Rowson's Style

I rather enjoy Susanna Rowson’s style of writing. I found it interesting that she formatted some chapters to show you a scene and then to go back and explain the lives behind the characters. For instance, she begins the novel with an opening scene of Montraville seeing Charlotte Temple outside of church.  She then begins the very next chapter explaining who Charlotte Temple’s father is so that the reader begins to form an idea of who Charlotte is based on knowledge about her parents.  I also find it somewhat humorous and delightful that Rowson takes the time at some points to give an aside to the reader and explain her exact views on a subject before continuing the story. I find it comical because she still tries to maintain good graces of society with the reader. It is as if she says “by the way, audience, I do not condone what is about to happen because I am a lady but this is what happened.” This is evident multiple times when she fails to procure in detail the contents of Montraville’s letter to Charlotte and Montraville’s reasons for wanting to Charlotte to run away with him. That being said, I do think that she tries to stay in the favor of the reader to keep them reading because this novel came out in a time when the activities of a woman are very public and very heavily judged. Rowson claims to refuse to reveal in too much detail Montraville’s letter because she says that she does not wish for young women to become enchanted and day dream about kind things that men may say. Which is ironic to be reading in today’s society when books like 50 Shades of Grey are so explicit in their detail and are written primarily to enchant. If anything, I was somewhat displeased by the lack of detail. I wanted to read every lovely thing that Montraville must have said to Charlotte; if only to be able to mentally live a romance and day dream about a man saying such sweet nothings to me.