Download JH WEEKLIES ISSUE #3 2012-2013 19th

JH WEEKLIES ISSUE #3
2012-2013
19th-CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE
In this issue of WEEKLIES, we highlight six important works from 19th-century
American literature. There will be a brief synopsis of each selection followed by a
short discussion of one or more of the qualities that have made it an enduring part
of our literary treasury. By looking into these selections, you will see our literature
develop through that important literary period to become uniquely American,
reflecting our increasing awareness of ourselves as a country and illustrating the
values that guided our evolving society.
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon by Washington Irving
Commonly referred to as The Sketch Book, this collection of essays and short stories was
published in 1820 and is the first use of Irving’s pseudonym “Geoffrey Crayon” which he
continued to use throughout his literary career. The collection is best known for the inclusion of
two of Irving’s most famous stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle.”
Both stories are told by a fictional historian Diedrich Knickerbocker and are based on German
folktales.
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is set in the 1790s in the Dutch settlement Tarry Town in a
dark, secluded glen known as Sleepy Hollow. Ichabod Crane, a lanky, superstitious
schoolmaster from Connecticut, is competing with Abraham “Brom Bones” van Brunt, the town
rowdy, for the hand of Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter of a wealthy farmer. One night, Ichabod
is chased by the Headless Horseman, who is supposedly the ghost of a Hessian trooper who lost
his head in a battle in the American Revolution and rides each night searching for it. Ichabod
then mysteriously disappears, and Katrina marries Brom. Although the story is left open to
interpretation, it is implied that the Horseman was really Brom in disguise since Brom was “to
look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related.”
“Rip Van Winkle” is set in the town near the Catskill Mountains where Rip Van Winkle lives
and is loved by all for his wonderful stories. However, Rip hates work and avoids it whenever
possible, despite the constant nagging from his wife Dame Van Winkle. One day to avoid her
nagging, he escapes into the mountains with his dog Wolf, where he hears his name called and
finds a group of bearded men in antiquated Dutch clothing who offer him a drink. He accepts
and falls fast asleep. When he wakes, his beard is a foot long and Wolf is gone. Rip walks back
to town where he realizes that he knows no one and gets into trouble when he declares himself to
be a loyal subject of King George III, not knowing that while he had been asleep for 20 years,
the American Revolution had long since been fought. He learns that the men he met in the
mountains are rumored to be the ghosts of Henry Hudson’s crew. Once his identity is
determined, he is taken in by his now-grown daughter, and he spends the rest of his lazy life
telling his story to other hen-pecked husbands who wish they had been so fortunate as to sleep
through the hardships of the war.
Although Washington Irving is an American author, both of these stories were written while he
lived in England; and although they are adaptations of earlier European stories and legends, they
are considered some of the earliest American works of fiction since they are set in America and
their vernacular and viewpoint are distinctly American. Irving, along with James Fenimore
Cooper, was among the first American writers to earn acclaim in Europe, and he encouraged
American authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow, and Edgar Allan Poe to develop a style independent of European influence. Written
with wit and charm, “Rip van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" are among the
earliest examples of American fiction still read today.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Published 30 years after The Sketch Book, this important novel is set in a village outside 17thcentury Puritan Boston, where Hester Prynne, the young wife of an English doctor, is sent to
wait for the arrival of her husband from overseas. When there is no word from him, he is
presumed lost at sea. While waiting for her husband, Hester has an affair and gives birth to her
daughter Pearl. Because of her adulterous acts and her refusal to identify her lover, as
punishment she must now wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest identifying her as an adulterer.
When an old, misshapen man appears later on, the reader finds that it is Hester’s husband, who
has finally returned and is going by the name of Roger Chillingworth. He is intent upon seeking
revenge but reveals his identity to no one but Hester, whom he swears to secrecy.
As time goes on, the town’s young minister Arthur Dimmesdale suffers from mysterious heart
trouble. Chillingworth, a doctor, moves in with him to provide constant care, and soon discovers
a mark on Dimmesdale’s chest linking the minister’s torments and Hester’s secret.
Chillingsworth’s plan for revenge is in place.
Hester and Dimmesdale decide to flee to Europe, where they can be a family. The day before
their ship is to sail, Dimmesdale preaches and Hester learns that Chillingworth knows of their
plan. After his sermon, Dimmesdale sees Hester and Pearl, impulsively mounts the scaffold, and
confesses publicly, exposing a scarlet letter supposedly seared into his chest. After his
confession, he falls dead. Chillingworth has been cheated of gaining revenge and dies shortly
afterward. Years later, Hester still wears the scarlet letter. When Hester dies, she is buried
adjacent to Dimmesdale, with the two sharing a single tombstone, bearing a scarlet “A.”
The Scarlet Letter, considered to be Hawthorne’s greatest work, was written at the height of the
American Romantic Period. Romantic writers were not writers of romance novels, as you might
think! The word “romance” as applied to literature identifies writing that is personal,
imaginative, and intense. Using a great deal of symbolism, it often has a solitary hero that is at
odds with society and its rules. It also shows a great respect for nature and incorporates the
supernatural.
The symbolism in the names of the characters is clear, particularly Chillingworth as the exacter
of revenge, Dimmesdale as the good but flawed religious leader, and Pearl, the child whose
purity becomes evident as everyone involved in the affair confesses and acknowledges guilt.
Dimmesdale’s illness reveals his inner turmoil, sunlight and darkness emphasize dramatic points
in the story, and the supposed A that is burned onto Dimmesdale’s chest is a sign of the
psychological torture he finally acknowledges.
As a Romantic, Hawthorne also feels free to create characters that are at odds with their society.
In this book, Hawthorne criticizes the strict morality of a guilt-laden and law-bound Puritan faith
and makes a powerful statement against a religion that ironically decrees that essentially good
people can be destroyed by their faith. In the Puritan tradition, there was little room for mercy
and forgiveness. That Chillingworth dies once his opportunity for revenge is destroyed is
Hawthorne’s way of saying that once the opportunity to do evil is removed, evil people have no
role in the world.
The Scarlet Letter was one of the first mass-produced books in America. Its lasting success is
attributed to its ability to address spiritual and moral issues from a uniquely American
perspective, and it remains relevant for its philosophical and psychological depth. This classic
tale of life in the early days of America with its portrayal of the harsh puritanical society
challenges Americans to examine the role morality has played historically and continues to play
in contemporary society.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
At the beginning of the rising action of this phenomenally successful novel, Arthur Shelby, a
kind slave owner of a Kentucky plantation, is forced to pay off his large debts by selling two of
his slaves, Uncle Tom and Harry, the young son of Shelby’s housemaid Eliza Harris, to a
horrible slave trader named Mr. Haley. When Eliza overhears this plan, she warns Tom and
flees with her son, hoping to find freedom with her husband George Harris in Canada.
After Tom runs away, he rescues Eva, a white girl, from drowning. In gratitude, Eva’s father,
Augustine St. Clare, buys Tom from Haley, and Tom lives with them in New Orleans. Tom and
Eva develop a close bond in their common Christian faith. When Eva grows ill and dies, St.
Clare agrees to set Tom free but, is stabbed before he can do so.
Tom is then sold to cruel plantation owner Simon Legree, who severely beats Tom when he
refuses to whip a fellow slave. Tom’s hardships and the stories from other slaves such as
Emmeline and Cassey at the Legree plantation almost break his faith, but he has visions of Eva
and Christ that renew his faith. George Shelby suddenly arrives with money to buy Tom’s
freedom but is too late–Tom has been killed by his overseers. Emmeline and Cassey meet Eliza,
George Harris, and Harry and together travel to freedom in Canada. George Shelby returns to
his Kentucky plantation and after his father’s death frees all the slaves in Tom’s memory.
It is reported that upon meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe, President Abraham Lincoln remarked,
“So this is the little lady who started this great war.” Published in 1852, this anti-slavery novel
was inspired by the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act and is often credited with laying the
groundwork for the Civil War for its depiction of the inhuman atrocities suffered by American
slaves. The best-selling novel of the 19th century, Uncle Tom’s Cabin energized anti-slavery
forces in the American North, while provoking widespread anger in the South.
Stowe, the daughter of an outspoken religious leader, believed that by following one’s
conscience and practicing Christian love, slavery could be overcome. The final vow of George
Shelby: “Witness, eternal God! Oh, witness that, from this hour, I will do what one man can to
drive out this curse of slavery from my land!” summarizes Stowe’s call to action. Through the
characters of Eva’s father and Arthur Shelby, who tolerate and practice slavery despite personal
feelings against it, Stowe forced Americans to question their own stance on slavery.
In terms of its literary merit, it has been criticized as being overly dramatic and for reducing its
characters to stereotypical roles. Uncle Tom’s reluctance to rebel has been interpreted to be a
sign of servility and weakness by some, but by others he is seen as personifying the Christian
principle of non-violence. Despite these criticisms, it fulfilled its primary function by rousing
the nation to address the wrongs that were present in that period of American history.
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The novel opens with the four March sisters – Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy - complaining about their
poverty as their father is serving as a Union chaplain in the Civil War, but their mother
admonishes them instead to use their energies to help a nearby needy family, the Hummels.
Their wealthy elderly neighbor Mr. Laurence rewards their charity by sending over a feast.
Soon, the girls meet Mr. Laurence’s grandson Laurie and form a friendship with him.
One day they receive a telegram that their father is sick, so Jo generously sells her hair so that
their mother can go tend to him in Washington D.C. On a visit to the Hummels, Beth contracts
scarlet fever and nearly dies. Meg marries Laurie’s tutor, Mr. Brooke, and they have twins. Jo
gets a novel published, but Amy gets to go on a trip to Paris instead of Jo, because their aunt
prefers Amy’s ladylike behavior compared to Jo’s tomboyish nature.
Jo begins to suspect that Beth loves Laurie, so she moves to New York to allow Beth a chance to
win his affections. In New York Jo meets Fritz Bhaer, an impoverished immigrant professor
who helps her find a simpler writing style. Jo returns home and Laurie proposes to her. Even
though she’s in love with him she says no. Beth soon dies. Laurie meets Amy in France where
they fall in love and marry. Jo eventually marries Professor Bhaer and inherits her aunt’s home
which she decides to turn into a boarding school for boys.
Written in Alcott’s family home in Concord, Massachusetts, this novel was first published in
1868 and is loosely based on Louisa May Alcott’s own childhood experiences. Alcott’s
neighbors were transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Nathanial
Hawthorne, who no doubt influenced her views and encouraged her to write, which was unusual
for a woman to do in that time.
The novel follows the lives of the four March sisters as they struggle to improve their flaws
while growing into adulthood. Just like Alcott herself, the main character, Jo, dreams of
becoming a writer and rejects the conventional expectations society holds for young women to
become educated but to aspire only to marriage and family. Throughout the novel there are many
similarities between Jo and Louisa May Alcott herself, since both were caught between these
conflicting social expectations.
Little Women represents the new genre of novel, in which the virtues of family life and the roles
of different family members were explored. It grapples with women’s struggle between familial
duty and personal growth and the difficulty in conforming to the ladylike behavior that was
expected of girls in the 19th century. As women were becoming more educated, books such as
Little Women were providing models of behavior for this emerging class of women both to
follow and beyond which to extend. For example, Jo rejected a marriage proposal from the
wealthy, relatively superficial Laurie in favor of marrying a man of little means who was,
however, her intellectual peer and who respected and encouraged her intelligence. Once women
began to find their voice and to have an opportunity to exert influence beyond the hearth, it was
not long until the seeds of feminism blossomed into serious discussions regarding women’s
rights.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
For playing hooky and not telling Aunt Polly the truth in the early pages of this famous
American novel, Tom Sawyer is charged with the task of whitewashing the fence on a Saturday,
but Tom soon turns this punishment into an opportunity to earn presents from boys whom he
convinces to do the whitewashing for him. These presents are in the form of commendations
that earn him a Bible in Sunday School for proving that he learned Bible verses; but when he
can’t name the first two disciples, everyone sees that he didn’t really earn the Bible after all.
Shortly after he kisses Becky Thatcher, the cutest girl in town, he goes to the graveyard with his
friend Huckleberry Finn, the son of the town drunk, to see if they can find a cure for warts.
However, while they are on this midnight escapade, they witness the murder of young Dr.
Robinson by Injun Joe and swear to each other that they will never tell, even though Tom feels
guilty when Injun Joe blames the murder on another man.
Tom’s adventures continue when he, Huck, and Joe Harper decide to run away to become
pirates. While the townspeople mourn, thinking the boys have met a foul end, the boys show up
at their own funeral and are greeted as long lost heroes instead of the scamps they really are.
When the trial of the accused murderer, Muff Potter, begins, Tom decides to break his vow of
silence and testify against Injun Joe, who escapes being put in jail by jumping out a window and
goes on the loose. Later that summer, Tom and Huck decide they will try to find the treasure
that Injun Joe claims to know about. During a school outing, Tom and Becky get lost in a cave
and realize with horror that they share the cave with Injun Joe. They find their way out, and
Becky’s father has the mouth of the cave sealed up for safety reasons, trapping Injun Joe inside
where he starves to death. Tom and Huck recover the treasure, and because he now has some
wealth, Huck reluctantly allows himself to be adopted by the Widow Douglas, which will mean
that he has to behave in a civilized manner.
Published in 1876, this classic novel set in the 1840s before the Civil War provides an intimate,
humorous view of life in a small American town along the banks of the Mississippi River. Tom,
the protagonist, is a mischievous, fun-loving boy whose sense of responsibility deepens as the
book progresses and he moves slowly toward a growing maturity. Unlike Twain’s novel
Huckleberry Finn, which takes on social issues such as slavery and education in a much more
deliberate way, Tom Sawyer tends simply to poke gentle fun at society’s weaknesses and its
characters’ personal foibles. No one stays angry at Tom for long despite his pranks and poor
behavior; instead, they are tolerated as escapades of youth and not judged too harshly. Even
Huck, who has no social standing, is tolerated and even admired by the boys in town because he
lives with a freedom that they can only dream about. However, when Huck comes into money,
he is expected to become respectable. That he agrees to let the Widow Douglas to adopt him
shows that he intuitively understands that social inclusion means a certain loss of freedom. The
only really bad character in the novel is Injun Joe, who could easily be regarded as Twain’s slip
into political incorrectness. However, he is regarded harshly because he is a bad man and not
because of his race or economic level.
Like most good writers, Samuel Clemens, writing under the pen name Mark Twain, writes about
the things he knows. Tom is a compilation of boys he knew from his childhood, and the
adventures recorded in the book really occurred, though probably with a little embellishment. As
do all good pieces of writing, Tom Sawyer asks its reader to think about life while it entertains.
Altogether, while skirting the edge of social comment, this novel does not position itself to be
more than a light-hearted look at a simpler point in time.
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
The novel, which takes place during the Civil War, opens with Henry Fleming and his camped
304th Union regiment that has not yet seen battle. Orders then come to march to the battlefield
where Henry, frightened and disoriented, fires without thought, boxed in by his comrades and
unable to run. They prevail and Henry takes a nap to regain his energy, only to find the enemy
charging again. Overcome by fear, he runs. He comes upon some wounded soldiers and realizes
that he is envious of their wounds, which he regards as “a red badge of courage.” He meets a
tattered, wounded man who keeps asking Henry where his wound is. Henry cannot answer.
Henry then sees some soldiers in retreat and attempts to ask the outcome of the situation. One of
the fleeing men, unable to comprehend Henry’s question, hits him with a rifle, which causes a
bloody gash on his head. Henry is later reunited with his companions where his friend Wilson,
believing that Henry has been shot, cares for him. The next day, Henry fights fiercely thinking
about the wounded and even takes up the regiment’s flag when their flag bearer dies. Eventually
the Union wins with Wilson capturing the enemy’s flag. Henry then reflects on his time in the
war. Despite his brave fighting that day, he feels guilty for his previous abandonment of the
regiment and the tattered man. In the end, Henry is able to put his guilt behind him and realize
that he has come through “the red sickness” of battle.
The Red Badge of Courage was first published in 1895 and is heralded as being one of the most
realistic novels concerning the American Civil War as well as being far ahead of its time as a
modern novel. It is one of the first novels in which war is not glorified, and its main character is
not a hero but a human being tormented by the fear that he cannot behave in what he understands
to be an admirable way even in the face of death. Compared to other Civil War narratives, the
novel emphasizes the inner-experience and struggles of its main character rather than upon the
external world around him, the war itself.
Crane’s omission of dates or names of battles purposefully shifts attention away from the
historical context in order to concentrate on the emotional impact of war. It paves the way for
such later novels as All Quiet on the Western Front, a World War I novel, The Things They
Carried, whose action takes place during the Vietnam War, and the bloody imagery of the World
War I War Poets. Told in third-person limited point of view, the novel is notable for its vivid
descriptions, its use of color imagery and symbolism, and its psychological impact.
Crane’s ugly portrayal of war is not romantic in the slightest. Compared to Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
in which there is a declaration of moral understanding at the end, there are no last words, clever
quips, or philosophizing of death. The reader sees men being shot and dying. Crane uses Henry
to examine the realistic psychology of a soldier as an unsure, scared child rather than describing
a hero bravely going into battle.
While some European novelists, such as Leo Tolstoy and Emile Zola, had written about war in a
gritty and unsentimental way, most war novels by American writers up to this time were simply
adventure stories or romances. Crane not only was one of the first American authors to give a
realistic picture of war, he was one the first authors in the world to focus on the effects of war on
the human mind. In a world that continues to be torn by war, the impact of war on human beings
should not be overlooked.