Blog Post #3: Un-Romance in Of One Blood

One of the aspects which struck me the most about Pauline Hopkins’ Of One Blood was the use of Romantic or Romantic-adjacent devices in the story.

One of the first devices I noticed was the use of the weather. Right from the first page, the use of the weather mirrors the attitude – or, as Hopkins might have it, the ‘temperament’ – of the main character: “It was the first week in November and it had rained about every day the entire week; now freezing temperature added to the discomfiture of the dismal season. …Briggs could have told you that the bareness and desolateness of the apartment were like his life…" (1). Hopkins even goes so far as to acknowledge this fact. In chapter II, one of the concert goers jokes about just that: “Great crowd for such a night,” observed one. “The weather matches your face, Briggs; why didn’t you leave it outside? Why do you look so down?” (12). This direct acknowledgement is unusual for such a device, and I can’t recall Hopkins using it again in the rest of the novel. In light of that, the use of the weather and its acknowledgement almost seems like a literary joke.

The other device which I noticed was that of the ideal form in parallel to the ideal being. Two examples especially stand out in my mind. One is of Briggs:

Mother nature had blessed Reuel Briggs with superior physical endowments… No one could fail to notice the vast breadth of shoulder, the strong throat that upheld a plain face, the long limbs, the sinewy hands. His head was that of an athlete, with close-set ears, and covered with an abundance of black hair, straight and closely cut…the nose was of aristocratic feature…his skin was white, but of a tint suggesting olive…His large mouth concealed powerful long white teeth which gleamed through lips even and narrow, parting generally in a smile…indeed Briggs’ smile changed the plain face at once into one that interested and fascinated men and women. …His eyes were a very bright and piercing gray, courageous, keen and shrewd. Briggs was not a man to be despised—physically or mentally. (3-4)

Though there are parts of his description which would render him less of the Romantic “ideal,” like the long teeth and the large mouth, or the fact that his face is “plain,” Hopkins concludes her description with the positives: that his smile makes him remarkable and that he is not to be despised. These are significant features because he turns out to be Ergamenes, the lost King of Telassar and Messiah of Ethiopia. He follows the Romantic assertion that beauty equals goodness. Period. But that’s not the end of what’s going on.

Aubrey Livingston should also be considered under this light. When he first appears, she notes “The voice was soft and musical. …The light revealed a tall man with the beautiful face of a Greek God” (6) and, later, says “…the beauty of his fair hair and blue eyes was never more marked as he stood there in the gleam of the fire…” (18). However, Hopkins also lets the reader know immediately that there’s something to be wary about: “…the sculpted features did not inspire confidence. There was that in the countenance of Aubrey Livingston that engendered doubt” (6). While Reuel’s description (and, arguably, Dianthe’s) mirrors the goodness and beauty device of the Romantics, Aubrey defeats it and does so immediately. The reader is given little concrete description of him except that he is Aryan-looking and is reminiscent of a Greek God, but Hopkins seems to bring it up often, as though the reader might forget: this is significant because of how awful he turns out to be. In doing so, she effectively both uses and subjugates this device.


Questions

1. How does the description of Dianthe Lusk (14) interact with the Romantic device of beauty and goodness? How does her being a soprano contribute to this image? What is the significance of Hopkins’ giving Dianthe the most prestigious position in the choir?

2. In what other ways could it be said that Hopkins is either employing or subjugating established literary devices or conventions? To what end?