“Compassion is the most powerful emotion.” “The pain you feel with someone or for someone is much heavier than your own. Imagine how that pain would be intensified if it were echoed a hundred times.”
The Unbearable lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
Mastering the art fiction means mastering the art and science of manipulation. I’m not just talking about manipulating the minds of readers, but also characters, plots and settings. Language manipulation is perhaps the most important. To engage an audience, the author must create a sense of familiarity. When the reader encounters characters, places, or situations that are familiar to them, the meaning of the author’s words become more obvious. The element of family is one of the best ways to achieve this “familiarity”.
First of all, let’s say that both novels are quite different. The two novels, both set in 18th-century Northeastern United States between the middle and late 18th centuries, differ dramatically in style. Charles Brockden Brown was often called the grandfather of American Gothic and influenced writers like Mary Shelley, Truman Capote. James Fenimore Cooper’s “Leatherstocking Tales” (specifically his five installments) are generally regarded as a foundation for Western films of today and “modern-day frontier novels”. Both authors, though radically dissimilar in many other ways, use the effect of family to their advantage in a very similar way.
The novel Wieland opens with a brief description of Theodore Wieland’s (the narrator) father’s death. This summary may appear to be a way for the reader to get a better understanding of our Wielands. However, in reality it reveals little about them. The summary highlights the sense of isolation Clara Wieland, and Theodore Wieland feel as a result from their early loss. The orphans were destined to live with a lifetime of ignorance due to the isolation they experienced. Clara’s description of the years after her parents’ death is a good example.
The following years were happy and peaceful. Few of the cares of childhood impacted our lives. Our aunt’s indulgence and temper were more by accident than design. She rarely veered into extremes of either rigor, or lenity. No unreasonable restrictions were placed on our social enjoyment. We were given the opportunity to learn about most useful topics and we were protected from the corruption that can be found in colleges and boarding-schools. (22)
Wieland introduces us to the Pleyels, Catharine & Henry. The novel has a complex family dynamic, made more so by Theodore Wieland’s marriage to Catharine. This detail unites both families into an isolated, small group. Clara, after Henry Pleyel’s introduction on page 27, begins to refer to the group as a society. Clara’s group is not a typical society. Four people are hardly enough to constitute a true society.
Clara’s “society”, or more specifically, the voice of Carwin is what causes Clara to lose her trust. Theodore’s claim that his wife is always present in the room where her voice can be heard causes Clara and her friends to lose faith. Theodore’s mental state begins to deteriorate in a manner that is similar to his father’s prophetic destiny. Catharine’s death is discovered soon after, and the friendship is further strained. The reader will feel intense emotions as a result of all of these events.
This reminds me of the first quote in this essay, as well as the idea of “familiarity”, which was mentioned earlier. The fates of the characters would not be as emotional if it weren’t for the detailed profiles of the characters, their identification as family members, and how they are painted to make the reader feel like “someone”. The reader will feel the same emotions if they recognize a character to be someone who loves, has feelings or is a part of a large family.
This effect is repeated in The Last of the Mohicans multiple times, despite the fact the family structure differs dramatically from Wieland. This statement should be seen as not being contradictory to the previous statement that Brown uses family effects in a similar way. Wieland is a community that is made up of two biologically related families. These two families have an ironic lack of understanding about what a family is. The two main Mohican and Munros families are close in The Last of the Mohicans. The two families are not only close-knit, but they also know the true meaning of “family”. The same compassion catharsis occurs regardless of how the idea and structure of family differs from one novel to the next. The Last of the Mohicans, however, is a novel that has a lot of instances of compassion catharsis. This is heightened by the incredible love the characters share for eachother.
The murder of Cora Munro in the 32nd Chapter of The Last of the Mohicans is the strongest example of catharsis. Uncas frightens the man who is holding Cora (one of Magua’s men) into putting his knife in her chest when he leaps down to save his love. Uncas is stabbed twice in the rear by Magua. Uncas recovers, and manages to avenge Cora before being stabbed a further three times by Magua. Uncas and Cora were buried next to each other the following day. It is one of most beautiful scenes in literature.
In both novels, family acts as an emotional connection between the character and reader. How these emotions manifest depends on the reader’s personality, but it is clear that a novel can have a powerful effect on humanity.
