Oleson Versus Oleson 2/5

Back at the Olesons’ after the lecture, it sounds like Nels took the part about the men owning everything to heart. He is lecturing Harriet about how he now expects everything to be done his way. When Harriet tries to reply in a surprisingly civil way, Nels waves his hands and says “end of discussion”. As he unties his necktie, he orders Harriet to go fetch his slippers. Nels, I realize you have now found a way to revitalize your standing in your marriage, but you are dangerously close to the asshole label. Do not make me start defending Harriet. Anyway, he pours himself a drink and Harriet exits the parlor, slamming the door behind her. A few moments later, we hear the sound of shattering glass.

Nels goes up to the bedroom to investigate. Harriet tells her husband he will need to fetch his own slippers as she starts packing her suitcase. Basically, she is calling her husband’s bluff and wishes him luck in running the Mercantile by himself, taking care of the house, and taking care of Willie. Nels tries to stop her, but she just says “end of discussion” and closes the door behind her. He tells the door to forget the slippers. Wait a minute, what was with the breaking glass? Meanwhile, Caroline and Charles are finishing dinner at the restaurant as Nellie and Percival chat with them. As the Ingalls get up to leave, Harriet walks in and tells her daughter that she will need a room.

Back at the homestead, Caroline is brushing her hair as she and Charles get ready for bed. Charles is still laughing about the events at dinner, wishing he was a fly on the wall in the Oleson living room. Caroline doesn’t seem to find it as funny, but she sort of sympathizes with the unsympathetic Harriet. See what you’re doing, Nels? It turns out that Caroline agrees with the Lady Lecturer and believes that, in a sense, Nels is stealing from Harriet. Charles thinks the commingling of property goes both ways, but Caroline believes the current law states otherwise. She shares her fear that at any moment her husband could take everything away from her. Charles insincerely offers to split up everything and put little “Caroline” and “Charles” labels on each item. Why not go the I Love Lucy route and draw a big white line down the middle of the little house?

Caroline is not amused by any of this and restates her argument more generally so that the Olesons aren’t part of the equation. Charles seems to be ambivalent about the whole issue, which is somewhat understandable. The underlying notion is that this law would only go into effect should one spouse try to leave the other. I think Charles is reasonably confident that he and Caroline will never get divorced and therefore he doesn’t need to worry about the law for his specific case. Caroline is looking at things more generally. I don’t think she is contemplating divorce either, but I think that is where the disagreement is coming from. Charles is looking at the specific and doesn’t care about the general; Caroline is only focused on the general. This is sort of articulated by Caroline when she tells her husband that she is surprised that he is standing up for what’s fair and then walks out of the bedroom.

The next day, Charles and Almanzo talk about the lecture during their lunch break. Manly asks Charles what he thought of the speech and he replies that he didn’t really care one way or the other. Charles also says he is surprised that Caroline is wound up about the subject and that he isn’t sure if he is going to sign the petition. His concern is that marriage is about commingling property and something happens if you start dividing it up. Charles’ view is basically if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Almanzo has nothing to contribute to the debate.

Over at the restaurant, Percival is sweeping the stoop as Lady Lecturer exits the building. She greets Percival and he asks about the petition. He offers to sign the petition and she can’t believe it. Apparently Percival is the only man to sign so far. He suggests trying to get Mr. Ingalls to sign the petition since he is the King of Walnut Grove. Just then, Caroline walks up to the building and the two women set up an appointment to chat politics.

That evening, Charles is finishing up dinner as Caroline gets home from work. Aww, he’s playing house husband. After Caroline sits down she starts to reminisce about their time as newlyweds in Kansas. She goes into great detail about raising the logs on their house and working as a team. As a smile crosses Charles’ face, Caroline asks “wouldn’t it be nice to have it written down somewhere that we’re equal partners?” The smile fades as Charles reads between the lines. He gets awfully offended that she tried to exploit their happy memories to get him to sign the petition. Caroline takes offense to this and also to his offer of signing the petition because she’ll eventually con him into it anyway. They argue a bit about “fairness” and “principle” and it becomes very Judge Judy very quickly. Caroline storms off to the bedroom. I guess that part of the house is on her side of the white line.