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American Literature: Romanticism Sample Final Exam Essays 2015 final exam assignment #6. Romance Narrative |
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Gregory Buchanan
14
May 2015
The Dark Romance Narrative
Most readers of literature associate the term romance with a plot in
which two lovers maintain their relationship, despite occasional adversities, or
surprising revelations. Occasionally, lovers must do something other than
maintain their relationship, which interjects humor into the plot. This type of
literature is enjoyable to read and is often very popular. What is called
romance may be more technically called romance narrative. A text whose plot
involves a romance narrative usually features two characters who are separated
and must re-unite after one undergoes a journey and several ordeals. More
generally, the romance narrative may also feature a character who pursues an
abstract ideal until he or she achieves elevation from mundane experience, a
state sometimes called transcendence. Achieving transcendence is usually
characterized positively, and it may be the fulfillment of a character's desire
to explore beyond a social boundary or engage in novel experience. The speaker
in Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" is understood to achieve
unity with the stars at the end of the poem, a transcendent feat he or she could
not accomplish through intellectualism.
While
romance narratives that conclude with characters enjoying beneficial
transcendence are common and very popular, some present characters who achieve
negative states of transcendence. These narratives can be found in the work of
dark Romantics such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, and they offer an interesting
contrast to the optimistic narratives offered by writers such as Whitman. Dark
romance narratives generally depict a character who desires to escape from
everyday experience, only to encounter limitations and obstacles, which
sometimes reveal to him or her that the escape he or she seeks is detrimental.
When the character achieves transcendence, he or she usually has a profound and
disconcerting realization of truth that is pessimistic about human nature or the
world in general. Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," F. Scott
Fitzgerald's "Winter Dreams," and Edgar Allan Poe's "Ligeia" each offer a dark
romance narrative in which the protagonist desires to escape ordinary
experience, succeeds in overcoming limitations, finds himself confronted by
troubling obstacles, and finally achieves transcendence; the progress traced by
each story ultimately reveals the disconcerting transcendence common in dark
Romanticism and how it is approached.
Goodman Brown, Dexter, and the narrator of "Ligeia" each begin their dark
romance narratives by experiencing the desire to transcend ordinary experience,
defying spiritual danger, social class, and mortality. Goodman Brown acts on his
desire to change his spiritual condition by making arrangements to meet with the
Devil before the commencement of "Young Goodman Brown." Although the meeting is
planned in secret, he describes its urgency: "My journey, as thou callest it,
forth and back again, must needs be done 'twixt now and sunrise" (3). He admits
that he intends to do evil: "With this excellent resolve for the future, Goodman
Brown felt himself justified in making more haste on his present evil purpose"
(8). Although studying narrative is difficult because we cannot always
articulate the justifications we give ourselves for our purposes, Goodman Brown
seems able to describe his purpose, even if it appeared different or more
excusable to him before completing it. Dexter similarly desires to change his
social position, but his ambition is to improve in terms of class, not spiritual
knowledge. His desire for Judy begins early in life: "It did not take him many
hours to decide that he had wanted Judy Jones ever since he was a proud,
desirous little boy" (3.20). The beginning of Dexter's narrative is a
realization that he desires a romantic relationship with Judy. The story
presents this inclination after the fact: Dexter reflects on his desires as a
child, instead of considering each in the moment. This poses a potential
difficulty for narrative because even though we are told that Dexter always
desired Judy, it is easy for the mind to fabricate desires, or assume that they
were always continuous when they actually were not. While enjoying the company
of Ligeia, her husband longs for her to live beyond her natural life. Ligeia
produces the passion for life that the narrator wishes to maintain: "I at length
recognized the principle of her longing with so wildly earnest a desire for the
life which was now fleeing so rapidly away" (10). The ill Ligeia experiences the
desire, but the narrator recognizes and articulates it. Each protagonist
encounters an inclination that begins his journey toward an ultimate
goal--spiritual revelation, love, and life beyond death--which he will
ultimately achieve only under circumstances other than those he initially
imagined. A central feature of the dark romance narrative is its conclusion in
transcendence that is other than what is expected.
In addition to desiring to transcend the mundane, each protagonist also
encounters a limitation that attempts to stop him from doing so; however, faith,
poverty, and death are overcome, allowing the protagonists to pursue their
goals. When the Devil asks Goodman Brown why he is late, Goodman Brown provides
an excuse rooted in religious belief: "Faith kept me back a while" (12). The
initial beliefs Goodman Brown held and the advice of his wife are limiting, but
Goodman Brown ignores them in order to move toward the spiritual revelation he
believes the Devil can give. Dexter finds that his desire to have a relationship
with Judy is impossible unless he is wealthy. Judy does not care for poor
suitors: "There was a man I cared about, and this afternoon he told me out of a
clear sky that he was poor as a church-mouse. He'd never even hinted it before.
Does this sound horribly mundane?" (3.11) Although Dexter was poor as a child,
his later success causes him to overcome it before he is aware of Judy's
distaste for it. This poses a problem in the formation of his narrative. Dexter
would have been unable to have a relationship with Judy as a child because he
was poor. Although he may have suspected that he would have been rejected, his
progress toward his goal of a romantic relationship was never affected by
anxiety about poverty. It is questionable whether is poverty is ever an actual
limitation, since he only learns about it after it could have limited him. In
"Ligeia," the death of Ligeia impedes her husband's enjoyment. Ultimately,
however, she transcends her mortality by returning as "a shadow--a faint,
indefinite shadow of angelic aspect--such as might be fancied for the shadow of
a shade" (20). In this form, Ligeia is able to effect the transformation of
Rowena and restore her own life, advancing her husband's pursuit of his goal.
The protagonist of each story is confronted with a limitation in his
environment, but he overcomes it, sometimes before knowing that he was required
to.
As the protagonists progress toward their respective goals, they find
themselves not only confronted by limitations created by circumstance, but also
by obstacles that radically affect their
perceptions of their goals--the devil's communion, Judy's marriage, and
Rowena; advancing beyond these reveals the potential dissatisfaction that their
goals will bring. Goodman Brown finds the Devil's communion at the heart of the
witches' meeting that he agreed to attend. It causes him to question his
understanding of his town's morality, which is apparently hypocritical:
"Depending upon one another's hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not
all a dream. Now are ye undeceived. Evil is the nature of mankind...Welcome
again, my children, to the communion of your race" (65). The disconcerting
message of the Devil causes Goodman Brown to perceive the wisdom he sought
differently. Moreover, even though Goodman Brown partakes of the Devil's wisdom,
the story questions whether his experience was a dream: "Had Goodman Brown
fallen asleep in the forest and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch-meeting?"
(71) If so, then the obstacle that Goodman Brown describes is not as troublesome
as it appears, and the reliability of Goodman Brown as narrator may be at stake.
In "Winter Dreams," Dexter discovers Judy's marriage to Lud Simms. This news
causes him to feel differently about the desire that he has had since childhood:
"The dream was gone. something had been taken from him" (6.34). Although Dexter
has long considered the possibility of marriage with Judy, hearing about her
marriage reveals the emptiness of his desires. The excitement and joy he had
attached to Judy are now contrasted with her marriage to a man who "drinks and
runs around" (6.9). The length of his desire for a relationship with Judy
reflects on his own character, particularly his unfulfilling view of life. In
"Ligeia," Rowena poses an obstacle to the narrator. Although he hates her, and
she hates him, they cannot separate, leaving them miserable: "...my wife dreaded
the fierce moodiness of my temper--that she shunned me and love me but little--I
could not help perceiving" (16). Rowena poses a difficulty that must be solved
if Ligeia is to be restored. The implications of replacing his living wife cause
the narrator to realize the ghastly nature of the disembodied Ligeia, who places
"a brilliant and ruby colored fluid" (20), in the Rowena's cup in order to
assume her person. In each story, the protagonist encounters an obstacle that
causes him to assess the value of his transcendent goal differently. These
obstacles preview the sometimes dissatisfying character of the transcendence
that each will achieve.
Upon achieving their goals and experiencing transcendence, Goodman Brown,
Dexter, and the narrator of "Ligeia" each find that his original dissatisfaction
with mundane experience has been answered unexpectedly; the strange
transcendence that the protagonists encounter is a distinguishing feature of the
dark romance narrative. Goodman Brown is unable to live in his Puritan community
with the knowledge that he has received from the Devil. Although he thought it
was desirable, he now finds that it has ruined his relationships with others.
Despite having a large family and participating in the religious services of his
community, the remainder of Goodman Brown's life is depressing, and "his dying
hour was gloom" (72). Goodman Brown does not question the source of his
diabolical wisdom, the Devil, who is often known to lie. A problem of narration
is whether his testimony regarding his own wisdom should be admitted into the
narrative. If it is reliable, then Goodman Brown is justified in his
disappointment. Dexter realizes that the thrill he felt when pursuing Judy is
hollow, that what attracted him to her is no longer considered attractive by
everyone else, and that the feelings he had for her will probably never be
aroused by anything else: "Now that thing is gone, that thing is gone. I cannot
cry. I cannot care. That thing will come back no more" (6.36). The elevation
from mundane experience that Dexter now possesses is oppressive. Although he is
not married to Judy, his knowledge of her marriage affects him as if he were.
The mystery surrounding the woman whom he formerly loved, desired, and adored is
gone, and his appreciation for beauty is significantly diminished. In "Ligeia,"
the narrator is delighted to have his first love restored, but he describes the
process of restoration in terms that reveal its ghastliness--"hideous drama of
revivification" (25). In addition to witnessing the horror of the dead returning
to life, the protagonist must also live with the knowledge that it is his first
wife, not his second, with whom he resides. In each story, the protagonist
achieves transcendence, but not as he had anticipated. The dark romance
narrative concludes with enlightenment that is unconventional but profound, and,
in some cases, disturbing.
Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," Fitzgerald's "Winter Dreams," and Poe's "Ligeia" each exemplify the dark romance narrative: protagonists desire to transcend their everyday experience, manage to overcome limitations, find troubling obstacles but disregard them, and finally achieve disconcerting transcendence. The romance narrative is diverse. Although reading those that end in optimistic, life-affirming transcendence, such as Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" is satisfying, reading darker romance narratives is also enlightening. Not only do they provide a helpful contrast, they also present accounts that may be too harsh or unpleasant to read otherwise. The romance narrative is a familiar structure with which most readers are comfortable, so authors who use it to convey difficult truths will find a relatively receptive audience. Kathryn Hebert's 2008 final exam submission, "Romantic Narratives in a Diverse America" discusses the wide appeal that the romance narrative has to all audiences: "In the best Romantic writing, there is recognition of the reality of the limitations of the world and culture, while maintaining a hope for greater purposes and ways of being for that same world and culture." Dark romance narratives recognize a broader scope of "limitations of the world and culture," since they reveal conditions ultimately predicated on pessimistic truths. Although these may be unpleasant, they must be confronted, and people may relate to them more readily if literature makes them publicly accessible. Although dark romance narratives only skeptically maintain "a hope for greater purposes and ways of being," they point out the unreasonable expectations people sometimes have about other people and the world. The disappointments that characters suffer in dark romance narratives could be avoided by people in real life if they were read more widely.
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