The Courage to Endure: Cornelia A. P. Comer’s Short Story, ‘The Preliminaries’

Detail of "God Speed!," 1900, by Edmund Leighton. (Public Domain)

The standards that we set for ourselves and our lives can be extremely daunting, depressing, and seemingly impossible. Yet with courage, we can achieve and reach them all, measure by measure.

In her short story “The Preliminaries,” Cornelia A.P. Comer follows Oliver Pickersgill as he strives to obtain the consent to marry Ruth Lannithorne. Comer demonstrates that, with courage and endurance, we can conquer the challenges that loom over us.

The first difficulty Oliver must face is that Ruth’s father, Mr. Lannithorne, is currently in prison. The requirements that Oliver must follow in order to marry into the family of a convict prove to be difficult and complex.

Getting Permission

“The Request,” 1892, by Edmund Blair Leighton. Oil on canvas. Art Renewal Center. (Public Domain)

When Oliver first proposes to Ruth, he is surprised when she passionately responds, “I will never marry anyone who doesn’t respect my father as I do!” He is shocked. He expected her to be concerned about their disparity in their social status. Now he is faced with the task of respecting her father, a convict. Nevertheless, he promises to visit her father.

Oliver first visits Ruth’s mother, Mrs. Lannithorne, to gain her consent. Again, he is surprised. Mrs. Lannithorne challenges him. She asks if he can sufficiently support a family as she wants her daughter to be secure.

Mrs. Lannithorne outlines the many hardships, sorrows, and perils of marriage. Marriage is serious, and she would hate to see her daughter placed into such unnecessary hardship by marrying.

Yet she says, “Go ask Peter Lannithorne if he thinks his daughter Ruth has a fighting chance for happiness as your wife.”

Bewildered, Oliver realizes that he does not possess the independent means of supporting Ruth. He is in business with his father and relies on him. But if his father rejects him, Oliver will have very little money and no job.

Discouraged, Oliver heads to discuss things with his father, Mr. Pickersgill. However, his father’s response is not much better—his father is disappointed.

His father emphasizes how Ruth’s social status and situation, especially with a criminal father, will ruin Oliver’s security and the inheritance that Oliver will give his children. Should Oliver marry into a family with a criminal father, that inheritance will be tainted.

Nevertheless, he says, “Ask Peter Lannithorne what a man wants in the family of the woman he marries.”

Courage

Dejected and now scared of marriage, Oliver sets out to the capital penitentiary to face Mr. Lannithorne.

Apprehensive, Oliver is shocked when he hears Mr. Lannithorne say that “courage is security.” For, he says, courage gives us the strength to endure, and “endurance is the measure of a man.”

Through Oliver’s trying interviews, Comer shows that prudence dictates we seek security. We have a responsibility for ourselves and those around us. Measure by measure, we strive for security. Yet we can never truly attain that security we all desire.

Comer says that “it is life that is the great adventure. Not love, not marriage, not business.” If we have courage, we have the endurance to face this adventure with all its hills and valleys. If we measure ourselves by our courage, we can live, endure, and thrive.