American Literature: Romanticism Student Midterm Submissions 2016 (midterm assignment) 1b. Long Essay Describe, analyze, and illustrate a term, objective, or combinations . . .

Michael Osborne

12 October 2016

The American Individual: The Consequences of Desire as Motivation

          From the Revolutionary War to the modern day, the mythology of America has accorded a special reverence to the concept of individuality.  In 1928, in the speech “Principles and Ideals of the United States Government,” given during his successful presidential campaign, Herbert Hoover praised an American system based on “rugged individualism” and “self-reliance.”  This concept of individuality has shaped our nation throughout its history, and given rise to enduring American icons such as John Wayne, Charles Lindbergh, and James Dean. 

Growing out of the crucible of the Revolutionary War, America entered a period of opportunity and wealth that was unrivaled in its history.  During this period, the cultural ideals of the public were entwining with the concepts expressed by the Romantics, resulting in a cohesive whole that still pervades American culture today.  Just as democracy asserted the value of the individual, so too did American Romantic literature extol the ideals of individualism.

          The American Individual is a self-made man.  He pulls himself up by his bootstraps, is the salt of the earth, controls his own destiny, relies on no one but himself, and perhaps most importantly of all, for the American Individual, desire stands as the solitary motivation required for action.  Most of these adages appear to be positive traits, or at least benign, but as we study the literature of American Romanticism, a question arises.  What are the consequences for a concept of individuality that asserts that the desire for something is the only necessary reason to seek it?

American Romantic literature is rife with examples of individuality, but the virtue of individuality is most pervasive in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay, “Self-Reliance.”  In this essay, Emerson affords the highest merit to those men who “spoke not what men but what they thought” (1)[1].  He instructs his readers that they must “Trust thyself” (4), and that, “Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist” (8).  Emerson states that, “What I must do is all that concerns me,” and it is this one notion that “may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness” (12).  Perhaps the best summation of all of these examples is when Emerson tells us that, “We must go alone” (27).  To Emerson, a man must be an individual who trusts themselves, trusts in their own thoughts over the thoughts of others, follows their own path, and above all, concerns themselves solely with that which they must do.

However, in advocating for individuality, Emerson casts aside concerns of the consequences for such a lifestyle.  “[I]f I am the Devil’s child,” he says, “I will live from the Devil” (8).  Emerson lives from within, and therefore, if what comes from within him rises from the Devil, then such is irrelevant, he will continue to live from within.  Concerned only with that which he must do, Emerson also rejects philanthropy.  He begrudges the poor “the dollar, the dime, the cent,” that he gives “to such men as do not belong to me and to whom I do not belong” (11).  Focused only upon what he must do, Emerson does not concern himself with either the origin of his own impulses or the plight of others.

          In Washington Irving’s short story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Ichabod Crane seems surrounded by an aura of innocuousness.  A schoolmaster of rather humorous appearance, Ichabod does not appear as one whose individuality would result in dire consequences.  However, in line with Romantic ideals, Ichabod is motivated solely by his own desire, and it is he who suffers the consequences for his single-minded pursuit. 

          Ichabod’s overriding desire in the story is the hand of Katrina Van Tassel, the only child of a wealthy Dutch farmer.  Ichabod, however, does not love Katrina, and his desire is not based on her appearance, though she is described as rather attractive.  Ichabod desires Katrina solely as her father’s heir, and has eyes only for her inheritance.  Gazing out over the Van Tassel lands, Ichabod’s “heart yearned after the damsel who was to inherit these domains” (24).  However, he is not truly interested in the land itself, as “his imagination expanded with the idea, how they might be readily turned into cash, and the money invested in immense tracts of wild land, and shingle palaces in the wilderness” (24).  Ichabod’s real hope is to abandon Sleepy Hollow, as we can see when “his busy fancy already realized his hopes, and presented to him the blooming Katrina, with a whole family of children, mounted on the top of a wagon … setting out for Kentucky, Tennessee, – or the Lord knows where” (24). 

          When Ichabod enters the Van Tassel home, “the conquest of his heart of complete” (25).  As he beholds the plethora of plenty displayed within, “the peace of his mind was at an end, and his only study was how to gain the affections of the peerless daughter of Van Tassel” (25).  Beholden to his own desire for wealth and comfort, Ichabod cannot help but imagine his life as master of the Van Tassel lands.  Once wealthy, he would “turn his back upon the old schoolhouse; snap his fingers in the face of Hans Van Ripper, and every other niggardly patron, and kick any itinerant pedagogue out of door that should dare to call him comrade” (43).  Therefore, once wealthy, Ichabod would abandon his current responsibilities, rub his newfound status in the faces of others, and abuse those who hold the position he once held.

          Ichabod Crane acts only out of his own desire, and it is that single-minded pursuit which leads to his downfall.  In seeking Katrina Van Tassel, or at least her inheritance, Ichabod runs afoul of the Headless Horseman, and after their encounter, all that remains is “the hat of the unfortunate Ichabod, and close beside it a shattered pumpkin” (65).  Ichabod’s fate is never revealed in the story, but regardless of what that fate actually is, it is Ichabod’s desire alone that leads him to it.

          While it is only Ichabod Crane who suffers the consequences in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” in Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “Ligeia,” it is an innocent who pays the price for the desire of the titular character.  Ligeia is, in many ways, a paragon of Romantic ideals.  She is a woman of immense learning and intelligence, intense passion, and of indomitable will.  She and the unnamed Narrator live as individuals, apart from and above the masses of the world.

          In time, Ligeia grows ill and begins to waste away at a relatively young age.  Facing death, she shrieks, “Man doth not yield him to the angels, nor unto death utterly, save only through the weakness of his feeble will” (12).  As we learn by the end of the story, Ligeia does not accept the inevitability of death, and there is no weakness in her will.

          Distraught after the death of Ligeia and enslaved by opium, the Narrator wanders aimlessly for months, but eventually remarries to the fair Lady Rowena Trevanion, of Tremaine.  Not long after the wedding, Rowena falls ill as well, eventually succumbing to death.  As the Narrator sits with his departed spouse, the corpse begins to fluctuate between life and death, until eventually, it rises.  Falling at the feet of the risen corpse, the Narrator is stunned when the shroud falls away from the body, and as she opens her eyes, he shrieks, “these are the full, and the black, and the wild eyes – of my lost love – of the lady – of the LADY LIGEIA” (27).

          As the epigraph tells us, man only succumbs to death through a weakness of will.  Ligeia, according to the Narrator, possesses a “gigantic volition which, during our long intercourse, failed to give other and more immediate evidence of its existence” (7).  Dying slowly, and while still young, Ligeia does not accept death, and returning to life becomes her sole desire.  Through sheer willpower, she returns from the realm of the dead, but not to her own body.  To return, Ligeia requires a vessel, and Rowena provides that vessel.  Ligeia fulfills her singular desire and returns to life, but for that to happen, Rowena must die.  Concerned solely with what she must do, Ligeia wills herself back to life, but it is an innocent woman who faces the consequences for Ligeia’s actions.

          The American Individual is still idealized and idolized in America today.  In studying American Romantic literature, we can see the beginning of the myth of American individualism and how that myth became interwoven with the ideals of American culture.  However, just as is portrayed in the literature, when desire forms the sole motivation for action, there are always consequences, and someone will have to pay the price.