71 pages • 2 hours read
Wieland
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Woman as Victim of Seduction
17th and 18th century fiction represents women as victims of seduction in the sense that they are seen as too physically and intellectually weak to defend themselves. Nevertheless, if they are unchaste, either with or without consent, they lose their social standing.
Often the conflict revolves around the idea that virtue is its own protection. If the heroine maintains her virtue, then the assailant will either be disarmed or will fall in love with her and offer honorable marriage. Carwin references this idea when he claims that Clara’s supernatural protector has disarmed him and made him physically unable to complete the proposed act. He then argues that even had he not been stopped, his feelings for her would render the act not dishonorable to her.
The virtue-is-its-own-defense argument contains a Catch-22. If an assailant succeeds in his aim, that proves that the woman was not sufficiently virtuous to disarm him. Thus, she has consented by default. In this context, the question of consent becomes meaningless. Under this antiquated view, even if a woman should successfully defend herself by killing her assailant, the fact that she was unable to disarm him by virtue alone proves consent on her part. The only proof she can give of her lack of consent is her own death. When Clara believes Carwin is coming back, she seizes a tiny penknife with the intention of ending her life if Carwin should attack her. Clara has always imagined herself doing away with an attacker, but she has discovered that when push comes to shove, she is not sufficiently strong or aggressive. Her only remaining option is self-destruction.
The rationale is the same as the theory that if a woman is suspected of witchcraft, she can be tested by binding her hands and feet and dropping her in deep water. If she drowns, she is innocent. If she swims, she is a witch and should be hanged. Enlightenment era thinking, with its emphasis on rationalism, rejected this kind of reasoning, but the social and emotional taboos around female sexuality persist.
The exception that proves the rule is when the assailant manages to overcome the woman’s virtue, and she must be rescued by a man. In that case, the prescribed response on her part is to faint, enacting a symbolic death as a means of signaling to her rescuer that the episode was nonconsensual. Clara does this twice in her confrontation with Henry when he accuses her of willfully becoming involved with Carwin. Each time, her collapse provokes Henry’s sympathy and almost convinces him that perhaps his perception of her immorality is false. Each time, however, he reverts to his false belief when she refuses to acknowledge and repent her supposed sin.
Clara does everything right, in the eyes of 18th century society. First, she is supposedly protected by her own virtue. Second, she resolves to die rather than allow there to be any question of consent. Finally, she faints repeatedly to signal lack of consent, but despite everything she can do, Henry still condemns her. The only route he allows her is to accept the shame of a “crime” she did not commit.
The Transformation from Girlhood to Womanhood
Although the title of the book—Wieland: or The Transformation, (an American Tale)—implies that the story and the transformation are those of Theodore Wieland, it is Clara who seems the most profoundly transformed, from a naïve and fanciful girl to a woman who exercises a degree of judgment and self-awareness.
Clara’s ideas of female virtue are initially childlike, though consistent with a culture that regarded women as essentially children. Her view of sexuality is naïve and romantic. When she daydreams about Henry’s declaration of love for her, she imagines moonlight and blushes. She pictures the entire sequence: The moon rises at 11 p.m.; they will wend their way along the bank of the river; he will reveal his soul; and she will be the happiest of women. She waxes positively Shakespearean:
Add wings to thy speed, sweet evening; and thou, moon, I charge thee, shroud thy beams at the moment when my Pleyel whispers love. I would not for the world, that the burning blushes, and the mounting raptures of that moment, should be visible (40).
The summerhouse, with its associations of earth and water, and femininity and fertility, is still Clara’s private retreat where no man has ever been—not even Henry. She associates the summerhouse with peace and rest, not passion. Only when she stays too long does Carwin transform her place of innocent repose into one of confusion and menace, driving Clara out.
Tricksters are typically highly sexualized, and Carwin slithers into Clara’s pastoral paradise like a serpent in the garden, introducing Clara to the perils of adulthood, including adult sexuality. Her initial tempestuous fascination with him, while not overtly sexual, contains subtext of dark sexuality in the images of Caliban and Pan. Carwin also makes her aware of death: “I said to myself, we must die. Sooner or later, we must disappear for ever from the face of the earth. Whatever be the links that hold us to life, they must be broken.” (29) Shortly thereafter, he introduces her to the more immediate fear of death through his scenario in the closet.
From Carwin, Clara learns as well that virtue is not its own protection: Being a good and virtuous person does not protect a person from evil. When she finds Carwin in her closet and he claims he intended to assault her, she realizes for the first time that she does not have the power to defend herself. She is trapped, unprepared, unarmed, and unable to get past him to escape. When she believes she hears him returning, she concludes that the only escape from a fate “worse than death” is to put an end to herself.
Clara’s final lesson from Carwin is that her virtue does not even protect her reputation, no matter how blameless she might be. If Henry shared what he believes about her, she would be treated by all of society as if it were true. Henry demonstrates that her very denial is further proof of her depravity.
Clara is very nearly destroyed by the events set in motion by Carwin, but in the final chapter, she recounts how, after a period of dormancy, she is reborn out of a tumultuous dream like a caterpillar emerging into its adult form. She reenters the world not as a naïve girl who follows the rules and is rewarded but as a woman who leaves behind her childhood paradise.
The Failure of Critical Thinking
All of the characters suffer from a failure of critical thinking. Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally. It includes the ability to analyze information, identify logical flaws in arguments, and make reasoned decisions. Critical thinking allows people to see beyond their personal biases and preconceptions and to consider all sides of an issue.
Clara, Theodore and Henry all hold false beliefs which they are unable or unwilling to overcome by reason. False beliefs can be difficult to overcome by reason alone, as is the case when Henry falls for Carwin’s trick in the summerhouse. His senses tell him what he heard, and his reading of Clara’s diary seems to confirm his belief. However, once Clara told him he was mistaken, he had all the information he needed to test his belief; he read Clara’s diary, yet it never occurred to him that Carwin might have done the same. Carwin told them about people who could perfectly imitate another person’s voice, yet he never considered that the voice he heard might not be Clara’s, despite the fact that he heard his own sister’s disembodied voice at times and in places where he knew his sister was not present.
Carwin's use of ventriloquism illustrates the importance of critical thinking by showing that the senses can be fooled. This is significant because it means that people cannot always trust what they see and hear, and that they need to use their reason to figure out what is really going on. Henry’s reason and knowledge of Clara's character should have cast doubt on the evidence of his senses, just as Wieland's reason should have told him the voices he heard were not real.
Theodore’s unflagging belief that the voices in his head are from God illustrates his failure of critical thinking, in that he experiences reality in a way that is not consistent with the majority of people. For example, he sees and hears things that other people do not, which can be very confusing and frightening.
To the author, reason is a more important tool than blind emotion or faith for understanding and navigating the world. It allows humans to think critically and make reasoned decisions. However, reason can be undermined by the senses and by preconceived ideas that are not sufficiently proven. Religious mania, mental illness, and deliberate deception are all examples of situations in which reason can be compromised. These situations can lead to irrational decisions and potentially dangerous actions.
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