A Comparison of Romanticism: Then and Now

The term romance has many meanings. It dates back to the 13th century with the medieval romance. There were three main cycles in the medieval romance. They were the matter of Britain, which included Arthurian matter derived from Breton lays; the matter of Rome, which included stories of Alexander, the Trojan wars and Thebes; and the matter of France, most of which was about Charlemagne and his knights (Cuddon 758).

Romance, in its origins was principally a form of entertainment. It is usually concerned with characters and events who live in a courtly world remote from the everyday. This suggests elements of fantasy, improbability, and extravagance. It also suggests elements of love, adventure, and the marvelous (Cuddon 758).

In the 19th century, romance elements became more varied. They concentrated on the everyday, the social and the domestic. With the advent of the Gothic novel a new kind of romance appeared. It made further use of the bizarre and extravagant characteristics of the medieval romance. Writers of this time included Sir Walter Scott, Nathaniel Hawthorne and George Meredith (Cuddon 760).

The term romance is still used today, although in a different context. A romance novel is a love story with an optimistic ending. The ending tends to be emotionally satisfying. More than half of mass-market paperback fiction titles sold annually in the United States are romance novels. Romance novels have turned into literature written almost exclusively by women for women, while other genres, such as mystery, thriller, horror and sci-fi appeal heavily to both genders. The popularity of modern day romance relies on a simple formula. There exists a world in modern day romance that is free from moral ambiguity. There is a domain that is larger-than-life in which such ideals as courage, justice, honor, loyalty and love are challenged and upheld (Gray 76-77).

Although romanticism has changed throughout the years, there are certain elements that 19th century romance and modern day romance has in common. On evaluating two novels, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Dark Prince by Christine Feehan, there exists similarities between the two novels, although they were written in different centuries and for different groups of people. Both novels are romances with gothic elements. The romance elements the novels have in common are the ideas of nostalgia and desire and loss. The gothic elements common to both novels are the setting, which takes place largely within the forest, references to nature, images of dark and light, and characters that are bizarre or fanciful.

Romantic elements appear in both novels. The idea of nostalgia appears in The Scarlet Letter when the narrator is introduces the story and tells the reader where he came from. He says, "And yet, though invariably happiest elsewhere, there is within me a feeling for Old Salem, which, in a lack of a better phrase, I must be content to call affection" (Hawthorne 7). The narrator of the novel yearns to be back home, yet can feel a certain amount of affection in the here and the now. He haphazardly looks back towards the home he yearns for, while he tries to live in the present area in which he is currently a part of.

The novel Dark Prince also has examples of nostalgia. Feehan writes, "The dark eyes drifted over her face again, noting the shadows, the fear lingering in her blue gaze. Her heart was pounding, her slight body trembling in his arms. ‘Go back to what? Death? Isolation? You have nothing with those people and everything with me. Going back is not your answer’" (25). Raven, who is the female of the story wants to go back home. She fills the stability that her home and homeland would offer her. Her sense of belonging is tied to all of those individuals at home that surround her. The male, Mikhail is a threat to her. He tries to usurp her and keep her from the safety of her homeland. Since he tries to get her to remain with him, she feels threatened. Her sense of identity becomes blurred and confused because she does not know who she is, unless she is in the safety of her home and homeland.

Desire and loss are romantic elements that appear in both novels. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne explains, "My doom was on me. It was not the first time, nor the second, that I had gone away - as it seemed permanently - but yet returned, like the bad halfpenny, or as if Salem were for me the inevitable centre of the universe" (9). The narrator seems to want to get away from Salem, yet he feels the need to return. His desire is to return to his homeland, but he feels the loss of Salem the minute he leaves. Salem seems dear to the narrator. He does not realize the fondness he has for his current home of Salem until he leaves. Salem becomes the center of his universe in which his contingent happiness is based upon.

The romantic element of desire and loss reappears in The Scarlet Letter and seems to be a common theme that runs throughout the novel. Hawthorne says, "It was a folly, with the materality of this daily life pressing so instrusively upon me, to attempt to fling myself back into another age, or to insist on creating the semblance of a world out of airy matter, when at every moment, the impalpable beauty of my soap-bubble was broken by the rude contact of some actual circumstance" (28). The reality of the narrator intrudes and seems to believe it is better for him to live in the here and the now. It is a different perception of desire and loss because he recognizes that the past can not be captured by returning to it. He tries to place himself in the past, but reality intrudes upon him. The past becomes a part of an ideal dream, but it is lost. He can not escape the present in order to return to the past.

Desire and loss appears in the novel by Feehan. She writes about a male character named Rand and a female character called Noelle. Rand wants Noelle as a marriage partner and seeks to convince her. They are joined and Noelle is killed by hunters (40-41). Rand desires Noelle and thinks of nothing but possessing her. His obsessiveness with her causes her death and a tremendous loss to him and his people. This idea of desire and loss parallels that in The Scarlet Letter because Rand seeks to merge his people with the marriage of Noelle. They can not merge the people because of her death and Rand’s people becomes threatened. They can only continue to exist if they can find women strong enough to continue their family line. The past and present are threatened with the death of this one individual, as the narrator of The Scarlet Letter can not escape the present life he leads to return to the past.

Both novels have many gothic elements in common. They both rely on the woods or forest as a part of their setting. Hawthorne writes:

The road, after the two wayfarers had crossed from the peninsula to the

mainland, was no other than a footpath. It straggled onward into the

mystery of the primeval forest. This hemmed it in so narrowly, and stood

so black and dense on either side, and disclosed such imperfect glimpses

of the sky above that, Hester’s mind, it imaged not amiss the moral

wilderness in which she had so long been wandering. (137)

Hawthorne uses the wilderness to describe the state of Hester’s soul and the sin she commits with the minister. The forest is dark and so is Hester’s soul. There is passion and wildness in both the forest and Hester. She is drawn into the forest because Arthur Dimmesdale walks in the forest. They are both drawn towards the forest because of the wild and dark passions that they feel. The dark forest covers their sins and sunlight can not reach them. Since the forest in the place in which Hester and Arthur commits their sin, it is appropriate for them to meet here to discuss the outcome of that sin. Hester meets Arthur to tell him about the enemy of her husband and for a brief moment in the forest time stands still and their passion for each other resumes. Only in the forest is this possible for the two. They are out of sight from society and almost out of sight of God.

As the forest appears to be a safe place for the two lovers of Hester and Arthur, it is also a safe place for Raven in Dark Prince. Feehan writes:

The long wraparound porch beckoned to her; the night seemed to call her

name. She caught at the doorknob, twisted. At once the night air rushed

over her, cooling and filled with intriguing scents. She wandered out onto

the porch, leaned against a tall column and inhaled deeply, drawing the

night into her lungs. She could feel a drawing, a calling. Without

conscious thought she stepped off the porch and began to wander along

the path. (204-205)

When Raven fails to feel safe, the woods call to her. By going out into the woods, she feels she is no longer in danger from the outside world. The forest surrounds her and takes care of her. The inside of the house becomes a prison that stifles her, while the forest becomes a place of tranquillity and escape. She casts off society’s expectations of her and becomes more intune with the earth and its creatures.

Nature plays an important role in both novels. In The Scarlet Letter, nature is used to parallel the human spirit. This is emphasized when Pearl cries for the red rose in the governor’s garden. She decorates her hair with flowers, which are said to become her.

She is a difficult child, capricious, cruel, unfeeling in her demand for truth, but she has the naturalness and the beauty of the rose. Like the rose she is a symbol of love and promise (Waggoner 140). The nature of the rose parallels the nature of Pearl. The rose contains a beauty, but also contains thorns. They are more than what they seem. The same can be seen with Hester’s daughter, Pearl. She is the product of an adulterous relationship and is often misunderstood. She questions her mother about the letter A she wears upon her chest and spends time trying to reason out why her mother wears the A upon her chest. Like the rose, she can be prickly, but she is only trying to reason out where her place in society is.

Freehan uses nature in her novel Dark Prince in a similar manner that Hawthorne uses nature. She compares her male character Mikhail to the wolf. She writes, "She was light to his darkness, incapable of understanding that he was first and foremost a predator. His hand moved up and down her arm gently, seeking to reassure her. Mikhail reinforced his command to the wolves" (210). Mikhail is the leader of his people. He will do anything in his power to protect them. He only becomes the predator of the wolf when anyone in his family is threatened. As the family protector he must strike out at those who threaten his family members before they strike. He becomes the predator of the wolf because he destroys those who seek to destroy him, quickly and without remorse. He learns his enemies intents and destroys them before they can make their move to harm anyone in his family.

The use of light and dark imagery abounds through both novels. Hawthorne begins his novel with the use of dreary color and dark images. He writes, "A throng of bearded men, in sad-coloured garments and grey steeple-crowned hats, intermixed with women, some wearing hoods and others bareheaded, was assembled in front of a wooden door of which was heavily timbered with oak and studded with iron spikes" (35). This suggests the darkness that the whole novel will take. The whole atmosphere of the novel takes on a dreary contrast of darkness and light. The people in the town are all dressed in the colorless garments of grey and seem to be a dreary group of individuals. They appear to be serious and overly pious by the way they carry themselves and the way that they are dressed. The law and religion in the town appear to be almost identical.

One of the few elements of color appears with the wild rose-bush. Hawthorne writes:

But on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a

wild rose-bush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems,

which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the

prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to

his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to

him. (37)

The rose is a positive value in the novel. It is beautiful and in some sense good. In the opening of the novel, the rose in the only positive image. It does not contain a sense that it is either moral or immoral (Waggoner 128-129). The rose is a contrast to the images in the first part of the opening chapter of the novel. The darkness of the townspeople’s clothing represents a sense of brooding and evil. The use of darkness associates itself with evil. Since the rose is the only image of color in the opening chapter, it represents a certain type of hope. There still exists some type of good in the world or in those who have sinned as long as the rose is still in bloom.

The color of the clothes as described in the opening passage is using color in the figurative sense. The drab clothes are drab because of their color. They exist of dark colors and the color grey. The color of the "weatherstains" of the jail are also pure images. The sense impressions are literal. Only after the reader becomes conscious of the part played by color in the tale does the appropriateness of these colors maintain their affect (Waggoner 131). The reader is not aware at Hawthorne’s use of color at the beginning of the novel. It is easy to scan over the color words of the greyness and gloominess until the words begin to reappear. When Hawthorne begins to use other color words to show the sunshine or a person’s ruddy cheeks, the use of dark colors becomes more noticeable. This is the way Hawthorne uses color on the literal level.

The next level in which Hawthorne uses color is with mixed images. The use of light and dark and color begin to denote both literal and figurative senses. When Hawthorne says the jail is "gloomy," it is both physically and emotionally dark (Waggoner 131). Hawthorne also does this with the use of the scarlet letter. At the beginning when Hester first comes out with the letter on her chest it is described just the way that it appears. The color is described with the use of the gold thread (40). Later when Hester reappears the scarlet letter has become more. The color has acquired a different meaning and the letter takes on a more ominous meaning.

The last level of the use of light and dark is the drained image. On the first page of the novel there is an image of the "black flower" of civilized society. The "black" is figurative, for though the jail has been described as dark and weatherstained, it is not black in a literal sense (Waggoner 132). This use of light and dark consists of a different type of mixing of images. The use of the images are not in the literal sense, but more in a figurative sense with the use of a color word to give emphasis or poetic license.

The use of light and dark throughout the novel is associated with the individual and the state of their soul. They represent natural good (beauty, health), moral and spiritual good (holiness), natural evil (ugliness, death), and moral evil (sin). The colors appearing throughout the novel are red in its several shades and black, pure or mixed, as in "gray," "shadowy," and "darksome." Red is ambiguous throughout, suggesting both sunlight and roses and the traditional associations called up by "the scarlet woman." Pearl, a "natural" child, is dressed in red, Hester’s letter is red, and the glow in Chillingworth’s eyes is thought to be red with the light of infernal fires. Black, dark gray, brown, all the darker shades, ordinarily suggest both natural and moral evil. Green and yellow are associated with natural good, with life and beauty (Waggoner 133).

Images of dark and light are used throughout the Feehan novel. She uses light and dark images in a similar tradition that Hawthorne does, but with less complication. In her novel, light generally stands for good and darkness for evil or the untamed. She writes, "There is such a light in you, it shines through your eyes and radiates through your skin, so that anyone seeing you can easily see your goodness" (216). The woman represents goodness in the story. She becomes the shining light that is going to save the soul of the man in the novel. She is good, wholesome, and innocent, whereas; he is darkness.

Feehan describes the use of darkness within the novel in parallel to the male character. She explains:

He felt the breath leave her body as she saw the gathering darkness. The

monster that lived within. The stain on his soul. The deaths and battles

he was responsible for. The stark ugliness of his existence before she had

come into his life. The loneliness that ate away at him, at all the males of

their species, the barren emptiness they endured century after century.

(217)

The male character in the novel is enshrouded in death and despair. Darkness has taken over his soul. Only by the arrival of the female, who is light, is his life saved. The blending of dark and light allow for the race of this people to survive and continue.

The last gothic element that the two novels has in common is the way certain characters are described. Both authors use bizarre or fanciful qualities to describe their characters. In The Scarlet Letter, Pearl is often described as an imp or witch. Hawthorne writes, "Little Pearl’s unwonted mood of sentiment lasted no longer; she laughed, and went capering down the hall so airily, that old Mr Wilson raised a question whether even her tiptoes touched the floor" (87). The people of the town seem confounded by Pearl. She is a beautiful child that often has outbursts of passion. Because of her uniqueness, no one in the town is quite sure what to make out of her. She is compared to a witch, yet she is a child. She should represent innocence and purity, but she can not because of the way she was conceived. She is a mystery to all of those who surround her, including her mother. She moves back and forth between the images of the misunderstood imp and witch to the beauty and passion of the rose.

Feehan also uses the bizarre in reference to her characters. Her main character, Mikhail is a character that is not quite human. He has lived for centuries and has been propelled into a state of darkness out of duty for his family. He is a type of vampire character, yet not a complete vampire. She writes, "He would not seek sleep at dawn, at least not the healing sleep of renewel; he would seek eternal rest, and God have mercy on his soul. His kind was few, scattered, persecuted - gone" (7). There are references throughout her novel showing that the males in the novel are not human. Mikhail needs to sleep during the day because he is weak if he does not. He has the power to shape shift into animals. The type of character that Feehan makes her males lends to the dark and light images. She represents the male as tormented and fighting an outside evil force so the female, who is light can come and rescue them. This heightens her use of gothic elements throughout the novel.

The definition of romance has been redefined throughout the centuries. Some elements have remained the same, such as the fact that romance is popular literature. It was popular literature when it first appeared in the 13th century and it is popular literature today. It is a form of entertainment that seeks to find far off worlds and characters that are bigger than life. Whatever romance may be, there are qualities that exist in romance that began in the 13th century, has been redefined with Hawthorne in the 19th century, and continues to dazzle readers in the 21st century. By such romantic elements as the ideas of nostalgia and desire and loss, and gothic elements such as a forest setting, references to nature, images of dark and light, and characters that are bizarre or fanciful, the romance, whether of the 19th century or of today seem to offer a broad appeal for a broad audience.

Works Cited

Cuddon, J. A. A Dictionary of Literary Terms. New York: Doubleday & Company,

1977.

Feehan, Christine. Dark Prince. New York: Dorchester Publishing Company, 1999.

Gray, Paul. "The Arts/Publishing: Passion on the Pages Thousands of novels are

published each year, all telling the same story: girl gets boy. Critics huff, but can

tens of millions of female readers be wrong?" Time, (2000): 76-79.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. United Kingdom: Wordsworth Editions

Limited, 1992.

Waggoner, Hyatt H. Hawthorne A Critical Study. Cambridge: The Belknap Press, 1963.