America's First Daughter

Duty is a major theme in the novel and looms large in Patsy’s consciousness. She frequently comments on the sacrifices she makes in the name of duty for those she loves: “I still heard my mother’s reedy voice bidding me to take care of my father all of the days of his life. No one had ever asked me what I wanted” (141). In almost the same breath as her mother charges Patsy with the care of her father, she also advises her daughter to be happy: “Be happy. That’s what I want for you” (31).

Happiness and duty are often mutually contradictory states, and Patsy spends much of her life trying to create a balance between the two: “I passed through the days and weeks that followed in a confused haze, my thoughts preoccupied by my struggle to balance my heart’s desire with my lifelong duty” (201). Although she may feel an emotional tug of war between happiness and duty, Patsy always acts in accordance with her sense of duty. She never seriously considers putting her own happiness first.

Ironically, Jefferson reserves his greatest praise for his daughter’s dutiful behavior. He has apparently forgotten his own insistence, in the Declaration of Independence, that the pursuit of happiness is everyone’s right.