Sample Student Research Project 2010
Journal
LITR
4232 American Renaissance
Sample Student Research Project 2010
Journal
Melissa King
28 November 2010
Correspondence Through
Correspondence
Introduction
Until this
semester if I heard the word correspondence I would immediately think of the
action of keeping in touch with someone through letters or written words. I did
not think of the possibility of it referring to another definition. Upon
learning that correspondence could also mean a certain resemblance or similitude
between two things, a whole new way of thinking about literature opened up for
me. Correspondence is so important in creating the rationale for why we, as
humans, feel the way we do at certain times when reading or just existing in
this world. Authors use correspondence as a mood setter and can manipulate their
reader’s emotions through the different elements they add to their writing.
As I research the term “correspondence” I wish to undercover
more about how correspondence came to be and how it works to further a piece of
literature. As discussed previously, I know that researching just the term
“correspondence” will result in a lot of information about the business of
writing back and forth to one another, so I will be looking at different
synonyms such as “similitude,” “resemblance,” “sympathy,” and even delve into
the world of astrology to see how our life on earth corresponds with the world
above us. Such writers as Michel Foucault in his book
The Order of Things focuses on the
idea of similitude and the many ways in which resemblance can affect how we
live. Other authors like Poe, Emerson, Alcott and many more use correspondence
in their writings to show how the outer can match the inner and touch at our
emotions to help us understand what their characters are feeling.
The Idea of Correspondence
It is interesting
to me that when researching correspondence all the information you receive is
about the act of communicating with one another, yet when you consult a
dictionary the most common definition is the definition I am speaking of in this
journal. According to Merriam Webster Dictionary online correspondence is “the
agreement of things with one another,” “a particular similarity,” and “a
relation between sets in which each member of one set is associated with one or
more members of the other” (“correspondence”). Correspondence often refers to
the relationship between man and nature. Authors typically try to make nature
resemble what is happening within a characters soul in order to set up the mood
and help the reader to understand the inner turmoil or possible happiness that
the character is feeling. Correspondence between nature and man is not brought
out simply through literature, but through time we have seen how much man
resembles nature in reality.
The Order of Things:
The four similitudes
Resemblance
plays an important role in the knowledge of how our culture works and how we, as
humans, exist in our universe. Michel Foucault says in his book
The Order of Things that “The
universe was folded in upon itself: the earth echoing the sky, faces seeing
themselves reflected in the stars, and plants holding within their stems the
secrets that were of use to man” (17). Foucault saw the way that nature and the
existing forces in our environment shape the way man behaves and almost becomes
a mirror image of nature. Foucault discusses the four essential similitudes and
how they organize the figures of knowledge.
First Foucault
examines the similitude convenientia,
or the idea that things are more adjacent to each other and come so close to
each other that one’s end denotes the beginning of another.
Convenientia deals with two things
that are conveniently close in relation, thus touching each other. Foucault
explains this idea by using the example of the soul and the human body. He says
that the two are so conveniently placed and that the soul was made dense so that
God could put it in place. The two work off of each other in that the soul
“receives the movements of the body and assimilates itself to that body, while
the body is altered and corrupted by the passions of the soul” (18). It is as if
the two become one; what one is feeling, the other is affected and transformed
to mirror the first.
Edgar Allan Poe uses correspondence frequently in his writings
to incite fear and horror upon his readers. He has a way with words in which we
can feel what the characters are feeling and it is almost as if we become that
character. In his short story “Ligeia” Poe uses a form of
convenientia to show the
correspondence between the narrator’s feelings and his soul. As the narrator
sits by the corpse of his bride Rowena, he becomes aware of a low, sobbing noise
that he believes is coming from the dead bride. He is immediately filled with
fear at the awakening of the corpse of Rowena, and proclaims that “[his] soul
was awakened within [him]” (“Ligeia”). The awakening of the dead that installs
fear into his mind is enough to create a correspondence between his body and
soul. The terror that he feels is pushed into his soul and the body and soul
become one, both alive with wonder and horror.
The second
similitude relayed by Foucault is that of
aemulatia, or the resemblance that exists in two things that are separated
by a distance. Aemulatia does not
need contact in order for the resemblance to exist. Through
aemulatia things that are scattered
around the world can still have resemblance and can “answer one another” as
Foucault states (19). He explains this through the example of man and the sky.
He says, “The human face, from afar, emulates the sky, and just as man’s
intellect is an imperfect reflection of God’s wisdom, so his two eyes, with
their limited brightness, are a reflection of the vast illumination spread
across the sky by sun and moon” (19). Even though the stars are billions of
miles away, we can look up into the sky and see ourselves reflecting down at us.
Susan B. Warner’s writing in
The Wide, Wide World portrays
correspondence through the use of
aemulatia when she describes how Ellen’s mood changes to resemble the sky
outside. She finds out that she is to be sent away from her mother and is
looking gloomily out the window at the sky and “its clear depth of blue . . .
till, she didn’t know why, she felt calmed and soothed, -as if somebody was
saying to her, softly, ‘cheer up, my child, cheer up; things are not as bad as
they might be; things will get better’” (Chapter 2). Although she is not
physically touching the sky, therefore it does not have a direct effect on her,
she is still “touched” by the beauty of the sky and it gives her a feeling of
peace. Through aemulatia, the
correspondence of two things is possible no matter how far away from each other
they are.
Thirdly, Foucault
presents the analogy form of
similitude. Analogy is almost a
combination of convenientia and
aemulatia in that it deals with the
resemblance of things across space but also things adjacent to one another. This
can define resemblances between such things as “the sense organs and the face
they animate” (21). Foucault gives the analogy of the plant to an animal saying
that a “vegetable is an animal living head down, its mouth- or roots- buried in
the earth” (21). Based on Foucault’s analogical similitude theory, there are
correspondences between nature and man everywhere. His idea basically suggests
that all forms resemble one another, just with subtle differences.
Analogies can be
found throughout writings from centuries ago to writings from today. Not all
analogies are necessarily considered to be a type of correspondence, but one
analogy sticks out in my mind as a perfect form of correspondence. In
Revelations 22:16 of the Bible, Jesus
says “I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.”
This quote creates an analogy between Jesus and a bright star. Throughout the
bible, stars were used to guide the people on the right path. One bright star
led the three kings to baby Jesus so that they could deliver their gifts. By
Jesus comparing himself to the morning star, there is a correspondence created
between man and Jesus. Just as when we look at the stars, when we look to Jesus
his warmth and care is manifested to us and we too begin to feel warm and at
peace. It is almost impossible to consider Jesus or see his great works and not
feel instantly great ourselves. Therefore, we as humans are able to correspond
with Jesus.
The fourth and
final essential similitude Foucault explains is the play of
sympathies. Foucault states that
Sympathy plays through the depths of the universe in a
Sympathy seems to be the most current form of correspondence
that authors use in their texts. Sympathy deals with the mood and feelings that
come from one witnessing the mood or feelings of another. Thus in the example
above by Foucault, one who smells a rose that has been in close contact with
death will be made to feel sorrow and a tinge of death themselves. Sympathy can
create almost exact replicas of one thing. This is perhaps why authors find it
so useful. If they can take the way a character feels and create a setting and
mood that mirrors those feelings then the reader will become transfigured into a
replica of the character, thinking and feeling the way the character does yet
still maintaining his/her own identity.
Jennifer Martin, in her midterm essay over correspondence
entitled “Correlating Correspondence,” discusses how Edgar Allan Poe uses
correspondence in “Ligeia” when the narrator describes his reactions to the dead
corpse of his bride Rowena. The narrator says that his heart stops beating and
he can no longer move his limbs, as if he too has become lifeless. Jennifer says
that this is an example of the “outer matching the inner. He was sitting next to
a corpse so inside he felt like a corpse.” The narrator’s reaction is a reaction
of sympathies; just as the smelling
of the rose that has come in contact with death makes one feels sorrowful, the
narrator’s interaction with his dead bride makes him feel lifeless inside.
Astrology and its Correspondence
with Man
Thomas H. Burgoyne
discusses the connection between man and the stars in his two part book
The Light of Egypt and paints a
beautiful picture of how the stars correspond with the form of man. He writes
In order to penetrate the mysteries of God, they [the Chaldean
sages] first sought out the mysteries of man, and then, formulated a complete
science of correspondences. . . The twelve signs of the celestial zodiac were
divided into sections of the human frame, so that the entire zodiacal belt was
symbolized as a man bent round in the form of a circle, the soles of the feet
placed against the back of the head (Vol. 1 205).
You always hear people asking what sign someone is because
they want to uncover a little bit about how that person’s character is. These
signs that they are asking about are the same twelve signs spoken of in the
passage above. The twelve signs are Aires, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo,
Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. Each sign has
particular characteristics that set them apart from the others like life
ambitions and desires and many believe that depending on what year you were
born, you correspond with the characteristics of the sign you were born under.
Burgoyne relays this point when he says “For example; Aries is the first and
highest representative of the fiery trigon, and those born with this sign rising
upon the ascendant of their horoscope will always move upon a higher plane,
mentally and spiritually, than those born under Leo or Sagittarius” (Vol. 1
225). The idea that the way the twelve signs exist in the outer world translate
through our inner selves is a perfect example of correspondence.
There are texts
that show the correspondence with man and the stars. Often looking up to the
stars creates a sense of calmness in all of us and makes us feel at peace.
Perhaps this is why star gazing through telescopes is so popular. We see an
example of a little girl’s mood changing as she looks at one bright star in our
class texts and this is a prime example of correspondence with astrology. In
“The Lamplighter” by Maria Susanna Cummins Gerty gets locked up in a very dark
room and is instantly filled with sorrow and fright. She begins sobbing and
becomes completely miserable. However, she begins to gaze out the one little
window above her bed and sees a single bright star shining down on her. She
discusses how she had never noticed the stars so much before and feels as if
this star is so “soft and pleasant looking . . . it seemed like a kind face.”
Her mood instantly changes and she becomes a little brighter like the star she
is watching. The one bright star out in the universe that she sees shines down
on her and makes her mood correspond with its brightness.
Sympathy and the Resemblance
between Character and Reader
While reading a
text, there is a form of correspondence that exists between the character and
the environment around them that then creates a correspondence between character
and reader. If a character from a story is sad and depressed and the author
wants to translate that feeling to the reader then they would not have the
character be sitting under a ray of sunshine with a huge smile on his/her face.
They sky outside would be dark and gray and perhaps rain would be falling. The
character might be sitting in his/her room in the dark and tears would be
falling down his/her face. If the reader reads this kind of setting and mood
correspondence then they will get an insight into the depression and sadness
themselves and can relate to the character in a more effective way. Nancy
Roberts writes in her book Schools of
Sympathy that “one cannot rely on a spontaneous eruption of the right sort
of feeling; its construction must instead be designed and the applied. Nothing
is to be taken for granted, so the good reader and the good emotional response
must be produced by the text” (3). It is the author’s job to create the writing
that will produce the correct response by the reader and that is done by
generating the correct mood.
The ability to match the character and the mood is a tool that
makes the reading much more appealing to the reader, as it lets them enter the
novel and feel the emotions. In her article “Tone and Mood” Joyce Saricks
discusses the appeal of mood and says that the most appealing tones are those
that speak directly to the emotions. She states that “In horror, the point of
the story is to create an emotional response by setting up an inescapable sense
of foreboding and menace” (Sarick “Tone and Mood”). Without having that feeling
of tension that corresponds with the actions of the characters then the reader
would not feel invested in the story and would not get the same shocking effect
as the story plays out. When the outer world mirrors the inner being the story
will be more affective.
Many
authors we have read in American Renaissance have achieved the correspondence
between character and mood, such as Edgar Allan Poe and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Poe’s writing would not be such a breathtakingly wonderful example of the gothic
if it was not for the dark and somber tone and setting in which he uses and
creates. Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is pregnant with correspondence
between the setting and the character’s emotions. At one point when the narrator
arrives at the house, he describes how he “at
length found [himself], as the shades of the evening drew on, within
view of the
melancholy House of Usher. [He knew] not how it was—but, with the first glimpse
of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded [his] spirit.” In this
example, we see how the outer environment caused the narrator to become
sympathetic to the setting around him and to mirror the tone set before him.
Since the house was melancholy, he became melancholy. The inner began to match
the outer.
Emerson also shows us how the setting can affect the
character. In his text “Nature” he writes:
Standing on the bare ground,—my head bathed by the blithe air,
and uplifted into infinite space,—all mean egotism vanishes . . . I am the lover
of uncontained and immortal beauty. In the wilderness, I find something more
dear and connate than in streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and
especially in the distant life of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful
as his own nature (Emerson).
When we are surrounded by beauty and the wonders of the
wilderness, we begin to feel different inside. We seem to shed our cares and
become pure and reasonable. There is a correspondence created between the
peaceful wilderness and our own feelings. By
using these styles of writing, the authors create sympathy between reader,
character, and setting and create a world in which the reader can escape to and
become another person.
Correspondence in Film
When
considering correspondence, there is one film that plays over and over in my
mind. Mike Newell, director of Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire, creates settings that correspond to the mood
of the characters throughout the film and create a sense of sympathy for the
viewer. In the film, Professor Moody is showing his class the three different
killing curses and asks one student, Neville Longbottom, to tell him what the
Cruciartus curse is. When Moody demonstrates the curse to the class on a spider,
we see Neville tense up and his face distorts to a look of shock and pain. It
turns out that his parents were tortured by this exact curse and he is highly
bothered by watching it. After class, he is standing on a staircase looking out
a stained glass window. Instead of the sky being sunny and bright, it begins to
pour down rain, mirroring the gloom inside of Neville. As he walks away, a
single rain drop falls down the face of the character stained onto the window
and it looks as if he is crying. Upon viewing this scene, I was instantly filled
with sorrow and sympathy for Neville. Not only did the outside environment
correspond with Neville’s feelings, so did I.
Conclusion
Correspondence is
such a captivating tool that can change a piece of writing from a plain and
seemingly boring read to a wonderful and captivating read. When we choose our
books to read, we look for books that make us feel for the characters. Without
correspondence I do not believe this would be possible. By having corresponding
characters and settings, we are able to look deep inside the characters and feel
what they are feeling.
Throughout this
research project, I learned so much about the different ways in which
correspondence can appear in the world around us, as well as in literature. It
was extremely interesting to me to view astrology as a form of correspondence
and I would have never made that connection had I not researched this topic.
There is correspondence all around us and it explains a lot about why we feel
the way we do at times. Overall, my journey through correspondence was a
wonderful one. If I were to continue my research, I would definitely look into
how correspondence is used in more modern literature. We often think of the
gothic settings that are presented to us through Poe’s works, but what kinds of
correspondence are in such writings as
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or other modern works? I would also research
farther into how correspondence plays on the reader.
Works Cited
Burgoyne, Thomas H. The
Light of
Foucault, Michel. The
Order of Things.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of
Fire. Dir. Mike
Newell. Perf. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint. Warner Bros.,
2005. Film.
New King James Bible.
Ed. Thomas Nelson.
Roberts,
Saricks, Joyce. “Tone and Mood.”
Booklist 106.15 (2010): 21.
