Main Street Doctor Can't Find Remedy to Cure His Wife's Infidelity

Dr. Will Kennicott, the small-town physician in Sinclair Lewis' novel Main Street, is very adept at his practice. He conducts a procedure to save a man whose arm was crushed in an occupational accident. He delivered several babies in the course of the novel. He even helped cure a stomach dysfunction of one of his neighbors.

Apparently the only ill Kennicott could not remedy was his wife's infidelity. Carol lusts for several male characters in the town, all the while showing blatant sexual indifference to her husband.

She is turned off from her husband even as early as their wedding night. In chapter 4 she says to herself before going to bed with him for the first time, "I mustn't! I mustn't! Am I sick? Not now! How people lie! How these stories lie! They say the bride is always so blushing and proud and happy, but I hate it! . . .bearded old men demanding that we bear children. Not now!" By the middle of the book she begins sleeping in the spare room, where she continues to sleep for the subsequent years.

She remains indifferent, though she does manage to bear him a son after the first few years of their marriage. Eventually a second child is born after she returns to her husband for several years of separation.

The men she shows romantic interest in vary in age, occupation, and social stature. Percy Bresnahan, the president of the Velvet Motor Company, serves as her first adulterous temptation. Bresnahan is her husband's idol, a Gopher Prairie resident who went on to become "a millionaire seven times over." When he comes to town, carol feels herself drawn to him. Perhaps she has a secret desire to stain her husband's idolatry of the man, who seems to represent everything Carol dislikes about the small town and Main Street.

Bjornstrom, "the Red Swede," is the social, economical, and political opposite of Bresnahan. Her husband detests Bjornstrom as much as he worships Bresnahan. In chapter nine Carol does not hesitate to accept Bjornstrom's invitation to enter his shack, rationalizing that "she was not a Respectfully Married Woman but fully a human being." Perhaps Carol is drawn to the impoverished radical because her husband despises him so.

Her third sexual interest is unlike either Bresnahan or Bjornstrom. Erik Valborg is ten years younger than Carol, and is an aspiring artist. He wears clothes that are only fashionable in the big cities, therefore frowned upon by Main Street. Kennicott derides the young man's taste in clothing, perhaps increasing Carol's admiration of him.

Carol begins to make up excuses to visit the tailor's shop, where Valborg worked as an apprentice. She takes walks with her son Hugh, hoping to encounter Valborg. By chapter 29 she finally admits to herself that "she had to see Erik. She wanted some one to play with!" As she met more frequently with Erik, "She alternately considered ways of leaving Kennicott."

Finally she makes up her mind to yield to Valborg. They plan a moonlight walk, strips off her glove, and places her hand back in his. Snuggling, he reads a love poem he wrote to her. At that point Kennicott pulls up, coerces Carol to the car, and drives Valborg home. She confesses her love for Valborg, but Kennicott brushes it off as silliness.

Kennicott managed to get her home physically, but emotionally she never returns to him. In fact, she was never there, even on their wedding night. The popular and knowledgeable main Street doctor could apparently heal any ailment, except for the infidelity of his wife.