Prof. Derek P. Royal

ENG 442 – Survey of American Literature II

Sentimentalism

The sentimental novel was a popular form of fiction that gained popularity in America from the late 18^th century to the mid-19^th century (although there are still manifestations of it today). In general, sentimentalism is didactic in form, “artless” in style, sincere in its tone, melodramatic in its plotting, and addressed overwhelmingly to a female readership. Often, the term “sentimentalism” is used in two senses:

1. An overindulgence in emotion, especially the conscious effort to induce emotion in order to enjoy it; expressing a “sensibility,” or susceptibility to emotions and sentiments (as opposed to logic or reason).
2. An optimistic overemphasis of the goodness of humanity, representing in part a reaction against Calvinism, which regarded human nature as depraved.

The sentimental impulse in the novel can be understood as embodying both definitions, to great or lesser degrees.

In America, the sentimental form was largely influenced by 18^th-century British novels of sentiment, such as Samuel Richardson’s Pamela and Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey. However, American sentimental narratives tended to be more didactic, even propagandistic, than the British versions, largely in an effort to counter the tradition of Puritanical disapproval of fiction. Writers of sentimental novels emphasized the usefulness of their fictions by trying to provide upright moral examples and positive social values to the new society of the republic. Such messages, usually targeted at women (but also intended for men), included the dangers of seduction, the importance of choosing a dependable marriage partner, the consequences of sexual transgression, and the need for female education.

In the late 19^th century, the sentimental novel took on a new form and became what is called the “domestic novel.” Here women, by and large barred from public business and relegated to issues surrounding the home, became spiritual “guides” to the kingdom of heaven. The domestic sphere, as opposed to the outer world of commerce and politics, would be a haven established by the homemaker. In these versions you have an idealized version of what a Christian family should be. In the domestic novel, female submission to the patriarchy is transformed into identification with the will of God. There is an emphasis on defining the inner life in the face of an increasingly commercial society.

In The Rise of the American Novel, Alexander Cowie (in a humorous but condescending manner) offers a “recipe” for a typical sentimental plot of the mid-19^th century:

First, take a young and not-too-pretty child about ten years old . . . Make sure that the child is, or shortly will be, an orphan. If the mother is still living, put her to death very gradually in a scene of much sorrow and little physical suffering, uttering pious hopes and admonitions to the last. . . . Now put the child under the care of a shrewish aunt. . . . In an emergency a cruel housekeeper will do. The child is now unhappy, under-nourished, and underprivileged. . . . Introduce a young woman living not far away, who embodies all Christian virtues, especially humility. Let this lady kiss, pray over, and cry with the heroine at intervals of three to four pages. The lady may or may not be blind; at any rate she has had her sorrows and she is destined to die. . . . [The girl learns] to subdue her pride and then submit graciously to the suffering which is the lot of all mortals.

Examples of sentimental fiction include William Hill Brown’s The Power of Sympathy, Susanna Rowson’s Charlotte Temple, Hannah Webster Foster’s The Coquette, , and Charles Brockden Brown’s Clara Howard (in the late 18^th century); Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Susan Warner The Wide, Wide World, Maria Cummins’s The Lamplighter, Sara Payson Willis Parton (Fanny Fern)’s Ruth Hall, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’s The Sunny Side, Augusta Jane Evans’s St. Elmo, and Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (in the 19^th century).