Kina Siriphant-Lara
LITR 5535
Dr. Craig White
30 September 2003  

The Recurrent Element of Desire and Loss for Women in American Romanticism

            The Romantic Period in American literature is characterized by certain identifiable traits that easily distinguish it from other literary periods in American history.  What has been labeled the “romantic spirit or ideology” consists of such attitudes as rebellion, nostalgia, idealism, individualism, and perhaps most prominently, desire and loss.  In virtually all romantic texts, characters are separated from some object of desire and must frequently exert a tremendous amount of time, effort, and pain in order to attain their wish.  Unfortunately, whenever these romantic characters desire to obtain something new, the realization of it always comes at a significant loss to something else.  In the early American texts of Anne Bradstreet, Mary Rowlandson, and Susanna Rowson, the romantic element of desire and loss is evidenced in varying ways through the use of a woman’s desire for some type of love.  Furthermore, these female authors’ contributions to American Romanticism converge in James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Last of the Mohicans through the use of his character, Cora.      

            In her poem “Before the Birth of One of Her Children,” Anne Bradstreet contemplates the desire to have a child resulting in the possible loss of her life.  She realizes in the opening line of the poem that “All things within this fading world hath end” (1), thus framing her poem with a sense of mortality and loss.  In addition to her wishes for a child, she also desires unconditional and unrelenting love from her husband.  Although she warns him that she may not survive childbirth due to her weak physical condition when she states, “How soon, my Dear, death may my steps attend” (7), she still desires that he remain true to her after death by caring for their children:

            And when thou feel’st no grief, as I no harms,

            Yet love thy dead, who long lay in thine arms,

            And when thy loss shall be repaid with gains

            Look to my little babes, my dear remains.  (19-22)

While Bradstreet’s desire to give birth to another child may give rise to her own death, she still expects her husband to fulfill her desire to be loved by him even after she is physically gone.

            Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson is another example of the recurring element of desire and loss in pre-Romantic American literature.  After being seized by Indians from her home in Lancaster, Massachusetts, and separated from her husband and two of her children, Rowlandson desires that her life be spared and that she be safely reunited with her family.  Following the capture, she has only her youngest child with her and they have both suffered potentially fatal gunshot wounds.  She contemplates her dreadful situation in the following excerpt from the narrative:

All was gone, my husband gone (at least separated from me, he being in the Bay; and to add to my grief, the Indians told me they would kill him as he came homeward), my children gone, my relations and friends gone, our house and home and all our comforts – within door and without – all was gone (except my life), and I knew not but the next moment that might go too.  There remained nothing to me but one poor wounded babe [. . .].  (138)

            Although she realizes that her child’s death is forthcoming and inevitable, Rowlandson displays her immense love for her injured young daughter and desire for the child’s well-being by making sacrifices in order to keep her alive for as long as possible.  According to Rowlandson, “At length I took it off the horse, and carried it in my arms till my strength failed, and I fell down with it” (139).  However, after struggling for nine days to comfort her dying child, Rowlandson must eventually face this great loss as she asserts, “my sweet babe like a lamb departed this life on Feb. 18, 1675” (140).  She must now undertake the task of regaining her freedom and recovering the remainder of her family alone.

Interestingly, it is her steadfast faith in God and her intense love for her family that allows Rowlandson to persevere through the most adverse conditions.  Immediately after the death of her daughter, she desires to seek out her other two children in order to ensure that they are still alive and unharmed.  She also praises God even in the midst of her terrible loss as she states, “I have thought since of the wonderful goodness of God to me in preserving me in the use of my reason and senses in that distressed time, that I did not use wicked and violent means to end my own miserable life” (140).  Her overwhelming desire to see the remainder of her family safely reunited impels her to continue living and attempt to reclaim her freedom, even though she is mourning the recent loss of her daughter. 

With the exception of the death of her youngest child, all of Rowlandson’s desires are fulfilled.  Because of the fact that she “desired to wait God’s time” so that she could “go home quietly, and without fear,” Rowlandson affirms that “God hath granted me my desire” (148).  She is soon after reunited with her husband, and her two remaining children are released safely and uninjured.   

In Susanna Rowson’s Charlotte Temple: A Tale of Truth, the author presents the romantic element of desire and loss through the story of an innocent young girl who eventually loses her life over her desires for the love of a man.  Upon first meeting Montraville, Charlotte is instantly taken by his charm and appeal as “a handsome young soldier” (6).  Later, although she does grapple with her decision to read the letter that Montraville has written her, she very obviously yearns to know how he feels about her and experiences “an earnest desire to see the contents of the letter” (5).  After being persuaded to read the letter by Mademoiselle La Rue, Charlotte decides to meet Montraville the following evening, and consequently, runs away with him.  According to Natasha Bondar in her essay entitled “Romantic Characters: Innocence and Desire,” “as the story progresses, though Charlotte tries to be prudent in her decision making, she cannot resist her desire for Montraville’s love” (1).  Thus, she exchanges the comforts of her life and all of her former relations for the desire for a man who will soon bring about her death.

After eloping with Montraville, Charlotte finds that the love she had so desired was really nothing more than “a cruel man, who left her when she was big with child, and married another” (12).  She has now not only lost her friends, family, and adolescence, but also Montraville’s love and the possibility of any future with him.  She has been reduced to a “poor, ruined, but repentant child” who dies shortly after giving birth to Montraville’s baby (11).  Though a tragic ending to the story, the presence of Charlotte’s desire and her subsequent errors in judgment in effect result in the loss of her own life. 

Through the pre-Romantic contributions of Bradstreet, Rowlandson, and Rowson, the romantic element of desire and loss converges in James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans.  Although the entire novel is essentially centered around this theme in that the loss of the Mohican tribe is imminent, Cooper, like his female predecessors, also uses a complex woman in his story to exhibit desire and loss.  Cora, the eldest daughter of Colonel Munro, is an extremely strong female character who eventually loses her life in an attempt to fulfill her many intense desires.

Initially, Cora desires that she and her sister Alice be reunited with their father, who is stationed at Fort William Henry and is being severely attacked by the French.  Like Mary Rowlandson, this desire for the family to be reunited is of the utmost importance and cannot be avoided, regardless of the circumstances.  Cora reveals her loyalty to her father and desire to support him as she tells Alice, “I may have been rash in pressing his consent in a moment of so much embarrassment, but I would have proved to him, that however others might neglect him, in his strait, his children at least were faithful!” (61).  Although she is eventually reunited with her father at William Henry, she is soon after captured by Magua for the second time and is not in the presence of her father again until she is buried.

In addition to this, Cora also desires that her younger sister Alice be spared by Magua and safely returned to their father.  Because both of their mothers were deceased at an early age, the stronger, more mature Cora has assumed the role of the weaker, more sensitive Alice’s maternal figure.  At one point in the novel, Alice even refers to her as “my sister; my more than sister, my mother” (115).  In the same manner as both Bradstreet and Rowlandson’s devotion to their children, Cora’s maternal love for her sister and desire for her well-being continually surpasses her own wants and needs.  For example, shortly after being captured at Glenn’s Falls, Cora entreats Magua to “At least, release my gentle sister, and pour out all your malice on me.  Purchase wealth by her safety, and satisfy your revenge with a single victim” (104).  Fortunately, this never transpires as they are rescued by Hawkeye and the Mohicans; but later, they are both again in the evil hands of Magua at the Delaware camp.  This time, Cora desperately pleads with the great chief Tamenund for the release of her sister:

For myself I ask nothing. [. . .]  But yonder is one, who has never known the weight of Heaven’s displeasure until now.  She is the daughter of an old and failing man, whose days are near their close.  She has many, very many, to love her, and delight in her; and she is too good, much too precious, to become the victim of that villain.  (305)

Upon Tamenund’s mediation between Uncas and Magua, the latter willingly decides to free Alice, but refuses to relinquish Cora and intends to take her for his wife.  Thus, Cora demonstrates her maternal love for Alice and desire for her to live a long, contented life by means of the many acts of sacrifice that she makes throughout the novel.   

            Finally, Cora’s most passionate, yet concealed desire is that of her subtly amorous feelings for Uncas.  While bearing some similarity to Charlotte Temple’s love for Montraville, Cora’s desires for Uncas are different in that they are not unrequited and they both lose their lives accordingly.  From the beginning of the novel, Uncas reveals his affection for Cora and his desire to protect her.  When their party is surrounded by the Hurons at Glenn’s Falls, Cora insists that Hawkeye and the Mohicans leave them in order to save their own lives.  Uncas initially refuses to go, but Cora insists that he “go to my father, as I have said, and be the most confidential of my messengers. [. . .]  Go; ‘tis my wish, ‘tis my prayer, that you will go!” (79).  Thus, Cora’s unspoken feelings for Uncas are strong enough that she is willing to sacrifice herself in order to save the person that she desires. 

This pattern of desire and loss is repeated throughout the story, as Cora is captured by Magua and then rescued by Uncas.  However, when the end of the novel finds Uncas being held captive by the Delawares, “Cora again threw herself at the feet of the patriarch [Tamenund], once more a suppliant for mercy” (309).  Ultimately, as Magua seizes Cora away for the final time and Uncas calls out to them, Cora becomes resolute in her desire for Uncas as she advises Magua, ”I will go no farther, [. . .].  Kill me if thou wilt, detestable Huron, I will go no farther!” (336).  Cora’s desire to be with Uncas and his reciprocal desire to save her eventually results in the loss of both of their lives and any possibility of a romantic relationship between them. 

As evidenced by the texts of Bradstreet, Rowlandson, Rowson, and Cooper, desire and loss is an extremely prominent aspect of both pre-Romantic and Romantic American literature.  What is interesting about these particular authors is their ability to use female characters who possess such strong desires and who suffer such great losses.  The fact that these women all inevitably lose something significant – whether that be a child, a relationship, or even their own life – while striving to attain their desire for love proves that the element of desire and loss is a substantial and recurrent theme for female characters in American Romanticism.

Works Cited

Bondar, Natasha.  “Romantic Characters: Innocence and Desire.”  LITR 5535: American Romanticism.  Ed. Craig White.  Summer 2002.  U of Houston – Clear Lake.  28 September 2003 <http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/5535/models/2002/midterms/default.htm>.

Bradstreet, Anne.  “Before the Birth of One of Her Children.”  The Norton Anthology of

            American Literature.  Shorter 6^th ed.  Ed. Nina Baym.  New York: W.W. Norton &

            Company, 2003.  124-125.

Cooper, James Fenimore.  The Last of the Mohicans.  New York: Penguin, 1986.

Rowlandson, Mary.   From A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary           Rowlandson.  The Norton Anthology of American Literature.  Shorter 6^th ed.  Ed. Nina Baym.  New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003.  136-152.

Rowson, Susanna.  Charlotte Temple: A Tale of Truth.  27 September 2003 <http://

            encyclopediaindex.com/b/chtem10.htm>.