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American Literature: Romanticism research assignment Student Research Submissions 2013 research journal |
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Norbert Hill
Enhanced Elements of the Romantic Tragic Mulatto in
the Realist Narrative
To further assist in my romantic quest to
transcend from my bourgeois ideas of the literary impact American Romanticism
has had on other schools of American literature, I decided to look at realism
and its attempts to address race relations within literature. Authors such as
Howells, James, Wharton, and Chesnutt strove to explore individuality in the
realist narrative. Taking control of one's actions and holding the self
responsible for future outcomes became the centralized argument of American
realist writers. But what do we make of the possibilities of man in reference to
the individual desires? I couldn’t help but to think of many of the readings of
Emerson and Thoreau we discussed throughout this course such as
The Over-Soul, Nature, and Resistance
to Civil Government. Even though individuality is a very powerful trait of
the realist character, how does all of this praise and/or discard romantic
notions of the American Renaissance? By
analyzing the realist author Charles W. Chesnutt’s
The Marrow of Tradition and what
various critics have said about his work, I am hopeful in exposing the romantic
elements authors use to cannon the realist movement in America.
Conversations and Writings of Race Relations
Nineteenth-Century American Literature sparked the interest of many readers,
moreover, stemming the post-American Renaissance in literature. Authors, such as
William Dean Howells, displayed to the “literary elect” life’s “real” and most
commonly looked over characteristics in literature. Focusing on characteristics
of racial injustices made it almost easy to reject romantic tropes of what would
be called the American Realism movement in literature. Realist authors felt the
social issues of America must be addressed in order for the barbaric American to
transform into a unified statue of togetherness. In order to help me find
answers as to how Howells and other writers were able to discard romantic
elements and create a movement separate of the traditional literary movement, I
decided to first look at what relationships and conversations were had about
race during this time period.
Joseph R. McElrath, Jr. of
McElrath describes the relationship of the American realist writer William D.
Howells and newly evolving African American author Charles W. Chesnutt, as
initially a mutual respect for each other’s understanding for closing the racial
gap in
Other African American authors such as Booker T. Washington and Paul Lawrence
Dunbar were also celebrated by Howells. Dunbar, often praised for his local
color poems, helped to show the language of the “darky” and further gave the
white readers a look inside the lives of these primitive creatures. Howells
wanted to show the world the softer side of the Negro, so that they may
understand the commonalities of the two races. Authors such as
Chesnutt identified himself as black, even though characterized as a mulatto by
social standards. Howells felt that identifying with the black race so strongly
and carrying the “Negro Problem” so personally, did not give him the advantage
to capture the whites’ hearts. McElrath explains how Howells initially felt that
Chesnutt was an “insider” who knew the blacks and therefore would support the
same struggle. In 1901, Howells felt like Chesnutt became bitter because of the
particular literature he began to produce. Walter Hines Page of the
Atlantic Monthly helped Chesnutt just
as did Howells with Washington and Dunbar. Pushing American Realism to newer
heights expressing the true black lifestyle, Page published Chesnutt’s most
controversial piece, The Marrow of
Tradition, with Houghton, Mifflin & Co. This would go on to be catalyst of
the dismantling of the relationship between Howells and Chesnutt and also the
beginning of the “bitterness.”
Howells wanted to amuse the whites and Chesnutt wanted to seduce his white
readers with subtleties of repulsion of the Negro. Giving a “softer sell” would
instill a sense of “sweetness” of the “darky,” showing the white readership the
tameness of the Negro. McElrath mentions that in Chesnutt’s earlier pieces such
as A Hazard of New Fortunes, Howells
was struck by the “sweetness” of the characters’ tone and feelings towards the
blacks. He would also mention that this “sweetness” was only to express the
yearning and realization of amalgamation of races. Isabel shows this in
Hazard when she gains a particular
liking for a janitor of a building that she and her spouse were perusing:
“It’s true, I am in love with the whole race. I never saw one of them that
didn’t have perfectly angelic manners. I think we shall all be black in
heaven-that is, black-souled” (McElrath 47-48).
McElrath says that she is not demonstrating Negrophillia for the first time in
the piece and has developed a “sweet spot” for the “sweetness” of the black by
saying the white race should be black-souled in heaven (McElrath 480-482).
Howells was pleased with such characters as the janitor and knew that the white
reader would be able to connect to such characters. Chesnutt in
The Marrow chose to fully expose the
characters both black and white for whom they really were. The tone and
language, as Howells would explain, was that of “bitterness” towards the
injustices of the tragic Negro. From the almost hanging of an innocent black
slave Sandy to the struggle with social class of some whites shown by McBane,
Chesnutt shows how society truly administers romantic color codes. For example
in The Marrow, Major Carteret
explains to Jerry the importance of accepting how God has made man:
“Jerry,” said Carteret sternly, ‘when I hired you to work for the Chronicle, you
were black. The word ‘negro’ means ‘black.’ The best negro is a black negro, of
the pure type, as it came from the hand of God” (Chesnutt 195).
Once more displaying the “bitterness” in which Howells was expressing so greatly
of Chesnutt, McElrath goes further as to agree with Howell’s assumption.
McElrath also says, “To Chesnutt’s mind, that is, he had demonstrated fairness
and impartiality, not to mention suppressed his bitterness.” Chesnutt’s
“bitterness” eventually ended his career as a novelist, but proved Howells to
have misjudged his capacity for “sweetness.”
Disappointing the “Dean” as did Chesnutt, led to many critics’ wonder of the
true relationship of William Dean Howells and Charles W. Chesnutt. William
Andrews of
The second part of Andrews essay focuses on the development of the psychological
profile of black consciousness in America. Authors such as Chesnutt, Dunbar, and
Washington helped Howells to realize the “white thinking and white feeling in a
black man.” Such ideologies showed the ability of African American writer to get
into the minds of the white readers and close the gap in “human unity.”
Initially Howells thought these men understood the “slowly but surely modifying
itself” approach to “the great problem” of racial tensions in America (Andrews
333-334).
Washington was praised for his “sweet, brave humor” and psychological approaches
to the racial conflict by placing himself outside the black race and reports it
objectively as an observer looking in.
The “calm” and “cool patience” of such men in Howells opinion would men
saved them from “bitterness.” Howells’ psychological assumptions of the black
American writer lead to his disappointment with Chesnutt’s controversial novel,
The Marrow of Tradition. Howells
stressed that he could not blame Chesnutt for his “judgment”, but he could have
simply displayed something less disturbing than “justice,” “hate,” and
“bitterness” (Andrews 337).
The third and final part of the essay discusses the demise yet glory of
Chesnutt’s career as a novelist. Chesnutt’s students would argue its
“bitterness,” but Andrews stresses that the maturity of
The Marrow was beyond its years
according to the given racial tension and influence outside the “literary
realm.” Howells assumption of the psychological and social views of Chesnutt
led to not only the disappointment of the “dean,” but also to the end of
Chesnutt’s career as an American novelist.
All and all both critics McElrath and Andrews explored the racial barriers of
the colliding forces in Anglo American and African American literature by
describing the vitality of a single relationship. Howells and Chesnutt’s
ideologies had great potential, yet their ability to fully commit to one common
structure for their exposure of the world as it truly was, led to their
untimely failure to dismantle racial barriers. Lastly, both critics helped to
show me how assumptions of the psychology of one author to another can lead to
misconceptions and contribute to the ruin of a “good thing.”
Just as many tend to do with movements such as American Romanticism and
American Realism.
Transcendence of the Byronic Negro: the Psyche of the Tragic Mulatto
George Washington Cable so eloquently put it in a series of
essays written in The Negro Question
about the origins of black culture and how racial prejudice has manipulated the
culture. By answering the “Negro Question” we could better understand the “negro
struggle.” Why does man not see race to be a cultural divide amongst men made to
serve a higher cause? Chesnutt used characters such as Dr. Miller to show various
implications and desires of the black race. Often causing them to strive for
something more than the here and now. By registering the decisions Dr. Miller
made as those not of his own, we are able to see romantic elements of the
Byronic hero. Each decision Dr. Miller makes are that of a reaction to the
social pressures; therefore costing him any individuality and sacrificing
himself in order to save another. Cable brings out that the African slave was
brought to the U.S. by cruel force, so when identified as a beast of some sort
it is only natural for a human to invest in such ideas. In fact, during the late
nineteenth century most whites looked at blacks as aliens, foreign to that which
they are accustomed to. In the exact words of Cable, they were brought “to our
shores a naked, brutish, unclean, captive, pagan savage, to be and remain a kind
of connecting link between man and the beasts of burden” (Chesnutt 342, 343).
Chesnutt understood the conflict of race in the south and wanted to expose the
truth of social-moral conflict and characters such as Dr. Miller allowed him to
do so. Dr. Miller was of mulatto descent, as was Chesnutt, causing him to face
the pressures of both the African Americans and the Anglo-Saxons used to force
him to remain more like his “people.” The only quandary is…who are his people?
Chesnutt’s focus was not only on the social conflict of race, but
tensions within race. Searching for something more than the here and now helps
to strength the African American realist narrative. Cable, Chesnutt, and W.E.B.
DuBois all posed the potential question of, does black blood place the
obligation to assert nationality, brotherhood, and “negro policy?” In addition,
do these same standards apply to the Anglo-Saxon culture as well? Cable wrote,
“White men think about the Negro question when their attention is called to it
(Garner, 58).
Miller, in many situations within the text,
represented the blacks as a whole. Why was Miller chosen to represent as such?
In an essay written by W.E.B DuBois entitled,
The Conservation of Races, DuBois
analyzes the division of the human race and what is needed to restore human
solidarity. Human transcendence has a price tag, just as any other material gain
in life. The price of human brotherhood comes with the understanding of each
history, traditions, and impulses, which are part of the conceived ideals of
life (Chesnutt 291). DuBois would go on to stress that if a Negro has lost his
way in the understanding of “the situation of his people in America,” it is
because he has failed to ask himself a series of questions:
“Am I an American or am I a Negro? Can I be both? Or is it my
duty to cease to
be a Negro as soon as possible and be an American? If I strive as a
Negro, am I not perpetuating the very cleft that threatens and separates Black
and White America”? (Chesnutt 294).
DuBois, just as Chesnutt, aspired to show the reader the
thoughts of the Negro. Miller (mulatto) was often faced with these questions.
Deciding to be black or part of White America became the focal point of his very
existence in The Marrow. In addition
to questioning the racial identity of Miller, one must consider his
representation to the reader as an educated black. The narrative insinuates that
Miller was of an upper-class of Negro that was educated; therefore, allowing him
to be part of both social structures of blacks and whites. Roscoe Conkling Bruce
in Service by the Educated Negro, an
essay about successful African Americans naturally placed to eventually become
leaders of their race, like Dr. Miller, shows how Chesnutt used Miller to
display the pressures within the black race for the educated to save the race as
a whole. Bruce states,
“The Negro doctor’s social position makes him especially
accessible to Negroes in cases of need . . . . Moreover, the Negro doctor does not feel
himself a man of alien blood come to tend an inferior. Social position and
understanding sympathy, then, render the Negro doctor readily accessible and
very useful” (Chesnutt 326).
The position of the Negro doctor proves him to be a public
servant and vital to the community of blacks. As an educated black, Bruce
remarks that one is afforded more opportunities to deny social poverty and help
cultivate the black race (Chesnutt, 328). My thought at this point could only
turn to that of the Byronic hero in the romantic trope. The Byronic hero is dark
and mysterious and sometimes unaware of their position as the hero. Each moral
decision is made based on the moral codes and honor he/she lives by. American
Realism has not abandoned romantic elements, but has enhance them to fit its
movement. Positive interactions with other black characters within
The Marrow proved Dr. Miller to be a
worthy servant of his people to serve as the romantic Byronic hero.
In The
Souls of Black Folks, W.E.B. Dubois conceptualizes the distinction and need
to heal conscious and unconscious divisions within the African American psyche.
Chesnutt does the same by creating the scene in
The Marrow that shows the division
among blacks to be not only social, but psychological. The narrative implies
that Miller is “amused” with his fellow black people despite what they
represented to society, the society he feels part of. The narrator states,
“They were noisy, loquacious, happy, dirty, and malodorous.
For a while Miller was amused and pleased. They were his people, and he felt a
certain warmth toward them in spite of their obvious shortcomings” (Chesnutt
82).
Here the reader is able to explore the African American
psyche. Miller doesn’t feel a direct connection with his own race, he feels a
“warmth towards” them. Furthermore, amusement would imply something is
entertaining just as animals or characters do in a circus. This directs the
reader’s attention once more to the question, does black blood place the
obligation to assert nationality, brotherhood, and “negro policy?” DuBois
mentions in The Souls of Black Folks
(1903) the need for blacks to create a sense of duality. Become considerate of
the importance of “double duties,” “double-consciousness,” “twoness,” and
“double life.” DuBois used the term “double” throughout the text to analyze the
consciousness of the Negro’s understanding between integrationist-
assimilationist (Harris 219-222). In
Souls, DuBois asserts the psychological approach to assist the reader in
understanding the way individuals in the African American race “collective
think, and act in order to observe a groups behavior as a whole. This also
allows the reader to examine the thoughts and attitudes of the group and how
they communicate with each other. The psychological approach was often over
looked by society during Chesnutt’s era of American realist writers perhaps
because many publishing companies and other American writers did not view
Chesnutt as an individual, but as a group representative. DuBois mentions that
if we come to realize the actions and behaviors of African Americans, then we
will be able to conceptualize how a larger group influences the behavior of
individuals (Harris 249). By getting into the psyche of Dr. Miller I was able to
see the common thread of romance, in that the gothic concerns itself with
doubles as well. Doppelgangers were often used to show dubious and duplicitous
motives of characters. Dr. Miller was indeed aware of this
“double-consciousness” by choosing to return to Wellington, North Carolina after
receiving his Doctoral degree and becoming part of the upper echelon in American
society. Miller knew that returning would not be an easy ride to success, but
his obligation to satisfy the pressures of “double-consciousness” superseded all
wants of the realist protagonist.
Souls
also defends the ideology that African American leaders are exempt from
emotional and behavioral scrutiny. Once more adding to the argument that black
communication is different that that of whites. As a leader or hero of the race
you are the larger-than-life character that will somehow save the oppressed
(Harris 115). Although the narrative doesn’t directly state this idea, it does
on several occasions show Miller to be a savor.
For instance, when the riot began the narrator explains Miller’s
distraught,
“He was no coward, morally or physically. Every manly instinct
urged him to go forward and take up the cause of these leaderless people, and,
if need be, to defend their lives and their rights with his own, - but to what
end” (Chesnutt 218).
Here the reader is able to recognize the heroic qualities of
Miller, yet, examine those ideas of exemption of emotional and behavioral
scrutiny. Just as the Byronic hero acts out of reasoning and not emotional
impulse, so does Miller. Miller’s obligation to his race was to save them from
the “Lion’s Jaws,” as Chesnutt mentions it (Chesnutt, 219). Miller decides to
save them by asking them, do they feel leading a revolt against the whites will
result in victory in the race war? Miller would go on to say to the oppressed
beastly Negro Josh Green,
“My advice is not heroic, but I think it is wise. In this riot
we are placed as we should be in a war: we have no territory, no base of
supplies, no organization, no outside sympathy, - we stand in the position of
race, in a case like this, without money and without friends” (Chesnutt 218).
Even Miller’s political realist language implies his
understanding of the schematics of war and what is needed to succeed. Josh’s
counter-attack would serve as suicidal and overall counterproductive to the
“Negro struggle.” The narrator is voicing here all the more reason to be the
leader of these people. Miller is heroic in reasoning, yet may not be viewed by
his race as so because of his decision to stand neutral in the riot. The
narrator says in a conversation between Green and Miller, “the qualities which
in a white man would win the applause of the world would in a negro be taken as
the marks of savagery” (Chesnutt 295,296). The narrator is expressing that an
African American who died defending rights would never be seen as a hero or
admired. Chesnutt once more is exploring DuBois ideas of “double-consciousness”
by allowing Miller to serve as a leader (savor), but remain neutral in the riot
(Harris 115). Thoreau’s Resistance to
Civil Disobedience addresses the American government’s intentions by
stating,
“It does not keep the country free. It does not settle the
West. It does not educate. The character inherent in the American people has
done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if
the government had not sometimes got in its way” (Thoreau 2).
Whether it’s Josh Green asking Miller to lead the revolution
against the whites of Wellington, North Carolina or it’s Major Carteret asking
Miller to save the life of his child, the negro is force to strive for something
more. Transcendentalism takes its rightful place within the realist narrative by
allowing the negro to question the effectiveness of the American government and
desire for change within race relations. After all Major Carteret was the reason
Dr. Miller lost his own son. (Chesnutt 217-219, 240). By entering the
protagonist’s psyche we are able to understand his need to become the “double”
Dubois speaks of in Souls and take
his place as the hero.
The reader must begin to ask, why Miller
makes these decisions to deny personal choice to satisfy race agenda. Freudian
claims of repression sheds more light on DuBois idea of consciousness and why one
avoids certain situational decisions. Freud argues that our ordinary social life
depends upon repression. He is linking the psychology of unconscious thinking
with that of consciousness. Freud mentions that we repress ideas and disturbing
thoughts everyday just as we avoid stressful conversations about topics (Billig
38). These ideas show that Miller was highly capable of repressing his thoughts
of being normal rather than extraordinary or taking the opportunity of revenge
and retaliation, but he only does so because of the pressures of society.
Society controlled Miller’s decision to repress his true “being” and hinders the
idea of individual choice in the realist novel’s character. If we as readers are
to accept ideals such as these we would now enter modernist movement. Although
Chesnutt doesn’t attempt to conquer such endeavors, he does help to solidify
that realism does not discard but elevates tropes used in other movements.
Freudian and even modernist ideals of repression sets out to show how repression
has its consequences. If one is to repress the unconscious thoughts of reality
the conscious will eventually emerge from darkness. In a scene in
The Marrow, Green comes to Dr. Miller
to fix a broken arm he’d received in a fight. Miller would give the advice,
“You’d better be peaceable and endure a little injustice than run risk of sudden
and violent death” Chesnutt 110).
Green would respond that he expects to die violently “at the hands of a white
man, but the white man will die at the same time” (Chesnutt 110). Green lives by
the injunction to remember things; therefore, he will always be the victim of
consciousness (Wilson 115). Interestingly enough this leads me to recount the
class discussion of color codes and how they maneuver themselves with in the
American Romantic novel. Color drives the author and his audience to the
consequences of racial division with in society. Moreover, color codes are
attached to both Miller and Green through the memories they share. In the
beginning of the novel Green and Miller were connected by the memories, but one
would choose to forget and the other chose to dwell on the past. Chesnutt
aesthetically puts race relations of America into context when choosing the
title of his novel, The Marrow of
Tradition. Chesnutt knew that in
order to successfully defeat racial boundaries we must not forget the origins of
culture itself (Wilson 115). Memory triggers these desires to “be”, to be that
which we were meant to be within our universe. Chesnutt wanted his readers to
examine these ideas of repression, to understand why Miller makes certain
decisions and avoids the expected savage route. Color codes helped to rectify
and provide some clarity as to why the realist author would use such elements to
tell the story of the negro.
Many would argue that Chesnutt wanted Miller
to represent the ideal man. The narrative at times supports that claim. In
Howell’s Editor’s Study, he explores
the conventions of the realist novel, explaining “In fact, no man can be said to
be thoroughly civilized or always civilized; the most refined, the most
enlightened person has his moods, his moments of barbarism…shall not please him
(Howells 1). Miller failed to show his barbaric side; nevertheless, causing the
realist character to cease to emerge. As “literary elects” we can not join the
“unthinking multitude” that says you must surrender your thoughts and respect
only the attitudes and thoughts of the writer (Howells 2). If we only respected
Chesnutt’s ideologies of Miller and did not take the narrative as it truly is,
we will be stray from the truth of Miller. If the realist character is to be
“real” then they must show their true colors. Barbaric, uncouth, savage, as well
as, heroic sides that is steadfast to human nature. Despite his depiction and
use of Miller, Chesnutt wanted African Americans to write themselves rather than
being written (Wilson 112). By his use of Dr. Miller, Chesnutt was able to show
society the truths about themselves and why such realist characters are needed
to counter-write history, allowing the reader to have choice in their future
rather than the author manipulating them.
Unselfish would be the adjective given to a
righteous character, such as Dr. Miller, but at what point does he make a choice
for personal gain? When faced with the murderer of his son and the murderer’s
wife, he fails to do anything (Chesnutt 242-244). Chesnutt wanted to gain the
wanting eyes of his white readers, by repressing the beast-like qualities that a
Negro “unavoidably” possesses. In addition, when Mrs. Carteret falls to her
knees to beg for forgiveness and the doctor help, he puts the decision on his
wife by stating, “Go in there, and make your request to her. I will abide by her
decision” (Chesnutt 244). Miller failed to make decisions for himself, causing
him to alienate his realist character traits. Chesnutt’s used Dr. Miller for a
higher cause because he knew his readers would cling to such romantic plots as
that of a Byronic hero faced with the psychological burden of
double-consciousness in order to overcome social oppression and change the fate
of the tragic mulatto and the negro. Romanticism once more is not discarded, but
enhanced to allow readers to understand the realist quest to restore
individuality and transcendence.
I believe I will study more of how the African American is
effected by desire. If desire and loss are part pf the romance, then is African
American literature part of American literature or should it be a separate
movement? Social constructs restrain and maintain the negro still. Why is this
and how much longer will this school of thought sustain?
Works Cited
Andrews, William. “William Dean Howells and Charles W. Chesnutt: Criticism and
Billig, Michael.
Freudian Repression: Conversation
Creating the Unconscious. Port Chester, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press,
1999. 28 April 2011. Print.
Chesnutt, Charles. The Marrow of Tradition. Ed. Nancy
Bentley and Sandra Gunning.Boston: Bedford, 2002. 82, 110, 218-219, 242-244,
291, 294, 326, 342, 343. Print.
Dimock, Wai Chee. Residues of Justice: Literature, Law,
Philosophy. Berkeley: U of California P, 1996. 169-82. Print.
Garner, Thurmon and Calloway-Thomas, Carolyn. “Expressive
Repertoire for African Communication.”
Constructing a Psychological Perspective. University of Missouri Press.
2003. 23 April 2011. 58. Print.
Harris, Shanette M. “The Observer and the Observed in
The Souls of Black Folk.”Constructing
a Psychological Perspective. University of Missouri Press. 2003. 23
April 2011: 115,
219-222, 249. Print.
Howells, “Editor’s Study,” Harper’s Sept. 1887. 1. Web.
McElrath, Joseph R., Jr. “W. D. Howells and Race: Charles W. Chesnutt’s
Disappointment of the Dean.”
Nineteenth-Century Literature
51 (1997): 474-99. Print.
Wilson, Matthew.
Whiteness in the Novels of Charles W.
Chesnutt. Jackson, MS, USA: University Press of Mississippi, 2004. 24 March
2011. 112, 115. Print.
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