A friend of Medora Manson, Dr. Carver runs the Valley of Love community, which is a fictionalized version of the numerous experimental communities in New England in the late nineteenth century. These groups shunned the traditional values of society and even advocated free love. Thus, Dr. Carver represents an alternative to the confinements of society at which Archer and Ellen chafe. However, Dr. Carver’s community is never represented as a particularly alluring or realistic option.