Melinda Uno
Professor Karin Sanders
Scandinavian 106/ Hans Christian Andersen/University of California, Berkeley
Tuesday November 16, 2010
The Two Baronesses; Bridging the Gap between Romanticism and Realism
Contrary to popular knowledge, Hans Christian Andersen became famous first for his novels and later gained global and historical fame for his writing of fairy tales. Despite the differences in form, there is continuity in Hans Christian Andersen’s distinct style. Andersen cannot escape the cultural ideals that surround him in Europe apparent in the romantic descriptions of the landscape of Denmark. The style of The Two Baronesses echoes that of a travelogue as the narrator guides the reader through the various provinces and to Copenhagen. In this novel, Andersen uses character and landscape descriptions to fuel romantic nationalism while at the same time progressing Danish literature of the mid-nineteenth century into realism.
In the novel The Two Baronesses Hans Christian Andersen paints a pretty picture of Denmark as the characters venture through the region. The whole text is wrought with long descriptions of the landscapes and evokes a sense of the mystical in the beauty of the scene. For example, early in the text when the young seamen head to Svendborg-fjord the commentary reflects the cultural history of the land: “‘Our northern mythologys Archipelago begins here!’ said Frederick... ‘Her lies, as you see, Funen, where Odin dwelt; one of these days we should drive up to Odense, Odin’s old city; there before us is the island of Thorsing, which speaks of Thor...”’ (14-15). Although the tutor would probably be aware of this, the dialogue works within the framework to explain the setting in greater detail and explain the context to the reader. Along with the mythical traditions, there is a strong emphasis on Danish ideals of piety in the dialogue, church settings, and specifically at the Commander’s house, the objects that surround people’s everyday lives: “Of all that was shown, however, that which interested most was the great wooden pedestal-looking thing, with the carved angels, and the Virgin Mary...” (60). By the repeated emphasis of the religious spirituality of these people, it is as though the reader is meant to be distanced from the culture. It might be obvious to some, but the importance of Christianity to Danish culture is introduced to the reader as the reader is introduced to the characters.
The reader is meant to look at Danish culture with virgin eyes, (although undoubtedly the Danes who read this novel would be charmed by Andersen’s beautiful descriptive imagery). Other ways in which this novel is a vignette of life in Denmark can be seen in the details that are emphasized in character descriptions. In the introduction of a character the region of where they are from in Denmark serves as an indicator of their disposition. For example, when Elisabeth is cast out of the old Baroness’s home, she is sent to stay with the clerk and his wife: “The honest old clerk was called Mr. Katrineson; and by that name we may understand that he was from the little island of Oro...But all the superstition from Oro, as it is there reflected from the whole country, was, as we have said, removed with the good couple into the clerks little dwelling...” (45). Although the extremity of the old couple’s superstition is perhaps unrealistic, the concentration of the beliefs is meant to represent the beliefs of a whole region, in one old couple.
Despite the romantic language and imagery, in content The Two Baronesses depicts a realistic vision of Denmark. The turn from romanticism to realism is embodied by the very setting of the novel. The novel begins with the perspectives of members of the working class as they observe a ship at sea. The young woman fantasizes about a dramatic shipwreck while her mother’s experience with such matters keeps her serious and pious. The young woman (perhaps in her naivetée) is romanticism personified. She lacks true understanding of the suffering that would result from a shipwreck, echoing romantic idealism and its tendency to emphasize the glory and beauty in all things, even death. The transparency of the romanticism in this novel is obvious, such as in Frederick’s introduction to the manor where the young adventurers will first meet an infant Elisabeth: “It is a veritable robbers den to look at, but quite romantic, and what is still better, we shall have a roof over our heads and people to wait on us...” (3). Here, even amidst the romantic nature of the young Count Frederick’s description is a taste of reality. Count Frederick is obviously spoiled by his noble status (although it does not severely affect his likability or morality) and his obtuse blindness to the reality of the social hierarchy is apparent in the cavalier way he talks about his subordinates.
The death of Caroline and Hedvig’s son is another example of the harshness of reality that is littered throughout the text. Structurally, Andersen juxtaposes romantic scenes to realistic ones, sometimes across the span of years. The temporality of the happiness of Caroline’s relations as she fosters a young boy is alluded to in the tableau scene. Directly following this the boy catches typhus and spreads it to Caroline. Both subsequently die as a result. The extreme polarity of tone of this sub story recurs throughout the whole text. Consistently there is the beautiful, the happy, the festive, only to be followed directly by the harshness of reality, sadness, and loss. This can also be seen in Elimar and Elisabeth’s trauma along the dikes near Amrom (73-75). The happiness of the adventure of discovery of the unknown quickly turns terrifying as the tide rushes in.
Throughout the text, subplots echo the disillusionment with romanticism. This is most apparent in the relationships between characters. The most obvious is the loss of Holger’s button (34-35). Holger is wholly infatuated with Clara and believes he is in love (when in fact he has drunk quite a bit of champagne) up until he loses his button and with it his love. “When a man is to be executed, it is the custom to say, ‘he is to lose his button,’ that is to lose his head, and Holger has, lost a button and with that his head” (35). The button is the object that represents his emotions, but on a larger scale Andersen uses a conventional metaphor to describe Holger’s change in mood. The button can be a symbol of the loss of Danish romantic ideals as a whole, because this is culturally used metaphor and because of Andersen’s repeated emphasis of reality in the wake of romance and nature.
To return to Elimar and Elisabeth, if their earlier trauma represents the exposure of romantics to reality, Elisabeth’s journey to Copenhagen is a culture shock that parallels the shift from the ideal into the real. The trauma that fuels Elisabeth’s infatuation with Elimar is antagonized by the fact that she remains at home. When she ventures out into the world, she is unaware, unprepared and luckily (romantically) finds people to help her, but her love for Elimar is doomed because he is already engaged to someone else. Everything that motivated her leave was romantic, indicating that the romantic is not necessarily bad or wrong, just ideal and therefore cannot last.
Indeed, Andersen is not making a statement that romanticism should become realism; the text merely reveals the inadequacy of romantic ideals as a primary guiding force, for reality always interjects. For Elisabeth, the descriptions of nature remain romantic, although tainted when she awaits permission to visit Elimar (although at this time in the text she does not know it is not him that is in prison): “…she did not see into the summer’s forest solitude, where the game springs in the high grass, where the stork strides in the meadows. She saw the coming death of nature, saw it in its decay, saw it from the fly-wagon; and yet, like a beautiful picture it seized on her soul uncontrollably during all the empty chatter around her” (99). Elisabeth was a curious child, eager to learn and discover the things around her, perhaps to a fault as she consistently found herself in trouble. Preceding this, the setting emulates Elisabeth’s emotional state: “The heavens were clouded; and it blew hard; but with Danish equanimity, as it regards the climate, the mutually consoled themselves…” (98). The descriptions of nature are personified; characterized almost as a Danish person to exemplify how nature plays a role in this text. The romance of nature is something that Elisabeth cannot escape, although she does not enjoy it when her mind is preoccupied. Instead, in her melancholy the decay of nature calls to her. This is perhaps foreshadowing the death of her infatuation with Elimar. As a result, Elisabeth embodies the turn from the enlightenment period, to the romantic era, and then to realism. Yet, the beauty of romance is something that is preserved by The Two Baronesses. The beauty of Denmark echoes the beauty of the romantic. Herman and the Gentleman of the Bedchamber discuss art and poetry: “... a novel that contains only events is read but once; the unexpected, the surprising, which was the life of it, is departed, dead after perusal.... poetry has imperishable growth - to such a work we return again and again; that book is read and reread; one comes from it refreshed, as from a ramble in the woods in spring” (141). Herman is a part of this ideal. As a character, he has wants and needs that are complex and can be debated, something that he compares to a spring. This naturalistic imagery is in the style of romantic naturalism that evokes Thoreau or Emerson. Although Andersen did not directly interact with these authors, he is, with The Two Baronesses in the same mode. Because of this continuity, Andersen has transcended his cultural bounds and literary traditions; exceeding them by working within a familiar realm.
The novel is a transitory text; neither wholly romantic nor realistic for it is the same time very much a part of both genres. This is apparent in the inclusion of the perspectives of the impoverished along with that of the nobility. Like the two baronesses, who rise up the social ladder, the text The Two Baronesses seeks to rise from the archaic ideals of the romantic into the realistic, without abandoning the positive literary influences. Romantic naturalism and romantic nationalism are invoked by Hans Christian Andersen’s talent for description, of his manipulation of language to illustrate and at the same time focus in on his observations.