Brown's Ormond: The Fruits of Improvisation
1974; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 26; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/2711564
ISSN1080-6490
Autores Tópico(s)Cultural Studies and Interdisciplinary Research
ResumoCHARLES BROCKDEN BROWN S ORMOND; OR THE SECRET WITNESS (1799) HAS been many things to many men: case history of feminine virtue triumphant over poverty, pestilence and devilish arts of the seducer; an assertion of dark and destructive potential of man, overlooked or denied by the reigning Lockean anthropology; an indictment of an evil world, where men must choose between self-inclosed sterility and unnatural violence, both of which eventuate in personal disaster; brilliantly innovative development of the Richardsonian-Gothic seduction convention; tragedy of powerful and enlightened mind perverted by master passion; foray into feminism, focusing on women's educational needs; warning against overreliance upon reason in the conduct of life, particularly if one lacks the bulwark of religion; an edifying allegory wherein Constancy (Constantia), supported by Wisdom (Sophia) and Courage (Martinette), escapes the fate-worse-than-death of Physical Beauty (Helena) by defeating Evil (Ormond); roman 'a clef inspired by William Godwin's Memoirs of Mary Wollstonecraft, in which all the main characters reflect aspects of Mary herself or persons in her life; and a confusing accretion of myth, symbol, character, and archetype that never acquires form. '
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