Charles Brockden Brown’s Views, Essay Example

Views of Charles Brockden Brown About the Society

Charles Brockden Brown originated from a community of Quakers in Philadelphia, which is a politically and socially vigorous metropolis. Therefore, he was “swept up in a strong current of challenges to traditional authority”.[1] Brown was profoundly affected by the popular societal notions of his time. ?? admired the American “disciples” of Locke, Wollstonecraft, Godwin, and French Revolutionary thinkers.[2] The majority of his societal works addressed definite conditions, nevertheless Brown also had robust principles about the society and government in general, “[Law] is the shortest and safest road to the possession of power, and power must be desirable by bad men for its own sake, and by good men for the sake of the beneficial employment of it”.[3] Owing to this concentration on governmental authority, Brown’s societal works are passionately critical of the actions of Jefferson’s government, “He is a moralist, and extractor of lessons from specific incidents, not a pointer of people in action”.[4]

Therefore, Brown was largely focused on the concept of government and its correlation with society’s contentment. During the 1790s, he produced many Utopian ideas trying to generate the flawless social world.[5] Brown stubbornly required “artistic, intellectual, commercial, and… political independence from Europe”.[6] He mentioned, “in every work proceeding from my pen, my chief demand… [is] the liberty of judging for myself”.[7] Brown adjusted to social difficulties with overall discontent, and attributed “both to ignorance and to positive institutions”.[8] In order to prevent the society from being unhappy, Brown wanted to educate the American community, and disapproved the existing political frontrunners in some of his brochures and publications. According to Brown, “the art of writing itself became both a means of personal escape and an instrument of social salvation”.[9] He published his ongoing pamphlets in the American Register and Literary Magazine. These works comprised generally fictional compositions and selections, and the infrequent compositions about education, matrimonial relations or paucity.[10] His most important societal work is Alcuin, a feminist discourse, and three tracts criticizing the achievements and indecisiveness of Jefferson’s administration.

Referred to as Brown’s “most daring production”[11], Alcuin consists of two foremost discussions “between the priggish schoolmaster Alcuin and the widowed Mrs. Carter, a Philadelphia Bluestocking” who debates on the societal and political equivalence of the genders.[12] Mrs. Carter symbolizes Brown’s point of view, whereas Alcuin’s observations are remarkable and correct illustrations of general beliefs of that period of time. In the sphere of profound gender inequality, “Brown ventured beyond all but [his] most daring intellectual contemporaries”.[13] Alcuin starts with debating on the access to work and schooling, while Mrs. Carter argues that in spite of being widely overlooked as a similarly proficient gender, females permanently work tougher due to their maternal roles, since “those professions which require most vigor of mind and the greatest contact with enlightened society and books are filled by men only”.[14] Mrs. Carter postulates that relationships are acceptable and relaxed between the genders before schooling, suggesting that the dissimilarities between them are not distinctive.[15] Brown pointed out that he under no circumstances would “conceive that the minds of women were naturally inferior to those of men”, which supports Mrs. Carter’s point of view.[16] Her women’s libber outbreak on the regime is obvious, as she states “our glorious Constitution in practice is a system of tyranny”.[17] Brown is signifying that “the government is best… that consults the feelings and judgments of the governed”.[18]

After Alcuin’s imaginary journey to the Paradise of Women, where Alcuin is “rebuffed by drawing moral and political distinctions from a consideration of a difference in sex” the both opponents debate for a second time.[19] The man proposes that the tradition of matrimonial relationships subjugates and marginalizes females, whereas Mrs. Carter debates in support of it as ethical guidelines for society.[20] She disputes that “marriage… is a union founded of free and mutual consent; it cannot exist without friendship and personal fidelity”.[21] This concurs with Brown’s opinion that males should get married with females for their minds.[22] Alcuin is the principal “extended serious argument for the rights of women… in America”, however its second fragment was not published.[23] The meticulous motives are uncertain, but possibilities comprise the comparative disapproval of the first fragment or its exceedingly provocative nature.[24]

Additionally, Brown regarded the Embargo Act as a missed possibility for America to express itself, and was confounded at the perspective of a restricted economy influencing the societal changes.[25] As he mentioned, “the trade you are deprived of you should seek, if it be profitable to the nation”.[26] Although Brown wanted liberation from Great Britain, he thought that “a society cut off from international trade is an insignificant one”.[27] He regarded as undisputable the fact that existing in a society of various populations is necessary, “Alone… I… must perish… add to the number of my associates and you add to the common benefit”.[28] Clark stated that nowadays, Brown “would be a staunch and indefatigable defender of the United Nations Organization”.[29] Thus, Brown was a frontrunner in his apprehension of the inevitability of an international society.

Views of Charles Brockden Brown About the Social Contract

Brown was a sophisticated man, educated much better than some of his colleagues were. Moreover, he was a Quaker, which is a religious conviction awarded with an undaunted feeling of egalitarianism among sexes and races.[30] Brown is considered one of America’s first women’s libbers, and even though no developed protestor society was present at that time, his works sturdily suggested he would have been a robust supporter.[31] These principles influenced his views on social contract. It is indisputably obvious that one of Brown’s fundamental dogmatic inspirations was Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the philosopher after whom Brown displayed his own fictional progress.[32]

Rousseau is one of the greatest dominant and provocative political philosophers of all times. His On the Social Contract positions among the majority of essential political works in the theoretical standard, and has sustained to affect political theorists into contemporary times.[33] Brown thought his duty was to deliver this educational kind of instruction to the inhabitants of America in order for them to comprehend and influence the activities of their own state.[34] Therefore, he became a member of a scholarly group headquartered in New York, the so-called “Friendly Club”. Since this group was composed of noticeable medical doctors, historians, attorneys, musicians, and, certainly, novelists, its club participants read contemporary and classical works, and discussed methods to contribute to government and affect the public viewpoint.[35] Moreover, they wanted to spread knowledge all over the new-fangled American Republic as the way to obtain social equality and social contract.

After the publication of Wieland, one of Brown’s famous works, he sent a duplicate to the recently designated president of America elected in 1801, Thomas Jefferson.[36] Thus, Brown anticipated that Jefferson would comprehend his principles and reestablish America according to the ideologies Brown supposed to be fundamental – the straightforward egalitarianism the Republic was established upon.[37] In Wieland, the wicked Carwin’s verbal illustrations not only parody what is decent, but also purposely seduce and bogus main heroes into numerous sorts of sensitive and corporeal discomforts and sorrows.[38] Brown wanted these changing aspects to intentionally exemplify the negative and seductive nature of governmental indecisiveness concerning the introduction of a social contract.[39] For Brown, “Rousseau’s “general will” was the only legitimate sovereign voice for the new Republic … or republics to come. The final tragic chapters of Wieland capture Brown’s idealistic anxiety … and should capture our own”.[40] Thus, Brown had a critical view of the penalties of a party-political system, which is a progressively more focused, excessively prosperous, and secluded form of illustration united with the indisposition of capable people to present their own free will.

Views of Charles Brockden Brown About the Education

Brown regarded education as inevitably religious, irrespective of age, focus matter, or background.[41] Brown was also pursued understanding the Truth that makes people free, and provides them with a more lavish life. Since a fundamental principle of Quakerism is that verity is incessantly discovered and is easily reached to the pursuer, Brown’s beliefs are reproduced in a progressive attitude to prospectus and education, in an importance on rational thinking abilities, and in an evolving attitude to progenies and education.[42] According to Brown, “work on individual skills and knowledge is balanced with group learning, in which each person’s unique insights contribute to a collective understanding”.[43] He learnt to admire and exercise truth, and to distinguish the numerous methods it can be set up by – through methodical study, through imaginative communication, through discussion, through adoration, through work for the sake of society and beyond.[44]

Brown was stimulated by expression and illustration to admire the abilities and viewpoints of other people, and comprise them in a supportive instead of a viable quest for education.[45] He expected the society “to grow and change in an environment that nurtures their spirits and challenges them to develop inner resources for discipline and achievement”.[46] Brown hoped to produce the society within which all the Americans could continue to get established as citizens in an extensive variety of involvements. These involvements, both hidden and external may generate in each person a developing consciousness of the contemporary governmental objectives.[47]

Brown’s Views on Education Did Not Pursue

“to inculcate a particular set of beliefs or doctrines; it seeks to nurture a particular sort of person: a person who knows deep down that what we see, taste, touch, smell and hear is not all there is to life; a person who, in an age of rampant materialism, has first-hand experience of the reality and importance of Spirit in life; a person rooted as much in the unseen as in the seen, as much in the spiritual as in the physical; a person who has the capacity for reverence, and who is as well equipped to worship as to work”.[48]

Brown was a philosopher who tried to spread the educational information, and to educate the American society that verity, exquisiteness, education, and knowledge are indications of the renovating authority of the successful society.[49] According to Brown, a well-educated person is ”a person who is optimistic about the capacity for education and knowledge to mend the affairs of humanity; a person who has begun to develop the courage to testify outwardly to what he or she knows inwardly; a person who has the courage to follow the inward argument where it leads”.[50] Thus, Brown’s views on education express a distinctive amalgamation of scholarly superiority and nonphysical profundity.

Views of Charles Brockden Brown About the American Character Identity

Brown discussed the question of dissimilarity and American character identity in all of his works.[51] Nevertheless, one work of his, Ormond, published at the beginning of 1799, entirely employs the main heroes and circumstances to examine what an American should be at the rise of the Revolution.[52] The author utilized Ormond to discover the means by which “these first-generation Americans can develop individual identities based either upon acceptance of the traditions and history of Europe or creation of a citizen that is independent of European ideals and owes no allegiance to the continent and history that gave rise to him”.[53] Brown carried out this research by demonstrating the hazards of devotion to customary societal roles or preference of Europe, as “with the very continental Ormond’s offer to Constantia to either marry him or be killed by him, or by history, as with Stephen Dudley’s attachment to the civilization of Europe in the face of economic ruin”.[54] In conclusion, the book’s unsettled assumption with Constantia, who is deceptively retreating to Great Britain with Sophia, recommends an impending original American individual identity.[55] This novel American character identity symbolizes the person’s refusal from habitual traditions forced upon by customary, notable, socially conveyed sex roles.[56] The author supported the position of spreading revolution by introducing extended women’s privileges, from Europe to America. Moreover, Brown utilized both the emotional and Gothic components presented in his previous works to create a story focused on the progress of a possible “national American character identity” as denoted by Constantia’s opinions in Ormond.[57]

Nevertheless, Brown did not unswervingly express the notions of American character identity, “at least not in the extant correspondence or essays”.[58] Nevertheless, he referred to patriotism and concepts of a national character identity in a wide sense when he defined the objective of the novelist in a society, which he regarded as an essential to forming the national character.[59] Moreover, Brown seemed to have faith in a sort of foregoing national character identity that he expressed in dialogues in Ormond, and his other gloomy narratives.[60]

In a message to Congress concerning the perspective of Louisiana, Brown appealed to what he regarded as a promising national character identity, “[i]t was evident [following the Revolution] that the ploughman and mechanic at either end of the continent could recognize a common interest with each other”.[61] Although Brown did not intricate on this notion, the communal attention that Brown was occupied with, in this message was filled with “the sense of community that is fostered when an individual citizen feels that he has a temporal, political, and national connection to another citizen hundreds of miles away”.[62] This confidence in a national character identity, or at least in a character identity of a protonation, proposed the background for his narratives. This confidence gave him alleged onlookers that he thought were enthusiastic to be given information concerning the national character identity.[63] In order to express this vision, Brown then moved away from the pamphlets of Thomas Paine’s style, and for a while moved further than his own societal composition method did.[64]

Moreover, utilizing Ormond’s communication with Constantia, Brown exposed the jeopardies of amalgamation in a coalition with Great Britain.[65] These jeopardies comprised the defeat of developing American national principles, and subservience to British values of sex roles, learning, and dominion.[66] Additionally, there were rising doubts of penetration by undisclosed communities, specifically, “the possibility of the continued influence of the Illuminati”.[67] Certainly, while the features of the fight between Great Britain and the new America are presented in Ormond, the narrative’s conclusion, which portrays both Sophia and Constantia moving back to Europe, appears to disprove any expectant ending of a confident triumph for a developing American national character identity.[68] Since any recurrence to Great Britain indicates a lack of confidence that the new America can suggest, this finale thus confuses a forthright interpretation of the novel as Brown’s attitude to a superlative American national character identity.

References

Alan Axelrod, “Irreconcilable Oppositions” Charles Brockden Brown: An American Tale. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983), 4.

Bill Christophersen, The Apparition in the Glass: Charles Brockden Brown’s American Gothic. (Athens: University of Georgia, 1993), 17.

David Lee Clark, Charles Brockden Brown: Pioneer Voice of America. (North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1952), 110.

Charles Brockden Brown, The Rhapsodist. Ed. Harry R. Warfel. (New York: Scholar’s Facsimiles and Reprints, 1977), 108.

Charles Brockden Brown, Ormond, Or, The Secret Witness. Ed. Mary Chapman. (Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 1999).

Harry R. Warfel, Introduction. The Rhapsodist. Ed. Harry R. Warfel. (New York: Scholar’s Facsimiles and Reprints, 1977), X.

Norman Grabo, The Coincidental Art of Charles Brockden Brown. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981), 29.

Steven Watts, “The Young Artist as Social Visionary” The Romance of Real Life. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), 51.

[1] Steven Watts, “The Young Artist as Social Visionary” The Romance of Real Life. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), 51.

[2] David Lee Clark, Charles Brockden Brown: Pioneer Voice of America. (North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1952), 110.

[3] Charles Brockden Brown, The Rhapsodist. Ed. Harry R. Warfel. (New York: Scholar’s Facsimiles and Reprints, 1977), 108.

[4] Harry R. Warfel, Introduction. The Rhapsodist. Ed. Harry R. Warfel. (New York: Scholar’s Facsimiles and Reprints, 1977), X.

[5] Watts, “The Young Artist as Social Visionary” The Romance of Real Life, 65.

[6] Alan Axelrod, “Irreconcilable Oppositions” Charles Brockden Brown: An American Tale. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983), 4.

[7] Brown, The Rhapsodist, 22.

[8] Clark, Charles Brockden Brown: Pioneer Voice of America, 109.

[9] Watts, “The Young Artist as Social Visionary” The Romance of Real Life, 70.

[10] Ibid., 227.

[11] Clark, Charles Brockden Brown: Pioneer Voice of America, 125.

[12] Ibid., 118.

[13] Watts. “The Young Artist as Social Visionary” The Romance of Real Life, 158.

[14] Brown, The Rhapsodist, 120.

[15] Brown, The Rhapsodist, 120.

[16] Watts, “The Young Artist as Social Visionary” The Romance of Real Life, 59.

[17] Brown, The Rhapsodist, 121.

[18] Ibid., 122.

[19] Clark, Charles Brockden Brown: Pioneer Voice of America, 123.

[20] Ibid., 124-125.

[21] Brown, The Rhapsodist, 125.

[22] Watts, “The Young Artist as Social Visionary” The Romance of Real Life, 60.

[23] Clark, Charles Brockden Brown: Pioneer Voice of America, 118.

[24] Watts, “The Young Artist as Social Visionary” The Romance of Real Life, 61.

[25] Clark, Charles Brockden Brown: Pioneer Voice of America, 274.

[26] Brown, The Rhapsodist, 276.

[27] Ibid., 278.

[28] Ibid., 279.

[29] Clark, Charles Brockden Brown: Pioneer Voice of America, 280.

[30] Ibid., 214.

[31] Ibid., 215.

[32] Ibid., 215.

[33] Watts, “The Young Artist as Social Visionary” The Romance of Real Life, 67.

[34] Watts, “The Young Artist as Social Visionary” The Romance of Real Life, 67.

[35] Ibid.

[36] Axelrod, “Irreconcilable Oppositions” Charles Brockden Brown: An American Tale, 7.

[37] Ibid., 7.

[38] Ibid., 8.

[39] Warfel, Introduction. The Rhapsodist, x.

[40] Ibid., ix.

[41] Bill Christophersen, The Apparition in the Glass: Charles Brockden Brown’s American Gothic. (Athens: University of Georgia, 1993), 17

[42] Ibid., 17

[43] Ibid., 18.

[44] Norman Grabo, The Coincidental Art of Charles Brockden Brown. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981), 29.

[45] Ibid., 29.

[46] Brown, The Rhapsodist, 221.

[47] Grabo, The Coincidental Art of Charles Brockden Brown, 31.

[48] Ibid., 32.

[49] Ibid., 32.

[50] Brown, The Rhapsodist, 224.

[51] Clark, Charles Brockden Brown: Pioneer Voice of America, 121.

[52] Charles Brockden Brown, Ormond, Or, The Secret Witness. Ed. Mary Chapman. (Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview, 1999).

[53] Clark, Charles Brockden Brown: Pioneer Voice of America, 122.

[54] Ibid., 122.

[55] Ibid., 123.

[56] Watts, “The Young Artist as Social Visionary” The Romance of Real Life, 73.

[57] Ibid., 73.

[58] Ibid., 74.

[59] Axelrod, “Irreconcilable Oppositions” Charles Brockden Brown: An American Tale, 11.

[60] Ibid., 11.

[61] Clark, Charles Brockden Brown: Pioneer Voice of America, 266.

[62] Ibid., 266.

[63] Axelrod, “Irreconcilable Oppositions” Charles Brockden Brown: An American Tale, 14.

[64] Ibid., 14.

[65] Ibid., 14.

[66] Watts, “The Young Artist as Social Visionary” The Romance of Real Life, 74.

[67] Ibid.

[68] Ibid., 75.