Explain the conflicted theme in "The Wieland" by Charles Brockden Brown from this passage.
Explain the conflicted theme in "The Wieland" by Charles Brockden Brown from this passage.
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Explain the conflicted theme in "The Wieland" by Charles Brockden Brown from this passage.
"As I passed swiftly along, I reviewed all the incidents accompanying the appearance and deportment
of that man among us. Late events have been inexplicable and mysterious beyond any of which I have
either read or heard. These events were coeval with Carwin's introduction. I am unable to explain their
origin and mutual dependance; but I do not, on that account, believe them to have a supernatural
origin. Is not this man the agent? Some of them seem to be propitious; but what should I think of those
threats of assassination with which you were lately alarmed? Bloodshed is the trade, and horror is the
element of this man. The process by which the sympathies of nature are extinguished in our hearts, by
which evil is made our good, and by which we are made susceptible of no activity but in the infliction,
and no joy but in the spectacle of woes, is an obvious process. As to an alliance with evil geniuses, the
power and the malice of daemons have been a thousand times exemplified in human beings. There are
no devils but those which are begotten upon selfishness, and reared by cunning.
"Now, indeed, the scene was changed. It was not his secret poniard that I dreaded. It was only the
success of his efforts to make you a confederate in your own destruction, to make your will the
instrument by which he might bereave you of liberty and honor.”
of that man among us. Late events have been inexplicable and mysterious beyond any of which I have
either read or heard. These events were coeval with Carwin's introduction. I am unable to explain their
origin and mutual dependance; but I do not, on that account, believe them to have a supernatural
origin. Is not this man the agent? Some of them seem to be propitious; but what should I think of those
threats of assassination with which you were lately alarmed? Bloodshed is the trade, and horror is the
element of this man. The process by which the sympathies of nature are extinguished in our hearts, by
which evil is made our good, and by which we are made susceptible of no activity but in the infliction,
and no joy but in the spectacle of woes, is an obvious process. As to an alliance with evil geniuses, the
power and the malice of daemons have been a thousand times exemplified in human beings. There are
no devils but those which are begotten upon selfishness, and reared by cunning.
"Now, indeed, the scene was changed. It was not his secret poniard that I dreaded. It was only the
success of his efforts to make you a confederate in your own destruction, to make your will the
instrument by which he might bereave you of liberty and honor.”
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