Emily Islam
Dr. Craig White
LITR 5535
Tuesday 4-7
October 3, 2003

Distinction by Appearance: The Individual as Separate
from the Masses in American Romantic Literature

            One of the characteristics of American Romantic literature is the importance of distinguishing lead characters in order to assert that they are so much of an individual that they defy classification.  Lead characters were shown to be so unique that they could not be considered remotely similar to lesser characters.  In The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, the author asserts that, “Romantics also prized individualism.  With emphasis on the individual, the romantic was likely to oppose the established order, the bourgeois status quo.”  One of the ways in which lead characters were distinguished is by having an incomparable appearance. 

            Susanna Rowson’s Charlotte Temple is one example of how a description of a character’s appearance can separate her from the masses of ordinary people.  A description of Charlotte’s appearance sets the expectation that her character will be lovely and innocent.  She is described as a “tall and elegant” young girl who blushes shyly when seeing the character Montraville on the street.  Montraville, who is taken aback by her beauty, describes her in the following way, “She is the sweetest girl in the world… she had on a blue bonnet, and with a pair of lovely eyes of the same color, has contrived to make me feel devilish odd about the heart”.  The description of Charlotte Temple leaves the reader imagining the pinnacle of beauty and purity, and sets a height from which the disastrous fall of Charlotte Temple proves incredibly tragic.  That such an example of innocence is defiled in such an unseemly manner, and is met with such a shameful and heartbreaking end, makes her story even more memorable.

Another unusual character can be seen in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, with Washington Irving’s description of Ichabod Crane.

            The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person.  He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together.  His head was small, and flat on top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weathercock perched upon his spindle neck, to tell which way the wind blew.

Such a description sets the stage for a character that will be anything but typical.  Ichabod Crane’s unusual appearance corresponds with his unusual character.  Though popular with the townsfolk due to his intriguing gossip and knowledge of literature, Ichabod is highly frightful and creative in his paranoia.

            Edgar Allen Poe’s Ligeia is another example of distinct appearance.  Poe takes great care in ensuring that an elaborate description of Ligeia leaves us with little doubt that there is no other woman in the world that will ever resemble her. 

            In beauty of face no maiden ever equaled her…Yet her features were not of that regular mould which we have been falsely taught to worship in the classical labors of the heathen… Yet although I saw that the features of Ligeia were not of classic regularity, although I perceived that her loveliness was indeed “exquisite,” and felt that there was much of “strangeness” pervading it, yet have I tried in vain to detect the irregularity, and to trace home my perception of “the strange”.

Poe goes on to try and quantify the strangeness that makes Ligeia so unique by discussing her individual features.  He describes her lips, “the magnificent turn of the short upper lip- the soft, voluptuous repose of the under” and her smile, “the teeth glancing back, with a brilliancy almost startling, every ray of the holy light which fell upon them in her serene, and placid, yet most exultingly radiant of all smiles”.  He also discusses her eyes at length.  He describes them as “far larger than the ordinary eyes of our race”, “far fuller than the fullest of the Gazelle eyes of the tribe of Nourjahad”, and says “the colour of the orbs was the most brilliant of black, and far over them hung jetty lashes of great length”.  Because Ligeia is shown to be so amazingly one-of-a-kind, it is all the more tragic when she dies an early death and is taken from her lover at the height of his feelings for her.  Ligeia is so exceptional and distinct, that her lover can never get over her.  Even after he is married to another woman, he is obsessed with Ligeia.  That is the reason Poe described this woman as not only being separate from the masses, but being superior to every other woman.  It adds to the poignancy of her death, like the death of the last animal of an endangered species, with the exception that she was figuratively an entire species unto herself.

            Also of notable distinction is the character of Hawkeye in The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper.  Hawkeye is a highly skilled, brave, and noble character.  He is set apart from all of the other men of the story not only by his actions, but initially by his physical description when he is first introduced to the reader.  He is described as having a “brighter, though sunburnt and long-faded complexion of one who might claim descent from a European parentage”.  The description of his body and his clothes gives an impression of a uniquely fused back ground.  The reader is made aware that this is a white man, who knows the ways of a native and is expert in using the wilderness for his survival and advantage.

            The frame of the white man, judging by such parts as were not concealed by his clothes, was like that of one who had known hardships and exertion from his earliest youth.  His person, though muscular, was rather attenuated than full; but every nerve and muscle appeared strung and indurated, by unremitted exposure and toil.  He wore a hunting-shirt of forest-green, fringed with faded yellow, and a summer cap, of skins which had been shorn of their fur.  He also bore a knife in a girdle of wampum…His moccasins were ornamented after the gay fashion of the natives, while the only part of his under dress which appeared below the hunting-frock, was a pair of buckskin leggings, that laced at the sides, and which were gartered above the knees, with the sinews of a deer.

The description continues with a discussion of Hawkeye’s famous “long rifle” which is said to be more deadly and effective because of its length.  Also discussed are Hawkeye’s eyes, which are said to be, “small, quick, keen, and restless”, due to the fact that he is constantly searching for signs of either game or the enemy.

            Hawkeye’s appearance sets the stage for a character that is different from all other characters in the book.  He is shown to not only look distinctly different, but to possess the best skills from two cultures of people.  Because he is a white man, but is also shown to be incredibly skilled in the ways of the wilderness, he is a type of superhero.  As Cynthia Garza states in her paper, “Hero: A Romantic Viewpoint”:

A Romantic hero is usually somewhat innocent and carefree, separate from the masses, and is almost always on some type of journey.  This hero is idealistic, non-conforming, and rarely lives in the “here and now,” but, on the contrary, is well rounded, skilled in some fashion, and able to communicate with all walks of life. 

This description perfectly fits the character of Hawkeye, who does not follow the traditional path of a white man, is highly skilled in the ways of the wilderness, and is able to communicate with natives and whites equally well.  Hawkeye embodies the spirit of a Romantic hero, not only because of his unique and unusual appearance, but for his abilities and nobility.

            The characters that Rowson, Irving, Poe, and Cooper so vividly describe to us are initially set apart from their average contemporaries by highly unusual and distinct appearances.  After such an introduction, one can hardly be surprised that these characters continue to be extraordinary throughout their lives, and even in some cases, in their deaths.

                                                            Works Cited

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

Garza, Cynthia.  “Hero: A Romantic Viewpoint.”  LITR 5535 Summer 2002 Midterm.

Irving, Washington.  “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.  The Heath Anthology of American Literature.  4^th ed., v.1.  2093-2112.

Murfin, Ross and Supryia M. Ray, eds.  The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms.  Boston:  Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2003.  

Poe, Edgar Allen.  “Ligeia.”  The Norton Anthology of American Literature.      Ed. Nina Baym.  New York:  Norton & Company, 2003.  704-714.

Rowson, Susanna.  “Charlotte Temple”.  Http://encyclopediaindex.com/b/chtem10.htm