William Wolfe

October 02, 2006

A Unique Canvas:

The American Romantic Landscape

            The Romantic literature that developed during the emergence of America as a nation was marked with certain identifiable qualities and characteristics. Of these traits, one of the most discernible was the romantic landscape. Early American fiction was created against a backdrop that was more than mere artistic representation of the natural world. The terrain of this new literature was imbued with a mystery and fascination that bordered on the mystical. In addition, the landscape of the New World was inhabited by a native population that seemed preternaturally connected to it (such associations are illustrated in The Cherokee Memorials of the early 1800’s). A romanticized perception of the American wilderness was evident by the time Washington Irving published The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. The unmistakable estimation of nature as a place of wonder and mystery and the Native American’s numinous link to the land culminate in James Fennimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans.

            The Romantic Movement in Europe arose (in large part) as a reaction to industrialization. Artists and poets turned away from the cities and the urban areas and looked to nature as a way of reconnecting with their past and of rediscovering their humanity. In a way, America was the anti-Europe; it was a bastion of awe inspiring natural wonder that was untouched by civilization and European ideologies. In America, romantic literature served as a means by which the wonders of the new world could be realized. Washington Irving, in his short stories captured the Romantic vision of the American wilderness. For example, idealistic scenery and pristine natural beauty is expressed in vivid and dramatic fashion in the opening paragraph of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

…there is a little valley or rather a lap of land among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull one to repose; and the occasional whistle of a quail or tapping of a woodpecker is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the uniform tranquility.                                                                             (1)

The stage is set as the reader is introduced to a land of near supernatural perfection in which anything is possible. Irving succeeds in creating a romantic landscape that takes the reader out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary; by doing so, he establishes new parameters for what is believable. A specter that “haunts this enchanted region” does not seem incompatible with the panorama; in fact, it seems perfectly reasonable. As the story progresses, the scenery takes on an even more ominous appearance. Michele Gooding, in her Mid-term response, points out that the author weaves gothic descriptions together to enhance the setting, “Also, descriptions like ‘broken rocks’ and ‘trunks of fallen trees’ give the reader the notion of ancient decay that adds depth to the gothic scene.”

            Irving further transports readers into the romantic landscape of the American wilderness with his fantastic and bizarre narrative, Rip Van Winkle. In this short story, the Catskill Mountains are depicted as “fairy mountains” that are both inviting and forbidding at the same time. Van Winkle travels into the forest to escape from the drudgery and despondency of his normal life. He finds solace in the wooded mountains that overlook the Hudson River and one day finds himself journeying deep into the forest to evade his wife and her incessant nagging. On this particular outing, Rip discovers that his comforting landscape has a portentous and threatening edge:

On the other side he looked down into a deep mountain glen, wild, lonely, and shagged, the bottoms filled with fragments from the impending cliffs, and scarcely lighted by the reflected rays of the setting sun.                             (452-453)

The scenery, which before had been inviting and heartening, takes on an eeriness that pervades the mood of the story. The change in the nature and disposition of the landscape signify a shift in the tone and attitude of the tale. From this point, the reader is introduced to disembodied voices, strange and uncanny characters, and fantastic events, all of which work because the setting is so masterfully manipulated.

            The landscape of American Romantic literature is further influenced by the superstitions and beliefs of the Native American population. American Indians were viewed, by European settlers, with terrifying fascination and awe. Their belief that they were somehow mystically connected to the terrain added another layer of supernatural reputation to the already majestic and mysterious environment. The Memorial of the Cherokee Citizens (December 18, 1829) expresses the depth of passion and connection that the Indians felt toward the land:

To the land, of which we are now in possession, we are attached. It is our fathers’ gift; it contains their ashes; it is the land of our nativity, and the land of our intellectual birth. We cannot consent to abandon it for another far inferior, and which holds out to us no inducements.                                                             (580)

The strength with which the Native Americans felt their intimate association with the earth served to strengthen the mythical assessment that white settlers had of the American landscape.

            The evolution of the romantic landscape in American literature reaches its zenith in James Fennimore Cooper’s, The Last of the Mohicans. Cooper creates a wilderness that seems to have a will of its own; it comes alive for the reader and influences the action of the tale. The landscape, as it is first introduced, is more than mere scenery and more than a passive construction of the author:

Though the arts of peace were unknown to this fatal region, its forests were alive with men; its glades and glen rang with the sounds of martial music, and the echoes of its mountains threw back the laugh, or repeated the wanton cry, of many a gallant and reckless youth, as he hurried by them…                                (12)

The above passage is a description of the reflection of man on the wilderness, but Cooper’s depiction makes the forest more than a simple reverberation of mankind but, instead, an active participant in the exchange.

            The natural world also serves to introduce the reader to Chingachgook and Hawkeye, the novels heroic duo:

The rays of sun were beginning to grow less fierce, and the intense heat of the day was lessened, as the cooler vapours of the springs and fountains rose above their leafy beds and rested in the atmosphere. Still that breathing silence, which marks the drowsy sultriness of an American landscape in July, pervaded the secluded spot, interrupted, only, by the low voices of the men…                                    (28)

By distinguishing this picturesque landscape as being uniquely “American”, Cooper focuses the attention of the reader on the connection between America and the novel’s heroes, an Indian and a white man living as an Indian. Hawkeye and Chingachgook are shown as elements of the landscape and not as separate from it.

            The forests of The Last of the Mohicans become even more mystical and preternatural as the characters journey deeper into the wilderness. Chapter XIII finds Cooper’s travelers in an area where “the forest began to change its hues, losing that lively green which had embellished its arches, in the graver light, which is the precursor of the close of day.” The change in the environment sets up the exposure of the “haunted” block-house which appears in the center of a mysterious clearing within a dense and near-impenetrable copse of chestnut:

…he entered an open space that surrounded a low green hillock, which was crowned by the decayed black-house in question. This rude and neglected building…was now quietly crumbling in the solitude of the forest, neglected and nearly forgotten, like the circumstances which had caused it to be reared.              (125)

The forest and, by extension, the block-house, takes on the gothic attitude of the classic haunted mansion of many European Romances. The tale that Chingachgook recounts for the travelers takes on the quality and aura of a ghost story due, in great part, to the foreboding and disquiet that the setting engenders.

            Throughout The Last of the Mohicans, Cooper continues to utilize natural surroundings for dramatic effect. His tale is more resonant and meaningful because the landscape assumes an identity of its own. It is far removed from the hustle and bustle of urban life and evokes in the reader a sense of incredulity and wonder. The end result is one of the most resonating examples of American Romanticism.

            The success of the romance narrative often depends on the success of the world in which it is set. Early American Romantics drew upon virgin wilderness and Native American customs and beliefs in order to create a landscape that was unique and distinctive. Artists such as Cooper and Irving succeeded in fashioning settings that invited the reader to suspend belief and be enveloped by imagination, superstition, and awe.