LITR 5535: American
Romanticism
Sample Student Midterm, summer 2002
American Romanticism Midterm:
"The Fall" in Early American Romantic Texts
The theme of desire and loss is traditionally associated with Romanticism. This aspect of Romanticism is found in three early American texts, Christopher Columbus' letters regarding his first and fourth voyages (1493 and 1505, respectively), Susanna Rowson's early American novel, Charlotte: A Tale of Truth (1791), and Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The May-Pole of Merry Mount" (1835). These three texts reveal the theme of desire and loss in conjunction with Biblical allusions and imagery of the creation and fall of Adam and Eve. Interestingly, with the exception of Columbus, one can see the influence of the epic, Paradise Lost in the works, revealing the transcendent nature of Milton's work and the strong tie to Puritan literature and doctrine of early American writers. Columbus, Rowson, and Hawthorne use Biblical allusions to achieve an elevated style and to present a moral appeal to their audiences while maintaining the Romantic idea that with the fulfillment of desire must come loss.
Two letters from Christopher Columbus, although written at the turn of the 16th century, carry the Romantic theme of desire and loss. In Columbus' "Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage" (Norton 11-13), the hopeful promise of America is expressed in terms of the Adamic narrative and the paradise of Eden. Columbus writes that the land of the New World is "very fertile to a limitless degree" has "many rivers, good and large," "lofty mountains, beyond comparison," and green trees so tall that "they seem to touch the sky" (12). Indeed Columbus' impression of the new world is one of paradisiacal joy. A vast array or fruit-bearing plants, and singing birds can also be found in the New World. Columbus even points out, " there is honey" (13). Interestingly, honey is not in the Genesis story, nor was it actually in America; but is a common image of a paradise of plenty in the ancient's mention of ambrosia, as well as in the perception of America as the "land of milk and honey." Columbus' letter reveals a desire or hope for a flourishing Spanish colony in the New World.
In addition to the reference to an Eden-like paradise, Columbus' responsibility to name the islands resembles Adam's responsibility to give names to the beasts in Eden. In addition to the right to name the islands, Columbus mentions an agreement to rule specific lands in his "Letter to Ferdinand and Isabella Regarding the Fourth Voyage" (Norton 13-14). Columbus reminds Ferdinand and Isabella that he explored the region in hopes that they would allow him to rule. Columbus writes, "It was a privilege and agreement...And you fixed the boundary...and you gave me wide power over this" (13). Columbus' explanation of his former hopes to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain are reminiscent of authority of Adam in Eden. Like the monarchs, God makes the agreement, with the single boundary, or limitation of not eating from the forbidden tree.
Columbus' loss is evident not only in his lack of worldly goods, lack of freedom and ill treatment, but by his separation from God. Columbus is "encompassed about by a million savages, full of cruelty...and so separated from the holy Sacraments of Holy Church," that he fears his "soul will be forgotten" (Norton 14). This theme of loss and bitter disillusionment also fits that of Adam, and (although irrelevant due to the fact that Columbus pre-dates Milton by over one hundred years) that of Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost. Columbus uses these images in an attempt to appeal to the Catholic monarchs' moral sense of justice and of power. The letter also reveals the Romantic theme, loss of desire, as he no longer wishes to explore the Americas, but requests to go on pilgrimage.
The Romantic theme of desire and loss is also found in the early American novel by Susanna Rowson, Charlotte: A Tale of Truth. Although Susanna Rowson was not a Puritan, as an actress and author, she strongly supported the effort to produce "morally responsible art" (Norton 370). Rowson's didactic narrator in Charlotte: A Tale of Truth uses images of the beautiful garden, the serpent, and the fall of mankind to emphasize and elevate the story of Charlotte's bad decision and subsequent demise.
Initially, young Charlotte Temple personifies hopeful promise because she is innocent, pretty, intelligent and respectful. That is, until her desire to court a British soldier is awakened. The soldier, Montraville, spies Charlotte through "the gate which led to the pleasure grounds" and with the encouragement of her teacher, Mademoiselle La Rue, Charlotte succumbs to her desires, meeting Montraville in the absence of parental consent.
Rowson continues the allusion to Eden as she stresses the importance of filial loyalty in Chapter VIII as Mr. and Mrs. Temple are "walking together in the garden." As they plan Charlotte's birthday surprise, they discuss that Charlotte "will never lose sight of the duty she owes her parents" (Norton 378). However, Charlotte's temporary elopement with Montraville results in the loss of her material possessions, family, promising future, reputation and eventually her life. Like Adam, Charlotte seems to be a "hapless victim of impudence and evil counselors" (392); the narrative ends with justice as Mademoiselle La Rue, dies after admitting that she was "the viper that stung [Charlotte's parents'] peace" and corrupted Charlotte's "fair bud of innocence" with her "vile arts" (407). Rowson characterizes Charlotte's filial betrayal in the opening verse of Chapter XII:
Nature's last, best gift:
Creature in whom excelled, whatever could
To sight or thought be named?
Holy, divine! good, amiable, and sweet!
How thou art fall'n (385)
Like Adam and Eve's realization of their nakedness and expulsion from Eden, and Satan's realization of expulsion from Heaven in Paradise Lost, Charlotte falls from a state of grace. However, the Romantic quality in Rowson's novel is that the above verse is in Chapter XII, when Charlotte has decided to do the morally right thing-explain to Montraville the duty she owes to her parents. This implies that the true loss in Chapter Twelve is Charlotte's loss of desire. Later she ponders pitifully, "And am I already fallen so low?" (395). Susanna Rowson incorporates images of paradise, temptation and loss in Charlotte: A Tale of Truth to emphasize the importance of avoiding temptation at all times, but also because these images were so familiar to her audience that had strong ties to Puritan doctrine. Although the moral of Rowson's novel is somewhat anti-Romantic, Rowson incorporates the Romantic theme that loss must follow desire.
A
descendant of Puritans and a native of Salem, Massachusetts, a town known for a
strong, staunch Puritan background, Nathaniel Hawthorne, also uses images of Genesis
and Paradise Lost in his short story, "The May-Pole of Merry
Mount." Hawthorne's opening
description of the May Day celebration in Merry Mount creates a euphoric
environment with "green and flowery splendor" (Norton 623). The
characters, Edgar and Edith await their union by the minister of Merry Mount.
Edgar and Edith are characters of desire, hope and promise; "their
youthful beauty seemed so pure and high" and they knew "that their
destinies were linked together, for good or evil."
Like Columbus and Charlotte, Edith and Edgar (and all of the Merry Mount
mirth-makers) fall from grace and into the hands of John Endicott.
As the May-Pole also suffers a fall from Endicott's "keen
sword" (628), Endicott reminds the reader of the cherubim in Genesis
3:24, who holds a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life.
Edith and Edgar were cast out of mirthful Merry Mount into a world of
"moral gloom...and they returned to it no more."
Like Adam and Eve, Edith and Edgar's fate was a "difficult path
which it was their lot to tread" (630).
These images of Adam and Eve's expulsion from the garden also reveal the
Romantic ideal of desire and loss.
Hawthorne's
language evokes sentiments of desire and loss in the description of Edgar and
Edith's thoughts prior to their union at the celebration:
No
sooner had their hears glowed with real passion, than they
were
sensible of something vague and unsubstantial in their former pleasure, and felt
a dreary presentiment of inevitable change.
From
the
moment that they truly loved, they had subjected themselves to
earth's
doom of care, and sorrow, and troubled joy, and had no more a home at Merry
Mount. (Norton 625)
With
the fulfillment of Edgar and Edith's desire comes the Romantic inclination to
return to the past filled with want. The
revelers are just beginning to understand a concept long-practiced by
Puritans-the moral pessimism that warns not to pursue any desire, lest it
lead to the loss of salvation.
The theme of desire and loss pervades
Romantic literature, but is a universal theme found in Classical and Puritan
literature as well. The author's
treatment of the desire/loss theme to include the concept, that with the
fulfillment of desire comes the loss of desire, creates a truly Romantic work.
The letters of Christopher Columbus, Susanna Rowson's Charlotte: A
Tale of Truth, and Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The May-Pole of Merry
Mount" appeal to the morality of their respective audiences, yet taint the
vision of desire with disillusionment and loss.