Midterm

Of Plymouth Plantation

William Bradford

Selected Works

Anne Bradstreet

A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson

Mary Rowlandson

The Speech of Miss Polly Baker

Benjamin Franklin

On the Equality of the Sexes

Judith Sargent Murray

Amelia; or, the Faithless Briton

Anonymous

Rip Van Winkle

Washington Irving

Self-Reliance

Ralph Waldo Emerson

My Kinsman, Major Molineux

Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Birth-Mark

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass

The Tell-Tale Heart

Edgar Allan Poe

The Black Cat

Edgar Allan Poe

Song of Myself

Walt Whitman

When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer

Walt Whitman

Bartleby, the Scrivener

Herman Melville

Puritanism

A literary movement based on Puritan beliefs, emphasizing God, faith, morality, hard work, sin, and divine providence. William Bradford, Anne Bradstreet, Mary Rowlandson

Captivity Narrative

A type of writing that tells the story of a person who is captured and held by another group, often emphasizing survival, faith, and cultural conflict. Mary Rowlandson

Feminism

A literary and intellectual movement that questioned traditional ideas about women’s roles and argued that women deserved greater equality. Judith Sargent Murray, Benjamin Franklin

Enlightenment

A literary and intellectual movement that emphasizes reason, logic, science, education, and individual rights. Represents reason. Benjamin Franklin, Judith Sargent Murray

Sentimentalism

A literary movement that emphasizes strong emotions, sympathy, morality, virtue, and emotional responses to suffering. Anonymous author of Amelia; or, the Faithless Briton

Transcendentalism

A literary and philosophical movement that emphasizes individualism, intuition, nature, self-reliance, and trusting yourself over society. Represents intuition. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman

American Romanticism

A literary movement that emphasizes emotion, imagination, individuality, nature, and personal experience rather than reason and logic. Represents emotion. Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville

Abolitionism

A literary and social movement that opposed slavery and used writing to expose its cruelty, challenge pro-slavery beliefs, and argue for freedom and equality. Frederick Douglass

Gothic

A darker form of Romanticism that emphasizes fear, death, madness, guilt, the supernatural, psychological instability, and disturbing or mysterious events. Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne

Providence

The belief that God actively guides events and human history according to a divine plan. Especially important to Bradford and Rowlandson.

Calvinism

A branch of Protestant Christianity emphasizing human sinfulness, God’s absolute authority, predestination, and salvation through God’s grace. Important to Bradford, Bradstreet, and Rowlandson.

Predestination

The Calvinist belief that God has already determined who will ultimately be saved. Bradford, Bradstreet, Rowlandson.

The Elect

In Calvinism, the people chosen by God for salvation. Bradford, Bradstreet, Rowlandson.

Divine Testing

The idea that suffering and hardship can function as tests of a person’s faith. Bradstreet, Rowlandson.

Natural Rights

The Enlightenment idea that people possess fundamental rights simply because they are human. Murray, Franklin, Douglass.

Satire

The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose hypocrisy or criticize society. Especially important to Franklin’s “The Speech of Miss Polly Baker.”

Seduction Narrative

A story in which a woman is seduced, abandoned, or betrayed, often exploring gender expectations, morality, and women’s vulnerability. Amelia; or, the Faithless Briton.

Self-Reliance

Emerson’s belief that individuals should trust their own judgment and inner voice rather than conforming to society or depending on institutions.

Genius

For Emerson, the ability to recognize, trust, and express your own original thoughts rather than dismissing them because others disagree.

Original Sin

The Christian belief that humanity is inherently sinful or imperfect. Important background for Hawthorne and “The Birth-Mark.”

Dark Romanticism

A darker form of Romanticism focusing on human imperfection, sin, evil, psychological darkness, and the irrational. Hawthorne, Poe, Melville.

The Sublime

A Romantic concept describing an overwhelming feeling of awe, wonder, beauty, and sometimes terror caused by something greater than oneself.

The Imp of the Perverse

Poe’s idea that humans sometimes have an irrational urge to do something specifically because they know they should not, even when it harms them. Especially important to “The Black Cat.”

Slave Narrative

An autobiographical account of enslavement that exposes the realities and brutality of slavery while asserting the humanity of the formerly enslaved writer. Frederick Douglass.

Christian Hypocrisy

Douglass’s criticism of slaveholders who claim to be Christian while practicing and defending slavery. Especially important in the Narrative and its Appendix.

Dead Letter Office

The office where undeliverable mail was processed, where Bartleby is rumored to have worked before becoming a scrivener. The image of letters that can never reach their intended recipients connects to failed communication, hopelessness, and death.

Civil Disobedience

The refusal to cooperate with authority or its expectations. This can be used as a lens for Bartleby’s repeated refusal to work, although Bartleby never clearly identifies his behavior as political protest.

William Bradford

From Of Plymouth Plantation. The author and narrator who records the Pilgrims’ experiences and frequently interprets events through his Puritan belief in God’s providence.

John Howland

From Of Plymouth Plantation. A young passenger on the Mayflower who is swept overboard during a storm but grabs a rope and is rescued, an event Bradford presents as an example of God’s providence.

The Profane Young Sailor

From Of Plymouth Plantation. An unnamed sailor who mocks the sick Pilgrims and threatens that they will be thrown overboard if they die. He suddenly becomes sick and dies himself, which Bradford presents as divine justice.

Samoset

From Of Plymouth Plantation. A Native man who approaches the Plymouth settlers and surprises them by speaking English. He gives them information about the surrounding Native peoples and helps establish contact.

Tisquantum (Squanto)

From Of Plymouth Plantation. A Native man who speaks English and becomes an interpreter and guide for the Pilgrims. He teaches them how to plant corn, find fish, and survive in the area; Bradford calls him “a special instrument sent of God.”

Massasoit

From Of Plymouth Plantation. The sachem, or leader, of the Pokanoket who meets with the Plymouth settlers and establishes a peaceful agreement with them.

Thomas Morton

From Of Plymouth Plantation. The leader associated with Merrymount who holds festivities around a maypole and sells guns to Native Americans. Bradford portrays him as immoral and dangerous to the colonies.

Miles Standish

From Of Plymouth Plantation. Plymouth’s military leader who is sent with armed men to confront and arrest Thomas Morton.

The Author to Her Book

Anne Bradstreet

Before the Birth of One of Her Children

Anne Bradstreet

To My Dear and Loving Husband

Anne Bradstreet

A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment

Anne Bradstreet

In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August, 1665, Being a Year and Half Old

Anne Bradstreet

Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July 10th, 1666

Anne Bradstreet

To My Dear Children

Anne Bradstreet

Anne Bradstreet

From all of the Anne Bradstreet selections. The poet and speaker whose personal experiences with writing, marriage, motherhood, loss, faith, and family form the center of these works.

Bradstreet’s Husband

From To My Dear and Loving Husband, A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment, and Before the Birth of One of Her Children. Bradstreet’s deeply loved husband, whom she describes as an essential part of herself and addresses when confronting separation and the possibility of her death.

Elizabeth Bradstreet

From In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August, 1665, Being a Year and Half Old. Bradstreet’s young granddaughter whose death causes Bradstreet grief while she tries to accept the loss as part of God’s will.

Mary Rowlandson

From A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. The narrator and central figure who is captured during an attack on Lancaster and held for about eleven weeks. She interprets her suffering, survival, and eventual release through her Puritan faith and belief in God’s providence.

Sarah

From A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Rowlandson’s six-year-old daughter who is wounded during the attack and dies while in captivity, becoming one of the most important sources of Rowlandson’s grief.

Joseph Rowlandson

From A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Mary’s husband, a minister who is away when Lancaster is attacked and later works toward securing her release.

Joseph Rowlandson Jr.

From A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Mary’s son who is also taken captive and separated from her, though she encounters him during her captivity.

Mary Rowlandson’s Older Daughter

From A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Mary’s daughter who escapes capture because she is away from Lancaster during the attack and is later reunited with her mother.

Quinnapin

From A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. The Native man whom Rowlandson identifies as her master during much of her captivity.

Weetamoo

From A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. A powerful Wampanoag woman and Quinnapin’s wife whom Rowlandson describes as her mistress.

King Philip (Metacom)

From A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. The Wampanoag leader at the center of King Philip’s War whom Rowlandson encounters during her captivity and who treats her relatively civilly, including asking her to make clothing for his child.

Polly Baker

From The Speech of Miss Polly Baker. An unmarried woman repeatedly punished for having children outside marriage. She defends herself before the court by arguing that she has harmed no one, has supported her children, and is unfairly punished while the men involved face no consequences.

Judith Sargent Murray

From On the Equality of the Sexes. The speaker who argues that women and men possess equal intellectual abilities and that apparent differences between them result largely from women being denied the same education and opportunities as men.

Amelia Blyfield

From Amelia: or the Faithless Briton. The central character, a seventeen-year-old American woman who falls in love with Doliscus after helping nurse him back to health. He deceives her with a false marriage, abandons her while pregnant, and she eventually dies after losing their child.

Doliscus

From Amelia: or the Faithless Briton. A British soldier whom Amelia helps nurse back to health. He seduces Amelia, stages a fake marriage to convince her to sleep with him, abandons her, and later has her secretly transported to London to protect his reputation.

Horatio Blyfield

From Amelia: or the Faithless Briton. Amelia’s father, a respectable New Yorker who deeply loves his daughter. After discovering what Doliscus has done to Amelia, he travels to England, attempts to rescue her, and ultimately confronts the consequences of her tragedy.

Honorius Blyfield

From Amelia: or the Faithless Briton. Amelia’s brother and an American soldier fighting in the Revolution. After learning what Doliscus did to Amelia, he confronts Doliscus in a duel and mortally wounds him.

Rip Van Winkle

From Rip Van Winkle. The main character, a kind but lazy villager who avoids work and his difficult home life. He wanders into the Catskill Mountains, encounters mysterious men, drinks their liquor, falls asleep for twenty years, and awakens to discover that America and his community have completely changed.

Dame Van Winkle

From Rip Van Winkle. Rip’s wife, who constantly scolds him for neglecting his farm and family. Rip frequently escapes into the village or wilderness to avoid her criticism, and he learns after awakening that she has died.

Judith Gardenier

From Rip Van Winkle. Rip’s daughter, now grown with a child of her own when Rip returns after his twenty-year sleep. She recognizes him and ultimately takes him into her home.

Rip Van Winkle Jr.

From Rip Van Winkle. Rip’s son, who has grown into a man during his father’s absence and strongly resembles his father, including inheriting his tendency toward idleness.

Nicholas Vedder

From Rip Van Winkle. The landlord of the village inn and one of Rip’s old companions. He is known for sitting outside the inn and communicating his opinions largely through how he smokes his pipe.

Derrick Van Bummel

From Rip Van Winkle. The village schoolmaster and one of Rip’s old companions. After the Revolution, Rip learns that Van Bummel has become a member of Congress.

Henry Hudson

From Rip Van Winkle. The legendary explorer whose ghostly crew Rip encounters in the Catskill Mountains. Their supernatural liquor causes Rip to fall into his twenty-year sleep.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

From Self-Reliance. The author and speaker who argues that people should trust themselves, think independently, reject conformity, and follow their own intuition rather than allowing society to determine their beliefs and actions.

Robin* From My Kinsman, Major Molineux. The young protagonist who travels from the country to Boston searching for his relative, Major Molineux. His increasingly confusing and frightening experiences culminate in him witnessing Molineux publicly humiliated, marking Robin’s movement away from innocence and dependence.

Major Molineux* From My Kinsman, Major Molineux. Robin’s powerful relative whom Robin expects will help him establish himself in Boston. Robin eventually discovers him tarred and feathered and being paraded through the streets by a hostile crowd.

The Man with the Red-and-Black Face* From My Kinsman, Major Molineux. The mysterious man whose face is painted red on one side and black on the other. He leads the procession humiliating Major Molineux and represents the threatening, rebellious forces Robin encounters in the city.

The Kindly Gentleman* From My Kinsman, Major Molineux. The stranger who speaks with Robin after Molineux’s humiliation. When Robin wants to return home, the gentleman encourages him to remain in the city and suggests that Robin may succeed without his kinsman’s help.

Aylmer* From The Birth-Mark. A brilliant scientist and Georgiana’s husband who becomes obsessed with removing the small birthmark on her cheek. His pursuit of physical perfection ultimately causes Georgiana’s death.

Georgiana* From The Birth-Mark. Aylmer’s beautiful wife whose only physical imperfection is a small hand-shaped birthmark on her cheek. She eventually accepts Aylmer’s belief that the mark must be removed and willingly risks her life for his attempt to perfect her.

Aminadab* From The Birth-Mark. Aylmer’s physically strong laboratory assistant, portrayed as earthy and instinctive in contrast to Aylmer’s intellectual and scientific nature. He believes Georgiana would be better left with her birthmark and laughs after Aylmer’s experiment results in her death.

Frederick Douglass

The narrator and main character of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery, he learns to read and write, fights against his enslavers, and eventually escapes to freedom.

Harriet Bailey

Douglass's mother, who is separated from him when he is an infant. She secretly travels at night to visit him but dies when he is young.

Captain Anthony

Douglass's first enslaver, who oversees enslaved people on Colonel Lloyd's plantation. Douglass witnesses him brutally whipping Aunt Hester.

Aunt Hester

An enslaved woman whom Douglass witnesses Captain Anthony violently whipping. This is one of his earliest experiences witnessing the brutality of slavery.

Colonel Edward Lloyd

A wealthy plantation owner who enslaves hundreds of people. His plantation is where Douglass spends much of his early childhood and witnesses the cruelty of slavery.

Thomas Auld

One of Douglass's enslavers who treats him cruelly, often depriving him of food. He eventually sends Douglass to Edward Covey to have his spirit broken.

Sophia Auld

The wife of Hugh Auld, who initially treats Douglass kindly and begins teaching him the alphabet. She eventually becomes crueler as slavery changes her behavior.

Hugh Auld

Douglass's enslaver in Baltimore who forbids his wife from teaching Douglass to read. His explanation that literacy makes enslaved people difficult to control inspires Douglass to pursue education.

Edward Covey

A cruel enslaver known as a slave breaker. Douglass physically fights back against him, marking a major turning point in his life when he regains his confidence and determination to resist slavery.

William Freeland

An enslaver Douglass works for after Covey. Douglass secretly teaches other enslaved people to read while working for him and helps organize an unsuccessful escape attempt.