LITR 5535: American Romanticism

Sample Student Research Project 2006

William Wolfe

10 November 2006

The Romanticism of Mark Twain

            Mark Twain, in an1895 article, “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences,” offers a scathing critical ‘analysis’ of the work of James Fenimore Cooper. The essay focuses on specific examples of Cooper’s work, primarily The Deerslayer and, to a lesser extent, The Last of the Mohicans. Twain posits that Cooper’s work violates eighteen of the nineteen rules that govern “literary art in the domain of romantic fiction.” He cites example after example to support his argument and concludes with the declaration that Cooper’s work:

…has no invention; it has no order, system, sequence, or result; it has no lifelikeness, no thrill, no stir, no seeming of reality; its characters are confusedly drawn…its humor is pathetic; its pathos funny; its conversations are – oh! indescribable; its love scenes odious; its English a crime against the language.                                                            (1440)

Twain minces no words and holds nothing back in his condemnation of Cooper’s prose. In fact, he goes so far as to claim that the works in question are devoid of any artistic merit whatsoever. Cooper’s work had existed as a prime example of American Romantic fiction for the better part of a century and, in fact, put America on the map (so to speak) literarily. So why does Twain offer such a contemptuous censure of his work? The answer lies not in the pages of Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales, but in the very movement of Romanticism. Mark Twain saw himself as a champion of the Realist movement and, as such, sought to validate it by renouncing Romanticism altogether. What better way to accomplish this than by the condemnation of one of Romanticism’s central figures. However, as this essay will attempt to prove, Twain’s own prose is often Romantic in scope. His style evokes down-to-earth impressions and his mastery of regional dialects and vernacular are realistic enough but many of his prose fall within the boundaries of Romantic fiction. His attempt to condemn Cooper and by extension Romanticism as a whole is a self-deprecating endeavor.

            Romanticism is a very difficult term to define. The Bedford Glossary of Literary Terms reinforces such a claim with its very loose definition: “The diverse and even dissimilar nature of works commonly said to be romantic is actually in keeping with romanticism’s emphasis on subjective experience, innovations, imagination, and the individual (416).” In addition, typical romantic fiction can encompass many different genres and styles including (but not limited to) the romance narrative, the quest or pursuit narrative, the gothic novel, the lyric poem, and the essay. Within romantic fiction there is often a strong connection between the individual and the natural world. Recurring thematic elements also include a strong sense of desire, loss, and sacrifice. Additionally, supernatural and mystical elements frequently invade romantic fiction. The world, in which the realist writes, is a much more pragmatic and more restrictive place.

            Realism is most clearly defined with the qualification that it is a movement that serves as a reaction to romanticism. The realist movement was born in the shadow of the American Civil War. America, as a nation, had lost its innocence and wonder. The mysteries of the American West, the Native Americans, and the independent spirit had given away to more pressing socio-political concerns. Citizens found themselves looking for a new truth, a new sense of security and confidence. As such the stage was set for the emergence of a literary movement that offered a more realistic depiction of American life. Realism places emphasis on an objective presentation of details and restricts itself from sentimentality and emotional perceptions and abhors imaginative characterizations (Bedford 398). Mark Twain emerged on this stage as a founding member of the realist movement (and one of its most vocal supporters).

            Twain viewed the romantic imagination as, “failing to move man toward truth (Byrne 260)”. Perhaps this negative view of romanticism was at play when he wrote his condemnation of James Fenimore Cooper. Given his negative posture toward the romantic imaginative force, one would expect that Twain would do everything in his power to distance his own writing from it. However, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, he does just the opposite. Huckleberry Finn is viewed as one of the greatest accomplishments in American literature and justifiably so. That being said, it is difficult to defend it as a completely realistic novel. The tale chronicles the adventures of a young orphan boy and a runaway slave along the banks of the Mississippi River. The first-person narrative is written in a unique style and utilizes regional vernacular to set the realistic tone of the story but its structure and elemental composition reveal many romantic components. An in-depth analysis of some of the key points of the story will reveal that it has many romantic aspects, enough in fact to question its existence as a realist novel at all.

            Many of the fictional works that emerged during the American Romantic Era were constructed around a journey or a quest. Such was the case with many of Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales and such is the case with Huckleberry Finn. In fact, Huck’s entire narrative (for the most part) is one that recounts his journey along the Mississippi. The quest narrative is one of the oldest forms of romantic literature and Huck’s quest has often been likened to that of Odysseus in Homer’s, The Odyssey. Patrick J. Deneen, in his 2004 article, “Was Huck Greek?: The “Odyssey of Mark Twain,” points out the many similarities between the two tales:

Both works, after all, beyond their similarities as tales of journeying, homecoming, and new departures to the wilderness, are depictions of the sacrifices that human beings are willing to make on behalf of other human beings.                                                                             (37-38)

In addition to drawing an apt comparison between the two as quest narratives, Deneen also points out other aspects of romanticism contained within Huckleberry Finn, such as the return to the wilderness and the significant manifestation of self-sacrifice.

            There are many characteristics of self sacrifice in Huck Finn. Huck sacrifices the relative comfort and leisure of a life with Widow Douglas in order to realize the primal call of nature that he feels within himself. There are also elements of sacrifice that manifest in the friendship between Huck and the runaway slave, Jim. Huck finds his self-imposed isolation lonely and longs for companionship, a companionship he finds with Jim. This companionship leads him to sacrifice his own safety and well being by attempting to help Jim escape. Similarly, Jim makes the ultimate sacrifice when a poorly executed escape plan hits a snag in the form of a bullet in Tom Sawyer’s leg: 

Well, den, dis is de way it look to me, Huck. Ef it wuz him dat ‘uz bein’ sot free, en one er de boys wuz to git shot, would he say, ‘Go on en save me, nemmine ‘bout a doctor f’r to save dis one?’ Is dat like Mars Tom Sawyer? Would he say dat? You bet he wouldn’s! Well, den, is Jim gwyne to say it? No, sah – I doan’ budge a step out’n dis place, ‘doubt a doctor; not if its forty year.                                                                (Twain, 1421)

Jim’s behavior is classic romanticism. Even though it means his own imprisonment (or worse) he is willing to risk all for friendship and loyalty.

            Of all of the aspects of romantic fiction, none is more recognizable than the connection of man to the natural world. This connection was primary in the development of British Romanticism (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, etc.) and served as the foundation for many early American romantic writers (Edwards, Emerson, Hawthorne, etc.). Of all of the romantic aspects of Huckleberry Finn, the characteristic connection to the natural world is probably the strongest. Huck’s association with nature is paramount to the understanding of his development as a character.

            T.S. Eliot, in his introduction to the 1950 Chanticleer edition of the novel, explicitly outlines the importance of nature and of Huck’s preternatural connection to it:

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the River gives the entire novel its form; it also controls the voyage of Huck and Jim. Yet Huck is also the spirit of the River. The end of the novel reflects the connection between Huck and the River; Huck, like the River, has neither beginning nor ending.                                                                             (151)

Through this interpretation, the River becomes a character in the novel, one that is every bit as important as Huck, Tom, or Jim. Without the river as an overt expression of nature, the novel looses its structure. Huck is a creature of nature, and more specifically, of the river. It is to the river that he turns as a means of comfort and of escape; it offers sanctuary and sustenance.

            The river takes on a near-mystical semblance as it ministers to the needs of Huck. Twain writes as if the river has a conscience and a mind of its own. For example, in chapter VII, after Huck sneaks away from his father and heads along the river in search of a means of an effective means of escape, the river brings him exactly what he needs:

I went along the bank with one eye out for pap and ‘tother one out for what the rise might fetch along. Well, all at once, here comes a canoe; just a beauty, too, about thirteen or fourteen foot long, riding high like a duck. I shot head first off the bank, like a frog, clothes and all, and struck out for the canoe.                                                                              (1262)

No explanation is offered for the mysterious arrival of the canoe; it is as if the river sensed that Huck was in need and provided for him. This eerie employment of supernatural episodes is another tenant of romantic fiction and one which is used to great effect by Mr. Twain.

            Jim is a veritable fountain of mystical and uncanny beliefs and actions. Huck employs Jim to divine his future by listening to the ‘prophesies’ of an inanimate object (in this case a hairball). Additionally, Jim often points out omens of bad luck that seem to be accurate. For example, in chapter XI, Jim warns Huck about the bad luck that can follow one after touching a rattlesnake skin. Huck disregards his friends warning and even flaunts his disregard by placing a dead snake in Jim’s bed. This act has disastrous results and leaves Huck pondering the significance of superstitious portents.

            The recurrent use of the supernatural joins the plethora of romantic elements that abound in Huckleberry Finn. Twain makes use of the romantic color scheme (placing Huck in contrast with Jim), gives Huck the dimension and depth of a traditional romantic hero (placing him apart from society as a whole), and focuses on the trials and tribulations of the individual in conflict with a haunting past (Pap). Although Twain steps outside the traditional romantic ideology, his novel of boyhood adventure nonetheless embodies many aspects of romantic fiction.

            Of all of Mark Twain’s novels, none is more stereotypically romantic than A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Detractors of this argument will undoubtedly claim that this novel is not a romantic novel at all but rather a satirical denouncement of American Imperialism, a commentary on outdated societal conventionality, or a sardonic indictment of American economics. However, in order to succeed as either, Twain must inhabit the realm of romantic fiction and in doing so, embrace the tenants of romanticism as a whole.

Bruce Michelson, in his essay, “Realism, Romance, and Dynamite: The Quarrel of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” points out that within the writings of Mark Twain, there are numerous attacks against the romantic mode (case in point for his argument against Cooper) and that these attacks are meant to cleanse the ‘bad habits out of American sensibility.’ Michelson goes on to point out that:

There were failures coming, the most spectacular of them being A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain’s boldest attempt to reckon with romance, with the problem of defining identity, and with the potentially devastating impact of new idea systems upon the self.                                                                                                                        (610)

The impetus for Twain’s failure is simple - in his satirical attempt to denounce romanticism, he actually created a romantic novel. Michelson holds that Twain, in his attempt to write a novel that impugns the principles of romantic fiction, “fails to be consistently anti-romantic (616).  

            As stated earlier, romantic fiction often focuses on the individual’s connection to a haunting or challenging past. In a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, this principle manifests itself in the narrative of Hank Morgan, who is transported through time to King Arthur’s England. From the moment that Morgan arrives in the past, the story assumes a romantic tone:

When I came to again, I was sitting under an oak tree, on the grass, with a whole beautiful and broad country landscape all to myself – nearly. Not entirely; for there was a fellow on a horse, looking down at me – a fellow fresh out of a picture-book. He was in old-time iron armor from head to heel, with a helmet on his head in the shape of a nail-keg with slits in it;…and his horse had armor on, too, and a steel horn projecting from his forehead, and gorgeous red and green silk trappings that hung down all around him like a bed-quilt, nearly to the ground.                                                                                     (51)

The scene is romantic from start to finish; there is nothing realistic about it. A man of the 19th Century sharing a landscape with a sixth century knight (never mind that the raiment and accoutrements of the knight are much more indicative of a 12th or 13th Century warrior), even if utilized as satire, looses cohesion as a realistic occurrence. The novel then opens up to encompass the gamut of romantic ideologies: knights in full armor, damsels in distress, magic, and desire. Within the personage of Hank Morgan one can see a personification of one of the most prevalent themes in Romantic ideology, the battle between good and evil.

            Morgan is established as the romantic ‘hero’ of the novel. In addition, his voice, “throughout the book, is that of the American Man epitomized (Allen 437).” However, Twain constructs the character in such a manner as to give him characteristics that are often at odds with one another. Morgan is an idealistic individual who believes in his ability to effect change. However, in his desire to accomplish this goal he becomes less a romantic hero and more a monstrous individual with no compunction about committing murder or wreaking havoc on the populace. The primary struggle between good and evil occurs not on the battlefield, but within Hank Morgan himself.

            Twain connects Morgan to the realistic world by virtue of his profession as a machinist. He is a figure representative of industrial progress and development. The realistic aspects of the character fade as his situation becomes obvious. As a stranger, displaced in time and separated from modern society, Morgan violates the dictates of realistic character development. His ostensibly abundant knowledge of ancient customs, culture, society, and celestial patterns further serves to weaken his realistic stature.

            Elements of romanticism are not only seen in Mark Twain’s novels. His short stories and essays are also rife with allusions to the romantic ideals that he claimed to abhor. In 1923, “The War Prayer” was published posthumously in Europe and Elsewhere and recounts a Sunday morning prayer meeting that is interrupted by a mysterious stranger. The stranger in question enters into a church and Twain’s description of him borders on the Gothic:

An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness.                                                                              (1164)

The stranger leads the congregation in a prayer after proclaiming that he has, “…come from the Throne – bearing a message from Almighty God!” There is no explanation as to how the stranger got there or when and if he departed after the prayer was concluded. The stranger is a wholly romantic image and invokes the image of Hawthorne’s, “The Ministers Black Veil.” There is a sense of awe and wonder in his appearance that defies rational thought and conventionality. With this small, inconspicuous piece, Twain almost completely succumbs to the romantic ideal. However, in an attempt to redeem himself he offers a final sentence, almost as an afterthought, “It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said (1165).”  This qualification is an attempt on the part of the author to anchor the tale is realism.

            Twain was very adept in masking his romantic fiction in the guise of realistic prose. One of Twain’s most enduring short stories is, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” The tale is based on California folklore and is, as the title would suggest, a story about a ‘jumping frog.’ Although it is unclear as to Twain’s actual inspiration for the story, it was a well known narrative in and around California. Roger Penn Cuff explains that, “Three toad stories, with striking similarities to Twain’s version, were published prior to his publication of “the Celebrated Jumping Frog.) Two of these earlier versions treat of a jumping contest; the other reveals a method of capturing the frog (156).” Although Twain’s version of the story is somewhat different than its predecessors, their influence is clearly evident. The simple fact that the tale is based in folklore and legend cast it into the romantic arena. The animals in the story have heroic names such as Daniel Webster and Andrew Jackson and are revered and well-regarded.

However, in order to add a level of realism to his story, Twain sets it up as a framed narrative. He reveals the story as the likely delusional ramblings of an old and probably senile old man with a penchant for exaggeration and hyperbole.

            Mark Twain’s contribution to American literature cannot, must not, be called into question. His writings have entered the American canon and have endured for over a century. That being said, one must view his indictment of the work of James Fenimore Cooper with skepticism and uncertainty. The valid or invalid nature of his arguments are not at issue in this essay, however, his motivations are. Twain’s, “Literary Offences” is not a denunciation of Cooper but rather a condemnation of romanticism as a valid form of artistic expression. However, when looking at Twain’s own body of work this contention becomes paradoxical. Scrutiny of his work reveals a strong undercurrent of romantic ideology and his attempt to renounce the movement altogether is deleterious and serves as a negative critique of his own substantial accomplishments. 

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

Allen, Gerard. “Mark Twain’s Yankee.” The New England Quarterly. 39.4 1966): pp. 435-446.

Byrne, William. “Realism, Romanticism, and Politics in Mark Twain.” Humanitas. 12.1          (1999): pp. 1-17

Cuff, Roger Penn. “Mark Twain’s use of California Folklore in his Jumping Frog Story.”         The Journal of American Folklore. 65.256 (1952): pp.155-158.

Deneen, Patrick. “Was Huck Greek?: The “Odyssey” of Mark Twain.” Modern Language      Studies. 32.2 (2002): pp. 35-44.

Michelson, Bruce. “Realism, Romance, and Dynamite: The Quarrel of a Connecticut           Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” The New England Quarterly. 64.4 (1991): pp.    609-632.

Twain, Mark. “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences.” The Norton Anthology of           American Literature. 6th Edition. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 2003.

Twain, Mark. “Huckleberry Finn.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 6th     Edition. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 2003.

Twain, Mark. “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” The Norton          Anthology of American Literature. 6th Edition. Ed. Nina Baym. New York:            W.W.Norton & Co., 2003.

Twain, Mark. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

Twain, Mark. “The War Prayer.” The Norton reader, Eighth Edition. Ed. Arthur M.       Eastman. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 1992.