Superstition (play)

Last updated
Title page of Superstition; or, the Fanatic Father by James Nelson Barker. Superstition Poster.jpg
Title page of Superstition; or, the Fanatic Father by James Nelson Barker.

The Tragedy of Superstition; or, the Fanatic Father, is a straight play by James Nelson Barker set in a Puritan village in Colonial America, specifically in "New England, about the year 1675." [1] Although feeling much like a melodrama, Barker himself identifies the play as a tragedy in the title. Barker tells in his preface to the play that main incidents of the play are said to have actually occurred in New England in the late 1600s. The play revolves around the hero Charles and the villain Reverend Ravensworth. Ravensworth persecutes Charles and his mother on the claims that they are practicing magic. Unlike a traditional melodrama, in which poetic justice prevails, Charles is executed at the end of the play, his mother dies at the sight of her murdered son, and Ravensworth's daughter dies of grief because of the love she had for Charles. It might be easy to miss that Reginald at the very end reveals his mission, which was to pardon Isabella's father, the Unknown, for his part in killing King Charles I, but in doing so reveals that the king had secretly married Isabella ("espoused"), meaning that her son Charles was the son of the King.

Contents

The play critiques tyrannous styles of power, in this case by a religious leader, especially ones that use fear of a supposed "Other" to consolidate and maintain power. The tragedy was first performed on March 12, 1824 at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. [2]

Background

Barker was a groundbreaking playwright because of the sense of patriotism he brought to his works. In the preface of another of his plays, Barker laments that American audiences at the time still expected plays to "lisp the language of Shakespere". [3] Barker's playwriting style is intentionally unlike English plays at the time. His plays are uniquely American in style.

Beyond just the style of play, Barker chiefly wrote plays set in America and about American problems. One evidence of this is in his play The Indian Princess, one of the first Pocahontas stories in American culture. Superstition is another example of America-centered plays. One of the characters, called "the Unknown" represents William Goffe, who was the regicide of Charles I, as well helping rally the people of this village against the Native Americans as they're about to be attacked. [4] Although The Unknown is certainly not the main character of Superstition, he is central to the plot and represents American ideals.

Character List

Plot Synopsis

Act I

The play begins with Ravensworth’s daughter Mary talking with her friend Alice. Mary reveals to Alice that she is in love with Charles Fitzroy, who will soon be returning to the town after he was kicked out of school for being falsely accused of attempting to rob another boy in the town. She also tells that her father, Rev. Ravensworth, had become a bitter old man once her mother/his wife died. Ravensworth has a discussion with Mary in which he vehemently forbids any relationship between her and Charles. Ravensworth expresses to Walford his distrust of Charles and of his mother, Isabella, who came to the town years ago. Ravensworth believes that Charles and Isabella are practicing witchcraft, but Walford disagrees. The scene shifts to Sir Reginald and his nephew George Egerton, who are both from London. They reveal that they have come to America to find the man who killed King Charles I of England.

Act II

The second act opens with a mysterious man called “the Unknown,” who lives in the forest away from civilization. The Unknown meets Charles Fitzroy in the forest as Charles makes his way back from school where he's been expelled on trumped up charges. This is the first time we see Charles in the play. After a discussion about Charles' origins, the Unknown agrees to help him get back to town. The scene shifts back to George and Sir Reginald hunting in the woods. They express their preference for London, and George especially remarks his disdain for America, particularly their rules of propriety. He laments the loss of revelry he could be having if he were in London. They encounter Mary in the forest and both attempt to win her favor. George especially tries to use his city sensibilities to impress Mary, but she is not “sophisticated” enough to understand him. George becomes increasingly forward and possibly physical in his flirtations, which scares Mary. Luckily, Charles enters, saves Mary, and George challenges him to a duel.

Act III

Charles and George secretly duel. This results in Charles wounding George, and George admits Charles' superiority, even declaring him a “gentleman and christian” to Sir Reginald later in the scene. [1] Meanwhile, the colony is attacked by a tribe of Native Americans, but they are saved by the Unknown in a fictional depiction of Goffe’s leadership described above. Isabella prays during the attack, but Ravensworth misinterprets this as her casting a spell. He blames Isabella for causing the attack and says the Unknown is a devil.

Act IV

Isabella and Charles discuss their options, with Isabella wanting to leave town immediately, as Ravensworth becomes more of a threat to them. Isabella reveals that she became pregnant with Charles with a man of high status and seems to imply that he coerced her into having sex with him, but she refuses to tell Charles who his father is. Though this upsets Charles, he leaves to go find Mary. Charles and Mary meet in the forest with plans to run away, but Ravensworth finds them. To cover her tracks, Mary acts like Charles was attacking her. This is reminiscent of the original crime for which Charles was falsely accused. Both Isabella and Charles are arrested.

Act V

A trial swiftly follows in the fifth act, resulting in Charles and Isabella’s conviction of the supposed crimes of witchcraft and, in Charles’ case, attempted rape. Charles is taken offstage, at which time Sir Reginald and George enter and reveal that they had been sent to find the man who had killed King Charles I to give him a pardon. The Unknown enters and reveals himself to Isabella as her father, and he tells her he now knows the truth of what happened to her and forgives her. Charles is executed offstage, and Isabella dies after seeing her murdered son; Mary also dies after seeing the love of her life dead in his coffin. Ravensworth lives only to contemplate the destruction he has caused, including his own daughter's death.

Analysis

The Pastoral Ideal

The pastoral ideal was a central cornerstone to the Romanticism movement which held the belief that nature, and those close to nature, are both didactic and self-actualized. [2] According to John Crowley in “James Nelson Barker in Perspective,” the pastoral ideal is, “a literary expression of a social locus between complex civilization and nature." [5] Superstition's character that represents this mode of literature best is The Unknown. At the beginning of Act II, the parentheticals describe The Unknown as, "His dress is of Skins: his general appearance, wild—but his air and manner dignified." The Unknown is neither a Native American "savage" nor a high-minded European aristocrat. He is close to nature, but he still follows a simple code of ethics and morals. [2] This depiction of The Unknown is in stark contrast to the English character, George Egerton, who in Act I Scene I says about America, "Why, what a heathen region we have come to." The Unknown and the pastoral ideal are used by James Nelson Barker to exemplify a mature, enlightened America. [2]

Depictions of Native Americans

Even though the Native American raid is an essential plot point in Act III, Superstition never actually depicts any Native American characters. This is likely because James Nelson Barker, and like many of his contemporaries of the early 19th-century, viewed Native Americans as savages on a sub-human level. [6] Barker distinguished Native Americans into two categories, "noble" and "ignoble" savages. [5] "Noble" savages were those like Pocahontas in his play The Indian Princess who helped white settlers, while “ignoble” savages did not. The lack of any on-stage depictions of Native Americans in Superstition suggest that Barker categorized them as "ignoble," and therefore not worthy of representation. They are simply an outside force wreaking havoc to a stable Puritan village. The Native American aggressors versus the "passive" Puritan settlers also suggest a racist sentiment established by early 19th-century American playwrights. [6]

Legacy

Much of the plot of Superstition is reminiscent of Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, which was written during the McCarthyist era of the Cold War. The Crucible, like Superstition, uses the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a critique of the social and political climate at the time. Puritan hypocrisy depicted in literature can be seen in other places, for example in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. [7]

The belief that America is unique is a legacy of Barker's works. One can look to Robert Askins' Hand to God, which has been billed as "A New American Play" instead of simply a new play. The religious and moral issues presented in Hand to God are strongly based in an American view of Christianity. The allure of Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical Hamilton is none other than the modernization of true U.S. history. The desire for American art to focus on American issues and history was founded by early patriotic artists like James Nelson Barker[ original research? ].

Related Research Articles

<i>The Crucible</i> 1953 play by Arthur Miller

The Crucible is a 1953 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Miller wrote the play as an allegory for McCarthyism, when the United States government persecuted people accused of being communists. Miller was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pocahontas</span> Native American woman (c. 1596 – 1617)

Pocahontas was a Native American woman belonging to the Powhatan people, notable for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. She was the daughter of Powhatan, the paramount chief of a network of tributary tribes in the Tsenacommacah, encompassing the Tidewater region of what is today the U.S. state of Virginia.

Sir Samuel Argall was an English adventurer and naval officer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Enlightenment</span> 18th century US intellectual ferment

The American Enlightenment was a period of intellectual and philosophical fervor in the thirteen American colonies in the 18th to 19th century, which led to the American Revolution and the creation of the United States of America. The American Enlightenment was influenced by the 17th- and 18th-century Age of Enlightenment in Europe and native American philosophy. According to James MacGregor Burns, the spirit of the American Enlightenment was to give Enlightenment ideals a practical, useful form in the life of the nation and its people.

Thomas Danforth was a politician, magistrate, and landowner in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. A conservative Puritan, he served for many years as one of the colony's councilors and magistrates, generally leading opposition to attempts by the English kings to assert control over the colony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tituba</span> 17th-century enslaved woman involved in the Salem witch trials

Tituba was a Native American slave woman who was one of the first to be accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials of 1692–1693.

<i>The New World</i> (2005 film) 2005 film by Terrence Malick

The New World is a 2005 historical romantic drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick, depicting the founding of the Jamestown, Virginia, settlement and inspired by the historical figures Captain John Smith, Pocahontas of the Powhatan tribe, and Englishman John Rolfe. It is the fourth feature film written and directed by Malick.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Powhatan (Native American leader)</span> Leader of the Powhatan

Powhatan, whose proper name was Wahunsenacawh, was the leader of the Powhatan, an alliance of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans living in Tsenacommacah, in the Tidewater region of Virginia at the time when English settlers landed at Jamestown in 1607.

Po-ca-hon-tas, or The Gentle Savage is a two-act musical burlesque by John Brougham (words) and James Gaspard Maeder (music). It debuted in 1855 and became an instant hit. Po-ca-hon-tas remained a staple of theatre troupes and blackface minstrel companies for the next 30 years, typically as an afterpiece.

Pocahontas is the titular character of Walt Disney Animation Studios' 1995 film Pocahontas, and the seventh addition to the Disney Princess franchise.

<i>Pocahontas: The Legend</i> 1995 Canadian film

Pocahontas: The Legend is a 1995 Canadian drama film that fictionalizes the young life of the historical figure of Chief Powhatan's daughter Pocahontas and her relationship with Captain John Smith. This film, preceding Disney's animation version, was directed by Danièle J. Suissa and stars Sandrine Holt as the titular heroine. It was entirely shot around Toronto and Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural depictions of the Salem witch trials</span>

Cultural depictions of the Salem witch trials abound in art, literature and popular media in the United States, from the early 19th century to the present day. The literary and dramatic depictions are discussed in Marion Gibson's Witchcraft Myths in American Culture and see also Bernard Rosenthal's Salem Story: Reading the Witch Trials of 1692

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Nelson Barker</span> American dramatist

James Nelson Barker was an American soldier, playwright and politician. He rose to the rank of major in the Army during the War of 1812, wrote ten plays, and was mayor of Philadelphia.

<i>The Indian Princess</i> (play) Play written by James Nelson Barker

The Indian Princess; or, La Belle Sauvage, is a musical play with a libretto by James Nelson Barker and music by John Bray, based on the Pocahontas story as originally recorded in John Smith's The Generall Historie of Virginia (1621). The piece is structured in the style of a Ballad-opera, with songs and choruses, and also has music underlying dialogue, like a melodrama. Pocahontas persuades her father, King Powhatan, to free Smith and becomes attracted to John Rolfe, breaking off her arranged marriage with a neighboring tribal prince, an action that leads to war. Her tribe wins the war, but her father loses trust in the white settlers; Pocahontas warns the settlers who reconcile with Powhatan. Several comic romances end happily, and Smith predicts a great future for the new country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native Americans in film</span> Depiction of Native Americans

The portrayal of Native Americans in television and films concerns indigenous roles in cinema, particularly their depiction in Hollywood productions. Especially in the Western genre, Native American stock characters can reflect contemporary and historical perceptions of Native Americans and the Wild West.

<i>Hobomok</i>

Hobomok, A Tale of Early Times. is a novel by the nineteenth-century American author and human rights campaigner Lydia Maria Child. Her first novel, published in 1824 under the pseudonym "An American," was inspired by John G. Palfrey's article in the North American Review. It is set during the late 1620s and 1630s. Among other themes, it relates the marriage of a recently immigrated white American woman, Mary Conant, to the eponymous Native American and her attempt to raise their son in white society.

The Indian princess is usually a stereotypical and inaccurate representation of a Native American or other Indigenous woman of the Americas. The term "princess" was often mistakenly applied to the daughters of tribal chiefs or other community leaders by early American colonists who mistakenly believed that Indigenous people shared the European system of royalty. This inaccurate portrayal has continued in popular animation, with characters that conform to European standards of beauty, with the most famous misrepresentation being that of Pocahontas. Frequently, the "Indian Princess" stereotype is paired with the "Pocahontas theme" in which the princess "offers herself to a captive Christian knight, a prisoner of her father, and after rescuing him, she is converted to Christianity and lives with him in his native land." - a false narrative that did not even happen quite that way to the real child who inspired the Pocahontas stories. The phrase "Indian princess", when used in this way, is often considered to be a derogatory term, a type of racial slur, and is deemed offensive by Native Americans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lovelock (hair)</span> Long lock of hair resting over the left shoulder

A Lovelock was popular amongst European "men of fashion" from the end of the 16th century until well into the 17th century. The lovelock was a long lock of hair, often plaited (braided) and made to rest over the left shoulder to show devotion to a loved one.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Matthew Sully</span> American portrait painter

Robert Matthew Sully was an American portrait painter who worked mostly in Virginia. He is best remembered for his depictions of Native Americans. The famous English-born artist, Thomas Sully, was his uncle.

References

  1. 1 2 Barker, James Nelson (1826). "Superstition". Haithi Trust Digital Library. A.R. Poole. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Quinn, Arthur Hobson (1943). A History of the American Drama, from the Beginning to the Civil War. New York: F.S.Crofts & Co.
  3. Richardson, Gary A. (1993). American Drama from the Colonial Period through World War I: A Critical History. New York: Twayne Publishers.
  4. Meserve, Walter J. (1977). An Emerging Entertainment: The Drama of the American People to 1828. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
  5. 1 2 Crowley, John W. (1972). "James Nelson Barker in Perspective". Educational Theatre Journal. 24 (4): 363–369. JSTOR   3205930.
  6. 1 2 Crestani, Eliana (1995). "James Nelson Barker's Pocahontas: The Theatre and the Indian Question". Nineteenth Century Theatre.
  7. Hutchins-Viroux, Rachel (2008-02-01). "Witch-hunts, Theocracies and Hypocrisy: McCarthyism in Arthur Miller/ Robert Ward's opera The Crucible and Carlisle Floyd's Susannah". Revue LISA/LISA e-journal. Littératures, Histoire des Idées, Images, Sociétés du Monde Anglophone – Literature, History of Ideas, Images and Societies of the English-speaking World. VI (2): 140–148. doi: 10.4000/lisa.1140 . ISSN   1762-6153.