Evolution

Adeline’s character was the character that intrigued me the most. When she was forced upon LaMotte we were introduced to a scared and helpless individual. When she was first introduced, it was unclear what type of character she would be, but it was made apparent that she would be a major character. The fact that she was placed under LaMotte’s care, caused a bit of confusion. What kind of role would she play, since LaMotte is already married? She seemed like she would be a fragile and troublesome character, although she did cause a few problems, she was the opposite of weak. She stood up for herself and did not give into anything she did not want to. Adeline takes everything learned from LaMotte and applies it to her everyday life, and because of that we see a evolution in character.

Law and Romantic Language

As we talked about in class, at the time of Revolution and the social agitation in the area, there is a difference in discourse and language that the government and political figures would be trying to prevent from being seen or read by the common citizen. While the discussion of it went many ways, some saying that she had no read strategy behind her political voice, also that in times of turmoil, the government would see anything written as a threat, but in my opinion, I think simply living in this time, being an English citizen and a woman in this time of trouble would naturally sway her voice to a particular point of view.
I find that even when I am writing about something completely unrelated to politcs or feminist problems, my views ultimately creep out simply because of the time I live in and the situations that surround me as a woman in my time. I feel that as an educated, intelligent woman, she has a voice, whether she intentionally meant for it to be heard through this novel or not, we do not know, but it is a voice that is being heard.

Our Leading Lady

As soon as I was introduced to Adeline’s character while reading The Romance of the Forest, I knew that there was a reason the Radcliffe chose to have this woman as our heroine. As the book was starting out, I could tell that many readers (especially female readers) would have a problem with Adeline because she came off as the typical damsel in distress. It seemed that she was constantly being dramatic, fainting, or crying. She is described as being young and beautiful, and these things only add on to the idea that she is also naïve and innocent; almost to a fault. If you take her at face value, she seems like a weak protagonist. However, I also got the feeling that there had to be more to Adeline. There’s no way that this woman is nothing past her crying and gentleness. I argued this in our class discussion, and it was a risky argument to make, considering that at that point we had only read the first part of the novel and we still didn’t know much about her. As I went on to read further in the book, I found that my argument was a pretty solid one. Although Adeline seems like a fragile being, the mysterious things about her that are revealed as the novel goes on make us appreciate her character a little more. She is in fact a strong character, and I’m glad that I gave her the benefit of the doubt from the beginning. I believe the Adeline’s true strength is revealed towards the end of the book (for example when she refuses to marry the Marquis despite all the trouble that it may cause) as the plot begins to shift and we begin to understand who she really is. These things allowed me to view her as a woman with high moral standards and the perfect heroine for a mysterious gothic romance.

Poetry in Romance of the Forest

The poetry Radcliffe interposes into the novel is something I would almost equate to the lack of dialogue in the first half of the novel. Poetry is vague and open to a variety of interpretations, and I believe can be just as vague as actions. The quotes are not the characters' direct thoughts, but rather forewarnings in the beginning of the chapters, or a song being sung. Because the poems are not exactly direct thoughts, the meanings leave room for interpretation and even deception. I believe that in employing the quotations and poetry excerpts, Radcliffe is adding mystery to the novel.

Originally, I considered the lack of dialogue in the beginning of the novel to be a way to allow for future character development and deception. Body language can easily be misinterpreted and if the reader believes Adeline is a meek, frantic girl, they will be surprised to see her later capable of deception. So in my opinion, the poetry is doing a similiar thing: Forcing the reader into profound thought about what the excerpt means in relation to the novel without directly revealing the characters' motives.

“Self-preservation is the great law of nature”

I wanted to look at the character of La Motte and to a lesser extent the character of the Marquis and go into detail about a few of their interactions in volume three.

                What really intrigued me were the conversations between the two characters at the abbey and the way that we can see the internal struggle of La Motte. Up until now La Motte really has been acting out of self –preservation, fleeing Paris to avoid being captured and in general looking out for number one. I really think that up to this point that La Motte has not shown many outward signs of remorse from self- reflection. It seems that Radcliffe has done this just to make La Motte’s epiphany that much greater when he does begin to reflect on what he has done. The catalyst for this reflection is the Marquis, who is a man of greater means both financially and socially and his request that La Motte kill Adeline. This of course causes La Motte to panic since he had grown fond of Adeline and had no desire to kill her.  The perfect summation of the moment of realization is right at the beginning of chapter 15 “He saw himself entangled in the web which his own crimes had woven.” Being in the power of the Marquis, he knew he must either consent to the commission of a deed, from the enormity of which, depraved as he was, he shrunk in horror, or sacrifice fortune, freedom, probably life itself, to the refusal.”

                I do not believe this revelation would have occurred if the request had not come from a socially equal or inferior person. Since it was the Marquis who asked for the death of Adeline, La Motte had to at least consider the consequences of A. what was being asked and B. what the repercussions were for refusing to do so would be. I believe it was because of the Marquis that we are able to see a shift in the character of La Motte from just acting out of self- preservation to looking to the safety of others.

Poetry in The Romance of the Forest

In volume one of The Romance of the Forest, Ann Radcliffe's use of poetry serves to express the restrained emotions and sentiments of her characters. Adeline, for example, constantly holds her tongue in front of La Motte and Madame La Motte when ever she feels she's suffered an indignation, mostly because she doesn't want to seem ungrateful towards them. It is only through her poetry that she can express her true feelings about her circumstances. Even when Madame La Motte is in the midst of her jealous fits, Radcliffe quotes Shakespeare's Othello and says, "Trifles, light as air, Are, to the jealous, confirmations strong as proof of Holy Writ". Through this quote the affects of Madame La Motte's jealously are better understood than they would have been using her own constrained perspective. Had Radcliffe decided to omit the passages of poetry, the novel would have been fully anxiety driven, not unlike The Castle of Otranto. It is because of the poetry that the reader can step out of the anxiety of the character's situation and get clear insights to how the characters really feel, not just how they feel at the moment.