SOURCE: Soldati, Joseph A. “The Americanization of Faust: A Study of Charles Brockden Brown's Wieland.” ESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance 74, no. 1 (1974): 1-14.

In the following essay, Soldati discusses the blending of the Icarus and Narcissus myths achieved by Brown in the characterization of Theodore Wieland and his sister Clara.

In Western literature, especially during the Romantic Period, man has often been represented by two heroic figures—Prometheus and Faust. Peter L. Thorslev has correctly claimed that since Prometheus “is the Romantic hero apotheosized, he is pure allegory; there is nothing in him of the Gothic, nothing of the dark mystery or taint of sin of the other Romantic heroes.”¹ Prometheus, therefore, represents the most benign aspects of man—his altruistic endeavors in the service of his fellowman.² Faust, however, is completely shrouded in “the dark mystery or taint of sin” of the Romantic hero, and his...