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Chapter 3: The Kingdom
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Kingdom of Matthias, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Patriarchy, Family, and Society
Religion, Perfectionism, and Insanity
Race, Prejudice, and Resilience
Rural Life and Urban Culture
Desire, Relationships, and Sexual Freedom
Summary
Analysis
On the day that Isabella Laisdell and Benjamin are married, another member of the household—a young woman named Catherine Galloway—is miserable. Apparently, Ann and Matthias told Catherine that she was Benjamin’s spiritual match. Since then, Catherine has been sleeping with Benjamin, assuming that they will be married. Meanwhile, Ann stops helping in the household. She sleeps late into the day and cuddles with Matthias, while Matthias scolds Isabella van Wagenen for failing to keep up with the housework. When Isabella van Wagenen complains, Matthias says that his spirit will infuse her and help her work twice as hard. She’s not impressed.
It starts to become clear that other people in the household are having sexual relationships with each other. Catherine’s misery underscores that the community’s sexually fluid behavior is dysfunctional because it’s not fully consensual. Matthias continues exploiting Isabella Van Wagenen, showing that she bears the brunt of the household’s labor. Her predicament reinforces the idea that white patriarchal communities marginalize women of color the most. Despite her oppression, Isabella Van Wagenen continues to resist, showing how resilient she is.
Active
Themes
A few weeks pass, and Benjamin writes to Margaret, saying that her children are fine but that they won’t be returning. Isabella Laisdell’s first husband (Charles Laisdell) grows worried and heads down to Hudson to investigate. Isabella van Wagenen turns him away, but he persists, returning every day until they let him in. Eventually, Elijah offers Charles money to get rid of him, and Charles agrees. Charles leaves, and he tells everyone he knows about the strange events going on at the Folgers. Then, he files legal papers to get his wife back, even though she doesn’t want to leave.
Charles’s power to decide Isabella Laisdell’s fate shows how much power men have in this society: even the law favors his wishes and provides him with tools to achieve what he wants (namely, bringing Isabella Laisdell home, regardless of Isabella’s wishes). Others, like Benjamin (and even Isabella Laisdell, who wants to stay in the cult now that she’s in a relationship with Benjamin) keep exposing that their sexual desire—rather than their religious commitments to Matthias’s rules—are primarily influencing their actions.
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Themes
Charles Laisdell takes Isabella Laisdell back to Albany against her will. She doesn’t tell Margaret about her brief marriage to Benjamin. Meanwhile, in Hudson, Matthias decides that Benjamin should marry Catherine, and he weds the pair. The local villagers are angry about the situation at Mount Zion and begin harassing Matthias. They unsuccessfully try to expel Matthias from Benjamin’s home. By March 1834, Ann believes that she’s pregnant with a holy child. Catherine is also pregnant, but she has a miscarriage. Matthias forces Catherine to go back to work only a few days after her miscarriage.
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Themes
That year, a family of four arrive from Albany and join the cult. The father (Mr. Thompson) doesn’t really believe that Matthias is a prophet, but he likes the idea of a society in which men are completely in charge. The mother, Elizabeth Thompson, wonders if Ann sleeps with Benjamin when Matthias travels to New York to preach. Ann admits that she does, with Matthias’s blessing. A few weeks later, Mr. Thompson decides that there’s too much wife-swapping going on, and he doesn’t want to lose Elizabeth to another man, so he packs up the family to leave. He flees with his children and comes back several days later for Elizabeth.
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When Mr. Thompson returns, Elizabeth explains that Matthias locked her in a room while he was trying to decide if she should be matched with Benjamin or Elijah. On June 1st, 1834, a forlorn Benjamin winds up in his town church. He looks in on two colleagues who express their concern about his situation and Ann’s safety. Benjamin gets drunk with his colleagues. That night, Benjamin storms back to Mount Zion to seize Ann and leave, but Ann refuses. She talks with Benjamin in private, and he gives up on his attempt, looking subdued.
Active
Themes
The next day, Benjamin returns to the village and tells the locals that his plan failed. The angry villagers storm Mount Zion to expel Matthias. Matthias shaves his beard to avoid detection, and he flees. Ann is heartbroken. Benjamin takes Ann to bed, happy that he's finally got her back. The next day, Elijah decides that the spirit of God has now entered his body, and he'll take charge of the family. Ann, Benjamin, and Isabella Van Wagenen refuse to accept this, and they immediately flee to New York, leaving Elijah, Catherine, and the cult’s children behind. A few days later, Elijah sheepishly follows.
Active
Themes
By mid-July, the group returns to Mount Zion (without Benjamin, who’s traveling for work). Elijah starts having seizures, and he believes that he’s possessed by devils. He cries out for Ann while fumbling at his crotch, saying that she can expel the devils by sleeping with him. The others have to restrain him. On July 28, Matthias feeds the group blackberries for dessert, though he declines to eat any himself. Ann only has one or two berries. Elijah eats a full bowl. The next day, Elijah falls deathly ill. Matthias bans any doctors or medicine, saying that only prayer will help Elijah. By August 5, Elijah is dead. He dies in a pool of his own vomit and feces.
It turns out that Benjamin transferred the deeds of his home to Elijah at some point in the last year. With Elijah dead, the country treasurer arrives to seize the property for Elijah’s heir: his daughter Elizabeth. Matthias initially refuses to hand over the deeds. Eventually, Elizabeth agrees to let Matthias and his followers stay at Mount Zion, so Matthias gives her the deeds. Matthias warns his followers that anyone who opposes him will meet a similar fate to Elijah’s. Meanwhile, the coroner orders an autopsy on Elijah’s body: it suggests that Elijah was poisoned.
Active
Themes
Matthias and his followers retreat to New York City. Ann, who’s six months pregnant, continues sleeping with both Benjamin and Matthias. She grows conflicted about which partner she loves more. Sensing Ann’s growing reconnection with Benjamin, Matthias grows hostile towards her. The group argues for several days until Ann admits that she’s happier with Benjamin. Benjamin jumps in and offers Matthias a large sum of money ($630) to leave. Matthias accepts the money and leaves to go and buy a farm for his “Kingdom.” As soon as Matthias leaves, Benjamin contacts the police and says that Matthias stole $630 from him.
Meanwhile, Isabella Van Wagenen takes the cult’s remaining children to Albany to leave them in Margaret’s care. When Isabella arrives, she is shocked to see Matthias there. Matthias realizes that there’s a warrant out for his arrest, so he gives Margaret $50 to look after the children that Isabella dropped on Margaret’s doorstep, and he flees. But before he can get out of Albany, the police arrest him. By now, Matthias is charged with defrauding Benjamin Folger and murdering Elijah Pierson.
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Themes
When the police interrogate Matthias, he proclaims that he’s a High Priest and that all his followers willingly gave them his money. The story becomes a tabloid sensation in the penny press, and the whole city reads about it. Meanwhile, Isabella Van Wagenen urges Margaret to help Matthias, and Margaret petitions two prominent and well-respected lawyers (Henry B. Western and N. Nye Hall) to defend Matthias in court. Surprisingly, they agree. It's likely that Margaret wants to get Matthias cleared so that she can divorce him and take half of the money he’s collected from his followers.
Active
Themes
Western and Hall obtain a statement from Isabella Van Wagenen claiming that Benjamin willingly gave Matthias his money. In retaliation, Benjamin releases a statement saying that Matthias’s story is a lie. He also claims that Isabella and Matthias poisoned Elijah. Isabella swiftly accuses Benjamin of slander and begins collecting testimonies about her trustworthiness from her former employers. The trial ends up being delayed for months, because the judge gets influenza.
There’s a press frenzy over Matthias in the months leading up to the trial. Some papers brand Matthias as a fraud and a swindler. Others say that Matthias has a mental disorder, and he’s simply insane. Others still, question aspects of their society that could have triggered or permitted such events to unfold. Some blame the rapid increase in commercialism in the United States. Conservatives weigh in, blaming the individualism and egalitarianism that’s taken hold of 19th-century American society. Some even say that Matthias is a conservative man who was pushed to the brink in his efforts to restore society’s patriarchal order.
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Themes
Democrats also weigh in, saying that religious fanaticism has taken over the country. An editor named Mordecai Manuel Noah argues that Matthias’s followers all exhibited fanatical behavior before meeting him, and that made them vulnerable to manipulation. Another editor named William Leete Stone argues that the rising tide of evangelicalism (and its agenda of reform and perfectionism) allows good people to be misled by religious frauds.
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Themes
Sensing an ally in Stone, Benjamin and Ann Folger publish a book with Stone outlining their side of the story. Meanwhile, Isabella Van Wagenen recruits Catherine Galloway to confirm her claim that the Folgers acted consensually in the cult. All the while, Matthias preaches from his jail cell, prophesying that a great freeze is coming and he will rule the world after the thaw. In the background, the prosecution obtains evidence that Matthias beat Isabella Laisdell, so that they can also charge him with assault.
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Themes
The trial takes four days. Matthias attends, wearing a ruffled shirt and a colorful pair of extravagant pantaloons, with Western as his lawyer. Under cross-examination, Matthias delivers wild, lengthy sermons, calling everybody in the courtroom a devil. Matthias even talks over the judge. Eventually, the judge holds Matthias in contempt of court. Then, the judge opens a hearing to inquire if Matthias is mentally fit to take the stand. Eight witnesses (including four doctors) take the stand, and they’re divided over the issue of Matthias’s sanity. The jury decides that since half of the witnesses think that Matthias is sane, the trial should proceed.
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Themes
The trial resumes, and Western argues that there’s insufficient evidence to convict Matthias of murder: the autopsy report can’t confirm that Elijah definitely died from poison. He might actually have died of food-related illness. Nonetheless, when Ann Folger takes the stand, she stresses that Matthias fed Elijah blackberries that he didn’t eat himself and then denied Elijah medical help when he fell ill. The women—including her—had to obey Matthias, so they had no freedom to help Elijah. Catherine Galloway verifies Ann’s story. Ultimately, the judge decides that there isn’t enough evidence for a murder conviction. At best, Matthias could be charged with manslaughter, but that would demand a new trial. So, the jury rules that Matthias is not guilty of murder.
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Themes
Then, the prosecution calls for Matthias to be charged with assaulting Isabella Laisdell. Isabella testifies that she went to Mount Zion willingly, and that her father (Matthias) was legally permitted to hit her as punishment for misbehavior. Her husband, Charles Laisdell, believes that Isabella was coerced, and the whipping was too severe to count as fatherly punishment. In the end, the jury rules that Matthias is guilty of assault. Since Isabella was technically married to Charles at the time, Matthias no longer had a legal right to discipline her. In the end, Matthias is sentenced to four months in prison.
