Useless, useless

[KateH.]

Having studied a few works of Shakespeare in the past, I don't believe any character ever looks at his/her hands and says "useless, useless." The only similarity I can think of at the moment is the “out, damned spot” monologue from Lady Macbeth when she is washing guilt blood from her hands. I could be wrong though. Shakespeare has so many works out there that I have yet to read. I’ll have to search through some more.

You make a good point, Laurie. Shakespeare was very influential on many of the Booth children and they often performed the plays as adults. For example, Edwin Booth and his 100 nights of Hamlet. John Wilkes Booth often compared himself to many of the Bard's great characters and even used lines in his own writings. According to James Swanson in Manhunt, Booth compared himself to Macbeth in his “after being hunted like a dog” diary entry. It could be possible that, so near to death, Booth was trying to end his final performance with a great line and thought about what a tragic Shakespearean character might say with his/her last breath.

[wsanto]

(03-07-2013 06:00 PM)Laurie Verge Wrote:  Not sure how close Herold was to the dying assassin, but I certainly agree that Booth was talking about their undertaking being useless.

I concur with most written accounts--Booth looking at his paralyzed hands as he is dying and calling them useless.

In a dramatic and metaphorical sense his paralyzed hands may have represented to him the entire undertaking--at one time working well in presumed glorious actions and now powerless with the realization that it has all been useless. No glory has come from their action and they will be forever remembered as useless tools of shame.

[Linda Anderson]

Dr. Gillette, Lewis Powell's spiritual adviser, reported that Powell also regarded his actions as "useless." According to Gillette, the night before Powell was executed he said:

“My course is run. I know now how foolish, vain and wholly useless it is and must have been, and were I set at liberty this morning I should hope to be dead at sunset, as all men must hereafter point at me as a murderer.”

[LincolnMan]

For a really good book on Booth and the influence of Shakespeare please refer to: Assassin On Stage: Brutus, Hamlet, and the Death of Lincoln by Albert Furtwangler. Published by University of Illinois Press, 1991.

[My Name Is Kate]

Powell apparently recognized his actions as being murderous (violating the Warrior's Code), but I'm not sure Booth felt that way about his own actions.

[Linda Anderson]

(03-12-2013 01:11 PM)My Name Is Kate Wrote:  Powell apparently recognized his actions as being murderous (violating the Warrior's Code), but I'm not sure Booth felt that way about his own actions.

I agree. Rev. Gillette reported that Powell felt remorse for his attack on the Seward family although he considered it was his duty to kill Seward. He also felt remorse for implicating Mrs. Surratt by showing up at her boarding house on the evening of April 17. At the end he thought of his family, especially his mother and the grief she would suffer.

Booth, on the other hand, seems to be thinking only of himself at his end. I can just imagine his poor mother's response when she heard that he had said, "Tell mother I died for my country."

[Jenny]

Didn't someone report that John did say "I did what I thought was best" at some point while dying? I know there are a lot of different accounts of what he did/didn't say so I'm not for sure. If he did say it, that indicates some remorse to me (what degree I don't know). I agree he was referring to his hands with the "useless, useless" statement, but as for what John Wilkes Booth thought about his own actions in the end while dying there on the porch, paralyzed with his body in shock, I don't think we'll ever know.

As for his mother, I doubt she would have been appalled or angry to hear her son's "Tell mother I died for my country" quote. She would have been grieving her beloved son with all the sorrow of any mother who loses a child long before she learned of his dying words. If anything it would have caused her even more sorrow to know he was thinking of her at the end, politics be damned.

[My Name Is Kate]

I don't understand how Powell could have thought it was his duty to kill Seward, and also feel (belatedly) that his actions were murderous. Did he think it was merely unfortunate that Seward was helpless at the time of the attack? Was his remorse mainly at having lost his own humanity, and not for what he did to Seward?

[Linda Anderson]

(03-12-2013 03:26 PM)Jenny Wrote:  As for his mother, I doubt she would have been appalled or angry to hear her son's "Tell mother I died for my country" quote. She would have been grieving her beloved son with all the sorrow of any mother who loses a child long before she learned of his dying words. If anything it would have caused her even more sorrow to know he was thinking of her at the end, politics be damned.

I didn't mean she would be appalled or angry but I don't believe it wouldn't have made her feel any better to hear his words although Booth may have thought that it would. At any rate, I think he was thinking more of himself telling the soldiers how noble he was to die for his country.

Powell is very baffling, Kate, if he was indeed remorseful, which I believe he was. Maybe the bloody mess that he left at the Sewards changed him in some way. It's one thing to think of doing something and another to actually do it. Maybe he did think it was his duty and he continued to think so after because he had to live with himself in some way. He had come a long way from his religious upbringing and maybe it kicked in.

[My Name Is Kate]

And didn't Powell's father, who was a Baptist preacher, even say that his son's actions were "all for a good cause", or words to that effect? I wonder what exactly he meant by that.

[Linda Anderson]

(03-12-2013 04:39 PM)My Name Is Kate Wrote:  And didn't Powell's father, who was a Baptist preacher, even say that his son's actions were "all for a good cause", or words to that effect? I wonder what exactly he meant by that.

I haven't seen that quote. Can you tell me where I can find it?

[Gene C]

"Train up a child, in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" - Provebs 22:6

I agree with Linda. lI think Powell's stong baptist upbringing, the time alone to meditate over what he had done, and the consequences of his actions certainly had an impact on him. He took his punishment with respect and dignity. I think his religious upbringing kicked in. Hopefully he was able to find some spiritual peace from God's love and forgiveness for what he had done.

[Jenny]

Oh, sorry Linda - I see what you were saying there! Oops!

As far as "he was thinking more of himself telling the soldiers how noble he was to die for his country," I don't think he was trying to tell them he was noble - I would think he was lamenting his failure!

[Linda Anderson]

I also think that the way he was treated in prison helped him to take his punishment "with respect and dignity."

"Dr. Gillette advanced to the front of the platform to publicly thank, at the request of Lewis Powell, the officers of the prison and all who had had charge of him for their uniform kindness."

From Alias "Paine" by Betty Ownsbey

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(03-12-2013 05:08 PM)Jenny Wrote:  As far as "he was thinking more of himself telling the soldiers how noble he was to die for his country," I don't think he was trying to tell them he was noble - I would think he was lamenting his failure!

I think he was doing both!

[My Name Is Kate]

I thought I probably read it in "Alias Paine", but I couldn't find it there. I did find this though:

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1994...s-thornton