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Romanticism In America's History Of The United States Chapter 2

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Extract analyzed: End of chapter 2 (i.e., first encounter between Felix and Gertrude): from “Felix Young thought it excellent; he wondered why…” to “appeared behind him in the open door-way.” (~65 lines)

Intro (286)

The Europeans was written by American author Henry James (1843-1916) and published in 1878. James is considered a romantic novelist and key figure of the literary realism movement.
The story takes place in the middle of the 19th century in the United States. This period of time saw the growth of romanticism as a cultural movement in the new world, whereas it began a bit earlier in Europe, especially in Great Britain. America has a background of puritanism and strong religious views, imported from colonists in early 1600s. This …show more content…

Romanticism in the style of writing (193)

In the first lines of the extract, Felix uses a consonance that shows his tendency to be loquacious: “eating, drinking, smiling, talking” (l. 4-5) and then a chiasmus that demonstrates the same thing: “I am very hungry,” he said. “I am not at all tired; I am never tired. But I am very hungry.” (l. 5-6).

The Bible is an intertext to The Europeans, with the mention of the Queen of Sheba and Solomon: “[she] was coming as the Queen of Sheba came to Solomon” (l. 19). This character only appears once in the Bible – in 1 Kings 10:1-13 – and comes to King Solomon to “test” him, to see if he was as magnificent a character as she was described. She quickly finds him to be beyond her expectations in every way; thus she praises him and the Lord and gives him many presents such as spices, gold, etc. In the extract, Gertrude thinks that Eugenia embodies the Queen of Sheba and her father – Mr. Wentsworth – is King Solomon, and that Eugenia’s presence in America would be only to the purpose of praising her father: “to pay her “respects” to quiet Mr. Wentsworth.”

II. Puritanism (683 mots) A. Puritanism in the story …show more content…

Where the young man is very talkative and seems open to everything, the young woman seems be restraining herself and to be somewhat closed to talking, though showing very explicit signs of curiosity. At line 10, Gertrude replies to Felix with: “you will see by yourself” when he asks her to describe the members of her family who have gone to church that Felix wishes to know about. This phrase can show how Gertrude is not a creator herself; she seems to like hearing new stories but does not create them herself, she carries on with: “it is you that must tell me now” (l. 10), asking Felix to tell her about his sister. Gertrude’s family has deep roots in the puritan way of life, they all go to church at least every Sunday and seem to have a rigidly defined routine: “They will all have come back from church” (l. 7-8) and “They were all coming back from church-her father, her sister and brother and their cousins, who always came to dinner on Sunday” (l.

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