“Together they knew how to be more than a single flame.”
I had a wonderful time dramatizing this well-known Gothic love poem by Edgar Allan Poe, a work covered by most high school American literature classes. I put the drama in a kitchen classroom where four characters discover their parts in the scene: a spinster teacher, an unwilling student, an ardent lover, and a maid.
Photo by William Bout on Unsplash
Hester read without luster:
I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love--
Miss Ada stood up and finished that part while gesturing to the rafters.
But we loved with a love that was more than love--
I and my Annabel Lee
With a love that the wingéd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.
Hester looked downcast. Maybe love was an affliction to make us worthy of heaven. Then I started to wonder if angels could envy humans, not the other way around, if love between a man and woman could rise to such heights.
Just then Otis came in smelling like manure. Hester jumped up to shoo him back out to the yard. Smiling he reached to touch her as if to dance. She screamed, but it was a peal of delight. Otis was ready. As soon as he was out on the stoop, which was beyond Miss Ada’s sight, Hester and Otis kissed. But I could see, and I swear they turned so I had a good view. He lifted her up on her toes and she melted like hot wax. Together they knew how to be more than a single flame.
...
Hester entered the kitchen smoothing her apron. Otis followed her in, having removed his coat and boots. He spoke in his theatrical voice as he gazed at Hester.
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling-- my darling-- my life and my bride.
Miss Ada clapped, delighted. With a raised chin that shook with emotion, she spoke the final words:
In her sepulchre there by the sea--
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
The Compromise, “The Liberator, 1840”
There with her broom, Mariah is learning about romantic love, that special doctrine of yearning also known as gothic or supernatural romance. Miss Ada, an elderly spinster, enjoys sympathy for romance even as she approaches her own death. Threats are lurking in the next scenes. Strong faith in abolitionist doctrine and unwillingness to separate will put the lovers in danger. Mariah receives a disappointing proposal of marriage from George. She must wait years and then try to adapt to a fateful business arrangement.
Romantic Comedy
“He sang quietly to hear my voice come through beside his.”
Strange but true, I am writing a romantic comedy. There is hope under and within every scene I have written. Another marriage proposal comes to Mariah in the final event of the novel. For the first time, love frees her of self-doubt.
Richie spoke his love to me then. He was sobbing a little and reaching for the words, so I helped him with an old song that I remembered all these years. He sang quietly to hear my voice come through beside his.
Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart.
Naught be all else to me, save that thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night.
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.
I heard what I did. I sang with him and it was not a broken string or clattering tin. Then I vowed to love him always, to heal him and raise him up if he fell. He vowed to uncoil the ropes of my sadness, and to listen for my delight.
The Compromise, “The Blizzard 1846” The Irish song dates back to the 6th century.
It turns out that a young woman’s coming-of-age, or at least her maturity, often involves accepting reality as well as trying to improve on it. Self-doubt makes us tread water when we expected to progress.
“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”
William Shakespeare
Story Structure
In the language of Michael Hague’s plot structure, my character finds her last “turning point” to her “transformed essence.” Learn more at his website, Story Mastery. This is my character arc. The major problem finds resolution at the same moment it becomes generative. This is the traditional promise of romantic comedy, regardless of the particularities.
