The seduction genre, of which Charlotte Temple is a part, grew in popularity after the American Revolutionary War. The American Revolution simultaneously gave women more opportunities and agency whilst highlighting the “feminine weakness, delicacy and incapacity”.[21] The genre’s female protagonists reflected the “same trepidation and endangerment that concerned the young country” making them easily identifiable with readers, primarily made up of young early American girls.[22][23]
These feelings and contradictions are displayed in Charlotte Temple as it depicts “nightmare of dislocation, alienation and abandonment” reflecting the instability and chaos felt by Americans at the time.[24][25] This allows readers to make sense of the world around them through Charlotte, seeing the consequences of having too much freedom and believing that one is allowed to do whatever they want and disregard social norms and traditions.
Whilst representing and reflecting the fears and climate of a post-revolution America, Charlotte Temple also acts as a cautionary tale for young girls. Whilst the new sense freedom empowered American girls, novels such as Charlotte Temple acted as a ‘worst-case scenario’, forcing them to proceed with caution around men. American and British law at the time would have allowed Charlotte, a 16-year-old girl, to consent to elopement, sex and marriage, however she still required her parents to formally get married.[26]
Tradition was still central to society and a woman’s actions had serious consequences for her own and her family’s social standings.[27] In this way, Rowson also warns parents of their daughters’ potential sexual agency and the destruction that she could bring to the family, if she is allowed too much freedom. For young women without dowries, Charlotte’s story is especially important. For them, the result of being seduced and losing their virtue is not just losing credibility, it also includes being left alone and homeless.[28]
Throughout the novel, storm motifs are used to reflect this “temptation and its consequences”.[29] Through this metaphor, Rowson explores this new problem faced by women and how they were not effectively equipped to dealing with them – for example Charlotte uses her freedom to seduce Montraville but does not know what to do in the aftermath when she is left pregnant and alone in America.[30]
Rowson’s characters Belcour and Montraville are symbolic of the dangers women faced as they are “attracted only to the most singularly virtuous of girls and [are] not satisfied until [they have] succeeded in ruining her”.[31] These characters represented the common sentiment held by men at the time – that men are entitled to women and their bodies because women are the subordinate sex.[32] The downfall of the woman comes when she choose the wrong man – the ‘Belcour’ type of man that doesn’t prioritise marriage.
Rowson’s Charlotte Temple acts as a magnifying glass onto early American society, revealing its isolating new position and the dangers faced by women.
