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LITR 4231
Early American Literature lecture notes |
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Peace, Change, Great Awakenings
Literacy
Occom
1 a wandering life [cf. Edgar Huntly]
minister from New London, blankets, school
a man who went about among the Indian Wigwams, and wherever he Could find the Indian Children, would make them read; but the Children Used to take Care to keep out of his way; —and he used to Catch me Some times and make me Say over my Letters
not one amongst us, that made a Profession of Christianity—Neither did we Cultivate our Land, nor kept any Sort of Creatures except Dogs, which we used in Hunting; and we Dwelt in wigwams
2 Great Awakening
Common People all came frequently
[3] After I was awakened & converted, I went to all the meetings, I could come at; & continued under Trouble of Mind about 6 months; at which time I began to Learn the English Letters; got me a Primer, and used to go to my English Neighbours frequently for Assistance in Reading
4 began to read in New Testament > Wheelock
6 1>I
12 method in school
18 Indian handicrafts
19-20 “because I am an Indian”
Equiano 3.3 voice, speech contrast Declaration, 1st Amendment
3.15-16 church and literacy
3.16 talk to the books
7.2 Quakers
Cristen's presentation on Adam Smith and capitalism
compare to Declaration, US Constitution . . . natural law
contrast with Winthrop, Mayflower Compact? . . . religious exception to nature
Woolman
40a bounds to our desires
63 keeping down to that root from which our concern proceeded > sympathy
Crevecoeur
3.2 rural; rich & poor not so far removed
3.4 melting pot but European immigrants
3.4 uniqueness
of
3.5 surprising metamorphosis < laws & industry
3.6
leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new
ones
3.7
labour is founded on the basis of nature,
self-interest
9.1 richest province
9.2 scenes of misery
9.3
The chosen race eat, drink, and live happy, while the
unfortunate one grubs
9.4 life . . . without labor
9.5
12.1
its inhabitants live with more ease, decency, and
peace
12.2 Their system is sufficiently complete to answer all the primary wants of
man
12.5 cf. Mary Jemison
12.6
the most perfect
freedom, the ease of living, the absence of those cares and corroding
solicitudes
12.7
no examples of even one of those Aborigines having
from choice become Europeans!
[12.8] Without temples, without priests, without kings, and without laws, they
are in many instances superior to us;
and the proofs of what I advance,
are, that
they live without care, sleep without inquietude, take life as it comes, bearing
all its asperities with unparalleled patience, and die without any kind of
apprehension for what they have done, or for what they expect to meet with
hereafter.
[12.8]
more
closely
connected with nature . . .
the inhabitants of the woods
are her undefiled offspring . . . .
Charlotte Temple
Problem
Personal feelings over impersonal system
Evidence of literate culture: letters, notes
Displacement of villainy, but generational cycle continues,
family instability
Add Madame Du Pont to characters
Sample of epistolary novel: Pamela
Novel as private life x public life of real people
Narrative &
dialogue:
Belcour, La Rue as craft w/o heart
French villains < French Revolution 1789
Surprise: how much the story is about consequences for
Montraville
1.3 15 years old
1.5 musket ball from the Americans
1.6 I never think of the future
1.9 a romantic attempt
2.2 small estate, independence, thrift
2.9 neat apartment [prison]
2.14 tear falls, emblematic
2.16 innocence x insult and dishonor
2.21 filial affection
3.1 son from rising bourgeoisie meets son of affluence
3.3 so specious was his manner
3.4
I gave my child a caution to beware of him, and to look on her mother as her
friend.
3.8 the truly brave soul
is tremblingly alive to the feelings of humanity
3.12
avowed his passion for
Lucy; declared her situation in life would not permit him to marry her; but
offered to release me immediately, and make any settlement on her, if George
would persuade her to live, as he impiously termed it, a life of honour.
3.20 both gone?
4.5
creditors
seized my house and
furniture
4.13 I can feel
4.26 marry for money?
5.1 never felt another’s woe
5.2
her heart unfeeling, her passions impetuous
5.5 the most affluent fortune would bring no increase of happiness unless Lucy
Eldridge shared it with him; and the knowledge of the purity of her sentiments,
and the integrity of his own heart
5.11 little cottage, dairy, garden [garden of Eden, domesticity]
Cut space at end of ch 5
6.2 Dangers of LaRue and international society
6.2 bolding and font
6.6 levity of conversation
6.9 handsome young soldier
6.10 direct address to sober matron
6.12 O my dear young girls [addresses reader]
7.2, 7.4 LaRue’s cunning manipulation of innocent (cf.
serpent)
7.6 hypocritical tears
7.12 choice b/w mother and peer
7.21 going to
7.26 authorial intrusion; diabolical envy
7.27
Mademoiselle eyed the unsuspecting
8.1 walking together in the garden
8.3 spoil her
8.4 mother + meek submissive duty of wife
8.7 example set
by best of mothers (cf.
8.10 pleasure as phantom, vain illusion
8.11 devoid of ornament (plain style)
8.11 her name is Content
8.15 her parent is Religion, her sisters Patience and Hope
8.16 authorial / editorial comment
8.18
9.1 imprudence, path of rectitude
9.6 Belcour as individualism, self
9.7 Montraville good-natured but misled by bad friend who encouraged growing passion
9.9
poor
10.1 primogeniture, genteel professions > America
10.3 Senior Montraville's fair advice, warning
11.4, 11.7 love for parents or partner?
11.8 return from America, restored to family
11.9 Charlotte, in an evil hour, consented
"should you, forgetful of your promises, and repenting the engagements you here voluntarily enter into, forsake and leave me on a foreign shore—"
[11.12] "Indeed I do repent," replied
12
12.16 suspense, possibility of escape from romantic destiny
12.27 fainted into carriage
13.1 prefiguring of lost wife and child
13.4 Creator / Mr. Eldridge
13.6 apartment = room
13.11 that French woman, your country (Du Pont) (displacement
of villainy; cf. spoiled aristocracy of Belcour and young man)
13.14 under the protection of a man
13.22 lower font
14.5 the fatal note, “bear it like a Christian”
14.6 a friendly gush of tears
14.7 a woman’s weakness
14.13 one misfortune worse than death
14.19 make her not a mother
14.21 my dear young readers . . . 14.22 remember your mother
15.1 embark for
15.2 pen and ink
15.4 tears up letter
15.11 bow before the power who inflicts it
15.12
follow the fortunes of
the hapless victim of imprudence and evil counsellors.
16.4 the character of La Rue
16.4 change her battery [plan of attack]
16.4 a feigned tale of distress
16.5 a dupe to the artifice of others
16.7 from under his hand a promise of marriage
16.9
revolution: Belcour for
17.7 he should be obliged to keep his word
17.8 he has changed his mind . . . the case is altered
17.9
A full sense of her own
situation rushed upon her mind. She burst into tears
17.10-11 Mrs. Beauchamp
17.14 the mistress of Montraville
17.15
correspondence
b/w face and heart
18.1
18.1 no friend of her own sex?
18.4
The duteous,
faithful wife, though treated with indifference, has one solid pleasure within
her own bosom, she can reflect that she has not deserved neglect
18.5
poor girl by
thoughtless passion led astray
18.5
no tie but honor,
and that, in a man who has been guilty of seduction, is but very feeble
18.5 a heart of sensibility
18.9 My dear Madam . . .
18.11 we erring mortals, great day of retribution
19.1
Julia Franklin
(add to character list)
19.2 a dreadful fire + Montraville’s general honor
19.2 miniature picture of Miss Franklin
19.3 forgets
19.8 “portrait of my mother”
19.10
I fear I have not
only entailed lasting misery on that poor girl, but also thrown a barrier in the
way of my own happiness
[19.16]
"I am a villain," said he mentally
20.2
unavoidable business
[ventriloquism]
20.4
FRIENDSHIP!
20.6
confidence in his honor
20.7 Belcour knew
but little of the female heart
a woman might fall
a victim to imprudence, and yet retain so strong a sense of honor, as to reject
with horror and contempt every solicitation to a second fault.
20.10 Mrs B, chance, gardens joined
20.12 accident
20.12
heavenly
satisfaction of comforting a desponding fellow-creature
20.13
20.16
who knows but she
has left some kind, affectionate parents to lament her errors, and would she
return, they might with rapture receive the poor penitent, and wash away her
faults in tears of joy.
21.3 we English people, reserve
21.4 spend the day with me
21.7
"I have forfeited
the good opinion of all my friends; I have forsaken them, and undone myself."
21.11-12 letters
22.2 letter to mother
22.3
forfeited the only gem that could render me respectable in the eye of the world
22.5
22.8
"If my child should be a girl (which heaven forbid) tell her the unhappy fate of
her mother, and teach her to avoid my errors
23.1
an independent
fortune, and resolved to be happy with the man of her heart, though his rank and
fortune
23.1
double cruelty in forsaking her at such a time; and to
marry Miss Franklin, while honor, humanity, every sacred law, obliged him still
to protect and support
23.4 sentimental friend
23.10
23.17
Oh Montraville," said
she, "kill me, for pity's sake kill me, but do not doubt my fidelity. Do not
leave me in this horrid situation; for the sake of your unborn child, oh! spurn
not the wretched mother from you."
23.18
entreating him to
believe her innocent, and conjuring Belcour to clear up the dreadful mystery.
24.1 servant
24.2
assumed
the part of a tender, consoling friend
24.4
a bribe, prevailed with her to promise whatever letters
her mistress might write should be sent to him.
[i.e., Belcour]
24.5 monitor [conscience]
24.10
I am a seducer, a
mean, ungenerous seducer of unsuspecting innocence
24.11
something in the voice! the manner! the look! that was altogether irresistible
24.13
she loved
Montraville
24.16
honor forbids
25.3 servant + letter
26.4
bent on the
complete ruin of the unhappy girl, and supposed, by reducing her to an entire
dependence on him, to bring her by degrees to consent to gratify his ungenerous
passion
26.6 letter to
26.10
not to use any
sophistical arguments to prevent her return to virtue
27.7
without a friend of my own sex to whom I can unburthen my full heart
27.9
the virtuous part
of my sex will scorn me,
and I will never associate with infamy
27.11
Something like humanity
was awakened in Belcour's breast by this pathetic speech . . . but the selfish
passion which had taken possession of his heart, soon stifled these finer
emotions
27.21 married, Eustatia
27.23
rioted in all the
intemperance of luxury and lawless pleasure.
28.1 reader speaks
28.1
so much fainting, tears,
and distress
28.2
I must request
your patience: I am writing a tale of truth: I mean to write it to the heart
28.3
does not La Rue
triumph in her shame
28.3
What then is the
moral you would inculcate?
28.4
Remember the endeavors of
the wicked are often suffered to prosper, that in the end their fall may be
attended with more bitterness of heart; while the cup of affliction is poured
out for wise and salutary ends, and they who are compelled to drain it even to
the bitter dregs, often find comfort at the bottom
28.5
For
28.7 Colonel
Crayton was a domestic man
28.7 young Ensign
29.4, 29.8 realistic dialogue
30.2 letter to La Rue
30.3
snow began to fall
30.4-5 a work of this kind, the probability of my story?
31.15 John, fellow-servant
31.15 surgeon bled her
31.15 gave birth to a female infant
32.2
vice had not so entirely seared over his
heart, but the sorrows of Charlotte could find a vulnerable part.
32.4 dreadful images that haunted her distracted mind
32.6 Heaven forbid that I should be deaf to the calls of humanity.
33.1 never before beheld such a scene of poverty (Romantic language as extreme)
33.2 you are very good to weep thus for me
33.3 honest John
33.5 grant that the sins of the parent be not visited on the unoffending child
33.7 a man about forty (Mr T)
33.12 dramatic reunion
33.15 a sudden beam of joy
34.3 servant girl
illness, poverty, and a broken heart
34.4 tortured almost to madness
34.4 a funeral. Almost unknowing what he did, he followed
34.7 if thou wert the seducer of my child, thy own reflections be thy punishment.
34.7 Montraville kills Belcour
34.8 delirium, melancholy, weeps over grave
35 reconstitution of family
35.3 I am the viper
35.4 riot, dissipation, and vice, till, overtaken by poverty and sickness
35.5 striking example
Whitefield
1.1-2 family values under siege
1.4 early, primitive Christians
1.6 paranoia, conspiracy? cf. Salem Witch Trials
1.10 the great importance of Family Religion
1.11 you are fallen creatures--contrast Romanticism
1.11 deep sense of God's free grace
2.1 a fallen world
2.2 egalitarian?
2.4 worldliness
2.9 new-birth cf. Emerson
2.10 feeling, sweet
2.10 natural state as hell
2.10 millennium, judgment day
3.3 Apostolic generation
3.5 partaker of the Divine Nature cf. Emerson
3.5 had he continued holy
3.5 partaker of the devil's nature
3.13 cf. Puritan covenant
3.18 x-worldliness, worldy status
3.21 life hidden; cf. Romantic inside