It is surely interesting to consider the ways in which control and autonomy appear in Charlotte Temple. By definition they are meant to be polar opposite concepts, yet in the story they seem to go hand in hand. This phenomenon can be explained through saying that Charlotte Temple was more or less controlled by her … Continue reading Manipulation, Control, and False Autonomy in Charlotte Temple →

As I read Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson, one of the first major questions that I continued to think throughout the novel as I read it was “Is this real love that is being expressed or is this fake love?” And by fake love I mean love that is really just emotions like lust, manipulation, … Continue reading Disguised Love →

*TW: this post contains mentions of rape, sexual abuse, and other forms of sexual violence.*             Adolescence is a transition from childhood to adulthood, ideally allowing a person to grow and develop their own sense of being and identity while still having the safety net of living under the roof of your parents.  Unfortunately, not … Continue reading The Initiation Into Adulthood: Sexual Violence →

Little girls play with dolls while little boys play with trucks. Over two hundred years after Charlotte Temple was written, we still hear phrases like this; it is apparent that we still fight some of Charlotte’s battles to this day. These traditional gender roles play a large part in the power dynamic between characters in … Continue reading 200 Years later… →

In today’s society, girlhood/boyhood, adolescence, and adulthood are commonly seen as three very separate stages in a person’s life. Although there may not be clear boundaries between these stages, I think that these are clear separate phases in someone’s life. However, certain scenarios can cause these phases to shift and a person does not fit … Continue reading Exploring the boundaries that separate stages of life. →

Ideas and stereotypes surrounding the female gender are engrained in our society and expectations, and certainly are present in Susanna Rowson's 18th century novel Charlotte Temple. Rowson weaves both antiquated and modern ideas of femininity into the plot, and differentiates those stereotypes through age and maturity. Most clearly, Rowson writes other characters that refer to … Continue reading The Battle of Girlhood and Womanhood In Charlotte Temple →

One of my earliest memories of myself gaining autonomy was when my parents let me make myself scrambled eggs on my own. It wasn’t on the stove yet, but I was allowed to crack them in a bowl, scramble them, and put them in the microwave for a minute or so. I was probably about … Continue reading Potential of an Autonomous Collective →

The Industrial Revolution caused major changes by the 1840s, the workforce needed all the hands it could find, inevitably seeking out young girls to help in the textile mills such as the girls writing for The Lowell Offering. Girls provided benefits to employers such as their small size, being cheap labor, and by the sheer … Continue reading Emotions of a Mill Girl →

Liz Timple The Lowell Offering provides us with an insight into the plight and struggle of child laborers working in textile mills in the 19th century and supplies us with a first-hand account of the adolescent perspective within this context. The piece most notably imparts the intersecting motifs of power and autonomy through the vantage point of … Continue reading Harmony in a Wealth of Dissonance: Power and Autonomy in The Lowell Offering →

Whether you’re a 17 year old high school student in the 21st century or a 15 year old moving to another continent with a stranger in the late 1700s... adolescence raises some questions. Figuring out one’s identity during adolescence is a universal experience, which is highlighted throughout Charlotte Temple. As she faces various new life … Continue reading Who Am I? & Other Questions of Adolescence →