Ivanhoe | Themes and Characters
Mark Twain once claimed that Sir Walter Scott caused the American Civil War because his romances, such as Ivanhoe, helped to shape the Southern character, encouraging its devotion to outmoded notions of chivalry and to hopeless battles for impossible causes. Twain's hyperbole may correctly suggest that Scott is one of the great dramatists of history, but it implies an unfair judgment of the novel's theme. Scott's aim was not to glorify the past but to hold it up for the scrutiny of modern society. According to his own statements, he hoped to recreate scenes in which "our ancestors...
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