This paper analyzes Catharine Maria Sedgwick's 1827 novel Hope Leslie as a progressive work of historical fiction far ahead of its time. The paper examines how Sedgwick uses an omniscient narrative perspective to draw comparisons between Puritan and Native American cultures, arguing that both share fundamentally equal human drives and spiritual values. It explores recurring themes including the universality of love, women's rights, the symbolic use of landscape, and the autobiographical elements embedded in characters such as Esther Downing. The paper also considers how Sedgwick challenged the prevailing literary attitudes of her era, which typically portrayed Native Americans as inferior, and how her personal experiences shaped the novel's social commentary.
Sedgwick's novel Hope Leslie was far ahead of its own time in terms of how it explored the Puritans' relationship with Native Americans during the 17th century. Most novels written in the same period do not give equal or accurate attention to Native Americans. As a group, the Puritans were focused on community and religion, and Sedgwick explores both of these concepts rather comprehensively from an omniscient point of view, which adds to the very wide breadth of coverage relative to these cultures. In drawing specific conclusions as well as comparisons regarding these cultures' interactions, Sedgwick sheds light on her own concern for the equal treatment and consideration of Native Americans as well as women — two groups of people who, in 1827 when the book was first published, did not often receive equal treatment or attention.
These ideals were not common in the time that Sedgwick wrote Hope Leslie, further illustrating the fact that the novel was far ahead of its time and should be viewed as a model for cultural awareness and change. The novel, set in 17th-century New England, explores the everyday lives of both the Puritans and the Native Americans. Sedgwick successfully weaves these two groups' interactions into a tightly knit fabric of similarities, placing the Puritan and Native American cultures — which at the time of the novel's publishing were not viewed as equals — on a level playing field. Sedgwick explores how these groups are both composed of human beings, and how each human being, regardless of cultural background, struggles and strives for similar goals and ambitions in life. Within these specific explorations, and by highlighting the typical historical norms and values of these groups, Sedgwick creates a forum for the reader to interpret his or her own societal norms and values from a similar standpoint.
One very compelling example of Sedgwick's desire to create a story where both groups are viewed as equals comes early in the book, when Magawisca, a Native American, explains to the Puritan Hope Leslie that even in death, both groups' ancestors are respected and revered equally by their creator. Magawisca explains: "And here, here is my mother's grave; think ye not that the Great Spirit looks down on these sacred spots, where the good and the peaceful rest, with an equal eye? Think ye not their children are His children, whether they are gathered in yonder temple where your people worship, or bow to him beneath the green boughs of the forest?" (Sedgwick, 13). This passage takes place in a cemetery, where Magawisca is helping to comfort Hope. The interaction not only illustrates Magawisca's desire for Hope to see all people as equals regardless of religion or culture, but also shows that Sedgwick herself is working to draw similarities between the two groups (Emerson, 27).
In exploring these similarities and creating a scene where two main characters interact to share their commonalities and thoughts on God or the Great Spirit, the author also gives equal attention to both spiritual traditions. This is important because many novels of the same period regarded Native Americans as "savages" and lent no credibility to their actions or spiritual beliefs, not even in a fictitious context (Schweitzer, 133). This is one method that Sedgwick employs rather effectively to help personally connect the reader to the characters in the book and to build a sense that all human beings are created equal.
Later in the novel, the love that these same characters feel for each other — and their separate yet equally noble efforts and goals — is also explored. This helps to paint Sedgwick as an illuminator of human souls regardless of race, creed, or gender. This was also very uncharacteristic for novels of the time, and helps to shape the larger themes and actions taking place in the story. Chief among these themes is the universality of love. Sedgwick works hard to build a plot and characters that support her desire to show that love is stronger than all other forces, and that separating people because of their race or gender, or denying them the freedom to love, is unjust (Emerson, 28).
As was common in Puritan life and culture, the story is structured around unrequited love and forced marriages. By the end of the novel, however, the redeeming aspects of the freedom of love and the characters' ability to escape such tyranny evoke powerful feelings in the reader. As if to right the original wrong of not allowing William Fletcher to marry Alice back in England, Everell and Hope are ultimately united. This full-circle realization of the disservices done to William and Alice, alongside the unbridled love and affection that Everell and Hope feel for each other, alludes to Sedgwick's desire to instill this value among her readers. It also results in a deeply satisfying ending.
The Puritan sense of community is also explored throughout Sedgwick's work. This sense of community is nearly self-defeating at times when compared to the idea of community posited by the Native Americans in the book. The Puritans, ever the religious group, are concerned first with pleasing God and secondly with uniting their community under common goals, while giving less merit to the individual ambitions of its members — especially women (Samuels, 60). In this exploration of the Puritan value system, Sedgwick also emerges as a feminist, arguing, quite contrary to her own culture, for women's right and freedom to choose whom they want to marry or become partners with. Within the novel, this is first explored through William Fletcher's disdain for life back in England, as the love of his life, Alice, is denied marriage to him (Emerson, 27). Later in the book, the separation and unilateral actions of the Puritans against those among them who wished to explore and validate the Native American experience are highlighted as well.
"Contrasting community structures and their implications"
"Nature as symbolic backdrop to colonial conflict"
"Esther Downing as allegory for Sedgwick's own life"
Sedgwick's novel Hope Leslie is a 19th-century literary anomaly. In achieving this status, the author is able to highlight the ideas and ideals that keep two cultures separate while exposing the fact that all humans share similar and equal drives and ambitions in life. The themes of love, captivity, women's rights, nature, and equality are all explored in ways that allow the reader to see stark comparisons through the interactions between the Native Americans and the Puritans. Sedgwick's novel was ahead of her time, and yet by drawing on her colleagues' understanding and research regarding the historical habits and interactions between English settlers and Native Americans, she was able to open up a dialogue among readers.
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