Charles Brockden Brown’s Wieland; or, The Transformation: An American Tale (1798) was exclusively based on a real notoriously, gruesome crime- the reported 1971 Upstate New York farmer James Yates’s atrocious murders of his entire family. Brown stumbled upon these astoundingly cruel proceedings of Yate’s crime through an anonymously authored article in New-York Weekly Magazine; or Miscellaneous Repository, published on July 20 and 27, 1796, fifteen years after the actual murder case. He used the extracted facts of the murders from the reported article and incorporated them into his own fictional murder plot that entails a story of a man undergoing a “transformation” from a benign father to a lunatic murderer. 

James yates was universally admired and known by his neighbors as a kind, family-oriented, sober, and diligent man. One December evening of the year 1781, they spent the day at home with neighbors doing some religious activities including Bible reading and psalms singing, for it was a Sunday and there wasn’t a church nearby they could attend. In the evening, he sat next to the fireplace reading the bible with his wife residing on his lap, when he suddenly began seeing and hearing two strange mysterious spirits conspiring, one of them turned to him and instructed him to “destroy all his [his] idols and begin by casting the bible into the fire.” Although he was a family-loving father who has devoted his life for the happiness and wellbeing of both his children and his wife, he immediately stood up and carried out the order. He ended up brutally murdering his wife and four children, one of whom was a six-month-old baby by the use of an axe or a hatchet and violently throwing them against the wall. He likewise killed all the living creatures he owned, his dog, his cow, and his two horses. Yates was discovered amidst this crazy massacre and was taken to prison. He never attempted to escape the scene. However, he also never repented for all he has done. He was found to be a member of the religious community, the Society of Shakers.“My father, thou knowest that it was in obedience to thy commands,” he addressed to his God, “and for thy glory that I have done this deed” (Yates 269). 

The Yates murder case happened at a time where the family was an extremely significant institution in American society. For American society was “organized in families or in units that resembled the structure of a family”(Ibid., 44). This emphasis on family sustained the American belief that considers the family to be the microcosm of society. Placing much great emphasis on the importance of family pushed Brown to use his fictional Wieland family tragedy to warn the people of the republic’s moral crisis, for family-killing fatherhood was perceived as the prominent symbol of the whole era’s pathology. In fact, the Yates familicide was the first of a series of consequent family killings that occurred over the course of an era in the early American republic. This sudden concentration of familicides informed something crucial about the psychological and social change in the republic. Brown attributed the cause to the sudden significant spiritual instability caused by extreme social change. He warns of the great difficulties that arise from creating a spiritually committed society in the rational state of the republic through the example of James yates and later on the case of Wieland. For both Yates and Weiland were torn between following their supernatural god and the rational worldly pursuit of happiness. They also lived at a time where it was difficult to have a proper confrontation with god in the domestic sphere. Why James yates and Weiland felt the need to murder their entire family is a question that can’t be easily answered, is it madness or is it actually a supernatural calling from God? 

Yet Brown showed through Weiland that:

Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them. 

(Hume 1740)

What is Psychopathy?

Psychopathy involves affective personality styles (Jurjako par. 1). It typically is seen as a mental disorder. People suffering from it -psychopaths- then to pose a multitude of societal conflicts (4). Psychopaths are more likely than any other group of people to be violent and commit crimes, moreover, they tend to have no empathy for others, and do not feel remorseful for the things that they have done (Jurjako par. 1; Pemment par. 10). According to Pemment Psychopaths tend to have a well-developed conscience and a sense of morality, though, what they consider as right or wrong is unlike the parent or host culture (par. 10). Over the years as research about psychopathy developed, a list of common psychopathic tendencies was created.

The Hare Psychopathy Checklist (HPC) was created to identify psychopathy, it is a 20-item rating scale of psychopathic (antisocial) personality disorder, since it was published over 35 years ago, it has been widely used in research and clinical settings. The HPC is commonly used to assess the risk of violent behavior(Pemment par. 1). Some of the traits that it consists of are: “criminal versatility, superficial charm, failure to accept responsibility for own action, grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying and deception, conning or manipulative, and lack of remorse or guilt” (Berninger par.6). Carwin’s lack of remorse for harming others is a quality shared with many other psychopaths.

In literature like many other fields of research psychopathy is categorised as a mental illness and disorder. However, some researchers like Jurjako disagree with this classification. He argues that this distinction between mental illness is crucial as some judiciary systems may use it to determine social policy (par.2). In some instances as Jurjako highlights, psychopathy may be treated as an aggravating character. According to Aspinwall et al. there is a tendency to severely punish psychopathic criminals in contrast to non-psychopaths (par. 2).

Though, that is not always the case, as some jurisdictions may view the accused as being a victim of psychopathy, so instead of throwing them in jail, these criminals are sent to mental institutions. Arguably, going to a mental institution may be worse for the criminal’s mental health. This distinction is significant psychopathy is an aspect considered when jurisdictions want to know who to hold accountable for their crimes (par.2). This can be seen in Wieland as the court imprisons Wieland for killing his family, but does not attempt to arrest Carwin, though they knew that he was somehow connected to all the killings

For more information watch this video Sociopath vs Psycopath

What characteristics does Carwin in Wieland exhibit?

• Carwin repeatedly states that he realized the dangers of his powers, but at every inconvenience, he used them (149). This reveals that not only is he careless, but he only behaves in ways that benefit himself.
• Carwin uses his skill in ventriloquism to manipualte Wieland into killing his family. He seems to do so just because he can, thus feeding into his grandiose sense of self.
• He acts without thinking of the consequences. This can be seen when Carwin confesses to Clara about what he did to Pleyel and admits to enjoying it (155-158).

Reflection Questions

• By connecting some of Carwin’s behavior to that of a sociopath , does that change your opinion of him?
• What other similarities do you see between Carwin and sociopaths?
• In this case who do you think is to blame, Carwin or Wieland?

An event that could be considered as a central and driving force to the unravelling of peculiar events in Brown’s Wieland, is the father’s spontaneous combustion followed by his unfortunate death. A while back, i had come across an article about a case of a Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC) that shares some similarities with the event narrated in Wieland.

In 1951, 67 year old Mary Reeser was found combusted in her apartment under unknown circumstances. Both spontaneous combustions report the appearance of a blaze or a light from an unknown source, in Wieland’s narration, this light is described as “a light proceeding from the edifice, [that] made every part of the scene visible. A gleam [that] diffused itself over the intermediate space (29). This describes the scene that Wieland’s mother had witnessed as she was anticipating her husband’s delayed return from the temple. To add on, Goldfarb’s article on “The Curious Case Of Mary Reeser And Spontaneous Human Combustion” explains: “Reports said that [Mary Reeser’s] body was disintegrated by a blaze of “white-hot intensity” (2018). The surroundings in which the blazes or explosions occur remain undamaged in both recorded cases. According to Wieland’s uncle’s account of the incident: “No part of the building was on fire” (31). It was only a concentrated area in which the combustion had occurred. Similarly, Reeser’s surroundings were undamaged. According to Goldfarb, “the rest of the room was seemingly unaffected by the flames that engulfed Mary Reeser” (2018). 

In Wieland’s case, the father does not die at the scene, but suffers substantial injuries due to the combustion: “[H]is skin throughout the greater part of his body was scorched and bruised. His right arm exhibited marks as of having been struck by some heavy body” (25), and he later dies as a result of the inflicted injuries. That could mean that the impact of the combustion in Wieland was not as powerful (that it could eradicate a human body) as reported in Reeser’s case: “Not much of Reeser remained. There was one slippered foot, which curiously showed no signs of charring, as well as a part of her spine. A piece of her skull remained and was described as shrunken” (Goldfarb). The Reeser case does propose scientific explanations to this phenomena, and to my surprise, “there have been accounts of alleged human combustion since 1663” (Goldfarb 2018). This perhaps explains the relevance of a human combustion case in a 16th century novel.

This event back then could have lacked familiarity, or had been exposed to limited perspectives. Such perspectives were usually associated with the supernatural world or the works of a deity. Fact or fiction, the similarities between both cases and the mysterious circumstances that they both occur under are astonishing. Such events are not constricted with one explanation, but are rather fairly open to numerous perspectives that can be religious, scientific or fiction. similarities between both cases and the mysterious circumstances that they both occur under are astonishing. Such events are not constricted with one explanation, but are rather fairly open to numerous perspectives.