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Emily Saunders
Professor Gwinner
ENG 2420
22 November 2021
Using Sentimentalism to Enhance Didacticism:

A Literary Analysis of Susanna Rowson’s Charlotte Temple

Susanna Rowson’s Charlotte Temple was graced upon conservative, colonialist

America in the late 1700s, occupying the hands and thoughts of many men and women of

varying social statuses. The story embraced and brought attention to themes of unrequited and

forbidden love, heartache, betrayal, and death and evoked provocative conversations, especially

in those of young women—Rowson’s primary intention. Through the agency of Charlotte

Temple, Rowson constructed a didactic allegory with the use of sentimentalism to solidify the

overarching message or warning: a girl should always aim to marry for love, but if it begins with

impulsive and thoughtless seduction, tragedy is inevitable.

According to June Howard in her critical essay, “What Is Sentimentality,” “We should

recognize as well that, in postbellum America, the literary was often defined against

sentimentality and the domestic culture of letters. Prestigious writing gradually and unevenly

became less openly emotional and more ambitiously intellectual, less directly didactic and more

conspicuously masculine” (Howard 320). Rowson, however, attempted to counteract this with

her novel, which she wrote shortly after the American Revolutionary War. Rather than allowing

her literature to regress into its typical postbellum form, she encouraged sentimentality to prevail

through her didactic work. She also denied the commonplace of conspicuous masculinity by

directing her message toward feminine concerns.

One way she gained the attention of and connected with her female readers was by

making her protagonist a conventional teenage girl with few unique characteristics (besides

being physically attractive). By making Charlotte Temple such an ordinary character, it allowed

a vast variety of female readers to identify with her while simultaneously filling in the

characteristic voids with those that make up their own identities. This created a connection

between the reader and the story as well as between the author and the reader. By building this

author to reader relationship, Rowson was able to provide more direct and unmediated advice

and warnings for women through Charlotte’s story.

Toward the beginning of the story, Rowson introduces the reader to one of the few

successful romantic relationships in the novel: that of Henry Temple and Lucy Eldridge. Being

that during this time men and women were pressured to marry someone within their same (or

higher) social class, Henry was encouraged to marry Miss Weatherby, a wealthy yet narcissistic

and uninteresting woman. However, when he was young Mr. Temple observed as his siblings

endured despondency due to upholding this social standard. This experience left him with the

intention of marrying for love and to someday encourage his children to do the same. The

narrator states, “Mr. Temple possessed a small estate of about five hundred pounds a year; and

with that he resolved to preserve independence, to marry where the feelings of his heart should

direct him, and to confine his expenses within the limits of his income” (Rowson 9). With this,

Henry decides to follow his heart and marry Lucy Eldridge instead—a woman who is lacking in

wealth but makes up for it with an abundance of generosity and geniality. This relationship sets

the standard for the “right” way to go about marrying for love, as their affections were mutual,

and they were able to come to an agreement about sacrificing certain advantages in exchange for

fulfillment through love and committing to marriage.

Mr. and Mrs. Temple’s story, however, does not prepare the reader for the tragic doom

that is in store for their daughter, Charlotte. The feeling of sentimentality that is felt through Mr.

and Mrs. Temple’s love story is that of hope and joy, leaving the readers with the comforting

idea that prosperous love is possible if one is willing to sacrifice prosperous wealth. However,

when Montraville and Charlotte are faced with the same challenge, their outcome is much

different than that of Charlotte’s parents. Their story begins when Montraville sees Charlotte for

the first time in two years, at which point he is overcome by a feeling of desire for her. This leads

him to impulsively abandon his current obligations in order to pursue her. Though, when he

sends Belcour to learn of Charlotte’s wealth status, he is disappointed to hear her name is not of

much value. However, after little contemplation, Montraville decides to court Charlotte anyway,

without intentions to marry.

In response, the narrator explains the similar feelings of affection Charlotte feels toward

Montraville. With Montraville’s letter in her hand (prior to reading it) the narrator states, “In

affairs of love, a young heart is never in more danger than when attempted by a handsome young

soldier. A man of an indifferent appearance, will, when arrayed in a military habit, shew to

advantage; but when beauty of person, elegance of manner, and an easy method of paying

compliments, are united to the scarlet coat, smart cockade, and military sash, ah! Well-a-day for

the poor girl who gazes him: she is in imminent danger” (Rowson 22). Here, Rowson

foreshadows the unfortunate events to come by quite literally stating that Charlotte is in danger.

By providing a successful love story prior to introducing a tragic one, Rowson has already

created a foundation of sentimentality on which Charlotte and Montraville’s relationship will

take place within the novel. Though, Mr. and Mrs. Temple’s relationship acts as a foil to theirs.
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In Howard’s essay, she calls upon the theories of Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn

Warren by quoting, “A sentimental person ‘weeps as some trivial occurrence,’ ‘lacks a sense of

proportion and gets a morbid enjoyment from an emotional debauch for its own sake.’ This

distaste is in part mapped onto style, in thoroughly gendered and embodied language (other

symptoms are a tendency to ‘prettify’ language and editorializing, ‘nudging the reader to

respond), in part onto characterization” (Howard 322). This statement suggests that

sentimentality is an invaluable contribution to literature. To argue this point, sentimentality

allows a person to feel, perceive, identify with, and connect, all of which are valid and even

paramount in understanding oneself, no matter how trivial the occurrence. This is especially

important in didactic literature.

Rowson is a quintessential example of how advantageous sentimentalism can be when it

comes to didactic rhetoric. Though she claims to avoid sentimentalism as she states in the

introduction, “The principal characters in this little tale are now consigned to the silent tomb: it

can therefore hurt the feelings of no one” (Rowson 5), Rowson can certainly be identified as a

sentimental writer as she strategically invites her readers to step into the shoes of her protagonist

right before she puts her through the misery that is the events in the remainder of the story.

Though, the extent to which sentimentality occurs within the novel does specifically depend on

her agenda of addressing women. Had the story been written from Montraville’s point of view, it

is unlikely that it would have had the same effect. In the same sense, had this story been written

in the 21st century as opposed to the 18th century, it likely would not have been as pervasive.

Regarding sentimentality and its effect on men versus women and their stereotypical

gender roles, Howard states, “As subjective and social life remapped into their modern

configurations, emotion is correlated with the private as opposed to the public, and with the
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feminine as opposed to the masculine. Feminist research over three decades has achieved a rich

reconstruction of gender ideologies and women’s lives in past eras, and literary critics have

drawn on and contributed to that scholarship. But much of it contains an unremarked, confusing

elision between sentimentality and domesticity” (Howard 319). When considering the 18th

century, it is widely understood that work within the home was the customary practice for

women. If one were to evaluate pertinency of sentimentality to 18th century domesticity settings

compared to the setting of an 18th century business infrastructure, it is much more likely to thrive

in a domestic environment, which serves as a commonplace for emotions. Being that women

spent more time at home—an environment of inevitable sentiment, sentimentalism was directly

applied to women and their “womanly” problems, emotions, situations, concerns, etc. Therefore,

sentimentalism is naturally implemented through Charlotte’s character.

Furthermore, by applying sentimentalism to her didacticism, it was unavoidable for

Rowson’s female protagonist to accomplish a positive outcome in a story where seduction is

present. In his essay, “Gaining Confidence,” Larzer Ziff states, “Women were put into the

position of embodying the quality of a fixed reality that had disappeared from the everyday

world of getting a living; their chastity figured in the plot as a determinate value in a world in

which the worth of most things was indeterminate. The novel of seduction typically concerns

itself with a negative example; the woman cannot preserve the true value she represents and as a

result dies.” (Ziff 434). Here, Ziff explains how the loss of a woman’s chastity in a novel

represents a loss of her whole self and more literally her death. According to Ziff, the moment

that Charlotte gives into Montraville’s seduction, she is doomed. Charlotte seems to

acknowledge this soon after making the decision to run away with Montraville.
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While on the boat to America, Charlotte collects herself and decides to write to her

parents—the main reason she could not make up her mind about leaving with Montraville in the

first place. The narrator states, “As soon as she became intolerably composed, she entreated pen

and ink to write to her parents. This she did in the most affecting, artless manner, entreating their

pardon and blessing, and describing the dreadful situation of her mind, the conflict she suffered

in endeavoring to conquer this unfortunate attachment, and concluded with saying, her only hope

for future comfort consisted in the (perhaps delusive) idea she indulged, of being once more

folded in their protecting arms, and hearing the words of peace and pardon from their lips”

(Rowson 42). Here, sentimentalism makes a grand appearance and sets the mood for the

remainder of the story as Charlotte is immersed in feelings of nostalgia as her emotions suddenly

regresses her character back to a child-like state, aching for her parents and regretting her

passionate, impulsive decision. Unfortunately, her letter never makes it to her parents on account

of Montraville discarding it in the ocean.

This epistolary form takes place throughout the novel several times as characters

communicate (or attempt to communicate) with one another. The letters act as another vehicle

for sentimentalism to occupy the mood, as emotions such as nostalgia, sorrow, regret, longing,

and countless others come to the surface in a much more profound way than how they can be

explained through the narrator’s rhetoric. Though Charlotte’s first letter to her parents does not

reach them, she is eventually encouraged by a companion, Mrs. Beauchamp, to write another. At

this point in the story, however, time has passed, and Charlotte is facing much more tragic

circumstances than those that were occurring as she wrote the first letter. She decides to write a

letter to her mother this time and in it her tone changes from panic and regret (as it was in the

first letter) to utter pain and desperation. She admits that she was too young and foolish to make
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a rational decision about Montraville but also defends herself by admitting to being manipulated

by La Rue. After confessing her guilt, she admits to the unfortunate events that followed since

her arrival in America, the most prominent being her pregnancy. She reveals this in her letter by

saying, “Shocking as these reflections are, I have yet one more dreadful than the rest. Mother,

my dear mother! Do not let me quite break your heart when I tell you, in a few months I shall

bring into the world an innocent witness of my guilt. Oh my bleeding heart, I shall bring a poor

little helpless creature, heir to infamy and shame” (Rowson 61). The way that Charlotte discloses

this news in such a negative light solidifies the excessive sadness and sentimentality that dictates

the novel. Had Charlotte’s situation been different—had she not made such a rash decision to

abandon her life in England or had Montraville ignored the societal expectations of marrying for

wealth and instead marrying for love—providing her parents with the news of their first

grandchild may not have been such a dreadful experience. Though, then Rowson’s readers would

not grasp the extent to which she was attempting to warn them about impulsions of love and

desire.

By the end of the novel, Charlotte, Belcour, and La Rue all die, leaving Montraville, the

only one of the original four, to survive—forcing him to live with regret for contributing to

Charlotte’s tragic fate (just as Mr. Temple desired). Characters such as La Rue and Belcour,

however, died without much sympathy or grief from others. Being that they were not empathetic

characters and did not feel sincere regret for having contributed to Charlotte’s demise, their

deaths can be regarded as more of a victory than a loss as it contributes to Charlotte’s

redemption. Of the four characters, the ultimate tragedy lies within the death of Charlotte, though

her death should not have come as too much of a surprise when considering Rowson’s warning

of danger at the very beginning.

Through the characters, their relationships with one another, and their sentiments,

Rowson created a story that functioned as a specific message toward women of the 18th century,

warning them about impulsions regarding love and seduction. By weaving sentimentalism

through her didactic tale, she was able to touch readers on a much more personal level,

encouraging them to identify with the characters. Without sentimentalism, literature ceases to

connect to readers on emotional, relatable, and tangible levels, all which is necessary for

effective didactic literature.

Works Cited

Howard, June. “What Is Sentimentalism?” Charlotte Temple: A Norton Critical Edition, pp.
310–326.
Ziff, Larzer. “Gaining Confidence.” Charlotte Temple: A Norton Critical Edition, pp. 429–436.
Rowson, Susanna, and Marion L. Rust. Charlotte Temple. W.W. Norton & Company, 2011.