Jack tells his father: "'I don't know why I am what I am. I'd have been like you if I could'"(293).
On another level,she forgives Jack in order to save her previous investment in him, so that all the forgiveness previously extended does not go for nought. Jack challenges her. He tells her that while he lived a better life under Della's influence, apart from her he fell down. His better self was "Nothing I can sustain on my own...You forgive so much, you'll have to forgive that, too. Well, I guess you won't have to"(289). Of course, Jack knows she will. She's invested.
While Boughton strives to forgive Jack, Ames fails to do the same. Perhaps forgiveness has higher stakes for Ames. While Jack can hurt his father again, he can't hurt him anew. With a young wife and a child he adores, Ames deeply fears Jack. Threatened, his ignoring, covering or forgetting of Jack's past potentially imperils not only himself, but, as he sees it and with some warrant, his wife and child He who forgives potentially endangers not only himself, but others around him. Our desire to forgive might be compromised by our responsibility to others. Granted, primarily, Ames' has found his true love late in life, and because Jack poses a threat to this, he is unable to forgive him.
Genuine forgiveness must be built on a certain level of knowledge between the parties. Interrupting a porch chat on predestination, Boughton exclaims, "'Oh! I am a very sinful man!'"(222). Ames immediately rushes to dissuade him of this, to claim it it not true. This constitutes a type of forgiveness. However, Boughton wont accept it immediately, countering Ames offer by claiming "'You don't really know me!'"(222). Likewise, Glory claims to know Jack and points to this knowledge as the basis of her forgiveness of him. Reasoning with Jack about Della, she offers, "I know you a little now, and you're really not so hard to forgive"(191). Jack counters her by suggesting her knowledge of his perfidy is incomplete. He quickly kills the conversation.
Yet, forgiveness also demands or requires that the granter forget. The one granting forgiveness must allow the sinner to be someone different; Lila provides this for Jack. She doesn't know him and so he can pursue a new self in front of her with greater ease. For the others in Jack's circle, his past self remains a part of how they see him. When Jack happens upon his father and Ames discussing his relation with Della, he "walked in on a potent thought of himself, like Lazarus with the memory of cerements about him no matter how often he might shave or comb his hair"(240).
True forgiveness goes beyond covering or ignoring the sins of the sinner. It involves altering our very feelings and conception of the sinner. Difficult if not impossible.
Yet, compelled by love, Glory and her father seem compelled to forgive.
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