Mercy Warren Otis

This reading was one of the most challenging so far this year. When reading the head note introduction it stated that Mercy Otis Warren was pro-revolutionary, and used her plays to promote the revolution. Therefore, I went into the reading assuming the characters would be revolutionists fighting Britain. The poetic style of the writing made it even harder to decipher Warren’s message so I was totally confused for the first half. Finally, I realized she was writing as the Tories who were in support of the British and it started to make more sense. The thing that confused me was how the people of the time, who were not very well educated, understood Warren’s plays. If college students today have trouble reading them, and people are much better educated today, then how did the majority of the population understand them in the past? I guess that old English was easier to understand back then when people were used to reading it.
The thing that Warren did make clear was the spectrum of positions people could hold. The Tories had extremists, such as Hateall, who wanted to go straight to war to fight for the British cause. The name Hateall is strategically chosen describing his character as one that is narrow minded and headstrong. He said “compassion never shall seize my steadfast breast” showing he will not be swayed or have compassion for anyone else’s position. He stands his ground and hates all, meaning he hates the independence cause.
Crusty Crowbar for example is a different character that is also a Tory, but feels some guilt. Underneath he knows his cause is morally wrong. He says he “blindly swore obedience to his will” implying that he agreed to defend Britain but may not actually believe it. He feels guilt over the cause, but not enough to leave it. This puts him on the opposing end of the spectrum from Hateall, but still a Tory.
Warren’s poetic style and use of satire to convey her message at first made the play hard to understand. She used a very creative method of using Tories to promote the cause of the revolution. She used extremists that were ridiculous, like Hateall and then people like Crusty who had the conscience to know they were wrong. This use of Crusty’s conscience was a subtle way to prove her point as to why the revolution was right.