The introduction to Hope Leslie does much to enlighten the reader as to elements of social structure and then current views that dictated a course of action to the characters of this novel. It also serves to create a platform for understanding Sedgwick's treatment of these characters (x-xxxvii). For instance the tactics of Sir William to establish an attachment for his daughter. This suitor would have to be a proper one, one that would yield to his own views. Sir William, in a correspo

Do you suppose the current bloody Irish "situation" is anything like the Puritanical subjugation of the natives? Or perhaps like the conquest of the Aztecs by the Papist Spaniards? Then there are the Inquisitions. Rwanda, the Holocaust.... Need I go on?

ndence to his brother strongly urges "take good heed that the boy be taught unquestioning and unqualified loyalty to his sovereign-the Alpha and Omega of political duty" (7). The confused and potent mix of politics and religion seems as deadly then as now. On the one hand Sir William desires that all youths have the "golden rule of political religion" inscribed on their hearts yet in the next breath suggests that the "liberty-loving Greeks and Romans" are destroying the moral bent of these same youths. Even going so far as attributing the desire to stray from the common and accepted views of his day as feminine. He states "Liberty, what is it! Daughter of disloyalty and mother of all misrule-who, from the hour that she tempted our first parents to forfeit paradise, hath ever worked mischief to our race" (8). An archaic view perhaps. But even today the same zealot like intensity of feeling serves to dictate to many the

Some common words found in the essay are:
Hope Leslie, Leslie Sedgwick, Maria Sedgwick, Sir William, Liberty Daughter, Greeks Romans, Alpha Omega, hope leslie, sir william, Rwanda Holocaust, current views, politics religion,
Approximate Word count = 799
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)