The Power of Sympathy - Critical Discussions

Critical Discussions

The novel has ties to American politics and nationhood, just as many early American sentimental novels can be read as allegorical accounts of the nation's development. These critics have argued that these novels' use of moral education as a means to avoid seduction functions as a way to show readers the virtues and education most needed by the new American nation. Elizabeth Maddock Dillon complicates this standard reading by locating the novel within a global context marked by "forces of colonialism, mercantile capitalism, and imperialism." In this reading, the workings of the novel (incest and miscegenation specifically, Dillon argues) are read not necessarily as indicative of the formation of the American nation but as representative of the effects of colonialism in the New World.

As the novel’s title indicates, sympathy is the driving force behind several characters’ actions. The excesses of sympathetic thought lead to tragedy; it is implied that Harrington’s suicide, for example, is spurred on by an over identification with The Sorrows of Young Werther, a copy of which is found alongside his body. These excesses are contrasted with the rational thinking of characters like Worthy, who strives to uphold normative social and moral ideals. While the overly sympathetic characters do not survive the course of the novel, the rational characters do survive, suggesting that at the very least, a balance of sympathy and rational thinking (or the use of reason to overcome passion) are necessary for a productive, successful member of society.

Another scholarly discussion surrounding the text is the question of its ability to serve as a didactic text for 18th-century readers, with earlier critics unquestioningly discussing the novel's didactic intent; more recent scholars, however, have questioned the novel's ability to teach morality yet frankly discuss seduction and incest. The novel’s preface claims that it is:

Intended to represent the specious causes, and to Expose the fatal CONSEQUENCES, of SEDUCTION; To inspire the Female Mind With a Principle of Self Complacency, and to Promote the Economy of Human Life.

Essentially, Brown claims that his text has the ability to teach young women how to avoid these scandalous errors. Ample discussions of seduction and incest are included (as Brown suggests) to illustrate these potential dangers to young men and women. However, scholars have questioned the inclusion of such topics, asserting that these issues overshadow the morality lesson they supposedly teach and arguing that 18th century readers read such novels for the thrill of taboo discussions—-not moral guidance.