Author: Sara Conti

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Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin and James’ “Daisy Miller” both have the death of a beautiful young woman as a central plot point.  Stowe’s Eva is angelic and good, living a life near perfection and loved by all who know her. It is said of Eva that she always had to die, she was simply to perfect for this world.  James’ Daisy is the opposite. While she is also described as beautiful and innocent at first, it becomes clear that Daisy is “an American flirt” and she is scorned by much of the society around her. Daisy also dies, as as result of her impropriety (taking late walks alone with an Italian gentleman). Despite being viewed very differently, they both have a quality of otherworldliness, and thus they had to die. 

Neither girl fits into the societal norms of their time. Eva doesn’t care at all about the norms of Southern society.  She cares deeply about the enslaved people in her household, and treats them as human, ignoring the rebukes of her mother.  She is kind, loving of everyone, and simply too perfect.  Stowe describes how, by her heavenly graces, it should have been expected from birth that she would not live a full life, and many characters note that she seems to have been set aside for a purpose, sent from Heaven on a short sojourn to brighten their lives and increase their faith. 

Daisy is too forward, not concerned enough about the opinions of other ladies. She is careless, selfish, and at times cruel. She is like Eva only in her looks and divergence from normal society, otherwise she is the opposite. Where Eva is perceptive and wise beyond her years, Daisy is thoughtless and rude. But like Eva she cares nothing for the things of this world. Like Eva, she refuses to heed the advice thrown at her and continues down her own path, doing whatever she pleases. Her short time on Earth brought her notoriety, and despite this, her death was mourned by many.

Both girls represent a sort of otherworldliness in society, and the fact that they both die young promotes an interesting idea on deviating from the norm. It is almost as if certain characters, being far outside the usual, simply cannot exist in the world in which they were born. An idea such as this is logical in a text from the 19th century, as this was an era in which tolerance was not so widely practiced and people were held to strict expectations in order to fit into society, otherwise risking being an outcast, or social death.

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Although most of Dickinson’s poems were not written with the intent to appeal to the public, many of the core themes she explores are the topics and ideas that seem to be most popular in her time. Throughout this course, we have seen that the 1800s were shaped by war, and a deep, widespread religiousness. 

Likely due to the historical events of the century (the Civil War, the Spanish Civil War), many of the texts we have read  include war or conflict in some form, and Dickinson’s work is no exception. Poem 112 describes a man on the losing side of some conflict dying while hearing cheers of victory in the distance. This reminded me of Whitman’s war poetry, like “Beat Beat Drums“.  Many of Dickinson’s poems reference the beating of drums, possibly a reference to the way the drums of war beat on, irrelevant of the rest of the world. In “I dreaded that first robin so”, the she describes the salute of the flowers and their “unthinking drums”, bringing military terminology into her descriptions of nature.

Most of the texts we have read this semester also contain religious motifs. Particularly the female writers we’ve read (Stowe and Jacobs), seem to write with one of their goals being sharing their faith. Though Dickinson is less explicit about her beliefs or trying to convert her reader, she still includes Biblical allusions in many of her poems. For example, Poem 269 references Eden, Poem 124 references the “members of the Resurrection”, and Poem 320 references “Cathedral Tunes” and “Heavenly Hurt”.  In the poem “I dreaded that first robin so”, Dickinson describes herself as the “Queen of Calvary”. Though the meanings are more obscure, these poems are no exception to the common religious theme of the 19th century.

 

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Both Pearl in Hawthorne’s Scarlett Letter and Eva in Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin play similar roles in their stories. They drive the character development of those around them, vex their parents, and generally bringing chaos and humor. They are wild and unpredictable, but generally good, caring people. It is their innocence and insistence on the things they want that lead their parents, specifically Hester and St Clare, to do good things for those around them. Both girls are their parents’ only child and their beauty is frequently remarked upon. Pearl and Eva also share a reputation for extraordinary kindness and not being afraid to connect people. It is Pearl that reaches out to her father and insists that he rejoin her family, and it is Eva that meets Tom and brings him to her father. 

One big difference between these characters is their relationships with their mothers. Pearl and Hester are used to only having each other, so they have a strong bond, even though Pearl’s behavior often confuses or annoys her mother. Hester spends time book pondering the nature of her daughter debating whether she is good or evil, human or not. It is noted that Pearl seems to embody the spirit of a younger Hester, containing all the fire and passion that brough Pearl into existence.  Hester’s life seems to revolve around Pearl, and it is clear that Hester loves her daughter more than anything else. She gave up her way of life to have Pearl, and aptly named her due to the price that was paid for her.

So far, Marie does not seem so enraptured with her child. She finds Eva’s ways exhausting, and pushes her away. She doesn’t indulge Eva’s requests like St Clare does, nor does she make any attempt at understanding her daughter. Even she acknowledges that she and the young girl have very little in common.  She seems to consider herself above raising her child, and is more focused on her own “sufferings” than the kind little girl in front of her. 

Despite living centuries apart, many parallels can be seen between the characters of Eva and Pearl and the part they play in the progression of their respective stories. 

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In class we talked about how Whitman looked up to Emerson, and it was interesting to observe how this can be seen throughout his poem, “Song of Myself.”

From the very beginning, it is clear that Whitman and Emerson had very similar ideals. They both cry out against looking back and relying on historical perspectives, calling for a larger emphasis on experiencing things for yourself. In lines 34-37, Whitman writes “You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books.” He beseeches the reader to observe and interpret things for themselves, exactly like Emerson does in the first paragraph of “Nature”, when he writes “why should we grope among the dry bones of the past […] The sun shines to-day also.”

Both writers also express their belief in the divinity of the individual. Whitman declares “I know the hand of God is the promise of my own, // And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own,” while Emerson writes about being “a particle of God” in “The Divinity School Address.” They both seem to consider themselves as a deity in some way.

An interesting contradiction between the two is that Whitman is known for his poetry while Emerson is not. Considering all that Emerson wrote glorifying poets, its not surprising that Whitman was a poet, but Emerson himself was not known for his poems, but rather his lectures. Reading his poem “The Adirondacs”, I feel that it is apparent that poetry was not Emerson’s strong suit. He has none of Whitman’s confidence or rhythm. I can’t help but wonder about how Emerson felt about this young follower whose poetic abilities far outpaced his own. 

 

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In The Scarlet Letter,  Roger Chillingworth declares on page 467, “there are few things– whether in the outward world, or, to a certain depth, in the invisible sphere of thought,– few things hidden from the man, who devotes himself earnestly and unreservedly to the solution of a mystery.” This idea, that with enough time and effort we can know anything is something that many readers and narrators identify with. The narrator of “The Man of the Crowd” shares this mentality, beginning his narrative by establishing himself as an expert at reading the people in the street. Likewise, the narrator of “Bartleby, the Scrivener” starts by demonstrating his skill of understanding his employees, carefully characterizing Turkey, Nippers, and  Ginger Nut. All three stories begin with  someone asserting that mysteries are solvable and people are readable. 

From there, two different routes are taken. In The Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth  is right. Over time, the puzzle yields to his schemes and the mystery is uncovered. But in the case of the two narrators, the man and Bartleby prove to be inscrutable, complete enigmas no matter how long the narrator studies them. In the latter case, the reader and the narrator are left with nothing but guesses as to the true motivations and character of the men that confound them.

All three of these texts present the reader with questions, and draw them in by building anticipation of the answer.  In Poe and Melville’s works, the secrets are never revealed, and the reader is left questioning. In Hawthorne’s work, the main mystery is solved by the end, but many questions remain. These stories take advantage of the reader’s curiosity, partnered with a similarly curious narrator, to draw the reader in and keep them engaged. They show that it can occasionally be said of  a mystery that er lasst sich nicht lesen. They force readers to grapple with questions that will never be answered. However many times we read and reread these stories, we will never know what haunted the man or Bartleby, why Hester returned to Salem, or what happened to Pearl. All we have are guesses.

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In the introduction to The Scarlet Letter (1850), Nathaniel Hawthorne gives the reader an inside look at his writing process and motivation to create this story, very similar to the way Edgar Allan Poe exposes his procedure in “The Philosophy of Composition”(1846). This way of introducing a work gives the reader the context of the text in the author’s mind, and makes the author’s intentions much clearer.

Hawthorne uses these pages to tell about his break from the literary scene in which he worked in a Custom-House where he found the documents that prompted the idea of this plot but not the inspiration to write, and his eventual return to writing where the ideas allowed themselves to be written. He presents the relevant facts of his experience, and introduces the reader to the mystery of the scarlet letter, which gets them curious about the rest of the text. 

This is very similar to the way Poe published a break down of how he wrote “The Raven” four years earlier. Poe explains everything from how he decided upon the length of the poem to how he came to the refrain “nevermore”. He makes his writing seem more like a mathematical formula than artwork.

This idea of writing being a process, something that the public can see and understand directly goes against the ideas of Emerson, who seems to see writing as a work of genius, requiring a sort of insight that is divinely granted. It is logical that Poe would so openly contradict one of the most influential writers of the time, as he goes as far as calling out “the so called poetry of the so called transcendentalists.” But Hawthorne associated with the transcendentalists. He references both Emerson and Thoreau, and notes that he is taking some time away from their circle. 

It seems that something must have occurred to prompt such a decisive break, a change of career, and shift in philosophy. I hope to uncover more about this pivot in further research.

 

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Merriam Webster defines literature as “writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest.” There is no doubt that the work of Douglass fits into this definition. His writing is elegant, well-structured, clearly worded, and has been studied across centuries. His Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass tells his story, and the stories of those around him, with the goal of informing people far removed from slavery of its true horrors. 

In order for it to achieve this goal, Narrative of the Life. had to fit this definition of literature. It needed to fit the standard for writing at the time, both to increase its readership and also to demonstrate that literature, a part of society, can also be partaken in by those excluded by society. His writing has the “excellence of form” given in the definition. He uses literary devices fluently, playing around with sentence structure and allusions in a masterful way.

“Permanent or universal interest” is also present in Douglass’ work. Most slave narratives published around the same time were written by white authors, telling the stories of enslaved people that they interviewed. Douglass stands out in that his narrative is written by himself. This gives his writing a certain authority, as he is speaking from his own experience. There was a large interest in Douglass’ writing when it was first published in 1845, and it still retains that interest today, as historical witness literature and as a proponent of a movement that shaped the course history.

 

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In high school, I read a few of Poe’s stories in my English class, and had a great time writing about how his works draw inspiration from events in his own life. When I noticed that we are reading more of Poe’s work in this class, I was really excited to see if the connections I made then applied to a broader sample of his work.

One reoccurring trope in Poe’s work is the death of any and all women in the story. Stories like Ligeia, and The Fall of the House of Usher center around the death of their only female characters, while the rest simply neglect to mention women at all.  Even The Masque of the Red Death, which describes an entire ball full of people, ends with everyone dying. So no women survive there either. Poe had tragic experiences with many of the women in his life. His mother and foster mother both died of tuberculosis when he was young, his first love died of brain cancer when he was 15, and his wife Virginia died of tuberculosis later on. The motif of death and despair is ever-present in Poe’s work, likely because it followed him throughout his life. The trauma of his real life likely inspired the tragedy in his writing.

Other common themes in Poe’s work include madness, intoxication, and gambling, which likely stemmed from his own insecurities/flaws. Poe made terrible decisions like the narrator of The Tell-Tale Heart, which led to public humiliation. Drinking in excess before important interviews is less catastrophic than bring the police to the place where you hid a body, but both demonstrate a sort of self sabotage. Alcohol was one of Poe’s many vices, which is likely where the idea for the narrator in William Wilson came from, and why so many of his stories feature notes about intoxication, whether it be by alcohol or opium. Also, like Glendinning in William Wilson, Poe was known to gamble away more than he had. 

It is believed that Poe’s main motivation was money, he wrote knowing what would sell, but I believe that many themes in his writing stemmed from his own life and experiences.

 

Citations:

(myself) I wrote an essay related to this in high school but I affirm this is new original work building upon the ideas I came up with then, incorporating a wider sample of stories. 

The information on Poe’s life came from the sources cited below:

“Edgar Allan Poe.” Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 7 Jan. 2021.
school-eb-wswhe.orc.scoolaid.net/levels/high/article/Edgar-Allan-Poe/60519?. Accessed 19 Oct.
2021.

Patterson, R. “Once upon a Midnight Dreary: the Life and Addictions of Edgar Allan Poe.” CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal = Journal De L’Association Medicale Canadienne, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 15 Oct. 1992,www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1336506/?page=1.

 

 

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Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans is a book full of juxtapositions. Two of the biggest points of contrast in this book are his blatant sexism and racism his depictions of Cora and Chingachgook. 

Despite making frequent statements painting the girls as frail, delicate, and helpless, Cooper gave Cora a strong personality and made her a leader. This is acknowledged on page 61 when Heyward informs Cora that her father told him that it is she who leads their group. Although Duncan is the protector, and Cora seems to be always hiding during the more violent scenes, she is shown to be brave and a force to be reckoned with. Cora’s characterization becomes even more interesting when it is revealed to the reader that her mother was a part of a race that was looked down upon. Cora is in many ways the star of this novel, and the most likeable character, despite her racial identity.

Similarly, the Native Americans are frequently villainized by Cooper, but Chingachgook is presented as a respectable, stoic hero, who is loyal and honest, the antithesis of who Cooper was painting the Native People to be. He and Uncas are noble and glorified in his writing.  Cooper’s work is heavily influenced by his theories of race and gender, but he includes characters who are marked exceptions to his beliefs.