Madness in English-Canadian Fiction - ub-dok - Universität Trier

Both Moodie and her sister Catherine Parr Traill8 abundantly warned that the new
settlers from Britain were likely to be middle class and ill adapted to life in the Ontario
bush of the early 1900s:
To the poor, industrious working man it presents many advantages; to the poor gentleman, none!
The former works hard, puts up with coarse, scanty fare, and submits, with a good grace , to
hardships that would kill a domesticated animal at home. Thus he becomes independent,
inasmuch as the land that he has cleared finds him in the common necessaries of life […] The
gentleman can neither work so hard, live so coarsely, nor endure so many privations as his
poorer but more fortunate neighbour. Unaccustomed to manual labour, his services in the field
are not of a nature to secure for him a profitable return. The task is new to him, he knows not
how to perform it well; and, conscious of his deficiency, he extends his little means in hiring
labour, which his bush-farm can never repay. Difficulties increase, debts grow upon him, h e
struggles in vain to extricate himself, and finally sees his family sink into hopeless ruin.9
Traill advised men to consult with their wives before deciding upon emigration, and
Moodie alluded to the "Canada mania" that sent many unprepared people into an
unfamiliar and formidable environment.10 Current estimates of the two writers
emphasise Traill's practicality, open-mindedness and the ability to deal with the trials
of bush life. Qualities which distinguish her from Moodie, who is often described as
stuffy, incompetent, resistant to change. Critics have contradictorily portrayed Mrs.
Moodie as a "one-woman garrison"11 a Methodist bluestocking, a heroic pioneer, a
Crusoe ill-equipped for anything but middle-class society, and a schizophrenic torn
between her life and her mind.12
On the whole she was the typical representative of the reluctant pioneer - in love with
the idea of nature but always suspicious of the actual wilderness - which became in
Ontario a kind of prototype for cultural memory. Edward Dahl's study of Susanna
Moodie and her contemporaries nicely outlines their simultaneous aversion and
attraction to the wilderness.13 In brief, the wilderness is loathed for concrete reasons,
for its danger, hardship, and solitude. It is seen as useless in its raw state and
8 Traill, Catherine Parr: The Canadian Settler's Guide.- Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1969 [1855].- p. 1
9 Moodie, Susanna: Roughing It in the Bush.- Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1962 [1852].- pp. 236 f.
10 Ibid., p. 17
11 Frye, Northrop: Conclusion.- In: Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English/ ed. by Carl F. Klinck et.
al..- U.S.A: University of Toronto Press, 1967.- p. 839
12 For a critical overview on the literature published on Moodie see: Peterman, Michael A.: Susanna Moodie.- In:
Canadian Writers and Their Works: Fiction Series: Vol. 1/ ed. by Robert Lecker, Jack David and Ellen Quigley.-
Downsview, Ontario: ECW Press, 1983.- pp. 63-104.-
13 Dahl, Edward H.: 'Mid Forest Wild': A Study of the Concept of Wilderness in the Writings of Susanna Moodie, J. W. D.
Moodie, Catherine Parr Traill and Samuel Strickland, c. 1830-1835.- Ottawa: National Museum of Man, 1973.-
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