It's time again to reminisce on those high school days when I got to know unforgettable literary works,
especially in American Literature. There were a lot of them, but on epic poems, two of the best were written
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: "The Song of Hiawatha" and "Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie.
Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie was written in 1847, tells the story of the young and beautiful Evangeline
and the noble Gabriel Lajeunesse, childhood friends living in Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia.
The two are members of a peaceful farming community that embodies all the values of virtuous rural life held
dear by the Victorian audience for whom the poem was written. They are engaged to be married, but are almost
immediately separated when their entire community is forced into exile.
Following the harrowing scene of their ejection, Evangeline spends the rest of her life traveling throughout
North America, hoping to be reunited with her one true love. Only after many years of fruitless searching does
Evangeline find Gabriel, on his deathbed.
After a moment of mutual recognition, Gabriel dies, held by Evangeline as she thanks God for bringing them
together one last time. The poem concludes with the assurance that the two lovers, are buried side by side,
together for eternity, with Evangeline’s devotion to be celebrated in the land of their birth forever.
The story is told against the backdrop of a real historical event: the expulsion of the French-speaking Acadian
people from Nova Scotia by the British. For historical context on the expulsion of the Acadians, click/tap image
below to read the Acadian history.
Synopsis
In the idyllic village of Grand-Pré, in the French Canadian colony of Acadia, there lives an honest
farmer—Benedict Bellefontaine—and his lovely daughter Evangeline. Their lives are great: they enjoy
beautiful scenery, healthy livestock, and plentiful farmland. Best of all, Evangeline is in love. The
lucky guy is Gabriel Lajeunesse. He is the son of Basil the blacksmith and is about to become Evangeline's
husband.
They arrange the wedding and it seems like nothing can stand in the way of their living happily
ever after—certainly not those English warships that have anchored off the coast nearby, with their
cannons pointed at the locals. Ah, who are we kidding? That's exactly what happens. The soldiers in the
ships order all the locals to attend a meeting in the village church. Right in the middle of Evangeline
and Gabriel's wedding feast, all the menfolk have to put down their plates and trundle off to hear what
these soldiers have to say.
The upshot is this: "All your lands and money and animals belong to us." The Acadians are told to
get out, by order of King George of England. The men are not pleased to hear this news, but they're
locked up in the church by the soldiers. Meanwhile, the women and children of Grand-Pré are forced to pack
all their stuff up into wagons and haul it down to the beach, where ships are waiting to take them…
someplace else.
Eventually, the Acadian men are released and they join the women and children on the beach. The eviction
is pretty hectic. In all the hubbub, Evangeline's father dies, and she's separated from Gabriel—bad times.
She's forced to bury her father on the beach, and then becomes essentially a refugee, moving from place to
place in search of Gabriel. She has a lot of luck in this: all of it bad. In fact, at one point Evangeline
travels by boat to Louisiana and, along the way, falls asleep on a riverbank. Gabriel, meanwhile, paddles
right past her, off on a hunting trip. But he doesn't notice her and so the pair never connect.
When she reaches her destination in Louisiana, Evangeline does manage to reunite with Gabriel's dad,
Basil, and learns that she has just missed him. She takes off again, following Gabriel up to the Ozark
Mountains, but again: no soup. At a Catholic Mission, she waits for Gabriel to return from his hunting trip.
Months pass with no sign of him. Then, when she hears a rumor that he's living in a hunting lodge in Michigan,
she takes off again. She finds the lodge, but not Gabriel. Evangeline is on a serious losing streak.
The years pass by and Evangeline winds up in Philadelphia. She tries to move on with her life by joining
a charity group called the Sisters of Mercy. They help the sick and the dying. One day, Evangeline is tending
to some sick people when she recognizes Gabriel, lying there before her. Good news: at last they're together.
Bad news: Gabriel's on his deathbed. He can only muster up enough strength to mouth her name before he shuffles
off his mortal coil. And that, folks, is the sad, really sad, super-sad story of poor Evangeline.
Source: https://www.shmoop.com/
