"Wieland" and "Charlotte Temple"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how both the novels "Charlotte Temple" and "Wieland" each present their audience with moral, virtuous examples of women who by the scorn and judgment of the societies in which they live, are placed in positions of disgrace by those who their societies dictated should have protected them. The paper relates that both Charlotte and Clara are betrayed by what their societies viewed as the "other", outsiders who ingratiate their way into the trust of these innocent women in attempts to ruin them or tarnish their reputations. The paper also discusses how, in both the novels it is not the actual immorality of the female characters that leads to their discrimination and ultimate downfall, but the damaging and excluding way in which society responds to their supposed fall from virtue that results in the tragic conclusion of these stories.

From the Paper:

"In Charlotte Temple and Wieland, we are presented with two female characters that seem to embody the ideal of appropriate feminine behavior that dominated society throughout the eighteenth century. While Charlotte is docile, sweet-tempered, and consciously respectful and obedient of her parents, Clara represents a more modern, Enlightened female of the time, brimming with intelligence, quick wit, rationality, and the propensity for intellectual debate and discourse, while still maintaining her femininity and virtue. Similarly, both young women were subject to an idyllic, almost utopian upbringing. Charlotte, raised in the country under the wing of her unfailingly kind and generous parents, had experienced no deceit, dishonesty, or depravity of human nature. "

More papers on "Wieland" and "Charlotte Temple":

• Book Review # 103070 : "Charlotte Temple"
• Comparison Essay # 71134 : "William Faulkner and Charlotte Perkins Gilman"
• Analytical Essay # 36010 : " "Charlotte: A Tale of Truth"

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