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Caitlyn Marie Gerardi

Professor Nevarez
English 253
25 November 2018

Final Exam Essay Amer. Renaissance Fall 2018

In literary texts, particularly works of fiction, it is not uncommon for a major character to

make a mistake or do something wrong and then have to suffer negative consequences for their

actions. The literature of the American Renaissance period is no exception. Creating morally

accountable characters is a common literary tool, or theme, for authors to include in their writing

because it gives them a simple yet effective way to teach their readers a moral lesson through

their literature. Writing stories in which characters must suffer consequences they did not intend

for their actions allows authors to convey a message to their audience that ‘if you do this morally

wrong or ambiguous thing, it may come back to bite you later.’ In several of the texts from the

American Renaissance period, bad things happen to major characters as the result of their own

actions, teaching readers that one cannot escape the consequences of one's actions forever.

In the short stories “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” both by

author Washington Irving, the main character does a foolish or ignorant thing and must suffer for

it later. In “Rip Van Winkle,” the titular character is an incredibly irresponsible man, and he

decides one day to escape his wife’s nagging him (to be sure he works and keeps their family

functioning) by wandering off into the woods, alone except for the company of his dog. Irving

describes this poor and irresponsible decision of Rip’s as “Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to

despair, and his only alternative to escape from the labour of the farm and the clamour of his
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wife was to take gun in hand and stroll away into the woods. Here he would sometimes seat

himself at the foot of a tree. . in a long ramble of the kind on a fine autumnal day, Rip had

unconsciously scrambled to one of the highest parts of the Kaatskill Mountains.. . (33) After

finding himself alone in the mountains, Rip also hears a strange voice calling his name and, like

the fool he is, decides to follow it deeper into the wilderness, as “he hastened down to yield [the

voice]” (34). Both of these actions, particularly Rip’s desire to follow a voice deep into the

mountains whose owner he does not know, lead to strange and unfortunate consequences for him

later in his story. In “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” the main character, schoolteacher Ichabod

Crane, is a man who has a crush on a woman in town, but seems to like her family’s farm, which

is full of delicious and plentiful crops, even more than he does her. Irving writes that “Ichabod

Crane had a soft and foolish heart toward the sex; and it was not to be wondered at, that so

tempting a morsel soon found favour in his eyes, more especially after he had visited her in her

paternal mansion” (47). Ichabod’s casual liking of Katrina van Tassle is far outweighed by his

greed and his desire to be a glutton. His obvious desire to pursue both Katrina and her farm do

not, however, make him very popular with the local townspeople, especially a man named Brom

Bones. Bones and and his townsmen know that if Ichabod were to ever marry Katrina, he would

consume and use for himself and his own family all of the crops and wealth in the van Tassle

farm, which would be detrimental to the economic well being of the town, of which this farm is

an important staple. Ichabod pursues Katrina and goes to her party at the end of the story in spite

of the fact that this persistence made Brom Bones and others in town hate him. In deciding to

attend Katrina’s party alone at the end of the story, Ichabod also is deciding to ride home on a

horse by himself through mostly abandoned woods, which may be an unsafe and foolish
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decision, especially in light of the fact that it is nighttime when the party ends and he has people

in his town who hate him. Irving writes of Ichabod’s ride home that “It was the very witching

hour. . . [when] Ichabod, heavyhearted and bedrooped, pursued his travel homewards, along the

sides of the lofty hills which rose above Tarry Town, and which he had traversed so cheerily in

the afternoon. The hour was as dismal as himself. Far below him the Tappaan Zee spread its

disky and indistinct waste of waters, with here and there the tall mast of a sloop, riding quietly at

anchor under the land” (57). Had Ichabod not pursued Katrina or decided to go home alone at

night, the ending of his story may have been very different.

In the cases of both Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane, the men had to face negative

consequences for the foolish actions they had decided upon. Rip Van Winkle, after following the

voice he hears and drinking with the strange group of people he meets in the mountains, falls

asleep only to wake up alone in the wilderness at a completely different time of day. Upon

discovering that he has stayed there all night, Rip exclaims “Oh that wicked flagon! What excuse

shall I make Dame Van Winkle?” (35). As Rip eventually learns, however, he has not spent

hours, but years, alone in the wilderness and asleep. He has slept through not days, but decades.

He does not fully understand this, however, until he returns home to his town and realizes that he

does not recognize anyone and that the political situation is different in New York than he

remembers. He sees a painting of George Washington and does not know what to make of it, as

Irving writes “The red coat was changed for one of a blue and buff, a sword was stuck in the

hand in stead of a scepter, the head was decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath was painted

in large characters General Washington” (37). The fact that paintings of the English King have

been replaced by George Washington’s image is one of the major first hints that Rip receives that
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the time period has changed. He also goes on to meet his daughter, who was a young child when

he left, as an adult. When he appears, she tells him that everyone presumed him dead when he

disappeared when she was a child, as “whether he shot himself or was carried away by the

Indians, nobody can tell. I was then but a little girl” (39). Rip van Winkle, for his laziness and

ability to sleep through decades of experiences, and his attempt to escape his responsibilities by

running away, misses out on living a good deal of his his life and on watching his children grow

up. In the case of Ichabod Crane, Ichabod’s decision to ride home alone through the woods at

night led him to be attacked by a ghostly monster who looked like a Headless Horseman. He saw

“the goblin rising in his stirrups, and in the very act of hurling his head at him. Ichabod

endeavored to dodge the horrible missile, but too late. It encountered his cranium with a

tremendous crash- he was tumbled headlong into the dust, and Gunpowder, the black steed, and

the rider, passed by like a whirlwind” (59-60). After this encounter with the Headless Horseman

in the woods on his way home from the party at night, Ichabod is never found or heard from

again. His body is never found either, only his hat. Ichabod suffered the consequences of riding

home alone through the woods at night and was attacked due to his unsafe and foolish decision.

Furthermore, if one chooses to read the story as one of revenge, thinking that Brom Bones was

really the Headless Horseman, then Ichabod’s decision to pursue Katrina in spite of the fact that

it made others hate him led directly to Brom wanting to kill him and succeeding.

In the works “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe and “The Scarlet

Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main characters also have to face the consequences of their

actions. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Prince Prospero knows that his kingdom is being

ravaged by a horrible disease known as the Red Death, which is described by Poe as “no
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pestilence had been ever so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal- the redness

and the horror of blood” (687). In spite of this fact, however, Prince Prospero decides to throw a

party, as “when his dominions were half depopulated, he summoned to his presence a thousand,

hale and light-hearted friends from among the Knights and dames of his court, and with these he

retired to the deep seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys” (687). Prince Prospero is a selfish

and uncaring ruler who does nothing to try to save his people from death at the hands of a

horrible disease, instead waiting until it passes before he emerges from his castle, and partying

with his friends to pass the time as he does so. In Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter,” Hester

Prynne’s decision to have sex out of wedlock leads to her pregnancy. Hawthorne writes of Hester

when she was made to stand on a platform before her community that “in a moment, however,

wisely judging that one token [her baby] of her shame would poorly serve to hide another [her

scarlet A], she took the baby on her arm, and, with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and

a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbors” (479-480).

Hester’s decision led to the existence of her baby, who was considered by her community to be a

“token of shame” and whose presence led to poor consequences for Hester later on.

In “Masque of the Red Death” and “The Scarlet Letter,” Hester Prynne and Prince

Prospero must face different consequences for their own actions. In “Masque of the Red Death,”

Prince Prospero must ultimately face death for his poor actions as ruler over his Kingdom. When

his party at his castle is happening, a mysterious figure appears at it who no one seems to know

the identity of. He is described by Poe as “the figure was tall and gaunt, and shrouded from head

to foot in the habiliment of the grave. The mask which concealed the visage was made so only to

resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty
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in detecting the cheat.. . . [and he] had gone so far as to assume the type of the Red

Death” (690). The figure is dressed, very convincingly, as a corpse who has died of the Red

Death. The figure, having suddenly appeared at the party, proceeds to kill Prince Prospero and

the other party guests, which Poe describes as “[Prince Prospero] had bore aloft a drawn dagger,

and had approached, in rapid impetuosity, to within three or four feet of the retreating figure,

when the latter having gained the extremity of the velvet apartment, turned suddenly round and

confronted his pursuer. There was a was a sharp cry- and the dagger dropped gleaming upon the

sable carpet, upon which instantly afterwards, fell prostrate in death the Prince Prospero” (691).

Prince Prospero, in the end, died because of his lack of responsibility as a ruler. He either was

killed by a ghostly figure, which one could argue was a form of “karma” for his abandoning his

people to die of a terrible disease, since he ended up being “killed” by the same “disease”

himself; or else he was killed by a person who wanted revenge on him. If one reads the story as

the latter, believing that a disgruntled townsperson with supernatural abilities appeared at the

party and killed everyone, including Prince Prospero, then his death was an act of revenge by

someone who was tired of watching their friends and family die while their Prince sat by and did

nothing to stop it. If his murder was committed by a person, then his irresponsibility and inaction

in the face of his people’s peril led directly to someone wanting to kill him and subsequently

succeeding. In “The Scarlet Letter,” Hester Prynne becomes a social outcast and has very little

company because of her having had a baby out of wedlock. Hawthorne writes that “Lonely as

was Hester’s situation, and without a friend on Earth who dared to show himself, she, however,

incurred no risk of want. She possessed an art that sufficed, even in a land that afforded

comparatively little scope for its exercise” (495). She also was jailed at one point in time and was
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made to stand on a pedestal and be mocked by all of the people in her village as part of her

punishment for having had an affair and a child. Hawthorne describes this very public method of

punishment saying “Hester Prynne had been standing on her pedestal, still with a fixed gaze

towards the stranger; so fixed a gaze, that, at moments of intense absorption, all other objects in

the visible world seemed to vanish, leaving only him and her” (485). Hester is made to face both

punishment mandated by the government under which she lives, and punishment inflicted in a

much less official, yet no less painful, way by the everyday people in the town she lives in as the

result of her having a baby out of wedlock.

In a fifth work from the American Renaissance time period, the poem “Wild Nights, Wild

Nights” by Emily Dickinson, the narrator of the poem can be said to be facing consequences of a

much less physical type as the result of her actions. Readers are aware that the narrator of the

poem is apart (it seems literally and physically) from her lover, as she says that “Were I with

thee/Wild nights should be/Our luxury!” (1670). Readers are also told that she wishes she were

with her lover and is emotionally distressed because she is not, as she says “Ah-the Sea!/Might I

but moor -tonight-/in thee!” (1670). While it is not directly stated in Dickinson’s poem, if one

chooses to read the separation between the lover and the narrator as being the result of their own,

albeit difficult, decision to be geographically apart from one another, then the narrator is

experiencing sadness, and perhaps depression and longing, as the result of her decision to

separate from her lover. Readers are not told in the poem why the two characters are apart, under

what circumstances they separated, or whether or not it was their decision to separate, but if one

chooses to read the poem as a story of two people who did not want to be apart, but made the
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difficult decision that one of them had a very important reason to go away, then the narrator can

be said to be suffering emotionally as the result of her own decision.

Many authors choose to create characters who face difficult consequences as the result of

their own decisions because it allows them to convey a message to readers that their actions will

have consequences. Authors of the American Renaissance time period were no exception to this

rule. Quite a few of the authors of this time period employed consequences for the actions of

their characters as a plot device. As a result, they left behind a legacy of novels and stories that

are interesting to read and that have moral messages to convey to readers.