Literature of the Revolution
and New Republic
1750 - 1836
Benjamin Franklin Quiz
1. Though born and raised in Boston, Franklin
lived most of his life in which city?
2. Why did Franklin retire at the age of 42? What
did he set out to do?
3. Name one of the thirteen virtues Franklin
encourages his readers to strive toward.
4. What public amenity/service did Franklin help
found and sustain (Hint: Every major city
usually has several of these)?
5. Which virtue did Franklin struggle with the
most?
Literature of the Revolutionary Period
• Where is all of the literature?
o Persuasive Writing:
• Polemics and Polemical Narratives
o War Narratives:
• Parallel Success to Captivity Narratives
o New Media: Pamphlets and Newspapers
o Needs of the People:
• Audience shapes production:
o The Federalist Papers and the Founding Fathers
o Self-Made Man
o “...there will be sleeping enough in the grave....”
o “Reading was the only amusement I allowed myself ”
Literature & Solidification of a Nation
 Themes: Rationalism, “Age of Reason,” Enlightenment
 Belief that human beings can arrive at truth by using
deductive reasoning, rather than relying on authority of
the past, religious faith, or intuition
 American literature in particular is searching for a
national identity
 Type of writing: Political writing, persuasive (polemic)
writing
 Much of the writing involves philosophers, scientists,
writing speeches and pamphlets
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
o Inauspicious Beginnings:
• Middle class merchant family (soap and
candle maker) → American by birth
• Study of the ministry? → removed from
school due to financial concerns
• Worked as an apprentice→ continued
reading and writing
o Quick rise through economic and academic circles:
• Publishing as his major advantage
• Shrewd businessman
o Career as a Statesman:
• Consistent force for independence
o Celebrity of the Revolution
Benjamin Franklin: The American
Dream
• “the self-made man”
o Born in poverty (or average means) and rises in
wealth and status by his own talents and work
ethic
o Multi-talented, multi-skilled, highly successful
o Why is this idea so prevalent in the American
imagination? How does it relate to the present
day?
o Why is this idea problematic or perhaps
misleading in the case of Franklin? How is it
misleading in other ways?
The Autobiography: “Part Two: Continuation
of the Account of My Life”
• What are his major points?
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Library
Religion
Precepts of Virtue
Sin and Fault
The Keys to Success
• What is his major advice?
• How would you describe his writing style?
• How do his experiences and ethical ends relate to
American culture?
o As a founding father, what makes him so crucial for the
burgeoning American identity and ideological formation?
o Have we read similar ideas before? What is repeated, what is
new?
Madison No. 10
 Views on factions?
 James Madison feared that interest groups would harm democracy—how?
 Chief causes of factions?
 Definition: “a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority
of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or
of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and
aggregate interests of the community.”
 Chief cause: “nature of man” and “various and unequal distributions of property”
 “propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities”—different opinions, wealth,
property,
 Solution to factions?
 Removing its causes
 Two ways—not possible?
 “Cure worse than the disease”?
 Control its effects
 Republicanism vs. Direct Democracy
 Protection from ‘rule of the mob’
 Limited power of factions in larger country
Thomas Paine
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Born in England
Served in the Revolutionary militia
Published primarily in America, not in England;
Radicalism: In addition to Common Sense and other anti-British, pro-American
essays, also wrote fierce arguments for the equal rights of women and the
emancipation of slaves
In The Age of Reason, he attacked some aspects of Christianity, namely the idea of
“the elect”, because he felt people should focus on common people
• This text also includes anti-federalist tracts and proposals for democratization
of wealth.
Later writings made him an outcast (and criminal) in Britain and the United States.
• Charged with Sedition and Treason
Major Texts:
• Common Sense (1776)
• The American Crisis (1776-1783)
• The Rights of Man (1791)
• The Age of Reason, Parts I and II (1792, 1793)
Legacy
o Influence on contemporaries
o Deism
Thomas Paine: Common Sense
• “Introduction”: (324-325)
o Positioning the Text
o First pamphlet published in the colonies to urge
immediate independence from Britain
o Timing was right?
o “a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a
superficial appearance of being right”
o What is the problem with Colonies-Britain relations?
o What are the stakes? Why does it matter?
o “The cause of America is in a great measure the cause of
all mankind”
o Who is concerned in the matter? Who is the author?
Thomas Paine: Common Sense
 Thesis (Paragraph 5)
 “In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain
arguments, and common sense…”
 Hopes that those who read the pamphlet will “divest [themselves] of
prejudice and prepossession” and “will not put off, the true character of
man”
 Major Topics Supporting Thesis
 1. Fallacy: “I have heard it asserted by some, that as America has
flourished under her former connection with Great Britain, the same
connection is necessary towards her future happiness…” (326)
 Reality:
 2. Fallacy: Great Britain has “protected” America (326)
 Reality:
Thomas Paine: Common Sense
 3. Fallacy: “colonies have no relation to each other but through
the parent country” (327)
 Reality:
 4. Fallacy: Britain is the “parent country” (327)
 Reality:
 5. Fallacy: We are all of English descent so should not separate
(327-328)
 Reality:
 6. Fallacy: “Much hath been said of the united strength of Britain
and the colonies, that in conjunction they might bid defiance to
the world” (328)
 Reality:
Thomas Paine: Common Sense
 Critiquing those who wish reconciliation (329)
 “Interested men who are not to be trusted”
 “Weak men who cannot see, prejudiced men who will not see”
 “certain set of moderate men who think better of the European world
than it deserves”
 Situation in Boston (329)
 “I mean not to exhibit horror for the purpose of provoking revenge,
but to awaken us from fatal and unmanly slumbers” (330)
 “A government of our own is our natural right” (330)
 Better to do it in a “cool deliberate manner” versus waiting for “an
interesting event to time and chance”—why?
 “O! Receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind”
(331)
Thomas Jefferson: The Declaration
of Independence
• Purpose & History
• Intention?
• Content:
o What are the major ideas presented at the start of the text?
• Right to overthrow?
• Creator/God’s role?
• What complaints does Jefferson lobby against the British
monarchy?
o What does the last paragraph declare/resolve?
• Style:
o What makes this text a brilliant work of literature and
argument (instead of just a historical document)?
• Cultural Impact:
o Is this a radical document?
o What impact has this document had on our nation?
Philip Freneau: “Poet of the American
Revolution”
 Came from a wealthy family—well connected
 Enrolled and graduated from College of New Jersey (Princeton University)
 James Madison, Hugh Henry Brackenridge
 Varied life
 Secretary in St. Croix
 Seaman on blockade runner
 POW
 Philadelphia Years
 National Gazette (Democratic-Republicans vs. Federalists)
 Jefferson & Madison connection
 Limited government, more authority to states
 Idealist
 Believed America had a glorious future
 French Revolution
 Death
“The Wild Honey Suckle”
• Summary:
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Freneau addresses a flower, writing how beautiful it is
Wishes it would not be damaged
Appreciates its place in nature
Is aware of its short life span and impending death
• Important Lines:
• What do the first four lines in each stanza show?
• What does the rhyming couplet show in each stanza?
• Personification?
• Major Themes:
• Loneliness/beauty of nature
• Transience of life (life/death cycle)
• Mortality
• Relation to other texts/concepts:
“The Indian Burying Ground”
 Summary
 Celebrates the Indian burial practices in comparison to
‘conventional’ European burial rituals
 Important Lines
 Theme
 Nostalgia for the primitive and the past
 “Noble Savages”
 Good?
 Bad?
 Relation to texts/concepts
Reading Quiz: Philip Freneau
• Select one of the three assigned poems and write a brief
analysis of its significance. You may use your text.
Questions to answer:
1. Consider the chosen language and identify the poem’s major
themes and concepts. What is Freneau attempting to
emphasize about America through this poem? How does he do
so?
1. How are these elements—themes, concepts, and points of
emphasis—reflective of the zeitgeist and the burgeoning
American ideology of the revolutionary era?
Phillis Wheatley (1754-1784)
 Born a slave in modern day Gambia or Senegal, sold to Wheatley’s
in 1761
 “Uncommon intelligence”
 Highly gifted in humanities and literature
 Wheatley’s encouraged her studies (Susannah Wheatley)
 Influences
 Bible
 English Poets (Milton, Pope, Gray)
 First published in 1770
 Popular in Europe
 Freed only right before Susannah Wheatley’s death in 1774
 Legacy?
“On Being Brought from Africa to
America”
 What brought her here?
 “Twas mercy brought me” –Wheatley argues that it was great luck
that brought her from Africa (“pagan land”)
 What taught her salvation?
 Christianity
 “Taught my benighted soul to understand/That there’s a God, that there’s a
Savior too”
 What do some people say about the African race? What does she
say about people of African race?
 Final Command?
 Ethical End
 Is this pro or anti slave trade?
“On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George
Whitefield, 1770”
 First published poem, brought her international success
 Summary
 About the death of George Whitefield, prominent preacher
 Wheatley believes Whitefield was a great preacher—hopes to see him in
heaven
 Why is Whitefield a “happy saint”?
 Lines 7-8
 Lines 20-23
 Lines 34-35
 His Legacy?
 Lines 28-37
 Lines 45-47
 “Take Him”?
“To His Excellency General Washington”
 Summary
 Describes the bravery and goodness of America in its fight
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against Great Britain
What virtues of Washington “excite sensations” and make
him worthy of praise?
Who is the Goddess?
Why him?
 Lines 25-28
Why is the cause blessed?
 Lines 31-32
 Final message?
“Rip Van Winkle” Quiz
1. Who is the narrator/”author” of the story?
2. From what source does the narrator perform his
“historical researches” and study American
history(471)? Or, where does he find insight into “true
history” (471)?
3. What drives Rip Van Winkle into the woods?
4. To what type of club does Rip Van Winkle belong
before his prolonged sojourn into the woods?
5. What happens to the painting/statue of George III?
6. Why is Rip Van Winkle accused of attempting to start
“a riot” when he returns to town?
7. Which famed Dutch/English explorer is included in
the legend as a leader of the secret bowling society?
“Rip Van Winkle”
 Old World Influences, New
World Themes
 Source: Germanic Folktales
 Nature as fantasy-space
 Pastoral Ideal
 Change & Future
 Zeitgeist (“spirit of the time”)
 Irving: “When I wrote the story, I
had never been on the Catskills”
 Other Influences
 Seven Sleepers
 Story of Ranka
Plot
 Introduction
 Diedrich Knickerbocker
 “True History” and
“Scrupulous Accuracy”
 Meaning/Significance?
 Part 1: Before the Sleep
 Kattskill Mountains
 Rip Van Winkle—who is
he?
 Dame Van Winkle
 The “junto” and Nicholas
Vedder
Plot
 Part II: Exodus
 Why did he leave?
 Where he went?
 Who he met?
 How they
dressed/behaved?
 Part III: Return
 Changes
 Election Day
Plot
 Part IV:
Aftermath
 Reception of
Identity
 True
Freedom?
 Story Telling
 Part V:
Epilogue
 Truth?
Theme: V
 Escape vs. Reality
 Reality: Home life
 Dame Van Winkle
 Farm: “Most pestilent piece of ground in the whole country”
 Children: “ragged and wild as if they belonged to nobody”
 Wife: “continually dinning his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and
the ruin he was brining on his family”
 Escape: Outside Home
 Playing with village children
 “Frequenting a kind of perpetual club of the sages, philosophers, and
other idle personages of the village”
 Escaping into the woods with his dog, Wolf
Feminism
 Women do the work
 Rip sits around
idly and talks
 Dame Van Winkle
 “a termagant”
woman
 No name…
 Rip elated at wife’s
death
Other Themes & Allegories
 Politics
 What is the role of
changing politics?
 Rip as a representative
of American identity
crisis?
 Dame Van Winkle?
 Rip as anti-hero?
 Why or why not?
Edgar Allan Poe
 Poe’s controversial reputation—shaped by legends, false
claims, and Poe’s own stories
 Difficult childhood
 Poe’s parents died by the time he was 2 years old
 “Adopted” by Allan family
 Well educated: England, UVA, West Point
 Relationship with John Allan
 Baltimore, Richmond, Philadelphia, and New York
 Attempted to make a living through writing alone—resulting in
a life of financial hardship
 Death at age 40—cause is unknown
 Rufus Griswold’s “Memoir”
The Tell-Tale Heart
 Narrator claims that he is very nervous, but not…
 What does he do to prove this?
 Observe the diction, word choice, sentence structure—what
feeling or mood does it create?
 How does the narrator feel about the old man?
 “He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult”
(715)
 Why does the narrator feel an urge to kill the old man?
 Not for his money: “For his gold I had no desire” (715)
 “I think it was his eye!—yes it was this! He had the eye of a
vulture—a pale blue eye…I made up my mind to take the life
of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever” (715)
The Tell-Tale Heart
 How does the narrator proceed to carry out his murder plot?
 “You should have seen how wisely I proceeded—with what caution—
with what foresight—with what dissimulation I went to work! I was
never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I
killed him.” (715)
 Narrator goes to the old man’s room every night at 12 AM for seven
days—opening the old man’s door and looking for the old man’s eye,
only to see it closed (so did not kill him)
 On the eighth night, the old man hears the narrator open the door
and wakes up
 Narrator waits in the darkness for hours, eventually uses his lantern to shine
light on the “vulture eye”
 Narrator is overcome by anxiety and finally kills the old man (who shrieks
once): “His eye would trouble me no more” (717)
The Tell-Tale Heart
 Three policemen come—why?
 Neighbor had heard the scream and called the police (717)
 What does the narrator do?
 “I smiled –for what did I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome”
(717)
 He claimed that he was house-sitting for the old man and that
his scream came from a nightmare
 After convincing the police that nothing was wrong, he brings
them into the old man’s bedroom—why?
 “In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs into the room, and
desired them here to rest from their fatigues” (717)
 Hears the beating of a heart— “louder—louder—louder” (718)
 Confesses to murdering the old man and hiding his remains under the
floor
Discussion
 How do we see the narrator’s paranoia? Do you think
Poe is effective in communicating the man’s madness?
 Some have suggested that the narrator could be either
male or female. Would it change your perception of the
story if the narrator was a woman? If so, how?
 How does the narrator use the idea of confession to
claim his own sanity? Is the narrator insane?
 What does the story’s title mean?
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
 Unnamed narrator approaches the house of Usher on a
“dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn” (702)
 How does the narrator describe the house itself? (702)
 “melancholy”
 “insufferable gloom pervaded”
 “bleak walls”
 “vacant eye-like windows”
 “utter depression of soul”
 “There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the
heart”
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
 Why does the narrator go to the house?
 Childhood friend of Roderick Usher
 “One of my boon companions in boyhood” (702)
 Roderick wrote letter to narrator detailing an “acute bodily illness” which
“oppressed him” (702)
 Roderick is hoping that by spending time with the narrator, the
narrator can provide “some alleviation of his malady” (702)
 Usher family
 “very ancient family” (703)
 “entire family lay in the direct line of descent”—direct line of
descendants, intermarriage?
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
 How is Roderick described? (704-705)
 “ghastly pallor of the skin” (704)
 “excessive nervous agitation” (705)
 “his action was alternatively vivacious and sullen”
 “He suffered much from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the
most insipid food was alone endurable; he could ear only
garments of certain texture; the odors of all flowers were
oppressive; his eyes were tortured by even a faint light” (705)
 Roderick attributes part of his illness to his sister, who
suffered from catalepsy (loss of sensation and muscular
paralysis”
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
 How does the narrator attempt to cheer up Roderick? (706-709)
 Roderick Usher’s song?
 “The Haunted Palace” (707)
 What is the ‘song’ about?
 Fall into madness
 Compares palace to human head  at first the head and palace is
beautiful, but it slowly decays and becomes demented
 How does it relate to the story?
 Madeline Usher dies
 Where is she buried and why?
 What does the narrator notice about her cheeks? Foreshadowing?
 “Faint blush upon the bosom and the face” (710)
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
 How does the death of Madeline impact Roderick and his behavior?
 Fall into madness:
 “roamed from chamber to chamber with hurried, unequal, objectless step”
(710)
 “more ghastly hue” (710)
 “once occasional huskiness of his tone was heard no more” (710)
 Noises in the house?
 Narrator is reading a medieval romance to Roderick, but hears the
noises of the story in the house around them (712-713)
 Noises continue: “No sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than—as if a
shield of brass had indeed, at the moment, fallen heavily upon a floor of
silver—I became aware of a distinct, hollow, metallic, and clangorous, yet
apparently muffled reverberation” (713)
“The Fall of the House of Usher”
 Madeline alive?
 Roderick admits to having heard noises for several days
and declares that Madeline is alive
 Roderick claims that “We have put her living in the
tomb!” and that she is now standing behind the door of
the room
 What happens at the end?
 Madeline attacks Roderick, both die (714)
 How do they die?
 Narrator leaves the house as it crumbles to the ground
Discussion Questions
 1. Not much is known about the narrator—how does
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the impact our perception of the story?
2. What are some examples of foreshadowing in the
story?
3. Compare and contrast the narrator from “The fall of
the House of Usher” to the narrator in “The Tell-Tale
Heart”?
4. What is the mood throughout the story?
5. What horror elements do you notice throughout the
story?