Daddy-Long-Legs guide

Summary

Characters

• JerushaAlso Abbott, JudyLeadFrom Blue Wednesday
• LippettGuardianFrom Blue Wednesday
• Miss PritchardHelperFrom Blue Wednesday
• JervisAlso John, Smith, Daddy-Long-Legs, Pendleton, JervieLoveFrom Blue Wednesday
• JimmieAlso McBrideSuitorFrom Dear Daddy, Section 1
• JuliaAlso PendletonHelperFrom Dear Daddy, Section 1
• SallieAlso McBrideHelperFrom Dear Daddy, Section 1
• HannibalOtherFrom Dear Daddy, Section 1
• Robert Louis StevensonOtherFrom Dear Daddy, Section 1
• AckerlyOtherFrom Dear Daddy, Section 2
• SempleHelperFrom Dear Daddy, Section 3
• AmasaiOtherFrom Dear Daddy, Section 3
• CarrieHelperFrom Dear Daddy, Section 3

Chapter by chapter

Storylines

• The benefactor conceals his identity from Jerusha, who knows him only as a wealthy trustee and by the appearance of his tall figure and shadow.

  • After speculation and attempts to learn more, Jerusha discovers that Jervis and Daddy-Long-Legs are the same man, abandoning her belief that they are separate people.

• The benefactor aims to develop Jerusha's writing ability through a funded college education.

  • Jerusha completes college and develops into a paid author with a work contracted for serial and book publication, fulfilling the educational aim of cultivating her writing.

• The benefactor will finance Jerusha's college education under terms requiring monthly letters, with no replies and contact through his secretary.

  • The funded college period ends with graduation. The original arrangement of anonymous, unanswered correspondence through a secretary is superseded by a handwritten reply, a personal meeting and disclosure of the benefactor's identity.

• Jerusha's anonymous benefactor becomes a source of personal belonging: she experiences his interest as a family-like bond and privately names him Daddy-Long-Legs.

  • The attachment survives loneliness, resentment and a professed rejection. Recognition of the benefactor as Jervis transforms the imagined family-like bond into acknowledged mutual romantic belonging and lifelong commitment.

• Jerusha wants to become acquainted with her benefactor through her letters, although he stipulates that he will not reply.

  • Her requests for information and a meeting ultimately succeed: she receives a personal note, visits him and learns that her benefactor is Jervis, whom she already knows and loves.

• Jerusha intends to describe college life and her lessons in a later letter to her benefactor.

  • Jerusha fulfills her intention by reporting her college room, furnishings, studies and academic progress in her letters.

• Jerusha decides to conceal from Lippett her pet name Daddy-Long-Legs for the benefactor.

• Jerusha develops friendship and shared college life with Sallie and Julia; tensions with Julia coexist with increasing attachment and inclusion.

• Jerusha's educational and cultural disadvantages expose her to embarrassment and academic failure; independent reading, tutoring and renewed study lead to cleared examinations, a scholarship and graduation.

• Jerusha seeks belonging and an identity beyond being a foundling, gradually gaining friendship, social confidence and a less embittered relationship to her childhood.

• Jerusha conceals her institutional upbringing from college acquaintances, withholding it from Sallie and inventing family details for Julia; fear of revealing it later obstructs her relationship with Jervis.

• Jerusha seeks humane treatment of dependent children and practical social reform, drawing on her institutional experience, studying charity and helping a distressed family through her benefactor.

• Jerusha pursues authorship and eventual financial independence, progressing from college publication through rejected manuscripts to a work sold for serial and book publication.

• Jerusha's ease and affection with Jervis deepen through visits, shared excursions and correspondence into mutual romantic attachment, strained by disagreements and a refused proposal before their final reconciliation.

• Jerusha develops her writing through sustained practice; after unsuccessful manuscripts, she adopts advice to write about familiar life and undertakes a novel about the John Grier Home.

• The McBrides offer Jerusha familial warmth and social inclusion, becoming a model for the family life she hopes to create.

• Jimmie becomes an attentive companion and correspondent whose interest in Jerusha later contributes to Jervis's mistaken belief that she wishes to marry him.

• Jerusha seeks to limit financial dependence and repay her benefactor, refusing unnecessary money, keeping her scholarship, earning through tutoring and writing, and eventually sending a thousand-dollar repayment cheque.

• Jerusha's wish to direct her own life clashes with her guardian's restrictions on visits, scholarship funding and travel; she increasingly asserts her choices despite hurt and pressure.

• Lonely after graduation, Jerusha proposes moving to Boston to share a studio with Sallie while Sallie undertakes settlement work; its execution is not established.

• Jerusha refuses Jervis's marriage proposal while withholding her background, and he mistakenly attributes her refusal to love for Jimmie; mutual hurt gives way to acknowledged romantic belonging after the identity revelation.

• Jerusha wants Jervis to recover from his dangerous illness and join her; his improving condition permits their meeting, but her fear of losing him persists.

• After their mutual romantic commitment is acknowledged, Jerusha pledges lifelong devotion to Jervis and resolves never to make him regret their relationship.

Places

Fergussen Hall, John Grier Home, New York, Lake Trasimenus, The plains of Casilinum, College Inn, Lock Willow Farm, Worcester, Princeton, Martha Washington Hotel, The Adirondacks, Bonnyrigg Four Corners, Sky Hill, Paris, One Tree Hill, Magnolia, Europe, Cliff Top, Gas house, Charing Cross, Canada, Crystal Spring Farm, Boston