Lights Late to Gleam: A Critical Reading of “Unlighted Lamps” by Sherwood Anderson from a Buddhist Perspective

The American author Sherwood Anderson’s (1876-1941) “Unlighted Lamps” implies metaphorically that the two protagonists, Dr Lester Cochran and his daughter Mary, remain unlighted lamps throughout their eighteen-year coexistence because the element of truth fails to ignite between them enlightenment, mutuality, sympathy, and intimacy. He portrays images of light struggling to emerge through heavy layers of darkness to symbolically demonstrate the grotesque challenges faced by truth in its pervasion in the absence of robust means of communication. This helps to exemplify his philosophy that successful personal relationships work only based on the correct perception of the truth. Dr Cochran’s behaviour that parallels with the Buddhist teachings of reality is too ambiguous to the world around. Therefore, Mary Cochran becomes an eternal victim of scandalous misidentifications and fabrications about her mother made by the rumour-driven Huntersburg community. According to Buddhism, life is circumstantial, all entities, animate or inanimate, are impermanent, and moreover, each moment life changes, and dwelling on histories is meaningless, as everything ends up in being a memory. In that respect, according to Buddhism, Dr Cochran’s equanimity towards his wife Ellen, first as his patient, then as his wife, and later as an individual seeking her freedom, remains intact, as it professes that life is a delusion and one cannot claim or possess anything one encounters in life. Analysing his recluse demeanour from a Buddhist perspective, the paper strives to defend his character from popular misconceptions and justify his behaviour as acceptable based on his frequent exposure to suffering as a conscientious gynaecologist.