"Charlotte Temple" by Susanna Rowson

In Charlotte Temple, Susanna Rowson embarked on a mission to teach a lesson to young girls living in an era long ago forgotten. A lesson about love, propriety, and how easily a girl can fall from grace. Although we live in a completely different society today, her principles are sound, and the situations she gives warning of are, to an extent, still the same 200 years later. Several times Rowson directed a few words at the …

…not, it obviously reflects Susanna Rowson's opinions, such as her personal views on romance, the proper basis for a relationship, and the duties of a lady, regarding both her parents and her spouse. This was a time when the line between propriety and disgrace was very well marked, and to even stray near it constituted a fall from grace. Rowson brought her point across very successfully, though in a rather unconventional way for the time.