seventy years and more . . . ; he was hardly about to abandon them" (Gardner 5).
If such opinions were all there were to the character of James Page, he would soon weary the reader. However, it turns out that there is a deeper, more reflective and open-minded side to Page. He believes, for example, that there is life after death, and that all good things in life---all decent things---somehow lead "upward":
Call it a curious and idle opinion, it nevertheless had, at least for James Page---who was a thoughtful man, a moralist and brooder---sober implications. It was bone and meat that the world pulled downward, and the spirit, the fire of life that pushed upward, soared. . . . He believed sure as day in . . . airy cliffs---not heaven, exactly, but a firm, high place luring feeling and ambition past existence as it is (Gardner 12).
The reader gradually discovers the reason for both the bitter rage and glimmer of hopefulness which dominate the spirit of James Page. His son has killed himself, primarily he was not tough enough to live up to his father's grueling standards. Clearly, James Page was not a loving, kind, decent man before his son's suicide, or his son would not have killed himself in the first place. In fact, it may well be that had Richard not killed himself, James would have been an even more bitter and self-absorbed man. It may well be that the horrible death of his son, and his own role in that death, changed him, made him soften his views on life and death at to some degree.
In any case, it ultimately comes clear that what drives James is not rage but a tremendous grief, and what James wants most from life is not triumph over its evil, but forgiveness in some form, even a forgivenes
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