Content Category
Literary Criticism
Abstract/Description
Within Charles Brockden Brown’s Arthur Mervyn, or Memoirs of the Year 1793 the critical conversation usually hinges on Arthur Mervyn's moral character. Hyper focusing on this argument may have neglected other critical aspects. One of these, race and its relationship with socio-economic standing, can actually shed greater light on issues of Mervyn's morality. Evidence in the book shows that the socio-economic standing of an individual during this time period depended primarily on wealth, not race, and thus supposed race of a person could be as mobile and transient as his or her monetary state.
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Origin of Submission
as part of a class
Faculty Involvement
Mary Eyring
Purchased Race
Within Charles Brockden Brown’s Arthur Mervyn, or Memoirs of the Year 1793 the critical conversation usually hinges on Arthur Mervyn's moral character. Hyper focusing on this argument may have neglected other critical aspects. One of these, race and its relationship with socio-economic standing, can actually shed greater light on issues of Mervyn's morality. Evidence in the book shows that the socio-economic standing of an individual during this time period depended primarily on wealth, not race, and thus supposed race of a person could be as mobile and transient as his or her monetary state.