American Gothic...
It's dark, full of themes bordering on the supernatural...and
the destruction of a fragile, naïve and speculative paradise in an almost
casual manner...a cheery read indeed!
Written by Charles Brockden Brown and published at the very
end of the 18th century, Wieland
ushered in the American version of "gothic" storytelling. He mainstreamed the genre here in the U.S.,
and his influence touched a generation of later authors with names such as Melville,
Poe and Shelley.
Wieland deals with
four main characters, Clara and Theodore Wieland, brother and sister, Catharine
Pleyel-Wieland, Theodore's wife and the brother-in-law, Henry Pleyel, all
nestled into Colonial Pennsylvania around the time of the American
Revolution. They are happy, productive
and intellectual. For them...it's
paradise. Obviously, the story doesn't
take into account the plight of African slaves, indentured slavery, the hungry
and the unemployed...it simply presented an idealized setting of what America
could be. Into this World of bliss steps
a dark man from a foreign land. Carwin, an
American like the rest of the cast, has been living abroad...adopting foreign
ways and manners. He is the antithesis
of what the main characters represent.
He has lust and rape in his heart...and the unique ability to speak in
two very different voices. He is a
biloquist.
It just so happens that Theodore begins hearing
voices...voices of people he knows...but the voices are disembodied and swathed
in the paranormal. Could it be the
devious work of the "man with two voices"...or is it just his
imagination? Unfortunately, we will
never know. Theodore, whether by hook or
crook, took the bait and went over the edge into insanity. He murders his family in cold
blood...engorged with fervent, religious rage.
Did the voices coax him? Carwin said
he had nothing to do with it...the murders that is...
Brown did base the killings in his book on reality. Early advertisements for the book stated that
the story was based on recent and well-known murders. In 1781, James Yates bashed, bludgeoned and axed his wife and
his four children to death. He claimed
to hear voices that told him to kill them all...and he was
unrepentant...emotionless.
Art imitates life.
Here is the 1811 reprint of Wieland, Or The Transformation, An American Tale...seeing as an online first
edition is not available, this will have to do...
Wieland, Or The Transformation, An American Tale