13.

American Novel as Romance

It is important to highlight the fact that in the literary sense, romance has nothing to do with romantic
love, but with the form of a novel (not the genre). Romances date from the 16 th and 17th centuries, for
example Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. These medieval tales deal with a hero of chivalry and
depict a remote setting and events far from everyday life. They were popular in the aristocratic circles of
High Medieval and Early Modern Europe. These works feature events very unlikely to happen or to have
ever happened, but also enough of the manners of real life to speculate on the probability of its
realization.
In the 19th century, Hawthorne started writing relying heavily on symbolism and occult incidents. He went
on to write full-length "romances", quasi-allegorical novels which include themes like guilt, pride, and
emotional repression in his native New England. He regarded The Scarlet Letter as a romance, arguing,
as a romance writer, that he had crossed the boundary of ordinarily opposed states, reality and
imagination. His focus on allegories and dark psychology inspired Herman Melville to write romances
filled with philosophical speculation. These were indeed the beginnings of the American novel as a
romance.
As works of art always reflect the present situation in the society, the novel as a form wasnt an
appropriate literary form to describe the situation in the newly-settled America. The new culture was a
blend of different European cultures, some of them rather different. Additionally, all the differences as
well as dualities were explored within the romance form.
It features border fiction, representing the fusion of reality and fantasy. Characters experience the
fantastic elements as reality, like in magic realism.
After choosing this form, American novel developed in a completely different direction. When new
genres appear they express a movement in society, like the 18 th century novel, which reflected the attitude
of the middle class. The issue of the US is that it didnt have such stratification like Europe. There were
many settlers and everybody was pretty much equal. There was no such machinery of political parties and
government. The novel is not realistic, not focused on social hierarchy or society as a whole. It is
unrealistic in the way that there are not detailed.
The middle class in England was made up of merchants and craftsmen who were focused on needs such
as food, furniture and described them in great detail. In American fiction, the focus is on the conflict
between the individual and the society. American laws protect the individual, whereas the European laws
protect the state.
Instead of imitating reality and writing about it, writers turn to irrationalism. For instance Hawthorne sets
the action somewhere between the real world and the unexplored mysterious world on a neutral territory
where the reality and fantasy meet.
It deals with issues like the psyche which is put in the center of the investigation. The central characters
fight with their own conscience. It overshadows the whole narrative and it is viewed from different
perspectives. It also explores the truth of the human heart.
The conditions of life in the romances are independent of the real world, thus making it easier to explore
moral values and intellectual ideas. These ideas and the human consciousness are not explored directly
and roughly, but rather indirectly through symbols and allegories. There are always complex feelings
involved, which is the result of the dualities. According to Cooper, it contains elements of melodrama. It
also deals with social issues such as womens rights, slavery, the relationship with the Indians, religion,
and etc. The struggle between the individual and the society is often expressed (the individual wants to
change and improve the society).

Influenced by Puritanism, the American Renaissance way of thinking, Transcendentalism, Manichaeism

(a 3rd c. AD religious movement in Persia, which influenced the dualism, the separation of reason and
fancy, reality and fantasy, and the subject of native Americans in connection to wilderness, passion and
Puritans).
Romances are not didactic, because most American writers were under the influence of the
Transcendentalist philosophy which argues that people have an inherent knowledge of what is right and
wrong, so there is no need to tell them.
Considering the American novel, the sense of setting is important. Its not described in detail, but usually
only through the characters perspectives. The setting is often crucial because it contributes to the creation
of an atmosphere which surrounds the entire narration and is often very mystical.
The characters are often flat and without a background to round off their identity. Moby Dick begins with
Call me Ischmael. Part of the American dream is reinvention of identity. The characters are often
symbolic, stand for something else, serve to express an ideal or express a deeper meaning. Like Pearl in
The Scarlet Letter, theyre troubled by certain moral conflicts and the focus is on their darker side.
Theyre usually lonely and isolated. They are torn between desire to act upon their passions and their
morality which pulls them back, a constant dilemma. Lawrence presented it as a conflict between
Christianity and Dionisian passions.
The structure is episodic and the ending is open to further consideration. This is more realistic, since the
good character does not always triumph and the evil-doer is not always punished. Perfect representations
of such a world are novels such as the previously mentioned The Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick, Great
Gatsby, and so on.
To sum up, the American romances are unrealistic, not focused on social hierarchy, and undetailed. They
feature a conflict between the individual and the society. Whats emphasized is the psychology of the
characters rather than their backgrounds. The plot is in the same manner kept simple. The literary work is
versatile, including elements of other genres such as drama, melodrama, utopian novel.The tale is told
through the narration of an omniscient narrator., through there are narration shifts, subjective to objective
points of view. Metaphors and symbols help increase the possibility of multiple interpretations. It is,
indeed, more true to life.