American Renaissance – an analysis from a historical perspective

The times that were

George Washington had brought political freedom, but cultural influence of Europe was still very strongly evident in American literary space. The newly born nation was desperate to get a new identity for itself which would be totally free from European influence. This desire became stronger with illusions of a grand victory in the War of 1812. The Americans felt the time has come when they need to speak in a voice which indeed was their own, use an idiom and forge an expression that truly reflected the uniqueness of American nation. The ignominy of being an appendage to Europe was too much to bear and Emerson in a belligerent Phi Beta Kappa Address at Harvard in 1837 boldly declared “We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds…” (Emerson) This clarion call for breaking the shackles opened the floodgates of American writing which for the first time transcended the boundaries of utilitarian, political, and spiritual writing (which had till then been the dominant nature of American output) and metamorphosed into true literature.

The literary landscape

All American writing however was not utilitarian, political or spiritual before the advent of Emerson and his group of Transcendentalists located at Concord, Massachusetts. American literary scene had eminently powerful exponents in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Lowell who in their own way were depicting the nuances of American psyche. But these gentlemen, and a few more similar to them, were steeped in European culture and what they were attempting was in effect to pour the American experience in a European mold to obtain something which had American flavor but European form. Lowell, in particular, in Harvard Commemoration Ode (1865) was at his creative best. The problem which these intellectuals faced was the absence of a European backdrop in American countryside. There were no Rolling Meadows or Lake Districts to foster creative juices of these authors, and above all, there were no legends or tales of grandeur, glory or tragedy that had formed the canvas of many a European masterpiece. This absence of a familiar environment perhaps forced Edgar Allen Poe to import an Italian backdrop to add necessary weight and flavor to one of his creations.

Renaissance – a historical necessity

A reaction to this overdependence on Europe divorced from the realities of America was waiting to happen and took shape in the form of American Renaissance. The credit of coining the term “American Renaissance” goes to F. O. Matthiessen who used this new found expression in his seminal work ‘American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman’ published in 1941. Renaissance as such means a period in the history and culture of a country when creativity, ingenuity and self assertion reach new heights. Matthiessen mainly concentrated on Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman and very fleetingly discussed works of Emily Dickinson. In his opinion these writers were the harbingers of new philosophy and a new way of looking at things which finally severed the umbilical cord of European dependence and gave rise to literature which truly had American roots. (Capper, Charles, and Conrad E. Wright)

A review of Renaissance literature

Herman Melville

Emerson and his group of fellow thinkers started to think differently and American prose also began evolving from the shadows of Thomas Gray’s ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’. It finally started to echo the earthy tenor of the land which reared the authors. Herman Melville, who had little formal education before joining a whaling ship which in his own words was his “Yale College and his Harvard”, brought this all American approach to life in his superbly layered, intricately symbolic immortal masterpiece ‘Moby Dick’. This is perhaps the first time an American whaler found his voice in literature. American Renaissance had well and truly arrived.

Nathaniel Hawthorn

But American literature was not all waves and whales; it also experienced tides of romance set in the backdrop of colonial America in ‘The Scarlet Letter’, the watershed creation of Nathaniel Hawthorn. Though personally going through a period of dismay on being dismissed from his job as surveyor of Custom House (which showed through in the essay “The Custom House” attached with the novel) he did not let his momentary setback cloud the optimism and the spirit of freedom which was so very common with all the authors that were influenced by Emerson. Two lovers in this novel, who could not remain together in life due to twists and turns of destiny and the oppressive sense of morality of dominant Puritanical society finally found togetherness beneath the same headstone. The novel at one plane a simple tale of yearning and pining of two lovers was also a moving indictment of prevalent social mores. Initially this completely American story did not find much favor with readers but later it came to be recognized as one of the best novels ever written in American literature. The later years of this important catalyst of American Renaissance were however blatantly unproductive, but this is no way can lower Hawthorn’s contribution to American romanticism and optimism of this era. (Gable)

Walt Whitman

American literature was already in the throes of an unprecedented creativity which touched all aspects of life and times of that period. Walt Whitman, who was a through and through city bred soul never ever experiencing the rough and roll of high seas as Melville had, started singing in praise of city life in New York – a completely new phenomenon in American literature where a city acquired a separate persona instead of remaining merely as a backdrop. The city of New York became the chief and most enduring protagonist in the first edition of his collection of poems ‘Leaves of Grass’. Nine revised editions of this brilliant creation kept showcasing beliefs, crises, dreams, aspirations and despairs of the common man in this great era when the American moth was breaking open the chrysalis to emerge as a multihued butterfly. Whitman was unconventional both in thought and form and use of free verse in place of rhyming meter did not make him a darling of the reading public overnight. However, with passage of time, Whitman came to the acknowledged as one of the greatest poets of America. (Gura, Philip F., and Joyel Myerson, eds.)

 

Henry David Thoreau

The other prominent personality in this unfolding saga of American Renaissance was Henry David Thoreau who had a genuinely colorful life which he experienced at times as a surveyor, a naturalist and for some time even as a laborer. A completely self taught erudite person armed with a dry Yankee sense of humor, he brought earthy America right to the high table of timeless literature through ‘A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers’ (1849) and ‘Walden’ (1854). He was forthright in his views and created ripples by his declaration that man should consciously reduce his materialistic yearnings while exhorting people to stand up to (violently if need be) the unfair demands and deeds of ruling dispensation. This unique combination of deeply personal philosophy with mundane requirements of work-a-day world made him a unique character in this watershed of American literature. (Newman)

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The person who was at the center of American Renaissance and the leading light in the new bold concept of Transcendentalism was Ralph Waldo Emerson. With Ripley he founded Transcendental Club in 1836 but the concept and philosophy of Transcendentalism was, as the name suggested, wider and permeated beyond club membership, or, for that matter, boundaries of nation, culture or medium of expression. These new age thinkers were influenced by Kant and believed knowledge was not associated with objects per se but with how we tend to know more about these objects. Emerson led the brigade of Transcendentalists who felt the world to be a microcosm in the infinite stream of existence and strongly perceived a linkage between individual soul and universal soul (Emerson preferred to call it Oversoul). This group of intrepid thinkers believed spark of divinity existed in every man and communication with Nature through meditation would help everyone to transcend the limits of materialistic existence and experience real beauty, truth and goodness. One needed to look inwards to discover eternal truth and there was no need for any scholarship which was unrelated to real life. Thus we found on the hand the intensely personal outpourings of Whitman giving words to individual angst in an uncertain and rapidly evolving urban world, while a defiant Thoreau urging people to resort to anarchy if need be to resist arbitrary actions of the government. In both these instances an urge to transcend physical limits and associate oneself with a larger being or cause was very much evident.

Emerson preached a doctrine of self reliance and self sufficiency which strangely though fitted magnificently with the historical backdrop of the new American nation trying to carve out an identity of its own. He challenged pedantry and ostentation and mocked rituals which had no real significance of their own. A natural corollary was a negation of organized religion and in his ‘Address at Divinity College’ at Harvard University in 1838 he challenged the traditional trappings of Christianity and even went to the extent of dismissing the divinity of Jesus Christ. This obviously created a furor with Harvard ostracizing him for a pretty long time. But the spark which Emerson lit continued to attract kindred souls in search of truth and beauty. (Rowe)

Conclusion

This period in American literature was unique as many authors started experimenting with newer forms and expressions. Literature also got a boost from rising levels of literacy which made the written word more potent in forming public opinion, taste and culture. Publishing industry started maturing as an obvious trickledown effect while the American nation thundered on a glorious trip to prosperity and westward expansion with numerous new cities and settlements coming into existence as frontiers of the new nation eagerly moved towards the Pacific coast. This prosperity and freedom of expression ironically laid the foundations of the Civil war to be fought a few decades later.

 

 

 

 

References

Capper, Charles, and Conrad E. Wright. Transient and Permanent: The Transcendentalist Movement and Its Contexts . Boston: Mass. Historical Society/Northeastern UP, 1999.

Emerson, W. Ralph. “The American Scholar.” Aug 31, 1837.

Gable, Harvey L., Jr. Liquid Fire: Transcendental Mysticism in the Romances of Nathaniel Hawthorn. New York: Peter Lang, 1998.

Gura, Philip F., and Joyel Myerson, eds. Critical Essays on American Transcendentalism. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1982.

Newman, Lance. Our Common Dwelling: Henry Thoreau, Transcendentalism, and the Class Politics of Nature. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Rowe, John C. At Emerson’s Tomb: The Politics of Classic American Literature. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.

Emerson, W. Ralph (Aug 31, 1837). The American Scholar. Phi Beta Kappa Lecture: Harvard University

Liberty and Freedom – two most enduring themes in American Literature

New England beyond the Brahmins

As the first half of eighteenth century came to a close, there was an intense surge of intellectual activity in New England and this activity was not limited to the genteel, European influenced, but perhaps a touch bland, output of Brahmins. The contemporary happenings in the society and the birth pangs of a new country were far too loud for the sensitive minds to ignore, and a bold new crop of writers came to the fore to give shape and words to this noble sentiment of an infant nation. While they were not much known for their literary achievements during their life time, later generations have gradually come to realize the importance and individuality of these writers. These writers, while not as formally educated as the Brahmins, were taught by the twists and turns of real life experiences and drew their sustenance from the soil and the air of the country. The desire for freedom, both social and intellectual, seemed to be the most abiding passion for this intrepid tribe of realists.

Philip Freneau (1752-1832)

Though Philip Freneau had a fine education and was well versed in European romanticism, he willingly embraced democratic ideals and espoused liberal thoughts. He was against the imperialist designs of the British and fought against them in the Revolutionary War. He was captured in 1780 and almost died before being rescued by his family. As it is he was a bitter critic of the British and on top of it the torture he faced during imprisonment made him one of the most vociferous antagonists of the British Empire. His pen started spewing fire and brimstone and the fiery poem “The British Prison Ship” became his first condemnation of the British who were, he thought, out “to stain the world with gore.” But this was just the beginning as “American Liberty”, “A Political Litany” and “George the Third’s Soliloquy”, among several other such feisty outpourings, quickly cemented his place as the foremost poet of American Revolution and a diehard bearer of the flag of liberty and independence.(Elliot 1982)

With the help of Thomas Jefferson he established “National Gazette” in 1791 and became America’s one of the first crusading newspaper editors – an ideal that later day stalwarts like William Cullen Bryant, William Lloyd Garrison and H.L. Mencken would emulate.

Freneau was equally fluent in colloquial as well as pedantic styles and could evoke refined neoclassical lyricism with consummate ease. His collection of poems “The Wild Honeysuckle” is still considered one of the finest examples of neoclassical subtleties which could only be equaled during the height of American Renaissance. Most students of Freneau admit that he would have been much more prolific as a poet and a man of letters had he not spent so much of his energy and time in the pursuit of political goals.(Vitzthum 1978)

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892)

He was born in Massachusetts, had a modest Quaker upbringing and opted for a career in journalism though he did not have much of a formal education. He started writing poetry after listening to a poem by Robert Frost and went on to become one of the most influential spokespersons of the fight against slavery. His poems and pamphlets exhorting freedom for the slaves and abolishing the system of slavery resonated with terse logic and persuasive language and converted many a fence sitter to become committed to the cause abolition.

He faced public ire in 1836 when he was mobbed by supporters of slavery but this did not deter him from publishing his first collection of poems in 1837. One poem named “Clerical Oppressors” from that early collection stood out from the rest in its clarity and forthrightness in the attack against all those who supported this obnoxious custom. This poem did not spare the respected clergy of the Southern states and unflinchingly brought out their hypocrisy in supporting slavery which violated the basic tenets on which Christianity was based.(Pickard 1961) “Ichabod’ was another of his anti-slavery poems which has stood the test of time and still rings in the sights and sounds of those days of intense turmoil interspersed with equal portions of hope and despair where people from diverse continents played out the sordid saga of slavery and freedom.(Pollard 1969)

Other books, pamphlets and poems came in close succession and the most remarkable among those were “Leaves from Margaret Smith’s Journal” published in 1849 and “Songs of Labor and Other Poems” which saw light in 1850. These writings retained the American free spirit and the simple earthy texture so common with Roberts Frost – the poet Whittier seemed to adore. The desire of freedom coupled with love to be rooted to the soil made Whittier an incomparable ambassador of his times.

While still indomitable in his fight for the emancipation of the slaves, Whittier’s body gradually started tiring and he retired from active life to rest at Amesbury. But the best was yet to come and it came with the publication of his masterpiece “Snow-Bound” a brilliant yet ever so soft healing touch to a nation savaged by the Civil War. This long poem brought the vigorous activist and the delicate nature lover – two most opposite yet most abiding traits of Whittier, together. In this long poem, the poet recreates his childhood and brings back snug memories of being huddled with family members around a crackling hearth completely insulated from the virulent snowstorm which raged outside. The poem is intensely personal and with religion being interwoven in every stanza it serves as an epic to the indomitable courage and undying hope which lit every American heart as the blazing embers of Civil War gradually began to die.(Hudson 1917)

Anti- Slavery literature and Slave Narratives

George Washington overthrew the British, but slavery was the next big hurdle which America had to overcome before it could really call itself a democratic nation. The irony of exclusion of slaves in American democracy became really stark while Andrew Jackson (1829–1837) was President of USA. He loved to project himself as a common man who represented the common people and being a wealthy slave owner himself ensured that the interests of the powerful slave owners remained intact.

Just to keep the perspectives clear it must be mentioned that there were quite a few pro-slavery writings also which were pretty popular during that time. A very well known example is “Cotton Is King, and Pro-Slavery Arguments” which was written by E. N. Elliott and published in 1860. This infamous piece of writing and many similar ones portrayed slaves as innocent, docile creatures who were content with their fate and looked upon their masters as paternal figures who provided them with all their material needs.

The system of slavery was considered by many writers to be a harmless requirement for the wheels of commerce and trade to turn without any hindrance. Some writers thought slavery was an area of uncertainty and found slave owners a difficult breed to tackle in literature which they had conveniently divided into two distinct categories – good and evil. People who were otherwise very progressive and liberal suddenly turned rather animal like, devoid of any human emotions, when they became slave owners. So, it was best to leave the topic of slavery and slave owners out of the domain of pristine literature – that was what a lot many American writers of the time thought.

And this lack of sympathy with slaves and remaining non-committal about slavery was not prevalent only in South; it had echoes in the North too. Some modern day academics however blame this apathy not on the sensitivities of the writers of North but on their lack of direct experience of the evils of slavery which never found any strong roots in the North.(Kolchin 1993)

But all Americans were not silent and Lydia Maria Child published in 1833 “An Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans” to rattle not only the devilish Southerners who refused to abolish the system of slavery but also those smug Northerners who in spite of abolishing slavery refused to grant full civil rights to their black brethren. This Appeal was a very strong indictment of not only the inhumanity of those who were in the South but also the hypocrisy of those who stayed in the North and tried to adopt a high moral ground.(Franklin and Moss Jr 1988)

Slave narratives were not the sole hunting ground of male authors; female writers also played a prominent role in nourishing and enriching this genre and “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” an autobiographical account written by Harriet Jacobs and published in 1861 still remains one of the brightest jewels of so called slave narratives. A desperate yearning for the blacks to attain equality with whites was depicted in a convoluted way in this narrative. After a lot of twists and turns at the end of the tale we find Jacobs as an unmarried mother of two children who were however fathered by her white lover of impeccable ancestry. So, a connection with whites was all that was desired, it really did not matter whether it was through wedlock or through wild abandon of lust. Some modern day critics feel this story is the best possible depiction of how great was the desire of the blacks to join the mainstream and be treated as equals with the whites.(Braxton 1989)

Conclusion

This sense of liberty and freedom which pervaded the African-American literature also served as a conduit through which dialogue between the whites and the blacks continued in America. In the larger context, even after slavery was abolished, the freedom and liberty which the blacks longed for took a considerable time to actually seep through the impenetrable layers of dogma and condescension. Thus, any thought that slave narratives ended with abolition of slavery is absolutely misplaced, on the contrary, they really began to serve their purpose once the abominable practice was legally done away with. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn” continued to be read and re-read with cathartic effect while a nation tried its best to wash away the sins it had committed  against some of its fellow citizens.(Gomez 1998) The effect of slavery and how a nation came to terms with itself while trying to accommodate a huge mass of humanity that did not have a name of its own till the other day, has become the main inspiration of many creations, not only during those uncertain years but in twentieth century too as in William Styron’s “The Confessions of Nat Turner” (1967) or Toni Morrison’s “Beloved” (1987).

References:

Braxton, Joanne M. Black Women Writing Autobiography: A Tradition within a Tradition. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989.

Elliot, Emory. Revolutionary Writers: Literature and Authority in the New Republic. Oxford University Press, 1982.

Franklin, John Hope, and Alfred A Moss Jr. From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988.

Gomez, Michael A. Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial Antebellum South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998.

Hudson, William H. Whittier & his poetry. London: G. G. Harrap, 1917.

Kolchin, Peter. American Slavery 1619-1877. New York: Hill and Wang, 1993.

Pickard, John B. John Greenleaf Whittier, an introduction and interpretation. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1961.

Pollard, John A. John Greenleaf Whittier, friend of man. Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1969.

Vitzthum, Richard C. The Lyric Poetry of Philip Freneau. University of Minnesota Press, 1978.

Nathaniel Hawthorn and his Solitary World of Protest

Solitude – a recess which steeled his resolves right from childhood

Nathaniel Hawthorn lost his father when he was merely four years old which prompted his bereaved mother to withdraw from the world and the two of them – mother and son, created a private world of their own, drawing succor from each other while keeping outside interactions to a minimum. This self imposed quarantine of sorts only bolstered his resolve to protest against whatever he thought was unjust and he could never take kindly rejections and failures. Legend has it that he burned his first collection of short stories “Seven Tales of My Native Land” when it was rejected by publishers. (Davis, 2005)

When he returned to Salem after graduation, his habit of remaining closeted within his shell did not leave him. He spent his mornings in studies and his afternoons in writing while he took long solitary walks in the evenings. He started living in his world of dreams and often saw reality through tinted glasses of a dreamer who dreams of utopia. He hardly had any friends in the town and held minimal conversation with his family members, and his meals were more often than not left at the door of his room which was almost always tightly shut. (Miller, 1991)

When he became aware of his great-great-grandmother’s prominent role in the infamous Salem Witch Trials (Laurel, 1992), he added an extra ‘w’ to his original surname ‘Hathorne’ simply to break away (symbolically, at least) from the burdens of unpleasant legacy. This gesture loudly proclaimed Hawthorne’s inherent tendency to protest against what he felt was unjust and biased.

Scarlet Letter – A Loud Protest against Social Mores of Puritan New England

New England of late seventeenth century happened to be the backdrop of this novel and a suffocating Puritan concept of eternal sin and divine retribution for those who dare God and refuse to repent, drips from every page. Hawthorne seethes with rage at the dehumanization of women that was prevalent in that era but a sense of resignation to destiny and hopelessness in the inability to change the existing structure also co-exist in this novel.

The illegitimate love affair between Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale – an unpardonable act which adultery was in those days, is what the novel is all about. Hawthorne celebrates this rebellion of a woman against the oppressive mores of the society by imparting in Hester an almost superhuman courage and power to face social stigma of illegitimate love and unpardonable adultery for seven long years rather than exposing her beloved and spoiling his career and social standing forever. (Bell, 1980)

Puritan Boston in the days of early settlement had social mores which were pretty strict and harsh where adultery had only one punishment – death. Evidence of such strict moral policing can be found in the diary of Governor John Winthrop which has an entry of hanging a couple guilty of adultery. Hester was however spared the capital punishment since it could not be conclusively proved whether her husband was still alive when the so called crime was committed. All that was known about her husband was that he disappeared while coming to New England from Amsterdam. This is another example of Puritan prudery which was mocked at (though ever so subtly) by Hawthorne.

The novel was published in 1850, and the Puritanical mores of early settlers had by then got a lot diluted in the gusto of westward expansion and impending shadow of a Civil War. But readers did not fail to note the rebellious spirit of the protagonists of this novel. It was an era of great churning and the spirit of the times was in a way reflected in Hester’s defiance and she became a cultural mascot almost overnight.

Hawthorne intrigues the reader when he initially seems to side with the harsh Puritans. In the second chapter of Scarlet Letter he states any pious Christian on seeing Hester exposed to public scorn would have felt “the world was only the darker for this woman’s beauty, and the more lost for the infant she had borne.” He further goes on to paint Hester in darker tones when he says she has “a rich, voluptuous, Oriental characteristic — a taste for the gorgeously beautiful” and almost condemns her even without a trial. (Baym, 1986)

In the third chapter, however, he comes to his own and tries to paint a similarity in tribulations and sufferings of Hester and Jesus Himself. She pursues salvation through self-sacrifice much as Christ did when she declares “would that I might endure his agony, as well as mine!” Just to ensure that his readers do not miss the point, Hawthorn goes on to ask the burning question “Adultery or no adultery – is this not the Christian message that the pettiness and persecutions of Puritanism evidently missed?” What could be a louder and bolder protest than that?

Hawthorn does not rest by elevating Hester to a higher plane. He describes in sixth and seventh chapters the torture inflicted on tiny Pearl (she was only three years old then) and how she becomes fury personified in her attempt to save herself from mindless persecution. The author is forthright in his condemnation of Puritanism when he writes “The truth was, that the little Puritans, being of the most intolerant brood that ever lived, had got a vague idea of something outlandish, unearthly, or at variance with ordinary fashions, in the mother and child; and therefore scorned them in their hearts, and not unfrequently reviled them with their tongues.”

When Pearl hits back at her tormentors, Hawthorne bestows in her qualities of Divine retribution when he says “She resembled, in her fierce pursuit of them, an infant pestilence – the scarlet fever, or some such half-fledged angel of judgment, – whose mission was to punish the sins of the rising generation.” Here the reader finds the true Hawthorne – bold and uncompromising in his condemnation of mindless persecution.

This reaches a crescendo in seventeenth chapter when Hester meets Arthur after seven years of living hell and declares in an unflinching voice “What we did had a consecration of its own. We felt it so! We said so to each other! Hast thou forgotten it?” What was adultery in the eyes of constricted Puritanism was almost raised to the level divine sanctity by Nathaniel Hawthorne. (Morris, 1927)

Religion and Faith shall abide and everything else shall pass

Hawthorne, though bitterly critical of early Puritans, was steeped in Puritan principles without of course their messianic zeal and near fanatical adherence to draconian mores of life. He work abounds in tensions between evil and faith and seem to be heavily influenced by the concept of “Original Sin”. This preoccupation with evil in human hearts earned him the accolade of being the first psychological writer of America. He had firm faith in religion as being the only path to salvation and redemption from the sin which is being passed on to every human being since the days of Adam.

This fascination with religious overtones is reflected in “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”. In this short story Dr. Heidegger tries to play God and attempts to reverse the process of aging by asking his four accomplices to drink the elixir of youth which they do, but in the order of Nature, no such travesty is ever tolerated. The effects of the novel experiment mercifully wear off but Dr. Heidegger had corrupted his accomplices beyond redemption and they rush to their damnation as “They resolved forthwith to make a pilgrimage to Florida, and quaff at morning, noon, and night, from The Fountain of Youth.” (Wright, 2007)

Perhaps the same streak of condescension for all those who dare to replicate the perfection that can only be found in the Supreme Being is reflected in “The Birthmark”. Aylmer, a scientist of great erudition and standing simply cannot accept the slight imperfection in his wife Georgiana. She was a lady of immense grace and beauty with just one imperfection – it was a hand shaped birthmark on her face. The author injects a certain sense of ambiguity and confusion in the mind of the protagonist as to whether it was really an imperfection or just another manifestation of beauty when we find him exclaiming “Dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature that this slightest possible defect, which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty, shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection.” But Aylmer wants to play God and convinces Georgiana to allow him to remove the birthmark. Hawthorn views this as a sin where one is trying to impinge upon another’s soul. Aylmer becomes successful in his endeavor, but Georgiana dies, leaving Aylmer all alone in this cavernous universe. (Martin, 1983)

Conclusion

Hawthorne was steeped in religion and legend has it that if queried on any paragraph or passage in his manuscript, he could always draw some parallel with what he had written and the Bible. He was one of the first writers who brought true America to the high table of pure literature. Not only did the landscape and history of the land find gorgeous mention in his creation but also exploration and attempts at unraveling the dark mysterious recesses of human mind has caused his writings to be equally relevant in today’s world.

References

Baym, N. (1986). The Scarlet Letter: A Reading. Boston: Twayne.

Bell, M. D. (1980). Hawthorne and the Historical Romance of New England. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Davis, C. (2005). Hawthorne’s Shyness: Ethics, Politics, and the Question of Engagement. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Laurel, V. d. (1992). The Devil in Salem Village:The Story of the Salem Witchcraft Trials. Millbrook Press.

Martin, T. (1983). Nathaniel Hawthorne. Boston: Twayne Publishers.

Miller, E. H. (1991). Salem is my dwelling place: a life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa.

Morris, L. (1927). The Rebellious Puritan: Portrait of Mr. Hawthorne. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.

Wright, S. B. (2007). Critical Companion to Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts On File.

American Renaissance – an analysis from a historical perspective

The times that were

George Washington had brought political freedom, but cultural influence of Europe was still very strongly evident in American literary space. The newly born nation was desperate to get a new identity for itself which would be totally free from European influence. This desire became stronger with illusions of a grand victory in the War of 1812. The Americans felt the time has come when they need to speak in a voice which indeed was their own, use an idiom and forge an expression that truly reflected the uniqueness of American nation. The ignominy of being an appendage to Europe was too much to bear and Emerson in a belligerent Phi Beta Kappa Address at Harvard in 1837 boldly declared “We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds…” (Emerson, Aug 31, 1837) This clarion call for breaking the shackles opened the floodgates of American writing which for the first time transcended the boundaries of utilitarian, political, and spiritual writing (which had till then been the dominant nature of American output) and metamorphosed into true literature.

The literary landscape

All American writing however was not utilitarian, political or spiritual before the advent of Emerson and his group of Transcendentalists located at Concord, Massachusetts. American literary scene had eminently powerful exponents in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Lowell who in their own way were depicting the nuances of American psyche. But these gentlemen, and a few more similar to them, were steeped in European culture and what they were attempting was in effect to pour the American experience in a European mold to obtain something which had American flavor but European form. Lowell, in particular, in Harvard Commemoration Ode (1865) was at his creative best. The problem which these intellectuals faced was the absence of a European backdrop in American countryside. There were no rolling meadows or Lake Districts to foster creative juices of these authors, and above all, there were no legends or tales of grandeur, glory or tragedy that had formed the canvas of many a European masterpiece. This absence of a familiar environment perhaps forced Edgar Allen Poe to import an Italian backdrop to add necessary weight and flavor to one of his creations.

Renaissance – a historical necessity

A reaction to this overdependence on Europe divorced from the realities of America was waiting to happen and took shape in the form of American Renaissance. The credit of coining the term “American Renaissance” goes to F. O. Matthiessen who used this new found expression in his seminal work ‘American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman’ published in 1941. Renaissance as such means a period in the history and culture of a country when creativity, ingenuity and self assertion reach new heights. Matthiessen mainly concentrated on Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman and very fleetingly discussed works of Emily Dickinson. In his opinion these writers were the harbingers of new philosophy and a new way of looking at things which finally severed the umbilical cord of European dependence and gave rise to literature which truly had American roots. (Capper, Charles, and Conrad E. Wright, 1999)

A review of Renaissance literature

Herman Melville

Emerson and his group of fellow thinkers started to think differently and American prose also began evolving from the shadows of Thomas Gray’s ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’. It finally started to echo the earthy tenor of the land which reared the authors. Herman Melville, who had little formal education before joining a whaling ship which in his own words was his “Yale College and his Harvard”, brought this all American approach to life in his superbly layered, intricately symbolic immortal masterpiece ‘Moby Dick’. This is perhaps the first time an American whaler found his voice in literature. American Renaissance had well and truly arrived.

Nathaniel Hawthorn

But American literature was not all waves and whales; it also experienced tides of romance set in the backdrop of colonial America in ‘The Scarlet Letter’, the watershed creation of Nathaniel Hawthorn. Though personally going through a period of dismay on being dismissed from his job as surveyor of Custom House (which showed through in the essay “The Custom House” attached with the novel) he did not let his momentary setback cloud the optimism and the spirit of freedom which was so very common with all the authors that were influenced by Emerson. Two lovers in this novel, who could not remain together in life due to twists and turns of destiny and the oppressive sense of morality of dominant Puritanical society finally found togetherness beneath the same headstone. The novel at one plane a simple tale of yearning and pining of two lovers was also a moving indictment of prevalent social mores. Initially this completely American story did not find much favor with readers but later it came to be recognized as one of the best novels ever written in American literature. The later years of this important catalyst of American Renaissance were however blatantly unproductive, but this is no way can lower Hawthorn’s contribution to American romanticism and optimism of this era. (Gable, 1998)

Walt Whitman

American literature was already in the throes of an unprecedented creativity which touched all aspects of life and times of that period. Walt Whitman, who was a through and through city bred soul never ever experiencing the rough and roll of high seas as Melville had, started singing in praise of city life in New York – a completely new phenomenon in American literature where a city acquired a separate persona instead of remaining merely as a backdrop. The city of New York became the chief and most enduring protagonist in the first edition of his collection of poems ‘Leaves of Grass’. Nine revised editions of this brilliant creation kept showcasing beliefs, crises, dreams, aspirations and despairs of the common man in this great era when the American moth was breaking open the chrysalis to emerge as a multihued butterfly. Whitman was unconventional both in thought and form and use of free verse in place of rhyming meter did not make him a darling of the reading public overnight. However, with passage of time, Whitman came to the acknowledged as one of the greatest poets of America. (Gura, Philip F., and Joyel Myerson, eds., 1982)

 

Henry David Thoreau

The other prominent personality in this unfolding saga of American Renaissance was Henry David Thoreau who had a genuinely colorful life which he experienced at times as a surveyor, a naturalist and for some time even as a laborer. A completely self taught erudite person armed with a dry Yankee sense of humor, he brought earthy America right to the high table of timeless literature through ‘A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers’ (1849) and ‘Walden’ (1854). He was forthright in his views and created ripples by his declaration that man should consciously reduce his materialistic yearnings while exhorting people to stand up to (violently if need be) the unfair demands and deeds of ruling dispensation. This unique combination of deeply personal philosophy with mundane requirements of work-a-day world made him a unique character in this watershed of American literature. (Newman, 2005)

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The person who was at the center of American Renaissance and the leading light in the new bold concept of Transcendentalism was Ralph Waldo Emerson. With Ripley he founded Transcendental Club in 1836 but the concept and philosophy of Transcendentalism was, as the name suggested, wider and permeated beyond club membership, or, for that matter, boundaries of nation, culture or medium of expression. These new age thinkers were influenced by Kant and believed knowledge was not associated with objects per se but with how we tend to know more about these objects. Emerson led the brigade of Transcendentalists who felt the world to be a microcosm in the infinite stream of existence and strongly perceived a linkage between individual soul and universal soul (Emerson preferred to call it Oversoul). This group of intrepid thinkers believed spark of divinity existed in every man and communication with Nature through meditation would help everyone to transcend the limits of materialistic existence and experience real beauty, truth and goodness. One needed to look inwards to discover eternal truth and there was no need for any scholarship which was unrelated to real life. Thus we found on the hand the intensely personal outpourings of Whitman giving words to individual angst in an uncertain and rapidly evolving urban world, while a defiant Thoreau urging people to resort to anarchy if need be to resist arbitrary actions of the government. In both these instances an urge to transcend physical limits and associate oneself with a larger being or cause was very much evident.

Emerson preached a doctrine of self reliance and self sufficiency which strangely though fitted magnificently with the historical backdrop of the new American nation trying to carve out an identity of its own. He challenged pedantry and ostentation and mocked rituals which had no real significance of their own. A natural corollary was a negation of organized religion and in his ‘Address at Divinity College’ at Harvard University in 1838 he challenged the traditional trappings of Christianity and even went to the extent of dismissing the divinity of Jesus Christ. This obviously created a furor with Harvard ostracizing him for a pretty long time. But the spark which Emerson lit continued to attract kindred souls in search of truth and beauty. (Rowe, 1997)

Conclusion

This period in American literature was unique as many authors started experimenting with newer forms and expressions. Literature also got a boost from rising levels of literacy which made the written word more potent in forming public opinion, taste and culture. Publishing industry started maturing as an obvious trickledown effect while the American nation thundered on a glorious trip to prosperity and westward expansion with numerous new cities and settlements coming into existence as frontiers of the new nation eagerly moved towards the Pacific coast. This prosperity and freedom of expression ironically laid the foundations of the Civil war to be fought a few decades later.

 

 

 

 

References

Capper, Charles, and Conrad E. Wright. (1999). Transient and Permanent: The Transcendentalist Movement and Its Contexts . Boston: Mass. Historical Society/Northeastern UP.

Gable, H. L. (1998). Liquid Fire: Transcendental Mysticism in the Romances of Nathaniel Hawthorn. New York: Peter Lang.

Gura, Philip F., and Joyel Myerson, eds. (1982). Critical Essays on American Transcendentalism. Boston: G. K. Hall.

Newman, L. (2005). Our Common Dwelling: Henry Thoreau, Transcendentalism, and the Class Politics of Nature. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Rowe, J. C. (1997). At Emerson’s Tomb: The Politics of Classic American Literature. New York: Columbia University Press.

Emerson, W. Ralph (Aug 31, 1837). The American Scholar. Phi Beta Kappa Lecture: Harvard University