At the end of the Monday Discussion 1 thread, several key qualities of Warton's "The Dying Indian" got identified, including what one of your classmates termed it's "grittiness." Underneath its violent and exoticizing language, the poem's first-person voice conveys an intensity of feeling. That intensity gets added oomph from the self-congratulatory political qualities of the poem, but for readers not inclined to doubt or question the justice of colonialism, the point of the poem was its depiction of strong--if alien--emotions.
Pope's Eloisa to Abelard is a very different poem, but it appeals to a similar taste for authentic intensity of feeling. Note, too, that while Eloisa is presumably a more relatable narrator for the C18 reader, she still speaks at a considerable distance from the reader's experience (she's a figure from medieval history, French, and immured in a convent).
Sometimes glossed as "sensibility," sometimes as "sentiment," a thoughtful and finely-tuned receptivity to feeling was a valued trait in the later Enlightenment era. Laurence Sterne's A Sentimental Journey (which we'll be reading after Thanksgiving break) was written both to satisfy the market for literature that elicited powerful emotion and to gently critique that taste.
What other treatments of feeling have you seen in our readings this semester? Do you see any continuities between other readings and the kind of intensity of feeling depicted in "The Dying Indian" and "Eloisa to Abelard"? Or do these poems strike you as lone and isolated examples on the syllabus of the phenomenon I've just described? Cite a particular poem or text and supply some lines to illustrate your answer.
Deadline: Friday (11/20), start of class.
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I think that these poems contains a variety of feelings and emotions. Pride, Love, Prejudice, and Arrogance are just a few words I can use to describe the tone in some of these poems. I think that writers simply had these type of emotions when writing these things and it came out in their work.
I see similar intensity of feeling in Fantomina. Fantomina is so swept away by her emotions, that she risks everything to be with her lover. Although she is constantly tricking him with a new persona, Fantomina "loved Beauplaisir; it was only he whose solicitations could give her pleasure" (Longman 2802)
We see this same intensity of feeling in "Eloisa to Abelard." In her letter to Abelard, Eloisa shows a similar willingness to risk everything to be with her love. In the convent, Eloisa proclaims "Dim and remote the joys of saints I see, / nor envy them, that Heav'n I lose for thee" (ll. 71-72). Just as Fantomina risks her reputation to be with the man she loves, Eloisa risks her shot at Heaven by nearly worshiping Abelard when she should be worshiping God in the convent. Both of these acts by these two women require of each separate work a very heightened intensity of feeling and desperation to accurately portray.
Unlike "The Dying Indian" and "Eloisa to Abelard", Mary Collier's poem to Stephen Duck emits an intense amount of anger. The reader can actually feel the frustration and annoyance that Collier conceals within herself. Collier writes "Weary, alas! but 'tis not worth our while.../...We must make haste, for when we home are come, / Alas! we find our work but just begun" (700). These few lines feel as though Collier is being rushed and that the pressure of being a worker and a housewife is unappreciated because of her gender. The author also realizes the unfairness that has been forced upon her and releases it in her poem to Duck, who happens to be a semi-pompous male that believes women are only second if not last in society's patriarchy.
I feel that "Eloisa and Abelard" and "The Dying Indian" possess similar tones to some of the other poetry and works we have read. Like Kelsey, I found that Fantomina and Eloisa greatly showed the extent a woman would go in order to gain a lover. Love seemed to be an important theme though out much of the poetry we have read. Although "The Dying Indian" is clearly about death, it also has loving words. It speaks about "thy much-lov'd mother" which obviously fits into the theme.
I think encompassing "The Dying Indian" and "Eloisa and Abelard" with works like "Fantomina" and even "Spectator 11" is appropriate. The very idea of "sentiment" that is presented in each of these works all seem to echo a similar theme of ultimately an impractical reality where fantasies are played out -- this is even seen in "The Beggar's Opera" where in the end the conclusion of the opera could not end in a way that would leave audiences feeling upset or downtrodden but instead needed the suspension of their disbelief in order to thoroughly enjoy the work.
I was going to comment on this earlier on Wednesday but I'm starting to feel that C18 literature, as much as it should be hard-hitting culturally groundbreaking work, largely served as a form of entertainment. That said -- it's difficult to pick apart the works beyond their entertainment value and social critiques as much as we today can view television and movies as platforms of satire and critical reception. While on the one hand it can be argued that indeed many "deep" and revolutionary pieces emerged even today in these forms of entertainment, there is also a sense of irony in attempting to excavate deeper truths out of C18 literature when we realize the absurdity at times of doing the same with TV shows or films that are enjoyed by the masses.
At best, I would suggest that understanding their entertainment value and allure might be interesting landmarks to pick at in identifying C21 or C20 culture -- much like how that is the extent of how C18 literature should be viewed. I find it difficult to often glean authors as proposing radical jumps of change by their choice in delving into the sentimental; it seems to me they're just enjoying playing out people's fantasies.
Your instructor here. Some interesting connections are being drawn here among texts. I'd like to push some of these comparisons a little farther. The Dying Indian and Eloisa to Abelard share with Collier and Duck a first-person voice (unlike, say, Fantomina, which is narrated in the third person, or the Spectator's account of Inkle and Yarico). Looking just at those texts that are told in the first-person ("I"): do they all prompt the same kind of reaction from the reader? Are there interesting differences in how these texts encourage the reader to identify with the speaker?
I believe that when one compares Lady Montagu’s character in her texts to that of “The Dying Indian,” a similar fascination with lifestyle can be observed in each. In “The Dying Indian,” what brings the readers’ the most joy is the description of the savage lives of the Natives—it is something that is not seen in 18th Century Europe and because of this, a kind of “sick” joy comes from reading such descriptions. This fascination with the unknown can also be seen in Lady Montagu’s letter to “Lady Mar,” in her discussion of the Turkish dress. As she states, “This perpetual masquerade gives them entire liberty of following their inclinations without danger of discovery.” The dress gives the women the power to be promiscuous—something that is not typical of 18th Century Europe—and like “The Dying Indian” text, a great fascination can be seen to take place when one reads this. The unknown draws our attention.
In The Dying Indian, Eloisa to Abelard, The Threshers' Labour, and The Woman's Labor I don't see a common theme, but I do see a common reason as to why each peace was written. They all tell the reader's about personalities, and they all make people think about themselves. The Dying Indian, is proud and a protecter. Eloisa is head over heels for Abelard. The thresher is a proud worker. The woman is likewise a worker who just wants recognition. It makes you think: So, what are you like? Is this what you really want to be like? etc.
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