The debate over Clara's love has come to an end -she loves Pleyel. Subtle hints that Clara may have been in love with Carwin were finally dispelled in the last segment of reading. Clara's intense preparation to reveal her love to Pleyel is planned out passionately. She even plans out the very hour and place she is to reveal her love. When Pleyel fails to show up, her plan is foiled and her condition deteriorates while she waits in anguish. Clara even describes the anticipation of seeing Pleyel as "tortured with suspense" (p92). I don't claim to know everything about romance, but if waiting to see someone you are fond of is torturous, then you are probably in love with them.
If that is not convincing enough, Charles Brockden Brown seals the debate for us by taking Carwin's character full circle. When Clara first meets Carwin she is disgusted and put off. As the chapters progress, Clara becomes fond of Carwin and hints that there may be more to their new friendship. The developing of Clara's feelings towards Carwin is the intrinsic cause of the debate over the direction of Clara's love. However, when Carwin is discovered in Clara's closet the circle becomes complete. Carwin is no longer a friend of Claras, but once again is his original disgusting and dangerous self. Clara begins to envision Carwin in murderous scenes and becomes completely put off by his character. Carwin becomes totally removed from the question of love and is now considered a clear and present danger. Pleyel remains the only possible candidate for Clara's love...that is, unless Clara loves rapists and murderers.
While I agree with you completely on the ultimate direction of Clara's affections, I'd like to posit that her love is not as clearly defined as you state it is, and for good reason, within the novel. When Clara first meets Carwin, she is not, as you say 'put off,' by him, but rather by the startling and unexpected manner of their meaning; to say that she is 'disgusted' by him is a far cry from what actually happened. Clara does describe him as "wide of beauty" (48) and rather dirty, but is completely infatuated with him nonetheless. She is driven to tears by his voice, which is "not only mellifluent and clear, but... so impassioned, that... an heart of stone coul not fail of being moved by it" (46-47). She is so moved by his eyes and his figure, though it is ugly, that she must draw a picture of him and then sit for hours staring at it. While I also do not claim to know all about romance, I would say that specifically the latter activity, of drawing a sketch of a man and then staring at it for hours, seems like an exacerbated version of a common school girl doodling her crush's name in a notebook.
ReplyDeleteI do admit that, ultimately, I feel Clara's love is bestowed upon Pleyel. I think that this comes through in the narrative strongly because Clara herself, retrospectively, would prefer to believe she never held the slightest fancy towards Carwin. Her actions speak otherwise, and whether you agree that it is love that motivates her, or some other form of obsession, the attraction that Carwin's personage holds at their first meeting is important to our understanding of what will happen in the novel. While I have not yet finished the entire book, I feel that the foreshadowing so obviously laid out about Carwin's evil nature will pan out somehow. The extreme attraction that the man holds over all who meet him, and especially our narrator, will most likely do a lot to lend to the ease at which he wreaks havoc or commits crimes.