Hey,
I created this blog because I haven't been invited to any blogs yet that pertain to the novel. Obviously, I am working with The Power of Sympathy. I'm not sure that I will keep this blog if I get invited to another blog with students who are also doing this novel, but hey, this is a good start right? I will invite The Power of Sympathy bloggers to this blog and they can let me know if they want to blog together or separately or if there is already a blog set up for this novel.
Okay, now
down to business. I started my research and was pleased to find some familiar conventions that we have already seen in some of the novels we have read. First and foremost, the allusion to Shakespeare's Hamlet in the front matter of the novel (which is also the only illustration) to the left. You will note in Charlotte Temple there is an allusion to Romeo and Juliet in the front matter.
down to business. I started my research and was pleased to find some familiar conventions that we have already seen in some of the novels we have read. First and foremost, the allusion to Shakespeare's Hamlet in the front matter of the novel (which is also the only illustration) to the left. You will note in Charlotte Temple there is an allusion to Romeo and Juliet in the front matter. I can't imagine that you all can see this image very well but the text says: "The Story of OPHELIA: A fatal, fatal poison!" The picture is of a young lady in the arms of a gentleman after collapsing. If you look closely, you can see that there is a mysterious masked man lingering in the doorway. Personally, this whole picture just screams Gothic! But what interests me most is the continuity error. In Hamlet Ophelia drowns herself.
QUEEN: (to Laertes, Ophelia's brother) One woe doth trod upon anothers heel, So fast they follow. Your sister's drown'd, Laertes.
Hamlet, Act IV Scene VII. Dover Thrift Edition.
So this leads me to ask, because Ophelia is not poisoned, but rather drowns, is this a Shakespearean allusion or is there another story of Ophelia that I have missed?
So, being confused as I was, I did some digging. Ophelia, in one of her rantings talks about an herb called rue. She says in Act IV scene V "There's rue for you and here's some for me. We may call it the herb of grace o' Sundays." It implies that Ophelia ingests the rue so I looked up the herb on a gardening website which claims that "In spite of its bitter taste, [rue] is edible, and can still be found in rustic Mediterranean salads. But it is not advised to eat a lot of rue or drink it as a tea, as it can be toxic in large amounts." (health.learninginfo.org/herbs/rue.htm). So it is possible that this is an allusion to Shakespeare because Ophelia very well could have poisoned herself just before jumping into the river. But what is the significance of this allusion. I'm sure the plot of the novel will reveal it to me but until then, any thoughts?
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2 comments:
Two things come to mind--Shakespeare's language of flowers and herbals contemporary with the publication of this text. I looked at an herbal from the 1780s when in Philadelphia and can send my notes if you like, but I didn't look for rue. There should be something in Evans, however, as there were herbals circulating in the U.S. LML
After reading Davidson, not only did I realize that I had the gender wrong on some of the characters in the picture, but also that the picture is more relevant to Fanny Apthorp than Ophelia, however I think the use of her name is to demonstrate the fragility of the female pysche.
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