>H.W. loses his hearing because his father's greed pushes him
>to work the oil so closely.

Though it doesn't really impact your thesis, I'm not so sure H.W.'s loss of hearing can be pinned on Daniel's greed. I could just as easily say that H.W.'s accident was a consequence of his love for his surrogate father, which also meant loving the oil industry. He loves oil so much that he finds himself view the work from a dangerous position, and we all know that the things you love are the things that hurt you most.

So, actually, that does impact your thesis.


>Abel Sunday is a version of Daniel Plainview. Both are
>narrow-minded men, cruel when any suggestion counters their
>way of thinking. Sunday's ambition for final salvation and
>Plainview's ambition for great financial success fuels each
>down a dangerous path. Though both may enjoy the products of
>their particular faiths for a time--a god-fearing family or a
>series of well-run oil wells--ultimately, what they seek is
>always to escape them. Their delusions run deep.

Did you mean to say Abel there? If so, I find it hard to really believe Abel and Daniel are analogous characters. By the time we're introduced to Abel, he's already been supplanted by his son, as evidenced by Eli ultimately making the decision when Plainview comes. His abuse of Mary could stem more from feelings of impotency, as he is later helpless at the hands of Eli's abuse, so much so that his family doesn't even try to help him.


>Eli Sunday initially possesses his father's religious tenacity
>but also longs for Planview's business accomplishments.
>However, he is still rather immature in the latter department
>(unwise to the drained Bandy fields and with a string of
>failed investments behind him). Then, later, he confesses
>himself a sinner and, though under duress, a false prophet too
>(that he even allows himself to utter those words demonstrates
>he is wavering in his convictions).

I'd say that Eli was a false prophet all along, that he knew that he could use the faith of his township to achieve power, perhaps in competition with his brother. When he beats his father, he beats him because he feels his brother has won at some unsaid game, that for all the power he has gained through the misguided faith of the townspeople, he still can't be better than his brother, even though the brother is absent. Plainview understands this and uses it against Eli in the final scene to destroy Eli's "soul" even further by claiming, perhaps falsely, that Paul is now succeeding and has BEEN succeeding at the very thing that Eli has come to request help at.

>So, if you have to stand for something one way or another, and
>if extremism is not the answer, then what? I think we ought
>to look to H.W. and Mary. Both were raised by stubborn,
>mean-spirited men, and both found escape in each other;
>therefore, it's love, faith in your fellow human beings, in
>their kindness, that shows a way from the tyranny of business
>and religion.

How does Plainview's unexpected faith in his false-brother fit into this? Obviously this newfound brotherhood brought some semblance of contentment to him, as we watch him reminisce rather than constantly looking to the future for new land, new oil, new money. But we know he's being taken advantage of, and when Plainview realizes his mistake in choosing the false-brother over H.W., he knows he has to kill the brother as repentance to H.W.

We can't say that Plainview could have let the false-brother live and accepted him as a friend/adopted brother, because we don't actually know what happened to the real brother AND it seem likely that H.W. finds that advertisement for a shotgun/rifle for a reason.