An excerpt from my book:
Owenson acknowledges the spiritual connection between
humanity and natural law, a common theme occurring in Goethe’s works. In one of
his conversations with Johann Peter Eckermann, he explains:
Freedom consists not in refusing to recognize anything above us, but in
respecting something which is above us; for, by respecting it, we raise
ourselves to it, and, by our very acknowledgment, prove that we bear within
ourselves what is higher, and are worthy to be on a level with it. [1]
Owenson, then, incorporates the Romantic concept of nature’s influence
on humanity’s intellectual actions while she introduces the reality of political
and societal constraints through many of her characters’ struggles with
self-awareness. Through this conflict, Owenson personifies the dichotomous
nature of glory in which her birth nation struggles with true autonomy and its
native glór (voice) to be heard. Owenson’s
romantic, graceful style of writing demonstrates iconic realism through the
interactions of her characters as she awakens her society to effective conflict
resolution that begins with the self.
[1] Johann Goethe, quoted in Conversations of Goethe with Johann Peter Eckermann, translated by
John Oxennford, edited by J.K. Moorhead (New York: Da Capo Press, 1998), p.
157.
