LITR 4232 American
Renaissance
LITR 4232 2008 final exam
Essay Answers to Question 8: Define and describe a term from the course . . .
Josh Hughey
Killer Trees and Water
Personally I am a huge fan of horror films and though I love almost all musical genres one that I listen to quite often is the metal. This being the case the opportunity to examine heavily gothic works was amazing. Being able to examine subjects commonly associated with the gothic, and thus commonly represented in horror films and metal songs, was a good way for me to be able to better understand the American Renaissance as a whole. Another advantage was to learn new themes and symbols that can be included in the gothic category. It helped me to be able to say, “That’s gothic? Oh, that makes sense now” and then have a better capacity of understanding gothic elements in writing.
Until this course I never understood “Rip van Winkle” to have elements of the gothic. I did, however, understand these elements in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Being able to read these texts together helped me realize one huge similarity, which also happens to be an element of the gothic, the forest. Both stories contain gloomy, confusing, and haunting forests. This brings in the important theme of nature, something very common in the literature of the time period as well as the lives of the people (Objective 3). Nature is often viewed as being a peaceful place to escape the pressures of daily life. What these two stories do is expand on the view that nature may seem nice but in reality it is very big and unforgiving. The forest does not care if you get lost and will not help when a headless horseman is chasing you. It only adds to the confusion and may even help in misleading you, as in “Rip van Winkle.”
Another important text in identifying nature as an element of the gothic is “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe. Though the bulk of gothic terms and scenery descriptions are of tombs, and death there is also the element of the sea. The poem strongly portrays the sea as a gothic element by describing its gloominess and power. The poem almost seems to relate the sea to death itself crashing in on the narrator, as he seems to be possibly waiting to die by the side of his dead love. This morbid connection of the sea to death as well as the connection of the forest to darkness and confusion strongly acknowledges nature as a prominent element of the gothic. Understanding the importance of nature to the people of the time period along with how they can also view it as a great danger is a great help in understanding the definition of the gothic and the mindset of Americans during their Renaissance.
Karina Ramos
The Byronic Hero and the Dark Lady
“ . . . The Byronic Hero in Film, Fiction, and Television shows us that heroes don’t die, they morph right along with the culture they serve.” ~ David Greenwalt, co-creator of Angel
I’d never heard the term Byronic Hero until this semester but I guess what really got me started thinking about it was when you showed different examples of Byronic Heroes in literature and popular culture. That got me thinking of who else did I know to be a Byronic Hero but never thought of them in that way.
I hadn’t read much on American Renaissance before coming to this class therefore my knowledge was and still is minimal in that regards but I will try and identify some Heroes and what makes them that way.
First of all, where did the term come from? The Byronic Hero was made popular during the 19th century with the Romantic Era. It is named after Lord Byron whose work and some of his life characterized the perfect flawed character.
These characters had a series of specific traits. According to the website provided by Dr. White, the Byronic Hero is the ‘dark’ and handsome type, very smart but tends to be cynical and self-destructive, he tends to be a wonderer with some sort of dark secret hunting him, and in possibly an outlaw or outcast. Wikipedia also adds that the Byronic Hero is a guy who is mysterious, magnetic and charismatic with arrogant tendencies. He also has trouble dealing with his emotions with might lead to people thinking that he’s bipolar. Being introverted doesn’t help his case either.
All in all, Lord Byron’s ex-lover, Lady Caroline Lamb said it best. A Byronic Hero is, "mad, bad and dangerous to know." Yet despite all of this or maybe because of it we can’t help but love them.
The term Byronic Hero is typically reserved for male characters. A female character that encompasses the same characteristics as the Byronic Hero would be the Dark Lady.
We encountered both the Byronic Heroes and the Dark Lady early in the semester in Coopers The Last of the Mohicans. In this novel was Magua who was paired against the character of Uncas. We also has Cora paired with Alice.
Here Magua is considered the villain. He is known as “the Sly Fox” which indicates his intelligence. He also has a past both with his people the Huron Indians and the British Army. Uncas on the other hand is the “good Indian” and a prince, which makes all the difference in the way we view them.
Cora really seems to be the main dark character in the novel, both figuratively and literally. She has a secret, her ancestry and she tends to hide it from the rest of society. Unlike her, her half sister Alice is the perfect Light Lady contrasting Cora’s Dark Lady status. Alice his of proper blood and with the right coloring to make her acceptable in society.
Book characters aren’t the only Byronic characters in literature. Like Lord Byron himself, America has had a tone of Byronic authors. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Emily Dickinson are but a few. They all had some characteristic that embodied the Byronic Hero / Dark Lady persona. Hawthorne and Poe had their pasts and Dickinson was extremely introverted and a recluse.
Sources
http://www.siu.edu/~siupress/titles/f04_titles/stein_byronic.htm (the quote at the beginning)
http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/4232/research/termsthemes/byronic.htm (Dr White’s Byronic Hero Page)
Wikipedia.com
Emily Newsome
The Romantic Quest in the American Renaissance
The romantic element is highly apparent in various ways throughout the literature of the American Renaissance, but perhaps the most interesting way that it displays itself is through the romantic quest of the hero or heroine – and possibly the not so heroic characters. The class notes describe this journey as either physical or a much more personal journey such as one “across class lines.”
Many of the journeys that take place in romantic literature are physical such as the journey of Goodman Brown in Hawthorne’s short story. The young man makes a physical journey that parallels his spiritual journey. He travels down the wooded path and begins his story with a physical journey but ends with the spiritual journey as he resists the devil and the possessed people of the town. Also, unlike the modern interpretation of romance, the journey of the romantic hero does not always end satisfactory or with success, as seen in Hawthorne’s character. He comes to realize the folly and danger in following the stranger, yet his life is tainted after his interaction with what can only be described as the devil, and from that point on he can never be truly happy with anything.
The short stories of the more gothic writers seem to contain all of the elements of a romantic journey, but perhaps the most interesting quest can be seen through the eyes and words of President Lincoln. Lincoln’s own life is an epic journey. He was not born into the status that he achieved, and he had to work his entire life to maintain his greatness. Lincoln journeyed from the backwoods of Kentucky to the Whitehouse with hard work and pure determination, but his greatest journey did not begin with his childhood. Interestingly, highly dramatic struggles can be seen in the lives of most, if not all of the authors – Poe’s childhood, Whitman’s sexuality, the physical journeys of the minority writers. Perhaps, their struggles are what make them so great, or perhaps we all struggle in life (some more than others) and these authors are gifted with the ability to eloquently describe their journey, or more likely, it is a combination of the two.
Lincoln’s greatest journey parallels that of the United States, and can be seen through his speeches. As Catherine pointed out in class, his speeches correspond to the progress of the nation toward, through and after the war. This progress could be seen as the epic journey of a nation. The budding nation begins with Lincoln’s “A House Divided” speech. The problem is presented and Lincoln encourages the rest of the nation to join him in his quest for unity. As, a result of this speech, many people of the nation choose with side they want to be on. They either aid in the quest or they begin their attempts to stand in the way of or alter the course of Lincoln’s journey entirely. This speech simply shows the preparation that is involved in any quest, similar to a person packing supplies for a physical journey. The preparation for a journey is perhaps the longest and most tedious aspect as in the years of planning and preparation that went into the escape plans of many of the slaves. This is perhaps why this speech is the longest by far of the three covered in this course.
The quest then moves from the planning phase into action (or the description/resolve of the action) with the “Gettysburg Address” and the quest is finally resolved or completed with the “Second Inaugural Address.” The resolution of the quest of our nation to achieve solidarity is perhaps the most poignant of Lincoln’s speeches because he seems to downplay the issues the most in this work. He understands that the issue has been somewhat resolved with the conclusion of the war, but he realizes and understands the delicacy of the situation. He wisely acknowledges with his subtlety that the journey did not end well for some, just as Goodman Brown’s journey did not. This dark and foreboding, highly gothic tone is possibly the greatest tie between the president’s speeches with the early American Literature that surrounded him.
There are also epic journeys present with the poets, but these seem to take on the challenge of describing the journey of life, most often ending in death or the acceptance of death. Whitman does this in his poem “Song of Myself” as chronicles his life’s journey, and Emily Dickinson does this very eloquently in “Because I Could Not Stop for Death.” She parallels the major events in life such as childhood, marriage, and burial with a physical journey with the personification of death. She takes a complicated and entirely abstract idea such as the journey through life and puts it into tangible concepts.
The romantic journey or quest is perhaps one of the most important aspects of romantic literature. It is human nature to have the desire to view things in life in a linear fashion. The journey concept aids in this. With a journey there is a definite beginning, middle, and end, which helps satisfy the need for completion. The journey also shows growth of a character or in Lincoln’s case, growth of a nation. The quest is not always welcomed, and in the long run it does not always end well for the parties involved. The journey does, however, make a significant impact either physically or abstractly in the lives of all that it touches.
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