Ornate Style In Charlotte Temple

654 Words2 Pages

Charlotte Temple is considered to be the second American novel and the first popular novel. It was written in an ornate style and considered to be “heavily didactic, claimed to be based on truth, and followed what was to become a standard seduction plot. But these characteristics did not account for the book's enormous popularity”. Ornate style is considered to be “made in an intricate shape or decorated with complex pattern”. A simple style of writing will make the audience understand easily what the author is trying to teach. The style of writing can complicate the pedagogy for some people while others might find it that it facilitate the pedagogy. But in Charlotte Temple’s case, the form of the novel complicates the pedagogical import due to the ornate style of writing. The form complicates what the author is trying to teach the audience, but that did not affect the novel to still become extremely popular in all American novels. In Charlotte Temple we can see how the characters express anxiety and its capacity to instill virtue. Charlotte Temple is a drama intended to teach young women how to be honorable and to avoid falling in love with disreputable people. The concept of virtue in colonial America has many aspects of values. Society’s most virtuous women were seen as sensitive, pure and innocent. In Charlotte Temple we see an innocent girl’s being destroyed by a man. Charlotte is a young British girl who falls in love with a British officer and follows him to America. Basically, she becomes pregnant with his child, they don't marry, and she dies. The narrator voices her opinion constantly, although this is written in the third person, and this intrusion is actually entertaining. Charlotte falls into the seduction of Montrav... ... middle of paper ... ...tly felt different kind of emotions. At times I was angry to see how easy Charlotte was tempted and seduced by Montreville. She probably might have not had enough experience which made her make bad choices, at the end of the book I felt bad for her. The lesson from this book is that young women shouldn't be so easily convinced by men until they are sure that he is right one for them. Both the main characters were acting on their impulses and look where both of them ended up. Charlotte was left all alone to take care of herself, with no family and friends, she was ill and to society’s eyes she has lost her virtue. I found Charlotte Temple to be a very engaging story despite the difficulty of the way it was written. The character of Charlotte Temple was quickly developed, giving me a real sense of empathy to her fate. With every downfall, I felt her pain and remorse.

Open Document