ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author studies the connection between social extinction in Charles Brockden Brown's urban Gothic Arthur Mervyn and its famous ambiguities, especially the moral ambiguity surrounding its central character Arthur Mervyn. Moreover, the moral ambiguity revolving around Mervyn also reinforces Brown's general concern with the ambiguity of appearances, which results at least partly from the alterations in social structure and human relations in the wake of urbanization. Brown explores the Gothic potential of social death by examining its connection with a common phenomenon in the urbanization process – forced migration – and by studying its effects on Mervyn as a representative of involuntary migrants. Brown turns the very ambiguity of Mervyn's moral character into his own commentary on the ethical complexities involved in the urbanization process. Mervyn’s strenuous efforts to fight against social extinction eventually meet with success.
