5. Write an essay concerning some persistent or occasional issue, problem, or theme significant to the course but overlooked by the previous four questions. . . .

Essay 5: Romance as Justification of Violence

            When D. H. Lawrence wrote his piece of Cooper’s Leatherstocking tales, he may have been looking back at a nostalgic vision of America, but his interpretation came from his current experiences. He defines the hero of the Leatherstocking Tales, Natty Bumppo, as “a man with a gun. He is a killer, a slayer.” The very nature of the man, according to Lawrence, as “The Stoic American killer of the old great life.” For Lawrence, Cooper’s work informs both the reality of the American landscape, and it highest ideas. “America Hurts. . . America is tense with latent violence and resistance.”

            Considering the language of Lawrence, and the positive spin he puts on this sense of violence, it comes across as being an important, but perhaps overlooked, aspect of Romanticism. From the very beginnings of Genesis to the end of American Romanticism, violence can be seen as a compelling aspect of Romanticism to explore and discuss.

             In the book of Genesis and its comparison to the narratives of Columbus, violence is an important aspect of desire and loss, especially in the story of Cain and Able. Cain was the first murderer, and in doing so, he was banished and set to wander the earth. Similarly, Columbus conquered the new world, and found himself beset by the violence of others. In both writings, men who were once blessed in the sight of God have now found themselves stripped of everything, and forced to live a life of longing. Desire and loss is perhaps the main romantic theme, but this is only the result. The cause of such loss comes from violence. Without a fall from grace, or an act of perversion by the principals, the Romantic themes would not be able to play themselves out. Violence, “in the beginning,” is a window into the antihero’s romantic world of desire and a need to transform.

            This transformation is also evident as colonial Americans began to populate the landscape of the New World. Violence was a necessary end to achieving a better life. Battling native Americans for land, and the occasional war between opposing European forces, This is no more evident that in Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans. The entire backdrop of the novel is conflict, as the principal characters negotiate their way through hostile lands. All along the weary, the reader is treated to scenes of violence, heavily Romanticized. Nature is seen as a hostile land, and the Romantic heroes must fight their way across it. The Romance narrative is violent, as escapes and chase scenes play themselves out, and a violent death is always a threat. In order of the heroes to be seen as Knight Errants, they must be competent in battle, and willing to face peril, and commit violence actions in response. By the end of the story, the ill fated pair of Cora and Uncas meet violent ends of their own, killed off by the Romantic Impulse, and the sense of racial rebellion that stirred their hearts. This series of violent episodes were justified by Cooper, as he needed a way to execute his romantic narrative, and provide a competent hero capable of wielding a weapon called “Kill Deer,” and thriving inside the vision he creates on the page.
            This romantic vision of the violent man in nature, justified in his own competence, is further explored in the Puritan Gothic of Nathanial Hawthorne. Using nostalgia to recreate the Puritan way of life, he plays with the sense of light and dark inside man, hoping to expose the violence inside of them. In the May pole of Merry-Mount,” Hawthorne describes a scene of joy around a spring festival. Innocence, along with a sense of peace is present. Suddenly, the puritans appear, and with them, an absolute authority. The Maypole is cut down, and everyone involved in the ceremony is whipped harshly. Animals and other natural beings, such as the dancing bear, are killed outright. In this story, the gothic concepts of light and dark play out in a most violent way. Written as justified by God, the minister observed the world with his iron-hearted, puritanical vision. Seeing absolute darkness in the hearts of men that must be purified, the highly romantic sense of the gothic demands violence. Demons and devils are not things to cower from, they are things to be met on an ideological battlefield. Ironically, the romantic vision, in fighting gothic evil, allows the self-righteous to see themselves as absolute good. This self-invention and desire to fight evil, can justify almost any act of violence.

            As violence is linked to a Romantic vision, it beings to fade as Romanticism fades into realism. The best point of contact to see this transition is the slave narratives. Slaves, dealing with physical and mental violence all of their lives, do not harbor the need for violence in their writing. Instead, as reality and the “here and now” begins to intrude into Romanticism, real violence is exposed. In the slave narrative, romanticism is a response to violence, a desire to self-invent and transform in a way that is peaceful. It is a desire for freedom to simply live one’s life, away from violence and the ever-present whip. Cynthia Garza, in her 2002 final exam, explains the haunted mental and physical spaces in Harriet Jacobs’ narrative. She says that slavery is seen as a demon, and the retreat into the confined space as gothic. But is it also a retreat from the mental violence of Mr. Flint. She was willing to live in a space of near darkness and isolation in order to fulfill her romantic vision. Her desire to self-invent is not a bright, big wilderness for her to violently make her way through, it is a small, dark place for her to retreat to.

            All of the works presented above contain scenes of violence. In all of them, some aspect of Romanticism justified, and often enhanced its presence. As the world slips from Romanticism to Realism, and then to Modernism and beyond, there are lessons to be learned. Romanticism, and its reality-defying desire to self-invent, is also a study in conflict, and it is a powerful force to be reckoned with. It is important to enjoy Romanticism for what it is, but the reader must always remember that it is not reality. Violence is a tough thing to justify, but in some cases, romantic sensibilities make it easier. [CW]