Wieland, The Transformation: An American Tale
Charles Brockden Brown: Wieland; or, the Transformation: An American Tale
I. The influences on Brown 's philosophy of life:
John Locke 's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, published in 1689/90 laid the foundations for Rationalism, a typical characteristic of the age of Enlightenment in Europe and in America. In this essay Locke called for the human mind as the decisive means of judging the truth content of a notion, even in a religious context However, his intent was not to argue against the Bible as the word of God, or the theoretical possibility of direct revelations by a deity, he rather insisted that every statement be recognized by the rational mind as true through irrefutable evidence , or, in case someone pleaded that …show more content…
There is father Wieland, who stands for Old World religious fanatism that came to the New World and spread. Wieland represents the product of the Great Awakening and the Lockeian school of thought. On the one hand he is a rational man, he is fascinated by Cicero, discusses new and enlightened ideas with his friend and "he deemed it indispensable to examine the ground of his belief", an almost deist attitude. On the other hand he is of a dark disposition -"his deportment was grave, considerate, and thoughtful"(22) - one feels somehow reminded of the Puritans Hawthorne describes later in his "Scarlet Letter". Then there is Clara, who sees herself as a rationalist, until this rationalism is put to the test and she reveals herself as infected with an enthusiastic mind, nonetheless she is capable of reason. Pleyel is Wieland 's opposite, "his gaiety was almost boisterous"(23), he is the true rationalist, the product of the age of Enlightenment, whose spirit he took in in Europe, where he spent part of his youth. The greater part of the American population (Catherine Wieland and her children) have no distinct beliefs, but they are threatened by extremism. These different attitudes clash, but they keep themselves in check, until a foreign influence in the form of Carwin is added. He causes the carefully maintained balance to veer out of control, to become a chaos. The result is mayhem, destruction, death - war? In my opinion Brown 's novel is meant as a critique of the American society of that period. Brown, as the deist he is, views every form of extremism with suspicion, but his main point of attack is the religious extremism, enthusiasm, in whose unpredictable outbursts he detects a grave threat to the young nation. America is threatened not only by exterior forces, which a healthy and strong nation could shake off
I. The influences on Brown 's philosophy of life:
John Locke 's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, published in 1689/90 laid the foundations for Rationalism, a typical characteristic of the age of Enlightenment in Europe and in America. In this essay Locke called for the human mind as the decisive means of judging the truth content of a notion, even in a religious context However, his intent was not to argue against the Bible as the word of God, or the theoretical possibility of direct revelations by a deity, he rather insisted that every statement be recognized by the rational mind as true through irrefutable evidence , or, in case someone pleaded that …show more content…
There is father Wieland, who stands for Old World religious fanatism that came to the New World and spread. Wieland represents the product of the Great Awakening and the Lockeian school of thought. On the one hand he is a rational man, he is fascinated by Cicero, discusses new and enlightened ideas with his friend and "he deemed it indispensable to examine the ground of his belief", an almost deist attitude. On the other hand he is of a dark disposition -"his deportment was grave, considerate, and thoughtful"(22) - one feels somehow reminded of the Puritans Hawthorne describes later in his "Scarlet Letter". Then there is Clara, who sees herself as a rationalist, until this rationalism is put to the test and she reveals herself as infected with an enthusiastic mind, nonetheless she is capable of reason. Pleyel is Wieland 's opposite, "his gaiety was almost boisterous"(23), he is the true rationalist, the product of the age of Enlightenment, whose spirit he took in in Europe, where he spent part of his youth. The greater part of the American population (Catherine Wieland and her children) have no distinct beliefs, but they are threatened by extremism. These different attitudes clash, but they keep themselves in check, until a foreign influence in the form of Carwin is added. He causes the carefully maintained balance to veer out of control, to become a chaos. The result is mayhem, destruction, death - war? In my opinion Brown 's novel is meant as a critique of the American society of that period. Brown, as the deist he is, views every form of extremism with suspicion, but his main point of attack is the religious extremism, enthusiasm, in whose unpredictable outbursts he detects a grave threat to the young nation. America is threatened not only by exterior forces, which a healthy and strong nation could shake off