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Bill Driscoll
Ebenezer Dorset is Johnny's father, a wealthy businessman in the town of Summit. Sam describes him as a rich but stingy person who takes advantage of people in distress: “Respectable and tight, a mortgage fancier and a stern, upright collection-plate passer and forecloser.” Ebenezer’s coldness and cruelty are also evident in the seeming hunger his son Johnny has for fatherly attention and affection. When Sam and Bill kidnap Johnny and hold him for ransom, Ebenezer displays both his humorous and his calculating sides by refusing to worry about his son’s safety and pay the ransom, but instead cleverly negotiating with Johnny’s captors so that they would pay him money to return his troublesome son. The unusual name Ebenezer evokes the namesake character Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and that is reinforced by the polite but calculating missives from him “written with a pen in a crabbed hand.” He evokes little sympathy in the reader, perhaps because he is the only one who profits from this sad episode.
Ebenezer Dorset Quotes in The Ransom of Red Chief
The The Ransom of Red Chief quotes below are all either spoken by Ebenezer Dorset or refer to Ebenezer Dorset . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Ransom of Red Chief Quotes
The father was respectable and tight, a mortgage fancier and a stern, upright collection-plate passer and forecloser.
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This brief and insightful description of Ebenezer Dorset foreshadows a great deal of Sam’s subsequent trouble with him. From this description, readers learn that Ebenezer is powerful (respectable, stern, upright) but also greedy (tight), ungenerous (collection-plate passer), and a predator (mortgage fancier and forecloser). That Ebenezer is so powerful, unlikeable, and even cruel sets readers up to sympathize with the kidnapping plot against him—a man like that might deserve to be victimized, since he victimizes others. However, for Sam’s ransom plan to work, Ebenezer must be vulnerable and empathetic towards his son. As it turns out, Ebenezer’s bad qualities run Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea
I never lost my nerve yet till we kidnapped that two-legged skyrocket of a kid... it ain't human for anybody to give up two thousand dollars for that forty-pound chunk of freckled wildcat.
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With the phrase “lost my nerve,” Bill admits he is defeated by the challenge of caring for Johnny. His admission is made with a persuasive purpose: he needs to make sure that the ransom transaction is concluded successfully and soon, so he wants to drop the asking price in the ransom letter he and Sam are writing to Ebenezer. His two characterizations of Johnny are calibrated for this effect: a skyrocket is powerful and uncontrollable, but not evil; so too, a freckled wildcat is a dangerous creature, but not wicked, and the fact that Johnny is merely a forty-pound sized Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. V
I think you are a little high in your demands, and I hereby make you a counter-proposition, which I am inclined to believe you will accept. You bring Johnny home and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, and I agree to take him off your hands.
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This passage comes from Ebenezer’s letter to Sam and Bill in response to Sam’s ransom demand. Sam’s prior letter spelled out intricate requirements regarding the location, time, and manner of communication. Unfortunately for Sam, by focusing on logistics he has overlooked the greater issue: he has not yet won the power struggle with Ebenezer. What leads to success in negotiation, as Ebenezer demonstrates here, is steely nerves and a narrow focus on the goal. His measured response to the kidnapping (“a little high in your demands”), coupled with his calm tone (“I am inclined to believe”), give a chilly power Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debit
We took him home that night. We got him to go by telling him that his father had bought a silver-mounted rifle and a pair of moccasins for him, and we were going to hunt bears the next day.
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After all their suffering, it seems so easy when Sam says it: “we took him home that night.” But it’s anything but easy. What started out as a sure-fire scheme to make $2000 finally ends when Sam and Bill bring Johnny back to his father and agree to old Dorset’s demands for them to pay him $250 to take back his own child. This bizarre arrangement would not even be possible were it not for one additional element added to the mixture of confusion, delusion, and torture which characterizes their time with Johnny: they have to trick the boy into Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ip
When the kid found out we were going to leave him at home he started up a howl like a calliope and fastened himself as tight as a leech to Bill's leg. His father peeled him away gradually, like a porous plaster.
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Sam and Bill never call Johnny by his given name. Here, when they are leaving him at home, reunited with his father, he is once again “the kid” and this underlines the fact that, however softhearted (and soft-headed) they may be, they are not his true guardians. This duality is evident in Johnny’s “howl” at being left there. This is a howl of sadness, one presumes, since Johnny is clinging to the leg of his abductor rather than his father. Yet Sam compares Johnny’s howl to that of a calliope (an organ-like instrument found often at fairs), which is a Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui di
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Ebenezer Dorset Character Timeline in The Ransom of Red Chief
The timeline below shows where the character Ebenezer Dorset appears in The Ransom of Red Chief. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Ransom of Red Chief
...nearby cave two miles from town and, after sundown, they drive a rented buggy past Ebenezer’s house and try to entice Johnny, who is playing outside, into the buggy with an...
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Ebenezer’s letter declares that Sam’s ransom demand is too high, and he makes a counter-proposition: they...
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Sam is shocked at the audacity of Ebenezer’s response, but Bill is relieved to think their ordeal may finally be at an end....
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At midnight, Sam and Bill bring Johnny to Ebenezer’s house in Summit and pay him $250. Johnny, upset when realizing his friends are leaving,...
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