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Page history last edited by Wilmesmeier 14 years, 2 months ago

 

William der Neger

 

William der Neger (William the Negro) is an 1817 novella written by German author and women's rights advocate Caroline Auguste Fischer (1764-1842).

 

Table of Contents:


 Main Characters:

 

Molly:  The eleventh and youngest child of a poor merchant family, by the time she is born Molly's parents do not have any love left for her.  Her siblings think her a fool and do not pay her any attention except to tease her.  She is called "die Stumme" (the mute) and "die Träumerinn" (the dreamer), preferring to speak with birds, flowers, and trees over her family.  When she and William first meet, she is fifteen years old.  Molly is musically inclined and feels herself constantly accompanied by beautiful harmonic tones.  She masters a variety of instruments, and under the guidance of an understanding teacher, further develops and comes to appreciate her musical skills.  She prefers to keep the music that is closest to her heart to herself, playing and singing alone in her garden. 

 

William:  William is first described by the narrator as "the young Moor" in the neighborhood.  Born in the hottest regions of Africa, William is panning for gold nuggets with his sister Saphy when he is captured by six white men and sold into slavery.  Following a brief period serving a Spanish master, he is sold to Sir Robert, an Englishman.  William is very intelligent, so the kind Sir Robert sends him to study, where he excels over all of his white classmates.  William has a strong desire to share his newly acquired knowledge with his African brothers and free them from slavery.  For his efforts in Domingo, he eventually earns the name "William der Retter" (William the Rescuer/Savior).  

 

 Sir Robert: An Englishman and William's second master, Sir Robert has declared himself an enemy of slave trade.  He finances William's education to prove that slaves can be just as intelligent as whites.  Sir Robert is about 30 years old, and although he is wealthy, he does not flaunt his wealth, choosing to wear fine but simple clothing.  He is described by Molly as  tall and handsome, with a noble gait.  Sir Robert loves William like a son and has declared him the heir to his estate.  His loyalty to William is greater than any other allegiance, including his allegiance to Molly.

  

Plot Synopsis

  

After an introduction to Molly's background, the action begins with Molly sitting in the garden playing the lute and singing. She is secretly observed by William, a liberated, educated slave who is overcome by the beauty of Molly and her music.  Falling immediately in love with Molly, he laments:  "Ach, warum bin ich schwarz?  Molly, du himmlische Weiße!" (Oh, why am I black!  Molly, you heavenly white woman!), believing that Molly would not accept him. Molly hears his cries and William reveals himself, kneeling before her.  She tells him to stand, and he asks her to play and sing for him, which she gladly does, stopping only when she notices her cruel and ridiculing siblings in the distance.  She promises William that they will see each other again the following day.  The next day William is already waiting in the garden before dawn, where he surprises Molly with a basket of flowers.  She is shocked as he jumps out of the bushes, but then she joins him at the arbor.  He tells her about his personal history and his burning desire to free the African slaves in the Americas.  Molly is deeply impressed by his dedication and passion.  

 

William returns home and tells his master, Sir Robert, of his love for Molly.  Sir Robert’s heart is happy for William, but his reason tells him that this love could have sad consequences.  William is Sir Robert’s only next of kin, and therefore stands to inherit his fortune, which will be seen favorably by Molly’s poor merchant father.  However, because William is black, Sir Robert fears that Molly's family will not accept him.  William begs Sir Robert to meet Molly, but Sir Robert repeatedly puts off the meeting because of his concerns over the difficulty of a relationship between a white woman and a former slave.  He also worries that what William deems to be love is compassion (Mitleid) on Molly's part; she is very young and impressionable. 

  

After three months, during which William's mood becomes darker and less open, Sir Robert announces that he is ready to meet Molly.  William is elated at this news and immediately jumps up to fetch his beloved.  Molly is very timid and afraid of Sir Robert; she stands with lowered eyes before him.  Sir Robert begins asking Molly questions, and when she finally looks directly at him, both are surprised, as if struck by lightning.  Molly sees a handsome young man with a noble soul, while Sir Robert sees the direct gaze of a lovely young lady.  Molly begins to sing and play the lute and Robert is even more taken by her.  Believing her to be happy with William, Sir Robert keeps his feelings to himself.  However, unbeknownst to Sir Robert, William is not happy either.  On the day of their engagement, as Sir Robert lays their hands together, William gazes into the mirror and sees his image as inferior, even animalistic, in comparison to Molly and Sir Robert.  His desire for Molly’s happiness, combined with doubts of whether she can be happy with him as a husband, lead him to a conclusion.  William begs to be sent to the Americas to his black brothers.  He is so upset that he falls unconscious and a doctor must be called in.  In their concern, Sir Robert and Molly grasp each other’s hands.  Focused solely now on saving William, Sir Robert vows to travel to the Americas with him, while Molly says she will get permission from her parents to await their return at a relative’s home in Malaga, Spain.  

 

Sir Robert and William begin their voyage, but the ship meets a terrible storm, and after three terrifying days and nights, they are stranded on the island of Madeira, off the coast of Portugal. William disappears immediately after landing and Sir Robert is distraught, begging others to help him find his “son.”  After three months news arrives from Domingo that the blacks have again won, led particularly by a young, courageous Negro named William, who had recently come from Europe.  Sir Robert wants to travel to Domingo to look for William, but first he must see Molly.  His feelings for her have only strengthened over time.  Molly is now certain that it was not love, but compassion or pity (Mitleid) that she felt for William, and that she really loves Robert.  The two meet up, and when the men aboard a Portuguese ship returning from Domingo confirm the revolution, Sir Robert and Molly decide to return to England, where they realize that they cannot live without one another. 

 

Fourteen days after their arrival in England, a letter arrives for Sir Robert.  Molly becomes nervous and Sir Robert reminds her that no matter what the letter contains, he will do nothing to betray William’s trust.  In the letter, William thanks Sir Robert for giving him a better life and offers his master Molly as a repayment.  He says that he has dedicated himself to the fight, and that he can at least live a worthy life, if not a happy one.  William also gives the news that he has earned the name “Retter” (Rescuer/Savior) through three successful battles.  He officially renounces Molly, making it possible for her to be with Sir Robert, and requests that Sir Robert teach his descendants to fight for the rights of William’s people.  The letter concludes, “Live well.  William is going into battle.”  Sir Robert vows to continue the fight and laments that he only now truly feels what William meant to him.  Six months later news of William’s death arrives.  Sir Robert grieves as though he had lost a son.  William’s death allows Robert and Molly to marry without the feelings of betrayal and guilt that had prevented them from doing so earlier.  The two are happily wed and Molly bears two children, a boy, Georg and a girl, Betty. 

 

One day, as the family sits in the garden, Betty lets out a scream and runs to her mother, who looks up to see a small black head peeking at them.  Sir Robert stands up, but not before Georg pulls a young Negro boy with twinkling eyes into the garden.  The boy states that he has come from the forest, where his father still stands.  When Robert asks the boy his father’s name, he responds, “William the Rescuer.”  Robert runs to William, where the two tearfully embrace.  William warns Molly to stay back, announcing that he has taken a black wife and that he had sent the news of his death in order to convince Molly to forget him.  William returns to the fight, leaving his son, who was born free and is also named William.  He vows that he will see them all again when his work is done. 

 

Historical Background:

At the time the story begins, slavery has already been abolished on Santo Domingo (the French colony Saint-Domingue, later Haiti).  This is a reference to the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), which not only eliminated slavery, but also established Haiti as the first republic ruled by blacks.  The abolishment of slavery in Haiti gives hope to William and Sir Robert that slaves across the Americas may also soon be freed.  William chooses to participate in the international fight for the freedom of slaves, parting ways with Sir Robert and Molly.  Fischer shows progress in the fight to abolish slavery at the end of William der Neger when William arrives in Europe with his son, who is "ein Freygeborener" (a free-born).  However, William returns to the fight almost immediately, indicating that there are still places where his African brothers are not free.

 

Map of St. Domingue, Haiti (1789)

  

General Themes

 

Loyalty and Love:  William faces the dilemma of following his heart to be with Molly or following his sense of loyalty and duty to free his African brothers from the grips of slavery; each choice would require his full energy and he therefore cannot have both).  He also struggles between choosing happiness for himself (by marrying Molly) and happiness for Molly (by allowing her to marry Sir Robert because William believes she cannot achieve true happiness if married to a black man).

 

Compassion (Mitleid):  Molly's mistaken belief that she is in love with William stems from the sense of compassion that she feels with him.  She identifies with his suffering because she, too, has suffered.  As the youngest child in her family, she is ignored by her parents and tormented by her older siblings.  Like William, she is often misunderstood.

 

Nature:  Nature as both an environmental force and a human quality appears throughout William der Neger.  Molly feels an intimate and harmonic connection to nature, as evidenced by her conversations with birds, flowers, and trees.  She spends most of her free time sitting in the garden or wandering through the forests and fields.  A force of nature also advances the plot of the work when a great storm prevents Sir Robert and William's ship from reaching its destination in the Americas.  This gives William the opportunity to disappear and set out on his own, leaving Sir Robert behind to be with Molly.  The violent rupture of the storm causes a physical rupture between William and Sir Robert and an emotional rupture between William and Molly.  Finally, William writes of nature in his letter to Sir Robert and Molly: "Wird [William] vergessen, daß die Natur ihn nicht bildete für die himmlische Weiße?" ("Will [William] forget that Nature did not make him for the heavenly white woman?").  In his efforts to fit into white European culture, he must fight against his own nature, which refers to his upbringing in Africa, his status as a former slave, and most of all his skin color.  He believes that the way Nature made him (black), he cannot be a good husband to Molly.  William's decision to travel to the Americas and take a black wife is his way of following his nature, rather than pursue his "unnatural" love for a white woman.

 

Heart (Herz) and Spirit (Geist):  Heart and spirit are two highly valued human qualities in literature of this time.  In his anguish, William cries: "Ja, ich bin schwarz.  Aber bin ich kein Mann?  Hab' ich kein Herz?" ("Yes, I am black.  But am I not a man?  Do I not have a heart?").  He wants to believe that the differences between black and white are negligable because his heart beats just as strongly with love as a white man's.  When he presses Molly's hand against his heart and asks her if he is worth her love, she bursts into tears.  The author notes that William's heart and spirit are unfurled in the conversations he has with Molly, making their fates inseprable.  Sir Robert holds an inner conflict between his heart and another important concept, reason (Vernunft); while his heart desires to see William happy, his sense of reason informs him that their marriage will not be accepted by the public.  Molly is described to have a "weiches Herz" (weak heart) that can easily be misled by compassion; Sir Robert believes this to be the reason she has fallen in love with William.  

 

Social Class Fischer points out tensions between social classes in William der Neger.  Molly's parents are poor merchants, while Sir Robert is a wealthy man.  Molly's initial nervousness around Sir Robert originates in her discomfort with their class differences.  She is ashamed of her worn clothing and believes that Sir Robert will look down upon her because of her social status.  She is quickly relieved when she finds that Sir Robert dresses sensibly and does not put on airs in spite of his wealth, showing that the differences between social classes can be overcome.

 

Diversity Issues:  

 

Stigma 

       We can view William’s struggles in terms of Erving Goffman’s concept of stigma.  Goffman defines stigma as a relationship between an attribute that is deeply discrediting and a stereotype.  He lists three kinds of stigma: stigma of physical deformity; stigma based on one’s character, beliefs, or mental disorder; and stigma of race, nation, or religion.  All three of these categories can be applied to William.  His physical deformity is his black skin, which differs from the white skin of most Europeans.  He believes in the abolition of slavery and the concept of equality for blacks and whites, which many Europeans of his time are opposed to.  Finally, he hails from Africa and is therefore considered a member of the savage, uncivilized African race. 

         As Goffman states, “By definition…we believe that the person with a stigma is not quite human.  On this assumption we exercise varieties of discrimination” (5).  Both William and Sir Robert are well aware of the potential discrimination that William faces as a stigmatized individual.  If William were to take Molly as his wife, she would also be a victim of discrimination by association.  However, because “[t]he stigmatized individual tends to hold the same beliefs about identity as we do…[h]is deepest feelings about what he is may be his sense of being a ‘normal ‘person,’ a human being like anyone else, a person, therefore, who deserves a fair chance and a fair break”  (Goffman 7), William struggles to comprehend cope with the unfairness of the situation: "Yes, I am black!  But am I not a man?  Do I not have a heart?"  Here he recognizes his stigma (blackness), but clearly views himself as a normal human being. 

         The stigmatized individual can also try to better his situation “by devoting much private effort to the mastery of areas of activity ordinarily felt to be closed on incidental and physical grounds to one with his shortcomings” (Goffman 10).  Learning to read, getting a classical European education, and marrying a white woman can all be viewed as activities normally not permitted to blacks that can aid William in minimizing his stigma and assimilating to European society.

         Under Goffman’s list of sympathetic others who are able to see the stigmatized individual in a positive and unbiased light, we find the category of The Wise, “persons who are normal but whose special situation has made them intimately privy to the secret life of the stigmatized individual and sympathetic with it” (28).  Molly fits into this category; having been tormented by her family her whole life for having a distinct character, she understands what it means to suffer.  The second category of sympathetic other is The Own, those who share the same stigma.  By relocating to Domingo to fight with other former African slaves, William is able to put himself into an environment full of his Own.  By taking a black wife, he unites himself with someone who shares the same stigma.  In this environment, the stigma becomes the norm and therefore ceases to be a stigma.

 

Conversion, Passing, and Covering: 

          We can also relate William’s situation to the concepts of conversion, passing, and covering, as described in Kenji Yoshino’s book Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights.  The demand to convert, to become exactly the same as those in the normal, non-stigmatized group, is impossible for William because of the visible stigma of his skin; he will always remain a marked individual.  For the same reason, William cannot pass, or appear to be the same as the non-stigmatized group, while secretly remaining different inside on the inside.  William’s only option to gain acceptance among white European culture is to cover, or minimize his stigma by behaving in a manner that deemphasizes his race, color, and foreignness.  He speaks the local language rather than his native one, gets a European education, presumably wears European clothing, and socializes with whites.  Yoshino’s concept of covering (which he got from Goffman) portrays assimilation in a negative light.  William’s decision to move to Domingo to fight with his African brothers can therefore be seen as a welcome release from the traumatizing demands of covering and the impossibility of conversion or passing.  William must no longer live the “performance”  of covering.

 

Speaking for Others: 

          One of the questions commonly addressed in both postcolonial and feminist theory is whether it is possible to speak for others.  As Linda Alcoff states, speaking for others is often construed as “arrogant, vain, unethical, and politically illegitimate” (97).  This assertion stems from two claims.  First, “where an individual speaks from affects both the meaning and truth of what she says and thus she cannot assume an ability to transcend her location” (Alcoff 98).  Second, “not only is location epistemically salient but certain privileged locations are discursively dangerous.  In particular, the practice of privileged persons speaking for or on behalf of less privileged persons has actually resulted (in many cases) in increasing or reinforcing the oppression of the group spoken for” (Alcoff 99).  This question brings about concerns in Fischer’s representation of African slaves in William der Neger.  Is her fictional portrayal of William and slavery in the Americas legitimate and ethical?  Does her perspective as a white European woman cause her to create an unauthentic character in William?  Or does her status as a woman and women’s rights activist allow her to better understand the plight of the slaves? Alcoff suggests that speaking for others is not necessarily a negative thing: “If I don’t speak for those less privileged than myself, am I abandoning my political responsibility to speak out against oppression, a responsibility incurred by the very fact of my privilege?” (100).  Indeed, if those with privileged status do not speak out on behalf of the oppressed Other, who will?  The oppressed are often not in a position to speak for themselves.

Speaking for others is also a theme within William der Neger.  Sir Robert, as an advocate for the abolition of slavery, is speaking for an Other.  His opinions about William and Molly’s relationship also shows him determining what is best for others.  William provides an example of someone who is perhaps more legitimately able to speak for others.  Although he is privileged through his education and his status as a free man, which distinguish him from the slaves in the Americas, he shares a common background with them.  He is therefore more qualified to speak for and to them than a white European activist, such as Sir Robert.  William, who has connections to both African and European culture, is only partially an Other to either side, making him a perfect intermediary. 

 

Bibliographic Sources: 

 

Alcoff, Linda. "The Problem of Speaking for Others." Cultural Critique 20 (Winter 1991-92): 5-32; rpt.

 

Fischer, Caroline Auguste.  "William der Neger." Kleine Erzählungen und romantische Skizzen.  Posen; Leipzig: Johann Friedrich Kühn, 1818.  Reprint Hildesheim: Olms, 1988.  ISBN: 3487079879.

 

Goffman, Erving. "Stigma and Social Identity." Stigma:  Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 1963. 1-40.  ISBN: 0671622447  

 

Yoshino, Kenji. Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights. New York: Random House, 2006. ISBN 0375508201.

 

Related Literature

 

von Kleist, Heinrich.  "Die Verlobung in Santo Domingo."  Die Verlobung in St. Domingo / Das Bettelweib von Locarno / Der Findling.  Stuttgart:  Reclam, 1986.  ISBN: 3150080037.

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Wilmesmeier said

at 3:29 pm on Jan 12, 2010

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