American Literature: Romanticism Student Midterm Submissions 2016 (midterm assignment) 3. Web Highlights

Liz Davis

7 October 2016

Web Highlights: A Unification of the Inner Self

One of the terms that was introduced to me this during this semester’s American Romanticism course was correspondence. We use it in everyday speech but in this course, it carries a different meaning. Correspondence is defined as one thing agreeing or matching the other. In Romanticism, this can be its relation between the inner and outer world, the soul and nature, the self and the cosmos, and so on. I chose to read three essays about correspondence to further my research on the topic: “The Constructed Reality of Correspondence” by Hannah Mak, “Separate yet Complete: Examining How the Journey Narrative in American Romanticism Unites the Exterior and Interior Self” by Roslynn Kelley, and “The Complex Duality of Romantic Selfhood” by Gregory Buchanan.

Characters strive to be whole but have internalized emotions that do not always link to their outward actions. In Buchanan’s essay, he claims that in Romanticism, the individual self desires to be whole, “despite existing in complete self-alienation, as though it were composed of two or more parts.” Indeed, there is a duality that exists in this genre, and it is usually portrayed as an inner struggle of man. The internalized power struggle represents the conscious and subconscious thoughts in a person’s head as well as emotional challenges that particular individual faces. In Edgar Allan Poe’s William Wilson, the titular character is struggling with an internalized issue of morality. The narrator has evil urges, while his doppelganger represents his moral goodness. Here the two personalities, represented by conscious and subconscious, are fighting against one another yet are completely separate “people” within the same being. Kelley explores the idea of the unified self in Mary Rowlandson’s Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Kelley mentions that Rowlandson’s internal and external representations do not correspond at the beginning of her story, but toward the end they begin to merge. Though she states in her journals that she is a Christian woman and a believer, her outward appearance and actions toward the American Indians do not exhibit these traits. By the end of Rowlandson’s journey, she begins to adapt because she learns that is the only way she will survive during her captivity. Kelley states Rowlandson “can unify her experience in a wild exterior with her domesticated interior because of her journey; and since she is now able to reconcile the two, her new individuality provides deeper insight and knowledge into her existence.” There is a correspondence between the inner self and outer appearance and actions in this case as well a yearning to unify of the soul. Though there is a duality among characters in Romanticism, internalized or externalized, Romantic characters strive to for wholeness.

Like the inner and outer self, correspondence also encompasses the idea of the real and unreal with the idea of “twinning.” Twinning is “an element of story which ultimately makes manifest our latent fears and anxieties regarding the fragility of identity” (Mak). Twinning is probably one of the most obvious forms of correspondence because the elements directly mirror one another. Mak uses the example of Poe’s Fall of the House of Usher, to explain the spreading of twinning as an infection and absorption. The house begins to twin with Madeline, who then twins with her brother Roderick, who then also twins with the narrator; the effects of the twinning spread like a disease. Mak states “In this sense, the effect of correspondence is that of an inexorable and unholy disease, spreading from person to person in a manner which should be inexplicable, but is justified and real when constructed within the narrator’s own reality of abject terror and emotional vulnerability.” The lines between what is real and unreal begin to become blurry. Similarly, in Poe’s William Wilson, the lines become blurred, and the narrator believes he is, in fact, killing Wilson, but he is harming himself when he looks in the mirror. Buchanan says he “he actively confronted and murdered what appeared to be a duplicate of himself, which was in actually a fragment of himself.” There is a need for a separation between reality and imagination in both of Poe’s short stories. In Romanticism, this boundary is challenged by correspondence and twinning both psychologically and emotionally.

The manner in which characters interact with the environment, internally and externally, is also a commonly explored topic of correspondence in Romanticism. Kelley mentions that “Romanticism emphasizes the concept of the individual in various situations during which the person reacts to or interacts with his or her exterior environment, i.e. nature.” She mentions that since the outer elements of the environment cannot be controlled, that the character must then learn how to deal with those factors internally as well. She uses John Smith’s A General History of Virginia to express the idea that man must become one with nature, both internally and externally. Kelley writes “Smith has to make the assimilation immediately because he knows that if he does not unify the environment with his internal needs, he will die.” Smith instantly decides that he will become a frontiersman both inside and outside and will stop at nothing to survive. This unification of man and nature is similarly seen in Emerson’s Nature. Mak states “Emerson pointedly reveals the psychology and power behind the use of correspondence—man’s interpretation of the natural world is ultimately as malleable as his own mind.” Emerson believed in the spiritual wholeness of man and nature and the unification of the two. Though both man and environment are separate entities, they are heavily influenced by one another because one cannot control the situation therefore, must act internally to adjust accordingly.

After reading these three essays by Mak, Buchanan, and Kelley, I have learned that while correspondence affects the inner and outer relationship between two things, in this case, a literary character, it significantly affects the character’s self-image. Correspondence can range from connecting a character to inanimate objects, nature, other people, and so on but the most important is to connect the character to the self. In many of these stories, the lines are blurred between reality and imagination and that is because of the internalized struggled of the self.  There is a complexity associated with many characters in literature, and when one corresponds the character’s internal and external emotions and analyzes them, real meaning is established as to why certain actions were taken or not taken.