Sawsan Sanjak
Professor Craig White
LITR 5535
Sep.30, 2003

                          Romantic Literature: The Innocent and the Dark Gothic

Looking up the two terms innocence and the dark gothic, this is a brief definition of the two. Innocence is the state or quality of being morally wrong through ignorance of worldly deception (American Heritage College). It is simplicity or plainness in dealing with mischief due to being naive and ingenuous. Innocent people are harmless and inoffensive. They are morally free from any guilt or sin, yet in worldly matters they prove a failure. The word innocent is used to describe the romantic hero or heroine who might appear empty of all yet willing to self-invent or transform (Syllabus).As to the gothic, it is a genre characterized by a general mood of decay, a violent action where the setting tends to be gloomy or bleak (Bedford Glossary 191). Such a gothic, it is called dark for it is haunted by physical and mental spaces like, the shadow of death (Syllabus), evilness, terror, mystery, and disasters. The dark gothic is the trap that the innocent falls in. Hence, through failure the innocent acquires knowledge and awareness. However, Columbus, Rowson, and Cooper’s The last of the Mohicans texts offer a good example of the innocent’s struggle against the dark gothic.  

Christopher Columbus, the Spanish explorer planned to develop a commercial route between Spain and Asia. However, Christopher’s plans were fruitless for he lost his way to Asia. Christopher finds himself on another land, which he calls, “Paradise” (Anthology 25). Christopher writes a letter to Luis de Santangel regarding his voyage. The letter reveals Christopher’s happiness in discovering wide lands, “I am told they never lose their foliage as I can understand, for I saw them as green as lovely as they are in Spain in May” (AN 27).

After this voyage, Christopher made other continuous visits to that land. There he left some settlers as a start for a new European life. During Christopher’s absence, the hosts killed the settlers since they practiced a series of corruptive actions. Unfortunately, some of the settlers who fled to Spain spoke evil of Christopher and so he was sent to prison. Christopher describes his miserable situation in a letter to Ferdinand and Isabella: “[…] Here in the Indies I have become careless of the prescribed forms of    religion. Alone in my trouble, sick, in daily expectation of death […]” (AN 28).   

The gothic haunts Christopher’s last words. The physical space seems to influence Christopher’s mind and so he feels that he is weak being alone in his prison. In the gothic, the hero is always alone (Class Notes Sep.9). Hence, the shadow of death haunts Christopher’s mind. The romantic hero here is incapable of balancing his religious duties. The transgression that happened to him has put him away from “the holy Sacraments of the Holy Church” (AN 28).

Christopher, the innocent, asks for mercy, now he will not “remain silent” (AN 28). He is no more that naïve person who accepts to be condemned without having a trial. His letter to Ferdinand and Isabella reveals his potential to survive and transform. Accordingly, the end of his letter shows a childish tone in defending his loyalty, “I do not lie” (AN 29). However, being a romantic hero, his dialogue lacks the witty tone in developing his defense.

 Christopher’s tone in the first letter carries big hopes about the new land he had discovered:

“[…] This land and all the others are very fertile to a limitless degree, and this island is extremely so…there are very large tracts of cultivatable lands…In the interior are mines of metals, and the population is without number […]” (AN 26-7).

Christopher’s words in the passage above are full with hopes of richness. Most of the words in this passage deal with wealth such as, fertile, limitless, cultivatable, mines of metals, and the population is without number. The last three words stress the idea of profit taking for it is almost an uninhibited land. The romantic hero here seems to be enchanted by his dreams about the “Paradise” which he has found. Christopher’s physical and mental space here can see and appreciate beautiful things. There is no space for dark scenes or even dark deeds that may accompany fulfilling such dreams.

In Christopher’s second letter, all the previous hopes and dreams about his “Paradise” shift to a state of awakening. Christopher awakes to the reality of his losses:

“[…] While I was waiting for ships to come to your high presence with victory and with great news of gold, being very secure and joyful, I was made a prisoner…whatever remained to me…has been spent and taken away from me and sold […]” (AN 28).

The passage above shows that Christopher’s hopes are ruined. He is degraded from all his possessions and his honor. Instead of enjoying wealth and prosperity, he has become a victim to his broken dreams. Being innocent of all the mischief that his men have done in the Indies does not assure his innocence of that crime. If Christopher had had enough awareness in dealing with his men, he would have probably avoided misery to himself and to others. Again Christopher’s attempt to write his second letter and to think all over again of what has really happened in the Indies is a good sign to his maturity and learning from that experience.

In Susanna Rowson’s tale, Charlotte Temple, we see another type of a romantic character which is a romantic heroine. The romantic heroine in this tale is a young woman that her life and her social circumstances have put her in a critical situation which led to her ruin. Rowson’s tale offers an advice and a lesson to young and unprotected women who might fall as a prey to unexpected evils (Preface to Charlotte Temple).

Charlotte Temple is the daughter of an old man, Mr. Eldridge. The old man asks Mr. Temple to take care of his daughter, “when I’m gone, who will protect that fair bud of innocence from the blasts of adversity, or the cruel hand of insult and dishonor” (Ch. II). In view of that, Mr. Temple sends Charlotte to school. She was put under the care of Madame Du Pont. This lady had assistants to help her in taking care of the young ladies at school. Rowson says that these assistants were not the kind of people whose morals were exactly as parents would wish their daughter to copy (Ch. V1). 

Mademoiselle La Rue was one of the assistants who took care of Charlotte Temple. One day, La Rue convinced Charlotte of visiting the elegant gardens of a relative. Actually, La Rue’s words about the entertainment that they would enjoy in that visit enchanted Charlotte’s mind. According to Rowson, Charlotte thought only of the pleasure she should enjoy in the visit and not on the imprudence of going without her governess’s knowledge. Thus, Charlotte exposed herself to the danger that might attain from visiting a young man (Ch. VI). Charlotte’s response to this shows that she is an immature person. She follows her instinct like a child happy about having a new toy. The romantic heroine here is haunted by her teacher’s seductive words and hence acts as a follower to her. Natasha Bondar mentions in her midterm (June 2002) that Charlotte is touched by La Rue’s appeal. Charlotte is moved not by reason or conscience but by her love toward the person closest to her. Natasha’s comment brings to the mind Charlotte’s attachment to her father and how she refused in the beginning to stay away from him: “[…] for daily are my prayers offered to heaven that our lives may terminate at the same instant, and one grave receive us both; for why should I live when deprived of my only friend[…]”(Ch. II).

The passage above reveals Charlotte’s gloomy tone for she feels helpless without her father’s presence. She wants his security and love. This attachment to the father is later on transferred to her attachment to Mademoiselle La Rue. Unfortunately, La Rue is not a good moral example that Charlotte should follow. But, Charlotte is a lonely person and La Rue is her only guide to the outer world.

Starting from the very beginning of the tale and Charlotte has been moving from one authority to another. First, she moves from living under her father’s care to Mr. Temple’s. The later puts her under the care of Madame Du Pont. Then she becomes the favorite companion to Mademoiselle La Rue. Charlotte hence did not have the chance to grow up mentally and emotionally and so she lost her identity. Accordingly, Charlotte became a follower to others perspectives. Charlotte is an innocent fragile character that can be easily moved by others. Charlotte has always been moved by others choices. She has never done the first step from her own. There is always someone or something to motivate her into doing the action.

When Charlotte receives a letter from Montraville, she tells La Rue, “[…] my mother has often told me, I should never read a letter given me by a young man, without first giving it to her […]” (Ch. VII). These words show Charlotte as an innocent child who wants an adult to help her in taking the decision.  However, La Rue encourages her to accept Manorville’s offer and enjoy the risk instead of sparing her innocence and beauty and then grow hardened by guilt. Charlotte, “[…] saw that the contents had awakened new emotions in her youthful bosom: she encouraged her hopes, calmed her fears […]” (Ch. VII).

This is a preparation for the dark gothic which awaits the innocent. The last setting in the tale conveys Charlotte’s shift from an emotional state to an awakening process, but it is accompanied by fear and betrayal. Charlotte tells Montraville “[…] I cannot go, said she: cease, dear Montraville, to persuade. I must not: religion, duty, forbid […]” (Ch. XII). But the chaise drove off and Charlotte shrieked. The innocent has surrendered to her betrayer.

Alice Munro in the Last of the Mohicans is another example of the romantic heroine. She is the fair lady in the text where her gentle speech marks her as an innocent figure. Cooper portrays her as the “ingenuous Alice” (Last of the Mohicans 53) for she trusts people for their appearances. When she saw the runner for the first time she assured Heyward that now she can “sleep in peace” for that runner does not seem like the cruel murderers. Here Heyward draws her attention to the fact that one should not be deceived by the way people look, yet keep an eye on them and hope they might act the way they look (M 53). Heyward sees Alice as an innocent fragile figure that is dependent and needs others care and protection. Hence, Cooper does not only portray her as a fair ingenuous girl but also let other characters make their own judgment about her. Heyward in another place shares with Cora (Alice’s sister) that Alice is not a gifted person like her (M 172).

 Both Heyward and Cora seem to share the responsibility of taking care of Alice. They share a parental bosom to Alice. On the other hand, Alice is not ashamed of their parental bosom for she declares it. She tells Cora, “my sister; my more than sister, my mother” (M 115). As to Heyward, Alice demands “[…] with a touching expression of innocence and dependency, “give me the sacred presence and the holy sanction of that parent, before you urge me farther […]” (M 260).

Thus, when Alice is in danger or in doubt Cora is always there for her. Cora is the emotional and physical comfort to Alice. However, Cora is physically and morally stronger than Alice. She responds to the dangers of the forest firmly and courageously. As to Alice her responses are weak and passive. Alice always seems to throw herself in the arms of Cora.

In the dark gothic, Alice’s tenderness and bloom “gave place to the paleness of death; her soft and melting eyes grew hard, and seemed contracting with horror” (M 87). Whenever she and the group survive any coming danger, from the Huronsival from the Hurons her soft and melting eyes grew hard, and seemed contracting with horror"Alice thanks heaven (M 87, 149). Alice’s light resembles the light of heaven, “the smiling Alice, issuing from the shadows of the building into the light of the moon, in all the loveliness of her freshened beauty” (M 130). Her light of innocence is in a continuous struggle with the dark gothic. The dark gothic haunts a lot of scenes where Alice and the group passed (M 85,126-7,133) hence, within all the ruin, fear, and death, Alice remains physically helpless and in need for a rescue. Thus, when Alice loses her sister’s consolation, Heyward appears to soothe her. Again and in the “deadly struggle” with the “hellish” Magua, Alice is drawn to Hayward’s bosom (M 260-1).

em to actpe they might act the way they look. an innocent figure.