Jennifer Matus

April 28, 2012

Prodigal Daughter: Controversial or Entertainment

          Charlotte Temple is known as one of the first of its genre in women’s romance and is known as a “seduction” novel. While it portrays a young girl following her heart from England to America during the revolutionary period, it is also known to be based upon a true story. From my previous knowledge in history courses, women of this time were not particularly educated and those who were, were wealthy. I knew women of upper class would have had education such as private tutors so naturally only the wealthy would read the novel; however, I began to think of how they perceived the novel. Since I know from the class lecture and notes that this novel was widely popular and became a best seller, I am not concerned with its popularity. Did the population of the 1790’s enjoy the book as entertainment or did they feel outraged that a woman of their time period would act as so?  Wouldn’t her actions contrast to that of religious woman and if so, shouldn’t the reader feel equally guilty?

          My first stop on my search for answers was the search engine Google. Considering this is a trend of mine since it was how I started my search for Research Post #1 let me briefly explain. Simply, if I don’t find many simple responses to my posed question then I most likely will not find educated, studied responses. After making a few adjustments to my wording on what I was looking for, I came across a book listed on Google Books. “Prodigal Daughters: Susanna Rowson’s Early American Women” by Marion Rust of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture gave me a starting point of the lifestyle developing in America in the late 1700’s. She mentions that “turn-of-the-century Philadelphia was remarkable for increasing tolerance of unmarried, and in particular premarital, sex” (Rust 49).This was something that I was unaware of the time period. Rust goes on to mention that Charlotte Temple is “a story of ‘the fatal consequence of Charlotte’s…illicit sexuality,’ the novel is said to depict a woman ‘betrayed by her own naïve passions’ and thereby provide an ‘example of virtue fallen through seduction and sexuality'” (Rust, 57). Perhaps readers of the late 1700s-early 1800s found pleasure in reading of Charlotte’s forbidden acts and equally viewed the book as a “if you do this, this will happen.” At this same time period the rise of singlehood steadily increased through history. Many women began searching for the “right” mate instead of marrying the man their parents approved or chose.

          From here I continued my search to the UHCL online database. I came across an article by Paul Barton called “Narrative Intrusion in Charlotte Temple: A Closet Feminist's Strategy in an American Novel.” He stated, “Rowson had an innate desire to instill within her readers the knowledge and means essential to finding the path of virtue and right Christian living” (Barton 27). This explains that it was written to discourage the behavior partaken by Charlotte. I still wanted to find out more in regards to the audience reading the newly published Charlotte Temple.

          I found an article by Patricia Parker called “Charlotte Temple: America’s First Bestseller.” She found that “Charlotte Temple sold because it was brief and entertaining. Its plot line moved rapidly and in a sophisticated time sequence. Further, the book instructed its readers to follow the paths of social convention, but it also posted a humanitarian attitude towards those who veered from established ways” (Parker 518). Parker is saying that the book was read and sold simply because it was entertaining while still adapting to the current social conventions of the time. Blythe Forcey takes this research further in the article “Charlotte Temple and the End of Epistolarity.” At this point in my research I had looked over at least a dozen articles with no luck in regards to what my goal defined. However, this article answered what I was in search of. Several passages were to be noted before making my final conclusion. The population during this time was “diverse and disoriented” and “the actual readers were usually young and at least as likely to be female as male…because of the increasing attention to childhood education in the later part of the eighteenth century, young people, especially women, tended to be more literate than old people” (Forcey, 226). The book was released a few years before the turn of the 18^th century, which meant many families had been in the United States for over a hundred years. It did not even cross my mind that all the children who were getting educated were now grown at this point. Another point made was as follows, “Most potential readers, even those seemingly least likely to identify with Charlotte Temple…would still have been affected by the pervasive sense of ‘homelessness’” (Forcey 226). This is to say that many people felt connected to Charlotte during the changing times in America. They enjoyed the ability to read of someone who experienced the fears of a new world without having to experience it for themselves.

          Through my research I was able to find the answers to my posed questions. “Charlotte Temple” became popular due to its appeal to the lower literacy levels of readers and its relatable themes. I found no outrage due to the premarital sex and questionable actions of a young girl, but found the novel fit appropriately with the new, changing country. Morals were being questioned and the conservative lifestyle in itself began to laxen. The novel was released at a proper time and possibly, if released at an earlier time, could have been considered controversial. After studying the response to Susanna Rowson’s novel it would lead me to further study America during this time. I learned there was a lot more to the lifestyle of the 18^th century than I ever learned in a school textbook.

WORKS CITED

Barton, Paul. "Narrative Intrusion In Charlotte Temple: A Closet Feminist's Strategy In An American Novel." Women & Language 23.1 (2000): 26. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 April 2012.

Forcey, Blythe. "Charlotte Temple and the End of Epistolarity." American Literature 63.2 (1991): 225-41. JSTOR. Web. 27 Apr. 2012.

Parker, Patricia L. "Charlotte Temple: America's First Best Seller." Studies In Short Fiction 13.4 (1976): 518. Academic Search Complete. Web. 27 April 2012.

Rust, Marion. Prodigal Daughters: Susanna Rowson's Early American Women. University of North Carolina, 2008. Web.