Krisann Muskievicz
Final Exam
Lit 5535
Summer 2002

Question #1

American Romanticism broadly identifies a period during which writers displayed a detachment from the here and now, focusing on idealized notions in either the past or the future.  The concept of “desire and loss” is a significant marker of this period and complements the movement’s abandonment of the present moment.  The timeline of desire chases the promise of the future, leads directly to nostalgia for the quest, and almost skips over the moment of gain.  The moment of attainment is significant only in allowing progression to the remembrance of the journey.  One way this pattern can be represented is in the quest for love and fulfillment.

An example of desire and loss in the quest for love can bee seen in Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.  This slave narrative, highly speculated to be autobiographical, names Linda Brent as the narrator and follows her struggle with longing and remembering. 

The timeline begins with Linda’s desire to freely choose her own husband.  She falls in love with a free-born black man, but is not allowed to marry him.  In fact, upon learning of the relationship, her master, Dr. Flint, states that if she must marry, she can “take up” with one of the other slaves on the plantation.  Seeking love, not just marriage, Linda refuses Dr. Flint’s suggestion. Knowing she would never marry her lover, she urges him to go the Free States and stay there.  Linda loves a man she cannot marry.  She desires and gains his affection, then pushes him away in bitter recognition of destined loss.

Desire continues as Linda engages in a relationship with Mr. Sands, a white unmarried man.  Though he is white, he does not own her and the absence of authority is attractive to Linda.  She chooses him and also hopes that he will eventually buy her, doubling her desire for him.  Linda willingly loses her virtue to Mr. Sands, hoping that he will buy their child and support her.  Linda achieves a moment of fulfillment as she spitefully tells Dr. Flint that she will be a mother, spurning his desire for her.  However, that instant is short as Linda is overcome with guilt, fearing her grandmother’s assumption that she succumbed to Dr. Flint. Linda convinces her grandmother this is not true, and soon another child is born.  The hope that Mr. Sands will buy the family fades and Linda escapes from Dr. Flint, leaving her children with her grandmother.  Another cycle of desire leads to loss.

Linda’s desire for love has aggravated her hatred for slavery, and her new quest is for freedom and a home of her own.  She seeks fulfillment in not only being able to choose a man, but to own her “self.”  She escapes and hides in a garrett above her grandmother’s house. Desire and loss are surely daily pains as Linda watches her children from her hiding place.  However, a more poignant pain is seen in her opportunity for freedom.  Mrs. Bruce, an abolitionist friend, buys Linda with the intention of freeing her.  Out of gratitude, Linda remains with Mrs. Bruce in her home, never achieving the independence of home-ownership.  Linda is free, but she is not fulfilled.  She has desired and gained her freedom, but it is not all she hoped it to be.  The situation that caused her previous struggle has been resolved, but the ensuing complication is a loss that denies her spirit’s desire.

Zora Neale Hurston’s Janie in Their Eyes Were Watching God shares Linda’s desire for true, chosen love.  Like Linda, Janie’s desire for love leads to a heartbreak that can crush the soul.  Janie’s timeline is jumpstarted with a kiss over her grandmother’s gate.  Janie is caught kissing Johnny Taylor, who is not the “right” boy according to Janie’s grandmother.  Janie had not thought the kiss to mean much, but this sign of womanhood opens the discussion of who would be the right man.  Discounting the possibility that Janie might choose for herself, Logan Killicks is already selected for her.  Janie’s desire is lost before she even knows she has it.

In an effort to secure protection for Janie, her grandmother has arranged a union with Killicks.  Janie does not love him, but she marries him to satisfy her grandmother.  Janie is lost to her grandmother’s desire.  The grandmother’s wish is fulfilled, but this moment is quickly followed by her death.  With this loss, all of Janie’s true love dies.  Janie is left with the hope that love is out there for her somewhere.  She ponders her desire for true love as new seeds begin a new season.  She remains hopeful, longing.  A desire has been met, but like Linda, Janie is not fulfilled.

The theme of desire and loss in chosen love is also seen in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Winter Dreams.  Fitzgerald’s main character, Dexter, desires Judy Jones as part of his quest for fulfillment.  She is the embodiment of the success he desires.   Sharing the same fate as Linda and Janie, Dexter will never be fulfilled by his chosen love. 

The ascent towards the prestigious socio-economic circle he desires would climax in attainment of Judy.  She is beautiful, wealthy, powerful, gazed-upon, and valuable.  She is also fickle.  Dexter desires and momentarily gains Judy, but is scorned by her fleeting attention.  He desires and gains her again, but he is suspicious and reserved.  The pattern continues until Dexter decides the loss is not worth the chase.  Dexter then chooses Irene Scheerer, but he does not truly love her.  He is not fulfilled and the relationship fades. 

After an encounter that proves Judy to be unattainable, Dexter realizes that his desire for fulfillment will never be realized.  His economic standing is not complete without the grail he chases.  Dexter is economically successful, but she is not part of it.  When he has her, he doesn’t have complete economic success.  When he has economic success, he does not completely have Judy.  Dexter’s aspects of fulfillment are tainted by the loss of Janie and the loss of his ideal. 

Fulfillment is coupled with disappointment for Dexter, Janie, and Linda.  For all, desire and hope lead to momentary fulfillment and crushing loss.  As examples of American Romanticism, anticipation and remembrance overshadow the brief moments of realization.

Question #2

Viewing history and literature in terms of “continuity” rather than “breaks,” the influence of American Romanticism upon post-Romantic writing can be seen in ways that continue and question the conventions of the Romantic Movement.

For example, Sarah Orne Jewett’s A White Heron was published shortly after Realism began, and while the piece exhibits elements of Realism, it is largely Romantic.  Evidence of Romantic influence is incorporated through childhood innocence, the individual in nature, communion with nature, and desire and loss. 

Jewett’s main character, Sylvia, is a young, innocent girl who has found her true home living in the country with her grandmother. The comfort and goodness of the country is contrasted against Sylvia’s first home in a crowded city.  Having made the journey from the city to the country, Sylvia is now an individual in nature.  Animal companionship emphasizes Sylvia’s purity, innocence and communion with her natural surroundings.  However, serenity is interrupted as a wandering hunter abruptly enters the scene.  He is searching for the road out of the natural setting, eager to return to the city.  Romanticism contrasts with Realism as the hunter values the city over the lush offerings of nature.  He stays the night with Sylvia and her grandmother, and he is surprised at the comfort of their home.  Nature, for the realistic hunter, is primal, raw, something to be visited, not embraced.  The scientific hunter, with his gun and jackknife, seeks to study nature, not to love it or drink it in, as Sylvia does.

Sylvia knows the forest and tags along with the hunter, but does not reveal her secrets of the forest.  The scientist seeks to stuff a white heron for study, and Sylvia knows where to find the heron.  Her awakening romantic desire results in a competing desire between the hunter and nature.  She wants to please him, and accept the monetary reward he offers; she also wants to satisfy her relationship with nature by not pointing the hunter to the heron.  In desiring two things, she loses one. After wrenching contemplation, nature triumphs over science as Sylvia refuses to sacrifice the heron to the hunter.

Realism is the cause for the conflict in The White Heron; however, Romanticism is the victor. This piece narrates the struggle of progressive thought and continues the conventions of Romanticism.  Realism is present, but Romanticism in compelling in this piece.

As the continuum progresses, in F. Scott Fizgerald’s Winter Dreams, realism and romanticism are more balanced.   This piece reflects the material excess and raw detail seen in Realism, and strongly represents Romanticism’s idealistic beauty.   Realistic glorification of the city and industry is paired with Romantic desire and loss. Fitzgerald’s  Dexter struggles with Romanticism’s boundary crossing, but it has become Realism’s quest for economic gain.  The progress of thought is represented in the more balanced ideologies of this piece.

Dexter desires Realism’s wealth with Judy Jones as his symbol of success.  He is on a quest, and begins in a rural town, heading to the city for fulfillment.  The Romantic quest is reversed in that the character leaves nature for industry in the search for fulfillment.  However, the Romantic quest is sustained in the pursuit of love through desire and loss.  Ultimately, Dexter’s economic gain does not insure Judy’s love.  In fact, a tiring cycle of desire and loss ruins his ideal of love and tarnishes his success.  All the Dexter has left of his desire for Judy is a romanticized remembrance of her beauty. Dexter’s vision of ideal beauty collapses as he learns of Judy’s physical decline in realistic, gritty detail.  As in Jewett’s piece, both Romanticism and Realism are present in Winter Dreams.  The mingling, conflicting representation of both movements reflects America’s continued progress.

As Realism transforms thought toward Modernism, Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily employs adapted elements of Romanticism.  “Continuity’s” pendulum swings back toward Romanticism, but its elements are presented in new ways.  Romanticism’s Gothic has become Modernism’s Southern Gothic.

One can hardly read A Rose for Emily without reflecting upon Poe’s Ligeia.  Gothic elements of light and dark, presence of a corpse, and wrenching desire and loss are present in both pieces.  However, Faulkner’s piece is framed by the history of the Civil war and the dash of local color.  Faulkner represents the elements of the Gothic, but is more detailed in his descriptions, creating realistic, uncomfortable images.  While Poe’s generic placement allows the power of imagination, Faulkner’s realism is beautifully disgusting.

Southern chivalry, Civil War heritage, and small town tradition add local color and realism.  The setting is more established and the characters seem possible in reality.  It is this realism that disturbs the reader in finding out about Emily’s reposing dead lover in the dusty top floor.  While the imagined image of Ligeia is haunting, the reality of wondering what goes on in an elder neighbor lady’s home is more powerful.  If imagination is worse than seeing, exploited imagination about what we can see truly expands and adapts the conventions of the Gothic.  The Romantic elements are present and adapted in this piece, and through Realistic detail, Faulkner achieves a Modern combination of previous influences. 

As a reflection of all that has preceded it, Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish” displays Romantic, Realistic, and Modernist influences.  Bishop presents an interplay between Romanticism and Realism in the mosaic beauty of a Modern poem.

The realism of the fish contrasts against the romantic angler’s idealized perception of it.  The details describing the fish are specific and gritty. The description of a fish can be seen as a mosaic: disjointed independent images coming together to form a whole picture.  Each image is not independently attractive, but the combination of them creates a sympathetic affection for the fish.  The angler romanticizes the fish’s struggles, equating him with a war hero.  War is both a realistic and romanticized phenomenon, and the fish’s portrayal in this way mirrors the author’s incorporation of Realistic and Romantic elements.  Considering that two World Wars had occurred by the publication of this poem, the piece sensibly reflects this duality.

Romanticism and Realism are presented as part of the fishing activity itself.  The Romantic desire to catch a tremendous fish is lost in the reality of seeing the catch.  The Romantic idea of an individual in nature is indulged, but contradicted in the Realism of scales, entrails, sea-lice, rust and rainbows that may indeed be oil on the water.  The Romantic desire and loss pattern getting the fish is followed, but the poetic content is the here and now Realism of the catch. 

Like Faulkner, Bishop includes Romantic and Realistic elements, but presents them in new a new way.  The Modern interplay between Romanticism and Realism are pieces in the mosaic of this poem.  The Realistic detail of each aspect allows a vivid, Romantic recollection of this moment in the past.

Romantic influence can be seen throughout post-Romantic literature.  The progression of contemporary thought is reflected in the writing produced by every era.  All that leads affects all that follows.