Short Life

The Pupil is the touching story of a tutor's struggle to help his pupil in spite of a difficult family. The Moreens are an American family wandering around Europe. With pretensions above their ability to fund, their lifestyle is supported by lying, cheating, and bill-jumping. When securing a tutor for their young son, it is no different - they hire him under false pretenses and avoid paying him. The tutor, Pemberton, finds himself drawn to the intelligent and world-weary boy, and wants to help him rise above his family's dissolute life. But Pemberton, himself penniless, cannot afford to work without pay. Will he have to abandon his pupil to save himself? Nuanced, poignant, and darkly humorous, The Pupil is an example of why Henry James is one of the nineteenth-century's most satisfying writers. Morgan's life is short, always ignored by his parents, lost the warmth of the family, would rather believe in a family teacher without blood relationship, rather than be with the family, stubbornly maintain the sense of honor in the family. As Philip Horn put it, his sense of shame is all about his family honor, and only he himself cherishes this family tradition that was first damaged and then completely disappeared. Henry James tore off the elegant tradition of the upper class, challenged the "family angel" and "gentle family parent-child relationship" of the Victorian virtuous wife and mother, and revealed the hypocritical and greedy style of the upper class.