1. Introduction

The expulsion of the Indians is a shady chapter of American history. During the first half of the seventeenth-century, the Puritans, a group of English Protestants, came to America to build communities based on religious ideals. In the New World, they encountered the Indians, whose culture, belief, and language is unknown to them and who make them feel insecure. The whites lay claim to 'their' new discovered country that was predestined for them by God. Catharine Maria Sedgwick's Hope Leslie (1827), set in seventeenth-century New England, deals with love, friendship, loyalty, and trust, which is challenging when two different worlds collide. The author works in many different ways to keep the novel exciting. The narrator is tangible in the text and he is partly addressing the reader directly. Furthermore, the author often stops telling her story at the most exciting point, and brings the plot up again later. The most significant technique of her narration however, is Sedgwick's use of the figurative language. In this research paper, I intend to decrypt and interpret the different aspects of the metaphorical language and omens in Hope Leslie.

2. The Metaphorical Language and Omens in Hope Leslie
2.1 The Puritans as God's Exemplary Instruments in Connection with Texts from Contemporary Witnesses

Catharine Maria Sedgwick uses a very strong language to describe the Puritans, who see themselves as the "chosen servants of the Lord" (Sedgwick 75). The author's word choice strongly reminds me of John Cotton's remarks in Gods Promise to His Plantation (1630), a fair-well sermon for the people, who were going to leave Great Britain with John Winthrop. One of Cotton's doctrines reads, "The placing of a people . . . is from the appointment of the Lord" (Cotton 65). Furthermore, the Puritans are appointed "to open the forests to the sun-beam, and to the light of the Sun of Righteousness" (Sedgwick 75), to raise, so to speak, the curtain of ignorance and to cast their religion on the Natives, who are – at least from the point of view of the Puritans – wild, simple, and infidel. Sedgwick's language not only draws a parallel to John Cotton, but also to another famous figure of the time, John Winthrop. Besides being a character of the novel, Winthrop's famous words, "we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us" (Winthrop 225) are repeatedly mentioned. During Magawisca's trial, Elliot, another contemporary witness, uses Winthrop's words in a slightly modified version. He appeals to the Puritans to become those "who, being set on a hill in the wilderness, were to show their light to the surrounding nations" (Sedgwick 299). The quotation almost contains the exact same keywords as an earlier one above. The New World is described as a 'wilderness' – earlier as a 'forest' – that not only has to be enlightened, but also enlighten others. Winthrop describes "the colony as a utopian alternative to old England" where "the settlers would build a godly community whose example would shame England into repenting. The English government would then truly reform the church, and a revival of piety would create a nation of saints" (Boyer 48). Mr. Fletcher takes the model function very seriously and tries to convey his sense of duty to his son Everell, "We have laid the foundation of an edifice, and our children must be so coupled together as to secure its progress and stability when the present builders are laid low" (Sedgwick 169). The words Sedgwick puts into Mr. Fletchers mouth, again mirror Cotton's concept of the chosen people, "Serve that God, and teach your children to serve him, that hath appointed you and them the place of your habitation" (Cotton 72/73). Mr. Fletcher uses the term 'builder' and thus compares the new colony to an example of architecture. In his answer, Everell continues his father's comparison, "And so, my dear father, a precious gem is to be mortared in like a common brick, wherever may best suit the purposes and views of the builders . . . But, once for all, I entreat you not to dispose of us as if we were machines . . ." (Sedgwick 169). The 'precious gem' Everell mentions, stands for his friend and love Hope Leslie, and the 'builders' stand for the magistrates and elders of the colony, who decided that Hope would not be an appropriate match for Everell. But the young Fletcher is not a 'machine' – he has his own mind and feelings and does not act at the push of a button. Neither does Hope subordinate herself to authority and she makes it clear, using the same words as Everell, "I would not be a machine, to be moved at the pleasure of anybody that happened to be a little older than myself" (Sedgwick 189). Esther Downing portrays the contrast to Hope and Everell. She is the example of an ideal Puritan woman, who subscribes her life to religion and who pictures herself as a "poor but honoured instrument" (Sedgwick 264) of the authority. By letting her characters speak in the words of famous contemporary witnesses and in a strongly metaphorical language, full of meaningful comparisons, Sedgwick makes the reader aware of an expressive picture of America in the beginning of the seventeenth-century.

2.2 The Signs of Nature Concerning the Fletchers and Their Fate

One of the most significant signs of nature in Hope Leslie is the night, which lets the moon and stars speak for it. Everell looks at the sky and says, "This beautiful moon and her rain of stars look as if they were keeping their watch over our dwelling." (Sedgwick 47) and a little later Digby utters, "See the morning star hanging just over those trees, like a single watch-light in all the wide canopy" (Sedgwick 56). Often darkness creates an atmosphere of anxiety and threat, but Everell and the devoted domestic Digby do not perceive the gloom, but the light of the moon and the stars that brightens it up. Both feel secure in their home, even though it is a little distant from the rest of the village. The Fletchers seem to have nothing to fear from the Indians, because they foster good relations with them. But Everell and Digby forget that even the day with its brightness and its bustle exposes them to the danger of the wilderness, and at a moment, while they at least expect it, Mononotto executes his act of revenge. When Hope secretly meets Magawisca at the graveyard, "the moon was high in the heavens; masses of black clouds were driven by a spring gale over her bright disk, producing startling changes, from light to darkness, and from darkness to that gleamy, indefinite, illusive brightness, which gives to moonlight its dominion over the imagination" (Sedgwick 176). This quotation looks ahead to all the confusion Hope has to face when she is going to meet her sister. The 'bright disk' could stand for the meeting itself. Hope wishes nothing more than to be and live with her sister Faith again, who was taken away by Mononotto when he came to Bethel to take revenge for his son's death. The 'black clouds' that cover the moon could be interpreted as a bad omen. The two sisters could be prevented from meeting again or Hope could be disappointed. The possible disappointment is confirmed through the 'illusive brightness, which gives to moonlight its dominion over the imagination.' Hope seems to forget that her sister was taken away when she was very young, and the heroine does not know yet that Faith is married to Oneco, Mononotto's son. The moonlight night, during which Hope and Magawisca take precautions for the meeting, soon changes into a "storm to which winter and summer contribute all their elemental power – rain, lightning, wind, and hail" (Sedgwick 181). The storm stands for Gardiner's betrayal. He eavesdropped on Hope and Magawisca and wants to rescue Faith in his own way to impress Hope and to finally get her to marry him. At the longed-for reunion the bad omens condense and through the description of the weather a high tension is build up by Sedgwick. "The night air was unwholesome; and though the sky overhead was clear, yet she [Digby's wife Betsy] had heard distant thunder; the beach birds had been in flocks on shore all day; and the breakers on the east side of the island made a boding sound" (Sedgwick 236). The author uses unenthusiastic words like 'unwholesome' and 'boding sound', and especially the 'distant thunder' to foreshadow the imminent danger. The portrayal of nature continues with, "the moon rose unclouded, and sent her broad stream of light across the beautiful bay, kindling in her beams the islands that gemmed it, and disclosing, with a dim indefinite light, the distant town . . ." (Sedgwick 237). The light that plays about the island could be seen as a sign of exposure and vulnerability, because the enemy, Gardiner's allies, are waiting for a sign in the 'dim indefinite light.' The encounter of the two sisters goes off without any interruptions, but at the moment Hope and Faith have to part "a bright light as of burning flax, flamed up from the cliff above them, threw a momentary flash over the water, and then disappeared" (Sedgwick 240). This is Gardiner's signal for his allies, who take Faith and Magawisca as prisoners and as a countermove Mononotto takes Hope hostage. Through Gardiner's intervention numerous misunderstandings arise that serve to extend the plot. Hope Leslie's omens and metaphorical language not only foreshadow negative incidents, but also reflect optimistic strands, for example the love of Hope and Everell. They seem to be meant for each other, even though they try to close their eyes to it, "their feelings [are] according and harmonizing, as naturally as the music of the stars when they sang together" (Sedgwick 148). The positive image of the stars is, as many times before, the center of the simile, and in connection with Hope and Everell the positive image of light recurs, too. When Digby sees the two of them reunited he draws the self-evident conclusion that they are lovers, "Young folks for the most part, are like an April day, clouds and sunshine . . . but with you and Miss Hope, it was always sunshine: it was not strange either, seeing you were all in all to one another, after that terrible sweep off at Bethel" (Sedgwick 223). Once more the author uses a simile that is vivid and easy to understand. Even though fate has put obstacles in their path, the development of Hope's and Everell's affection is demonstrated through encouraging words like 'according', 'harmonizing', and 'sunshine'.

2.3. How Indians Interpret the Signs of Nature

To the Native Americans nature is special and almost sacred, and they are "rather the vassal, than the master of nature; obeying her laws, but never usurping her dominion" (Sedgwick 86). The close contact with nature is mirrored during Magawisca's trial. She begs Governor Winthrop to be killed instead of being sent back to the dungeon, "the grave of the living, feeling, thinking soul, where the sun never shineth, where the stars never rise nor set, where the free breath of heaven never enters, where all is darkness without and within" (Sedgwick 309). Magawisca feels buried alive in the cell, because she is used to live outside and in accord with nature. She orientates herself by the sun, the moon, and the stars, and they determine her daily routine. She even personifies nature in talking about the 'breath of heaven'. Indians not only have a different view of nature, but also interpret it differently than white people. When Everell talks about the stars he is quite sure that "they are stationed there as guardian angels" (Sedgwick 48). Unlike Magawisca, who talks from her own experience, "They do look peaceful, but ah! Everell, man is ever breaking the peace of nature. It was such a night as this – so bright and still, when your English came upon our quiet homes" (Sedgwick 48). Everell experienced no heavy losses so far, but Magawisca did and she tries to warn him not to feel too secure. Like Nelema, who predicts Mrs. Fletcher’s misfortune and death, Magawisca tries to warn the Fletchers more than once. When the whole household is looking forward to welcoming Mr. Fletcher, who returns from Boston, Everell draws Magawisca's attention to his mother's colored cheeks. The Indian girl darkly replies, "Alas! alas! how soon the flush of the setting sun fades from the evening cloud" (Sedgwick 64). Magawisca is in a moral conflict between her love to her father and her anxiety about the life of the Fletchers. The 'setting sun' clearly stands for the death and the loss, Everell soon has to face. Magawisca even describes her own father as a threatening 'evening cloud.' She knows that he is full of hatred towards the whites and that he is willing to kill them, but she cannot go as far as to risk his life, by telling the Fletchers that he is nearby. When Mononotto, who wants to revenge his son's death, is about to execute Everell, "a sun-beam penetrated the trees that enclosed the area, and fell athwart his [Everell's] brow and hair, kindling it with an almost supernatural brightness" (Sedgwick 96). The author gives the Indian understanding of this sign, "To the savages, this was a token that the victim was accepted, and they sent forth a shout that rent the air" (Sedgwick 96). Nevertheless, the quotation allows another diversity of interpretation. The light leads to the hope that Everell could be rescued through a merciful act of nature beyond control, because he is compared to a "saint" (Sedgwick 95) earlier and the sun-beam that plays about him is described as 'almost supernatural.' Magawisca is the only one, who still hopes that Everell can be spurned and takes the morning star as a sign, "Star of promise, thou dost still linger with us when day is vanished, and now thou art there, alone, to proclaim the coming sun" (Sedgwick 94). The daughter of the Indian chief understands that she is Everell's only help. She almost sacrifices her life and helps him to escape. In Hope Leslie the Indian fate is repeatedly mentioned. The Natives recognize the symbols of nature for their decline and describe it with images of nature. Magawisca tries to help Everell to flee and tells him, "Our journey is always towards the setting sun – every turn we make is marked by a dead tree" (Sedgwick 78). The Indian not only describes their voyage, but also their future. The 'setting sun' symbolizes the end of the Indians and the 'dead tree' could be another vanished tribe. Mononotto, Magawisca's father, is aware of their decay, too, and describes it in a very expressive image: The old chief fixed his melancholy eye on a solitary pine, scathed and blasted by tempests, that rooted in the ground where he stood, lifted its topmost branches to the bare rock, where they seemed, in their wild desolation, to brave the elemental fury that had stripped them of beauty and life. The leafless tree was truly, as it appeared to the eye of Mononotto, a fit emblem of the chieftain of a ruined tribe. (Sedgwick 87)
Usually the pine, here symbolizing the Indians, is an evergreen and adaptable tree, but it has been 'scathed and blasted by tempests' – the attacks of the whites. The Natives have long revolted against their violence, but there is no other alternative than to give in. Sedgwick's word choice emphasizes this statement. She describes Mononotto as an old and infirm chief, who is hope- and defenseless. His image teems with somber words like 'melancholy', 'wild desolation', and 'fury'. The language of the Indians in Hope Leslie strongly reminds me of Chief Seattle's speech The Indians' Night Promises to Be Dark (1853). Even though the oration is written later than Sedgwick's novel, it still contains the same conflict between the whites and the Indians and illustrates the figurative language that is typical for the Native Americans. The question if his tribe should accept the offer of the President of the United States to leave their land and to live in a reservation, was the occasion of the speech. Seattle describes the situation of the Natives with a simile of nature, "Our people are ebbing away like a rapidly receding tide that will never return" (Seattle 99). When the time of Magawisca's farewell draws closer, Hope says, "Promise us that you will return and dwell with us – as you would say, Magawisca, we will walk in the same path, the same joys shall shine on us, and, if need be that sorrows come over us, why, we will sit under their shadow together" (Sedgwick 349). Hope uses the same expressions and language as the Indians, and thereby shows her deep solidarity and respect for them. For the most part, however, the society is not as open-minded as Hope and Everell, and Magawisca knows it: It cannot be – it cannot be . . . My people have been spoiled – we cannot take as a gift that which is our own – the law of vengeance is written on our hearts – you say you have a written rule for forgiveness – it may be better – if ye would be guided by it – it is not for us – the Indian and the white man can no more mingle, and become one, than day and night. (Sedgwick 349)
The Indians and the whites cannot live together. The Indians foster a personal relationship to nature, whereas the White Man only uses and abuses it. Furthermore, their religions are very different. The White Man's laws are written down, whereas the Indian's religion is handed down and developed over a long period of time. Magawisca sees that "tribe follows tribe, and nation follows nation, like the waves of the sea. It is the order of nature, and regret is useless" (Seattle 101).

3. Conclusion

While the plot develops, the novel impresses a reader through its figurative language, which gives account of events, human feelings, and the surrounding in which the characters act. Even when Sedgwick interrupts her narrative, the attentive reader is able to foresee the events through the omens the author works in. Most of the time, she lets the signs of nature speak, like the hope-bringing morning star, the sun that breaks through the clouds, or a storm that suddenly arises. Furthermore, Sedgwick achieves authenticity. Contemporary witnesses and their famous words appear in the novel. The Native Americans are known for their symbolic language and the Indian characters in the novel mostly speak in metaphors and similes that illustrate their close relationship to nature. Through its expressive language, Catharine Maria Sedgwick's Hope Leslie depicts an impressive picture of seventeenth-century New England.

Works Cited

Primary Literature

Sedgwick, Catharine Maria. Hope Leslie. New York: Penguin Classics, 1998.

Secondary Literature

Boyer, Paul, et al. The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People. 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000.

Cotton, John. "Gods Promise to His Plantation." Colonial American Writing. Ed. Roy Harvey Pearce. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1969. 64-77.

Seattle. "The Indian's Night Promises to Be Dark." Indian Oratory: Famous Speeches by Noted Indian Chieftains. Ed. W.C. Vanderwerth. New York: Ballatine, 1972. 98-102.

Winthrop, John. "A Model of Christian Charity." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 5th ed. 1 vols. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998. 214-225.