Turning to Tales

The common cliche that hindsight is 20/20 is very applicable to Williams' writing of Peruvian Tales after waiting until 1823 to release her revisions of her original epic poem, it is important to analyze the differences  and similarities among the versions. Between Peru and Peruvian Tales there were historical moments for South America as well as the imperialist powers. When circumstances change, the way literature is written changes along with its interpretation. I plan to examine Canto I and Alzira Tale I in the changes that were made to describing Peru and its inhabitants from the first poem to its revisions.

By naming the tale after Alzira, HMW has already established that Alzira's role in this tale is the most severe just as she writes the rest of the tales with female characters in the title. As a character, Alzira may not seem imperative, but she gives a face to the usual woman of Peru and provides insight into what the women of both times looked like. In Peru, the first canto gives the reader an idea of the beauty within Peru and all that it offers its blissful race. Discussing the "lib'ral ray of mercy, lovelier than the smile of day," leaves the reader to have a picturesque image of the society as the perfect place for a race of people and sets it up to be thought of as the victim in whatever happens to this nation (61-62). Moving through the poem, Alzira is defined as the apple of Ataliba's eye with all the right traits of a woman in any culture with tenderness and charm. As the epic poem continues, Alzira makes the ultimate sacrifice and is left to give any reader a guilt in her death and the loss of herself as the Spanish break into her culture and take everything from her - the love of her life. However, with this first write of the poem, things are left to interpretation. It can be seen by the British audience that although Alzira is a lovely character and has all of the positive images given to her, she chose her fate and there is not a direct fault for the imperialists.




In her second write as Peruvian Tales, HMW does not leave the fault of the imperialists to interpretation. One large change that Williams makes that seems minor has a large impact on the reading of the first tale, "A selfish purpose, or a thought untrue;/ not as on Europe's shore, where wealth and pride,/ From mourning love the venal breast divide..." (39-44). The author is taking the time to add her opinions on Europe and what is assumed the imperialist powers. Peru's society is mirrored in Alzira's characteristics, loving and charming with natural resources just as Alzira is filled with new life and love for her future family and present husband. Europe directly refutes these images being concerned mainly with the monetary value of wealth and pride of meaningless things like social constructs or advantages to the individual instead of a collective society. Europe expects to improve Peru and take their resources for personal gains. Their purposes are always selfish and ultimately revolve around the single advantage of the conquistadors and as we read through the poem the countries cannot even function adequately to take the area over. These four lines are bringing the reader a definite idea of how Europe operates in the eyes of the Peruvians and makes clear what its priorities are. The female character that kills herself rather than be conquered represents the female Peruvian without any selfish purpose or thought untrue as she is bringing herself to be with the love of her life rather than to live in the land that those concerned with wealth have taken as their own.




The world of Peru is described as blissful and efficient. Before Spain comes to the shore and creates any issues, the author makes a compelling argument that this is an independent civilization that has no problem thriving in its area and creating a government that appears to be working. With the revisions, there is no doubt that Europe is a selfish place with a lack of real priority or a well-established society.While focusing on the reputations and elements of society in Peruvian Tales more so, HMW also removes a lot of the Edenic imagery and leaves less nature descriptions in the poem. Through these changes the author provides less background of the resources and landscape, but more ideas linked to imperialism. These ideas may have been more appropriate in the shift to tales and the end of the French Revolution.

When thinking about this blog, I looked at articles that would give me a better sense of Britain after the French Revolution, and found information that made it easier to understand its effects on life and government, you can read it here.


Questions:
1) Why does HMW remove some of the nature landscapes from Canto I to insert thoughts of European society, and is this an effective revision?
2) Are the revisions cohesive with sounding less radical? Is it the change in writing or the change in circumstance that effects this?