Thursday 11 September: web highlight (midterms): Dawlat Yassin

It is interesting that three essays in the 2005 midterms addressed the character of  female heroine in American romantic literature. Kristen Bird saw that a romantic heroine is always on the extreme; either extreme femininity combined with weakness and reliance on others, or  extreme formidability that goes to the point of taking care of herself and others.

Women in Romantic literature offer a unique character study to readers.  At times, they are heroic and bold; other moments portray them as vulnerable, the victims of fainting spells and indecision.  The female roles are often placed in one of two molds: the ultimate femininity or the formidable heroine.  Most Romantic works stay within these boundaries, although the characteristics may overlap at moments during the story. Two such stories that portray these extremes are Mary Rowlandson's A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson and Susan Rowson's Charlotte Temple: A Tale of Truth.  This idea is also evident in the classic Romantic narrative by James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, when two extreme characters are placed side by side, interacting and forging the wilderness together as sisters  

  On the other hand, Angela Douglas is not content with those romantic heroines, whom she found lacking in terms of some “requirement for the romantic heroine[s]”.

The image of an American Romantic heroine usually involves a beautiful, angelic woman who is graceful, eloquent and well-spoken.  At first glance, Cooper’s Alice Munro from The Last of the Mohicans and Susan Rowson’s Charlotte Temple could fit this description.  However, if we look at course objective 1a we find additional requirements for the Romantic heroine.   This course objective says that a Romantic heroine must also possess, “a desire for anything besides ’the here and now’ -or ’reality’” and “may appear empty or innocent of anything except readiness or desire to transform or self-invent.”  Neither Charlotte nor Alice has these traits at least with respect to themselves. Cooper does, though, create a character with these qualities in Cora Munro, who could have been modeled after Susan Rowlandson, a real woman who chronicled her captivity at the hands of Indians in America.

Diane Palmer had a completely different point of view. To Palmer, these same heroines are not lacking, rather they do undergo transformation and re-invent the self or the world” (White, course objectives)

 While many Romantic novels and stories include the extreme, effeminate character who must rely on the strengths of others (usually the hunky male hero), they also include the heroic female character who not only succeeds but does so with panache and intrepidness. What also must be recognized is that the female heroine usually is a mother or takes on the role of one.  Female characters begin to choose to step out of their established roles and save themselves rather than waiting to be rescued while still keeping in the one traditional role of being “super” mom.  All of these “super” moms in American Romanticism must overcome the new country, the new people, and the new nature surrounding them.   

 In her study of Charlotte Temple, Diane Palmer stands away from the writers of the other two essays. Here, Charlotte is a strong mother who could stand poverty and shame.

Miss La Rue and Montraville convince Charlotte to leave the school against her better judgment.  Montraville convinces Charlotte that he loves her and will take care of her.  Sadly, Charlotte becomes pregnant with Montraville’s child and is left alone to face the world.  Many will argue that this shows that Charlotte is weak, but the heroism of Charlotte is not justly seen until the very end of the story.  Charlotte is able to survive on her own with a child through the shame, the poverty, and the cold.  As she lay dying, her father finally finds her and is by her bedside.  There is little time left for Charlotte, so little is said.  Charlotte does not spend her last few moments crying and despairing over her life nor does she beg her father for forgiveness.  Both father and child know that she is an honorable and noble child.  Her worth is shown when with her last breath she asks for her baby, and “it was brought to her: she put it in her father’s arms. ‘Protect her,’ she said, ‘and bless your dying –‘” (XXXIII 13).  With her last bit of strength, she is able to make sure her child and the future of the Temple family will be taken care of.    

Conclusion:

Kristin Bird  is right stating that the romantic heroine is always on the extreme, yet I found  the interpretations of the other two writers more interesting. Angela Douglas’s interpretation makes the most sense to me. She examined the heroines according to the course objective and finds them lacking. I am more inclined to this opinion than to that of Diane Palmer, especially about Charlotte Temple. I do not see any change or self-invention in Charlotte’s character. She might really undergo one on her deathbed, but it is of no use since she is not given the chance to live and evince such a change in action.