Living With the Eye of Faith
Liminality and Visions of the Ideal in Hawthorne's Short Stories and
The Scarlet Letter
Masterscriptie
Sofie De Lancker
MA Historische Taal- en Letterkunde (Engels - Scandinavistiek)
Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte
31 mei 2011 (Academiejaar 2010-2011)
00700755
Promotor: Prof. Dr. Gert Buelens
De Lancker 1
Preface
During spring 2010, the university of Ghent offered a course about nineteenth-century American
literature. Reading and debating a variety of authors such as Irving, Poe, Douglas, Cahan, Gilman and
Twain, the course was aimed at providing a literary overview in conjunction with the socio-historical
setting of nineteenth-century America. It was there, under the guidance of prof. Susan Griffin of the
University of Louisville that I also came into closer contact with Nathaniel Hawthorne. Reading the
canonical stories ‘Rappacini’s Daughter’, ‘Young Goodman Brown’, ‘Ethan Brand’ and ‘The Birthmark’,
I was Intrigued by the ambiguity and openness of interpretation Hawthorne’s stories seemed to offer,
as well as by the (consequential) large variety in response. Thus, the idea first began to bud - in view
of the future master dissertation - to study Hawthorne more intensively and to write about him. As I
eventually pursued this line of thought, I would like to thank professor Griffin in absentia for the
inspiration she provided for writing this thesis.
Furthermore, I would also like to thank my family and friends, with special mention to my
parents, my brother Alexander for his ever-cheerful personality – even if you are the little brother,
you have been a great help nonetheless – and best friends Anoukh and Marius for their support, each
in their own way, throughout the writing process.
Finally, I would also like to thank prof. dr. Gert Buelens for being a great promoter. Your advice
about structuring and restructuring, vocabulary and theory has helped me tremendously in
producing and shaping this dissertation. Thank you for your supervision – it would not have worked
without.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 3
2. Literature Review................................................................................................................................. 5
2.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 5
2.2. Aesthetics, Gender, Structuralism and New Historicism: Different Approaches ......................... 6
2.3. The Importance of Puritanism and Transcendentalism ............................................................... 7
2.4. Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 9
3. Problem, selection, method .............................................................................................................. 10
3.1. Problem and Selection ............................................................................................................... 10
3.2. Method....................................................................................................................................... 12
3.3. Limitations .................................................................................................................................. 12
4. Discussion and Results....................................................................................................................... 13
4.1. Introduction: Living with the Eye of Faith .................................................................................. 13
4.2. Discussion................................................................................................................................... 15
4.2.1. Vision and Sin...................................................................................................................... 15
4.2.1.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 15
4.2.1.2. Young Goodman Brown............................................................................................... 17
4.2.1.3. My Kinsman, Major Molineux ..................................................................................... 20
4.2.1.4. The Man of Adamant................................................................................................... 25
4.2.2. Faith, Redemption and Acceptance .................................................................................... 29
4.2.2.1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 29
4.2.2.2. The Scarlet Letter ........................................................................................................ 32
4.2.2.3. The Artist of the Beautiful ........................................................................................... 38
5. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 47
Notes ..................................................................................................................................................... 51
Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 57
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1. Introduction
Nathaniel Hawthorne was the progeny of a prominent New England, Puritan dynasty that played a
notorious role in the Salem Witch Trials as the Hawthorne family provided one of its judges. Disdaining this violent, zealous family aspect, Hawthorne is noted to later have added the ‘w’ originally
wanting in the family surname Hathorne to distinguish himself from his ancestors. Troubled by the
relative radicalism of the Puritan environment in which he was raised, Hawthorne was nevertheless
its product, raised in a world after the biblical Fall - a world of sin. Moral and religious themes discussing the nature of humanity and the existential state of the world are, unsurprisingly, never far off
in his fictional literary productions. Yet, coinciding with the influence of Puritanism's existential
worldview, Hawthorne was also affected by the in many ways antithetical Transcendentalist philosophical movement as he was well-acquainted with its founder Ralph Waldo Emerson. Puritan dualism with its focus on sin and deprivation thus came to conflict with the contrary impulses provided by
Transcendentalism and their denial of evil in an embrace of the beauty of nature. Naturally, this ideological conflict impacted Hawthorne’s own worldview and way of thinking.
By consequence of the dissimilar philosophical attitudes influencing Hawthorne, a certain
ideological opposition is to be discerned within his fiction as well, reflecting the debates contemporary to his days. This divide, however, leaves the false impression of Hawthorne as a man standing in
between, incapable of adhering to either movement or forming a solid, cohesive worldview, as he
wrote both stories affirming a (Puritan) all-pervasive sense of sin and tales asserting its exact opposite: A (Transcendentalist) faith in nature’s beauty. As the first type of stories are far more affluent
than the second, scholarly research has tended to emphasize these dark tales which have become
not only canonical, but also synonymous to Hawthorne himself: a pessimistic author writing ditto
tales.
Naturally, scholars have also studied the less prominent optimistic tales, albeit much less
frequently, and these studies, in contrast to those assessing the dark tales, generally conclude with
the assumption that Hawthorne was a Transcendentalist. Two theoretical movements thus appear as
prevalent in the Hawthorne studies, which will be further discussed in the section ‘Literary Review’.
It is a logical, but nevertheless adverse consequence of this discrepancy that only a few studies have
attempted to consider Hawthorne from a comprehensive perspective inclusive of both positive and
negative tales - and researchers that do eventually assert the impossibility of reaching a theoretical
solution in respect to an author characterized by contradiction and ambiguity. I nevertheless aim to
bring a few insights in the hopes of illustrating that both types of tales, albeit ostensibly incompatible,
present the same ideological paradox of faith. This postulation might aid to shift scholarly attention
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from near-exclusively on sin and degeneration to a more positive theoretical emphasis on faith and
regeneration.
In this respect, this dissertation will investigate some selected stories representative of these
two types, both well-attested and lesser-known ones, to corroborate the paradoxical synthesis to be
advocated here. This wide range of tales indicative of both a more pessimistic and a more optimistic
ideological notion will ensure the inclusion of various fictional settings and atmospheric moods which
in turn serve to demonstrate the wide applicability of the ideological synthesis to be formulated.
Thus, The Scarlet Letter too has been included, as the only novel by Hawthorne, in view of its high
illustrative capacity to elucidate the possibility of salvation and the correlated importance of natural
faith.
In order to assess these selected works, this study has opted for an approach which favors
textual material over biographical material. The textual focus serves to avoid a theoretical bias assigning Hawthorne to either Puritanism or Transcendentalism on the basis of biographical material.
Instead, the focus on the internal contradictions apparent in Hawthorne’s above-described types of
stories hopes to demonstrate an ideological synthesis found on inconsistency and paradox, in the
shape of a paradox. Through its positive evaluation of Hawthorne’s ambiguities, this dissertation may
suggest an alternative examinational path in addition to the current state of the arts of the Hawthorne studies.
First, the state of the arts at present will be presented in order to illustrate the lacuna observed. Thus, a demonstration of the contrasting theoretical conclusions in reference to some respected anthologies and encyclopedia as well as an overview of the different (implicit of explicit)
methodological angles from which Hawthorne has been examined will be given. The most important
insights imparted by each of these methodologies will be discussed in reference to the theme of faith
which this dissertation postulates as being central. Special attention will accordingly be paid to research emphasizing the traditional Puritanism vs. Transcendentalism debates. In this manner, a selective yet representative overview of the current state of the arts will be offered and will serve to
corroborate the observation that in spite of the richness and depth of the current research, scholars
do not only frequently examine Hawthorne's fictions in disjunction from each other, but also tend to
deny his writings a unifying moral - a moral which textual evidence nevertheless will be advocated to
impart when reading both negative and positive tales from the premise that there is no unbridgeable
theoretical divide between them.
The lacuna thus observed will be further asserted in the subsequent section. This dissertation's postulation that there is not only an ideological synthesis to be observed, but that it is also far
more positive in attitude than generally expected of Hawthorne will be explicated in reference to the
current state of scholarship. Next, the manner in which this paradoxical synthesis is to be addressed
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will be explained in greater detail. This section will also elucidate the theoretical foundation on which
my approach is rooted and explain the common ground between the present study, theories centralizing textual evidence, and deconstructionism’s focus on aporia and paradox. The limitations placed
on a master dissertation will naturally also be expanded on, as well as the applicability of the current
thesis for not only the examined stories but also other tales and, possibly, novels written by Hawthorne.
Third, a step-for-step assessment and analysis of a number of works will help illustrating the
synthesis here by observed. Initially emphasizing the importance of faith as related to a specific conception of vision in the section entitled 'Vision and Sin', this thesis will analyze these intertwined
concepts in regard to a selection of pessimistic tales. Second, it will come to display the results of an
incapability of complete vision and faith and the correlation between this inability and what Hawthorne termed the Unpardonable Sin. By then analyzing the positive tales about personal elevation
and happiness through faith in relationship to Hawthorne’s most powerful story about regeneration
(The Scarlet Letter), it will be advocated that the pessimistic tales, albeit seemingly contradictory in
their moral to the optimistic ones, are preoccupied with the same possibility of regeneration rather
than the inevitability of degeneration and fall. As such, this study contests both scholars asserting the
impossibility for unity in Hawthorne, and scholars restricting the author to a single theological
framework contemporary to his days by assertions of either sin or naïve optimism as central themes.
Instead, it will postulate an ideological synthesis which disregards dogmatism in the favor of a more
natural and manifestly optimistic concept of natural faith.
2. Literature Review
2.1. Introduction
Research into Hawthorne has been extensively conducted throughout time. The middle of the
twentieth century in particular attests of a great interest in the author, as the vast production of
critical essays published between the forties and seventies demonstrates.1 Hawthorne’s oeuvre has
correspondingly been the subject of numerous historical, methodological approaches, yielding
innovative insights which invite the application of additional interpretative strata to Hawthorne's
body of works. The conclusions reached, however, diverge greatly (both between and within the
numerous methodological frameworks employed) on account of Hawthorne's notorious ambiguities.
That encyclopedia, histories, anthologies and other comprehensive works provide contrasting
conceptualizations is thus not surprising. A brief overview of these will substantiate the prevalent
opinions and views on Hawthorne's literary production. The Columbia History of the American Novel
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primarily emphasizes Hawthorne’s role as a precursor of ‘*l+iterary professionalism as a distancing
from the market, as an elevation of calling and competence of profitability …’ (70) and as a man who
‘focuses on the consequences of human action with painstaking emphasis …’ (78).2 Meanwhile, for
Haycraft and Kunitz, Hawthorne was an artist ‘creating real people in imaginary oppositions,’ who
also ‘translated the morbid aspect of the American spirit’ (349-50). The Oxford Companion to
American Literature additionally notes that Hawthorne ‘deal*t+ with the themes of guilt and secrecy,
and intellectual and moral pride,’ while correspondingly unable ‘to share the optimistic philosophy of
Transcendentalism,’ (357). The Companion furthermore accredits his influence on the development
of the short story ‘as a distinctive American genre’ and, significantly, correlates estheticism to
religion by conceding that ‘his use of the supernatural has an aesthetic rather than a religious
foundation’ (358).. Similarly, the Heath Anthology admits to Hawthorne’s aversion of dogmatism as
‘*h+e mistrusted institutionalized authority, including organized religion, though he would always
provisionally believe in a beneficent deity’ (Gollin 2399; cf. Levy "The Landscape Modes of the Scarlet
Letter" 389).
The above overview gives an indication of how Hawthorne has been examined from various
perspectives in attempts to understand the intellectual transfers that have undoubtedly taken place
from the larger socio-historical context to his literary production. However engaging and valuable, the
contextual transfers will not constitute the thematic focus of this dissertation as the correspondences
between the textual micro-level and the contextual macro-level have already been exhaustively
studied, as will be elucidate in reference to biographical studies. It is nonetheless crucial to
summarize and assess some of the most prominent articles which have had significant impact on
subsequent readings of Hawthorne.
The next section will discuss and summarize these debates, and will, in its own assessment,
share with New Criticism an interest for in-depth analyses rooted in textual evidence. As such, it
positions itself against the manifold biographical interpretations of Hawthorne, instead advocating a
textual reading of a representative body of short stories. Additionally, reference will be made to
research conducted from diverse other methodological frameworks such as structuralism, gender
studies and New Historicism. These frameworks are often neither explicit nor definite, but some
general theoretical outlines can nevertheless be discerned.
2.2. Aesthetics, Gender, Structuralism and New Historicism: Different Approaches
Most salient and prominent are the plentiful critiques delineating the literary impact of Hawthorne's
biography. Various methodologies have attempted to account for textual phenomena on the basis of
information acquired by analyses of either Hawthorne's Notebooks and Letters, or Julian Hawthorne's
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biographical accounts of his father. Intriguingly, this investigational emphasis has proven valuable for,
for instance, psychoanalytical essays assessing Hawthorne’s fear of sexuality and femininity in
reference to his relationship with his wife and sister (Pattison; Herndon; Downing; Milder); gender
studies characterizing Hawthorne’s general mentality to women (Budick; Fleischner), or research into
his aesthetic conception (Pauly).
Interesting and at times innovative, these methodological approaches are, as elucidated afore,
nevertheless peripheral to the study of the paradox of faith, and will be referred to with less
frequency. More pivotal are those essays directing attention to Hawthorne's aesthetic notions.
Predominant in this area of expertise, and a standard reference for all subsequent research is
Matthiessen's American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman (1941),
in which Hawthorne's alleged adherence to Romantic aestheticism is asseverated.3 Others have
adopted the aesthetic viewpoint, expressly in the study of, for instance, 'The Artist of the Beautiful',
'The Prophetic Pictures', 'The Devil in the Manuscript', and further stories pertaining to the position
of the artist.4 Alluding to Platonic Idealism and Transcendentalism, these studies often relate to a
meta-level the same themes studied here on the textual level.
Additionally, the few analyses in the tradition of structuralism and reader-response criticism
require extensive attention. Considering the temporal context in which most research has been
conducted, these discussions are considerably less prevailing than earlier methodological approaches.
Yet, Ullén (2006) has proven to be indispensable to this dissertation in his emphasis on not only the
formal strategies Hawthorne employed, but also on the relationship aestheticism-faith in
Hawthorne’s novels. In demonstrating the mutual responsibility of reader and artist in creating
meaning, Ullén has asserted Hawthorne’s preoccupation with the ‘Ideal potential’, here analyzed on a
text-internal level, from a structural point of view. As such, he analyzes a ‘paradoxical faith’ (2)
necessitating ‘a notion of the ideal in the face of the real,’ (6) which he relates to ‘mimetic theories of
art’ (25), meant to represent idealized vision of the imperfect actual, but by its fixity in the actual
necessarily imperfect in itself. Consequently, it is ‘dependent on the reader’s active participation’ (26)
to realize the ideal potential, and this is attained by a ‘recognition rather than a suppression of
negation and its signifiers,’ i.e. by construing both the ideal ambition of the work of art and its
imperfect actual condition.5 Thus, the reader, like Hawthorne’s characters, is impelled to look beyond
surface and matter, which are infallibly defective, to the spiritual ideal motivating the artist's creation
– that is, to the Ideal potential to which the imperfect matter attests.
2.3. The Importance of Puritanism and Transcendentalism
In view of the New Historicist approach to texts as cultural products, scholars have accentuated
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Hawthorne's affiliation to various theological-philosophical frameworks operative in his life. As his
attitudes towards Puritanism, Mesmerism and Transcendentalism have been widely studied and
debated, essays on Hawthorne's views on themes inherent to these contemporary debates are
similarly manifold.6 Yet, these studies tend to conclude with an admittance of the impossibility to
resolve Hawthorne's contradictory - and at times antithetical - statements about religion and
existence. Attempts to confine the author are consistently opposed by the absence of a single, fixed
argument in Hawthorne's fiction. Hence, the subsequent approach shares with deconstructionism an
interest in paradox and aporia and a belief in its structuring effects, but will endeavor to unify these
moments into a meaningful synthesis which takes into consideration those instances that impede
finite conclusions, accounting for them in the form of a paradoxical notion of faith. The purpose is not
to discount alternative interpretations but to demonstrate the explanatory assets of a close reading
which recognizes Hawthorne’s ambivalences as indicatory of a subsurface view on faith and existence.
The approach here described evidently necessitates an outline of the continuous debates
attempting to delimit Hawthorne, and will assess the diverse perspectives and opinions by means of a
representative assortment of critiques. A lot more has naturally been written, but the following
essays are particularly evocative as they evaluate those short stories which best testify to the paradox
of faith to be proposed here. A special acknowledgment ought to be made to Richard H. Fogle’s
Hawthorne’s Fiction: The Light & The Dark , which has proven extraordinarily influential and
authoritative, and will be referred to with relative frequency.
In reference to Hawthorne's famed Puritan heritage, it is of little surprise that numerous
critics have attempted to understand his stories from a theological-historical perspective. Tales like
‘The Maypole of Merry Mount’ (McWilliams) and ‘The Celestial Railroad’ (Pattison) indeed even
invite historical readings which relate them to external theological contexts in the form of
conservative Puritanism or new, progressive forms of religion. Religious interpretations, however,
tend to polarize critics, on the one hand inciting articulations of Hawthorne's allegedly Puritan
dualistic worldview which emphasizes man’s inherent sinfulness and the world’s depravity, while on
the other hand inviting a few scholars to consider Hawthorne a latent agnostic.7 These inferences are
the result of the author's occasionally severe irony toward religious dogmatism in the form of
Puritanism, Quakers, Shakers or other movements.8 The subsequent dissertation will suggest a
compromising interpretational view by assessing both the importance of faith to Hawthorne (in
accordance with research advocating religion in Hawthorne), while concurrently recognizing his
disposition toward natural religion as disparate from bigotry and dogmatism (in agreement with
agnostic analyses noting Hawthorne’s religious irony).
Similarly, Hawthorne's attitude toward contemporary philosophical (Transcendentalism) and
pseudo-scientific movements (most notably Mesmerism) has been debated. But whereas his aversion
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to Mesmerism has been firmly established, amongst others by Stoehr, intensive debates persist about
his affiliation with Transcendentalism and its founder, Emerson. As with Puritanism, opinions deviate
extremely, claiming either adherence, outright rejection or any position in between. While it is clear
to some that Hawthorne was not only familiar with but also an advocate of Transcendentalism,
others propound the contrary on the basis of the perception of Zoroastrian dualism in his works.
Those asserting the former corroborate their view by reference to Hawthorne’s aestheticism as
revealed in, for example, Fogle’s analysis of 'The Artist of the Beautiful'(90). Scholars advancing a
qualified compromise between attraction and rejection are nevertheless more prevalent than either
extreme (see for example Milder 197; Pauly 284). Albeit oftentimes perceptive of Hawthorne's
preference for liminality, these analyses recurrently deny Hawthorne the ideological synthesis here
emphasized, perceiving his paradoxical statements as emblematic of the desperation of an author
incapable of fully committing to either philosophy.9 This conclusion is consequential to both a
predisposed, delimited selection of textual material which focuses exclusively on what could be
termed the ‘dark stories',10 and of the notion that Hawthorne's short stories are to be understood
within one framework. Few scholars have attempted to assess the incongruities from a textual
perspective that also considers lesser-known tales such as 'The Village Uncle' and 'The Great Stone
Face' – both of which could be conceived as 'optimistic’, considering positive or negative tales in
disjunction to each other, reinforcing the misconception of an unbridgeable theoretical divide.11 An
approach which therefore considers Hawthorne’s work from a predisposition to neither Puritanism
nor Transcendentalism, but instead accentuates the concept of faith as synthesizing in
acknowledgment of the interpretative value of paradoxes, might offer some supplementary insights
into the conceptual, ideological unity of Hawthorne’s short stories. Inspirational for this undertaking
was the work of McCullen and Guilds in their reassessment of the Unpardonable Sin in relation to
morality and a theology (McCullen and Guilds 221), and the recent study by Ullén, with its
interconnection between faith and idealism from a structural perspective. It furthermore ought to be
noted that the analysis propounded here does not intend to disregard the significance of the sociohistorical setting, but rather purposes to outline the textual synthesis that may serve as the
examinational footing for further theological-philosophical research. Thus, this paper is greatly
indebted to the aforementioned studies, even if not adopting their nomenclature and methods.
2.4. Summary
In sum, it is evident that Hawthorne has been extensively studied implementing various
methodological models. From structural reader-response examinations of his aesthetic notion to
psychoanalytical gender studies of repressed fears of female sexuality (Fleischner; Milder et al.),
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Hawthorne's literary body has been a prolific object of study which continues to invite further
research on account of Hawthorne’s reluctance to be captured by a single ideology. As the above
outline has illustrated, there is no or little consensus among scholars as to Hawthorne's philosophical
ideas. Whereas other research topics have proven more acceptable to the academic world, the
theological debate seems to be impossible to solve – and is probably therefore the most practiced.
Throughout the twentieth century, new analyses have been emerging as part of a dialectical process
of thesis-antithesis. Hawthorne's use of paradox and ambiguity with respect to religion and faith has
instigated research that is either ideologically biased (Puritan, Transcendental) or in denial of the
optimistic tales. These lacunae have restricted the readings of Hawthorne, and accordingly call for a
synthesis which will evaluate the underlying ideological views from both a more comprehensive and a
more impartial perspective – a perspective which shifts the balance from a consideration of
contextual, theological debates to a close reading of the textual material. This dissertation will
therefore postulate a paradoxical compromise which construes ambiguity and paradox not as
emblematic of an expressive failure, but as Hawthorne’s essential theoretical groundwork.
3. Problem, selection, method
3.1. Problem and Selection
The above outline has briefly indicated the primary issue this dissertation will attempt to address: A
lacuna in scholarly research which has hitherto not adequately assessed the conceptual unity
between the pessimistic and optimistic tales on the ground of a fallacious presupposition that no
ideological synthesis is to be discerned in Hawthorne. In accordance with scholars such as Levy,
Milder, Thompson and others, this thesis will advocate a medial position, in that it will not endeavor
to restrict Hawthorne to any methodological framework. Simultaneously, however, it disagrees with
these scholars’ assumption, explicated by Norford, that there is no synthesis in Hawthorne
concerning the status of the ideal and the actual. Moreover, it will assert that Hawthorne, in view of
the different contending philosophical attitudes present in his works, has not opted for a single one,
but synthesizes several traditions into a personal ideological theory which cannot be termed negative
or pessimistic. Thus, this dissertation also contests the large number of scholarly accounts that focus
solely on degeneration and gloom, and instead proposes a more balanced view which postulates
regeneration and the possibility for the Ideal as the central thematic interest for Hawthorne. As
previous scholarly research has inadequately researched the ideological common ground between
the optimistic and pessimistic tales, the following analysis will attempt to account for this lacuna by
progressively illustrating the shared philosophical assumptions underlying these tales while referring
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to existing studies. In this way it may impart additional insights which display a synthesis where there
previously was considered none, in the form of a paradox - which seems appropriate for an author
preoccupied with liminality and fluidity. This analysis will therefore argue against rigid, delimiting
interpretations in favor of a more flexible but nonetheless synthesizing conclusion. This conclusion
postulates humanity’s obligation to have faith in the future good and beautiful, termed the Ideal
potential, of Nature; By a passive, acceptant submission to the present imperfection, moreover, an
active transformation in view of the Ideal may be initiated.
In accordance with the methodological objectives delineated, the choice of short stories aims
to illustrate Hawthorne’s ideology of faith. The ensuing selection is based on the criterion of a story’s
illustrative capacity for representing and embodying this concept, and therefore includes a range of
stories, displaying varying degrees of allegory and abstraction. The most allegorical ones which
border on sketches (such as 'The Hall of Fantasy', 'The New Adam and Eve' and ‘Earth’s Holocaust’)
will not be considered independently, but solely as explicative material corroborating the ideological
paradox observed in other tales. The selective criterion thus established also insured the inclusion of
certain well-studied tales ('My Kinsman, Major Molineux', 'Young Goodman Brown', 'The Artist of the
Beautiful', but naturally also The Scarlet Letter) as well as little-known ones ('The Village Uncle', 'The
Great Stone Face', 'The Man of Adamant').12 The resultant selection by no means intimates that the
other stories are irrelevant; 'The Birthmark', albeit not discussed here, could also have served as an
example but has been excluded as it is more peripheral to the observed principle than, for example,
‘Young Goodman Brown’. By means of this dissertation, I hope to contribute a few ideas to the scarce
examinations of the less studied tales in relation to the canonical ones, as well as to suggest some
modest corrections to the preeminent criticisms. This analysis moreover attempts, by taking into
consideration both optimistic tales and seemingly pessimistic tales, to propose an ideological
foundation which map appear as both more positive and more complex than scholars have ventured
to consider to date.
Similarly, the collection, evaluation and assessment of secondary material was eventually
completed in regard to the thematic degree of accordance with the concept of faith. In view of the
extensive scholarship produced on Hawthorne, it is comparatively easy to collect data on his literary
production. Most helpful for the assembling of source material were the digital literary databases,
providing access to issues of academic journals such as Nineteenth-Century Fiction. Alternative source
materials were printed research books, as well as general histories and anthologies of American
literature.
Since information is abundant, the problem was not collecting but selecting. And indeed, the
selective process came to be subjected to a change of perspective. At the outset interested in
Hawthorne’s application of illumination on the processes of transformation, transition and, more
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generally, the traversing of boundaries (liminality), preliminary material was selected on the basis of
these thematic inputs. Before long, however, it became apparent that light and liminality were, albeit
interesting topics in their own right, part of an encompassing pattern of faith which furthermore also
governs the concept of true 'vision'. Essential for this insight was McCullen and Guilds’s study of the
Unpardonable Sin, which argues against the purported misapprehension of the concept. Not
indicative of a lack of human reverence or despair, it instead postulates the Unpardonable Sin as
denoting the loss of faith in the prospect of redemption (224). Perceptive and persuasive, the
concept of faith appeared as more imperative than hitherto investigated, and the investigational
emphasis altered accordingly. Material came to be selected on the basis of its adherence to the
discourse of faith and correlated notions, with particular observance to those essays that analyzed
the short stories to be discussed. In consequence of this thematic interest, the above-established
lacuna became apparent: As yet, no scholars have adequately examined the paradox of faith as
synthesizing both pessimistic and optimistic tales in an ideological view that places regeneration
central, and not degeneration.
3.2. Method
The general theoretical focus of this dissertation will be textual evidence. More specifically, this
entails an exclusion of the extensively examined historical and biographical context. With respect to
the postulation of a paradoxical synthesis, moments of paradox and aporia are to be the principal
objects of study, as they may disclose underlying assumptions contrary to what the textual surface
displays. Concretely, it holds that the paradox of faith - implicitly or explicitly observed by scholars - is
not the product of the despair of a man without distinct philosophical convictions or principles, as the
surface seemingly communicates, but rather a synthesis formed by an author who repudiates
dogmatic thinking and adherence to artificial social constructs. The concept of faith is not the only
interpretative principle in Hawthorne's works, and has no such pretenses, but instead offers an
alternative angle of examination for both canonical works and the relatively unstudied tales by
considering their ambiguities as part of a unifying paradox which the different tales disclose as
consecutive stages of the same developing ideological view.
3.3. Limitations
The restrictions on the applicability of the ensuing analysis are self-evident. In view of a
representative assortment indicative of the diverse aspects of the synthesis advocated, the study has
been circumscribed to a selection of both pessimistic and optimistic short stories and Hawthorne’s
highly illustrative romance, The Scarlet Letter. This deliberate limitation allows for an in-depth study
De Lancker 13
of the designated works, but also implicates that the significance of the paradox of faith for the
interpretation of his other novels remains to be confirmed. It can be induced, however, on the basis
of the wide applicability and validity of the concept with regard to his short stories, that the paradox
in all likelihood will also serve as a consolidating principle in other textual contexts.
The affiliation between the premise of this analysis and contemporary debates concerning
Nature (in the vain of Emerson's Transcendentalism), religion and spiritualism in Hawthorne’s time is
furthermore to be acknowledged. This dissertation will intimate how Hawthorne synthesized these
discussions into a meaningful philosophical model by means of a paradoxical ideological attitude, but
has not examined the exact degree of correlation between the patterns analyzed and the contextual
philosophical and theological debates of nineteenth-century America. The intensity of ideological
correspondence to the presuppositions of Transcendentalism, Zoroastrian dualism or Puritan
orthodoxy is a fascinating topic,13 but must be left to the expertise of scholars more familiar with
contemporary theological-philosophical movements to determine.
Despite the said limitations, the theory proposed is fruitful and invites a wide applicability.
Valid for the majority of the short stories - and certainly for those concerned with faith and
redemption, the paradox of faith also elicits the inclusion of stories currently omitted. The extensive
validity of the paradox in respect to the short stories as well as The Scarlet Letter logically advocates
an even wider applicability. The concept of faith therefore fosters further research to expose the
degree to which the proposed paradox potentially also amalgamates Hawthorne’s later novels into an
ideological unity.
4. Discussion and Results
4.1. Introduction: Living with the Eye of Faith
In the above sections, reference was recurrently made to 'the paradox of faith'. A further clarification
of what this paradox entails is naturally required. In reference to Ullén’s study, it has been alluded to
being correlated to idealism and faith, yet the emphasis for Ullén was on structural evidence and the
effects on the reader. The following examination of a conscientiously selected assortment of short
stories will illustrate how ‘the eye of faith’ is also relevant to a study of ideology and morality.
Hawthorne, this dissertation postulates, advocates the paradoxical view that the world admittedly is
imperfect, yet acceptance is to be attained only through faith in its exact opposite (termed the Ideal)
which concurrently exists as a potentiality within the imperfect actual.14 Before further substantiating
the proposed model, however, it is appropriate to establish the interconnected concepts of true
vision, the Ideal and nature.
De Lancker 14
Cecil justly notes that true vision for Hawthorne necessitates a balance between external
eyesight and imaginary insight (77). Balance is critical in that a truly visionary person perceives not
only surface and matter, but simultaneously also values the truths disclosed by imaginative insight. In
short, what is requisite is ‘eyesight complemented or balanced by insight’ (Cecil 82). Hawthorne
refers to this need in ‘The Hall of Fantasy’, when the narrator concludes the allegorical tale with the
advice for ‘an occasional visit *to the realm of imagination+, for the sake of spiritualizing the grossness
of this actual life, and prefiguring to ourselves a state in which the Idea shall be all in all’ (Short Stories
295). He evidently does not advocate a denial of the actual but a spiritualization thereof in view of
faith in the future realization of the Ideal. But, as ‘Young Goodman Brown’ and ‘My Kinsman, Major
Molineux’ will illustrate, not everyone is capable of imaginary insight. An immergence in imagination
and the subconscious often occasions a confrontation with the truth that otherwise remains veiled
behind surface in that, in ‘The Birthmark’, ‘[t]ruth often finds its way to the mind close muffled in
robes of sleep,’ and discloses ‘matters in regard to which we practice an unconscious self-deception’
(229). This confrontation may be disconcerting, and cause ‘the good *to+ fail to reckon with their own
shortcomings, sometimes outright evil, until it is too late’ (Cecil 227). It is nonetheless prerequisite to
true experience that one accepts this self-investigatory confrontation in faith, for ‘the man who has
not examined himself is less than fully human,’ (Cecil 235) as the subsequent discussion of ‘The Man
of Adamant’ will elaborate on.
Hawthorne's notion of the Ideal is equally as complicated, enshrouded by ambiguity and
ambivalence, paradox and contradiction. A close reading may nevertheless contribute to its
definition, elucidating that contrary to what some scholars have assumed, the Ideal for Hawthorne is
not a Platonic ideal state beyond the precincts of the experiential actual.15 Instead, it embodies the
actualization of the Ideal potential within Nature’s present imperfection. An acknowledgment of the
current imperfection, however, is to be an integral part of faith in the ethic and esthetic potential of
the future which Hawthorne, in ‘Earth’s Holocaust’ delineates as the ‘purity and perfection which
perchance we are destined to attain after travelling the full circle *of life+’ (Short Stories 406).
Furthermore, faith in the Ideal potential in turn initiates acceptance of the actual imperfection. For
humanity, it means that it is consequential to a faith-instilled submission to the Ideal potential of
Nature to be capable of consenting to the imperfection of the actual state. Paradoxically, this passive
submission will instigate an active change of condition, in that acceptance will be demonstrated to
cause spiritual elevation and, consequently, happiness within the actual. Milder recognizes as much
in reference to ‘The Birthmark’ when postulating that ‘[t]he lesson of the tale is not that human
beings should celebrate the life of the body but that they are obliged, in lieu of a better happiness …
to make do with it ' (Milder 196). Logically restricted in applicability by its reference to a single story,
Milder’s conclusion additionally requires some modification in terms of content; As will be argued,
De Lancker 15
Hawthorne does not propound a simple ‘make do with it’, but a genuine faith in the truth of the Ideal
potential, rooted in actual existence which does not except but rather includes happiness through the
faculty of a vision of the Ideal.
As is apparent, the Ideal is internal to our own sphere of experience - to the natural. True
faith therefore rejects artifice which is not only adversative to nature in Hawthorne but also results in
damnation.16 The implementation of artifice ineludibly advances a denunciation of Nature, and
accordingly predicates a lack of imaginary insight to perceive and have faith in the Ideal potential.
'The Celestial Railroad' demonstrates this need for natural faith when the metaphysically deluded
narrator has to pass the test of disallowing artifice (in the shape of Vanity Fair), only to travel through
the realm of Despair and Mr. Flimsy-faith (Short Stories 304).17 Faith in the ethic qualities of Nature is
thus a necessity, as artifice causes humanity to reject submissive happiness in the expectation of an
active, revolutionary manipulation of the natural state , which for Hawthorne was distinctly
malevolent (Reynolds 61).
Faith, in sum, demands a true vision of the Ideal – while simultaneously also requiring a
recognition of the present imperfection – which contrary to the Platonic Ideal does not lie beyond our
experiential sphere. Alternatively, it consists of Nature’s pure, ethical essence (Kloeckner 335-6)
which paradoxically can only be actualized by a passive, spiritually enlightening submission to the
actual. Hawthorne’s ideology, which emphasizes the centrality of the actual experiential world in
correlation to the Ideal, can consequently not consent to dogmatic religious faith with its focus on
mundane suffering and sin and exclusively celestial salvation. Hawthorne’s identification of the Ideal
as enclosed by the material is also the basis of analyses like Sachs and Christophersen which proclaim
Hawthorne an agnostic, yet this dissertation contends this conclusion as faith to Hawthorne is
unquestionably of quintessential importance. But, in agreement with the abovementioned scholars,
it is true that the faith he advocates has little connection to traditional forms of worship. Instead, he
propounds a synthesis which poises natural experience, ethic and esthetic faith and idealism into a
comprehensive existential ideology.
4.2. Discussion
4.2.1. Vision and Sin
4.2.1.1. Introduction
As stated, scholars have tended to fixate on the dark tales and the attendant concept of the
Unpardonable Sin. Stories such as 'Ethan Brand', 'Young Goodman Brown', 'Rappaccini's Daughter'
De Lancker 16
and 'The Birthmark' have been the focal point of research throughout time, coincidental with their
canonical status. Exhaustively studied and analyzed, these tales have become the center of
passionate debates oftentimes characterized by antithetical attitudes to which no solution is to be
found. The insolvability is ascribable to a restrictive survey of the same limited set of tales. The
inclusion of three optimistic stories ('The Village Uncle', 'The Great Stone Face' and ‘The Artist of the
Beautiful’) in addition to a selection of relatively pessimistic tales (‘The Man of Adamant’ and ‘Ethan
Brand’, ‘My Kinsman Major Molineux’, ‘Young Goodman Brown’ and The Scarlet Letter) may impart
alternative understandings to the ardent discussions of Hawthorne.
Naturally, the centralization of scholarly attention on the dark tales has resulted in a
meticulous study of the Unpardonable Sin as well. However extensively studied and debated, the
Unpardonable Sin has nonetheless been frequently misunderstood. Ringe, for instance, construes it
as signifying the separation of the head from the heart in consequence of an imbalanced adherence
to either ratio or emotion (121). Applicable in certain contexts, Ringe’s analysis is jeopardized by an
erratic overgeneralization which he himself can scarcely contain, in that his interpretation inevitably
comes to embrace all sinners as emblematic of the Unpardonable Sin. Imbalance certainly is a
principal cause of sin, but it is not the sole cause, and cannot be equated with the Unpardonable Sin.
The separation theory too readily infers that the world for Hawthorne was virtually exclusively
occupied by the most depraved kind of sinners, as imbalance is a common human flaw in his fiction.
Ridge’s association of the head to ratio and the heart to imagination (121) appears more useful, as
imbalance can, in reference to Cecil’s ‘optical device’, amount to deficient vision and therefore,
through an intermediary level, to sin. Characters like Goodman Brown and Robin are iconic of this
optical asymmetry, adhering to either external observation or internal insight. Their limited vision
consequentially culminates in either a perverse projection of one’s inner sinfulness on the outside
world in denial of external ethic and esthetic evidence (Brown), or, alternatively, in an internalization
of the externally observed artifice and evil as the essence of existence while rejecting instances of
good from the repressed imagination as insufficiently convincing (Robin). Hence, defective vision may
result in pessimism about the state of existence and the nature of humankind, and this in turn may,
but must not, cause a permanent loss of faith in the Ideal.
The matter of what the Unpardonable Sin is composed of, if not imbalance, still requires
clarification and has, to some degree, been answered by McCullen and Guilds. Their analysis
propounds that ‘*o+nly the willfully impenitent are candidates for a commission of the unpardonable
sin’ (224). Thus, only those who are utterly void of faith in the possibility of redemption are truly lost.
Framed within the paradox of faith, it entails that only those who truly reject faith in the Ideal
potential of Nature (as inclusive of humanity as well) are beyond salvation. Hawthorne verbalized the
horror of an existence without imagination - and thus a view of the Ideal - in his letters to his wife
De Lancker 17
Sophia Peabody when stimulating her to 'keep the imagination sane – that is one of the truest
conditions of communion with Heaven,' as a solution to the question '[W]hat so miserable as to lose
the soul's true, though hidden, knowledge and consciousness of heaven, in the midst of an earthborn vision?' (qtd. in Stoehr 44) Strong textual evidence for this notion can be given by comparing the
aforementioned sinners, blinded by deficient vision, with the explicit embodiment of the
Unpardonable Sin, Ethan Brand, and his frequently ignored counterpart Richard Digby. Additionally, it
is indispensable to explicate how Hawthorne ideologically unifies these sinners with his ideal men
Ernest, Owen and the Village Uncle, in a synthesis of faith hitherto unacknowledged by scholarship.
The subsequent narrative analyses will relate to previous research in order to adjust or enrich
the predominant attitudes where necessary. While the interpretations pertaining to the degree of
sinfulness of Brown and Robin diverge, it is observed that both are initially naïve young men who,
entering a setting remote from the previously experienced safety experienced, are confronted with
evil and artifice and who, at the conclusion of the story, appear changed. (Carpenter 46) The exact
nature of this transformation, however, remains a matter of debate amongst scholars,18 but will be
more closely identified in view of the advocated synthesis.
4.2.1.2. Young Goodman Brown
'Young Goodman Brown' is the narrative of a young man deserting his wife, ‘aptly named’ Faith (Short
Stories 247), who also forms ‘his connection to carnal knowledge and spiritual revelation’ at twilight
for unspecified business in the woods (Fleischner 515). Consecutive to an encounter with the Devil
and the subsequent confrontations with the alleged depravity of his fellow village inhabitants,
Goodman Brown partakes in an infernal initiation rite. Scarcely escaping from what is intentionally
left ambiguous as being either dream or reality , Goodman Brown is converted into a rancorous man,
discerning sin and artifice everywhere - exempt from himself. An enthralling, condense tale of sin and
faith, criticism of 'Young Goodman Brown' is abundant, but nonetheless tends to aver like results.
With some alterations as to focal point and approach, scholars avow to the mutually shared
assumption that Goodman Brown's journey through the woods is a dream-induced exploration of his
subconscious, with the pessimistic ending being the result of his inner projections on the outside
world. 19 Generally in accordance with these perceptions, the subsequent discussion will also attempt
to corroborate the thematic significance of regeneration in relation to a vision of and adherence to
the Ideal by correlating it to the analyses of the The Scarlet Letter and the selected optimistic short
stories. As such, it aims at expounding the position of ‘Young Goodman Brown’ as well as ‘My
Kinsman, Major Molineux’ in relation to the synthesis asserted here.
In agreement with the analysis of Goodman Brown’s experiences as rooted in his
subconscious, the following discussion will emphasize Brown's eventual demise as the result of not
De Lancker 18
only deficient vision but also of a disposition toward construing faith as an external entity which is
not to be internalized. It is by consequence of this deficiency that Brown can neither commit to true
faith and attain the regeneration Dimmesdale is granted, nor be considered an Unpardonable Sinner,
like Brand and Digby. As Brown’s flawed vision has been widely affirmed (cf. Cecil; Hurley; Carpenter;
Milder), the focal interest of this survey will not be the nature of Brown's vision per se but the
dialectal relationship between his conception of faith as external to the self, and his projection of the
inner self onto the experiential external world. In short, the focus is on the self-destructive interplay
between imbalanced vision and vacillant faith. In reference to the subsequent analyses, the
assessment hereof will gradually aid to delineate the paradox of faith as a philosophical model that
thematically unites both pessimistic and optimistic tales into a heretofore unacknowledged synthesis.
Hurley has advanced the idea of Brown's fixation of faith in external factors, and discerns
three fundamental pillars which the Devil, in order to initiate Brown, fastidiously attempts to destruct
(410). Before elucidating this point, it is to be noted that the Devil is depicted as ‘bearing a
considerable resemblance to *Brown+’ (Short Stories 248), which - within the framework of
subconscious projection – visibly intimates that he is Brown's inner evil incarnate. Thus, as a
prerequisite to a genuine commitment to evil, Brown must destabilize his own foundations of
morality, composed of the three pillars family, society and church. Thus, Goody Cloyse, Brown’s
catechism teacher, and the local minister, Deacon Gookin, are identified as emblematic of society and
church (Hurley 413-14; Fogle 17-18). In agreement herewith, a certain modification is nevertheless
desirable in that both society and church are in effect subdivisions of the same encompassing
concept of institutionalized religious faith as opposed to the more natural counterpart Faith. Her
evidently allegorical function as personifying natural belief found, like marital relationships
themselves, on love and sympathy within the actual, has not been adequately established. It is
nevertheless significant, since Faith’s connection to natural faith implies a functional correspondence
to Digby’s Mary Goffe, who explicitly offers the opportunity for salvation which Faith implicitly
embodies.
It is furthermore consequential to the professed distinction between natural and
institutionalized faith that Brown's initial encounters with malice, manifested by Gookin and Goody
Cloyse, are - albeit dispiriting - not enough to truly initiate Brown. Moreover, it is part of the
maturation process to acknowledge malice and artifice, and Brown's self-instilled loss of
institutionalized religious faith is not profoundly affecting nor convincing as advocating evil as an
existential truth: Goodman Brown remains resolute ‘*w+ith heaven above and Faith below,’ (Short
Stories 251) and his loss of religious faith even seems positive in his return to nature as the source of
morality. More problematic is the substance of his faith, which recurrently appears as situated
exclusively in the external world, especially in his pure, ideal wife.
De Lancker 19
Goodman Brown's dependency on external factors for his morality can also be exemplified by
reference to the opening paragraphs of the story, where the narrator ironically proclaims Brown’s
'excellent resolve' with regard to his determination to ‘cling to *Faith’s+ skirts and follow her to heaven’
(Short Stories 247). It thus appears that Brown's faith is found on external conditions - the nucleus of
the family and, more peripherally, society at large - rather than on any internalized revelation of the
Ideal. In accordance with the premise that Brown’s experiences are iconic of his inner deprivation, it
is his internalized pessimistic existential vision which self-destructively informs, through projection, a
destabilization of the external foundations of his vacillant faith, and which consequently excludes the
possibility of a vision of the Ideal. Brown inadvertently establishes a vicious cycle where irresolute
faith is found on external perceptions not to be trusted by result of internal projections. The
subsequent gradual distancing from F/faith, both metaphysically and literally, will ultimately inspire
Brown to permanently discard a positive vision of the Ideal.
The process observed culminates in Brown’s eventual confrontation with Faith's ribbons. His
societal sense of morality abandoned,20 Brown becomes exclusively reliant on his wife. The
significance of her ribbons, then, as the critical moment of conversion has naturally been emphasized
as 'the effect on Goodman Brown is instantaneous and devastating,' so that he '[accepts] the
domination of Evil' (Fogle 19). Additionally, Hurley evaluates the ribbons as indicative of how Brown
‘places his faith … in the formal observances of religious worship rather than in the purity of his own
heart and soul’ (416). Observant in his overall analysis of ‘Young Goodman Brown’, the above
contention insufficiently differentiates between religious faith and natural faith. Faith, like Mary Goffe,
is one of Hawthorne’s pure women who ‘[testify] to an eternal world’ (Milder 198) and thus
professing the Ideal potential (the eternal world) within the actual (as women), they are logical
emblems of natural faith. His last credential pillar so defiled, Brown readily proclaims, on account of
unsubstantiated external factors, that ‘*m+y Faith is gone!’ (Short Stories 252) and partakes in the
initiation rite where the Devil apprises him of the inherent malice of the world.
Wanting supportive external circumstances, Brown can no longer denounce the vision the Devil
proposes even if the messenger evidently is not reliable. The Devil's false revelation further
elucidates the centrality of natural faith, as he expressly attempts to destabilize it. Faith originating in
the Ideal potential of Nature, in love and human sympathy, is closely interconnected to happiness, as
'[d]epending upon one another's hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream. Now are
ye undeceived. Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness.' (Short Stories 254)
Accentuating the desecration of natural F/faith, the projected Devil successfully presents the world as
inherently evil. Brown, in a final attempt to withstand, impels a woman he accepts to be Faith to ‘look
up to heaven, and resist the wicked one’ (Short Stories 255), expressing the false assumption that
F/faith is external and to be commanded at will (Hurley 412). Without the support of internalized
De Lancker 20
natural faith, Brown nevertheless fails in entertaining a vision of the Ideal, and incorporates the
Devil's teachings, identifying sin everywhere except in himself. His vision appears to be permanently
obscured by a metaphysical veil distorting his perception of the actual. Brown is now entirely reliant
on his vitiated imaginary insight and accordingly discards society, which nonetheless appears
functionally and morally unaffected. Furthermore, Faith, the narrator notes, is wearing her ribbons
upon Goodman Brown's return (Hurley 418). Fogle justly asserts how these structural parallels of the
departure and return scenes serve to emphasize the static state of the town in contrast to Brown’s
personal transformation (25). The external evidence motivating his loss of natural faith has proven
false, but Brown cannot abandon his pessimism in his subconscious quest for what Carpenter terms
‘the unfocused essence of evil’ (52). He no longer acknowledges the value of external observations of
the actual, and inevitably lives in despondency, void of a redeeming vision of the Ideal so that even
‘his dying hour was gloom’ (Short Stories 256). He continues to live within the sphere of external
F/faith, insufficiently internalized to be truly accepted, so that ‘he shrank from the bosom of Faith’
(Short Stories 255). Simultaneously persuaded of his own morality, however, Brown neither is fully
dedicated to evil, and is thus unqualified for the delusional happiness promised by the Devil. The
nature of true happiness is to be discussed with reference to the positive characters, and will be
revealed as ensuing of the natural faith in the Ideal potential which Digby, and to a lesser degree
Brown, implicitly reject in their denunciation of the angelic woman.
In brief, the cyclical relationship between external vacillant faith and inherent pessimism is
the basis of Goodman Brown's inability to value the ethic Ideal vision signified by his allegorically
moral wife Faith. His defective vision contorts his understanding of reality in denial of the external,
ratifying only the internal. He is destined to experience existence in eternal ambivalence and
uncertainty (Fogle 20), informed by both his internalized cosmic sense of permeating sin and a vague
indication of oppositional external evidence in the form of a functional society and the constant
presence of a disembodied F/faith. Brown’s encounter with malevolence is a necessity to advance
into maturity, but it concurrently enforces a responsibility to maintain faith in the Ideal potential. His
inability to correlate his experiences to the ethic and esthetic Ideal, to Faith, inevitably includes him
in the abhorred, iniquitous state of the actual.
4.2.1.3. My Kinsman, Major Molineux
In consideration of its general accordance with the previously attested pattern, the following analysis
of 'My Kinsman, Major Molineux' will emphasize a different aspect of the ideological synthesis
proposed. Whereas Goodman Brown clarified the importance of external observation, Robin will
come to embody the importance of internal imagination in order to acknowledge the Ideal. As such,
the analysis will attempt to designate not only the documented similarity with ‘Young Goodman
De Lancker 21
Brown’ (cf. Carpenter 54) but also the unrecognized ideological correspondence to the optimistic
tales. It will gradually be advocated that Hawthorne did not testify to dissimilar notions in his
pessimistic stories of sin and his optimistic stories of idealism, but that he instead proposes a
philosophical synthesis which integrates both conceptualizations, and which might aid to modify
academic attention from predominantly on degeneration and fall to the possibility of regeneration
and an Ideal future.
In ‘My Kinsman, Major Molineux’, the naïve Robin leaves his childhood countryside in search
of the societal protection of his influential kinsman, the eponymous Major Molineux. In his attempts,
Robin is continuously humiliated by malicious city inhabitants who mock him with an ‘ill-mannered
roar of laughter’ (Short Stories 519). After a moral crisis, Robin ultimately is confronted with his
tarred-and-feathered family member, and, in the frenzy of the evening, joins the festive procession in
laughter.
In comparison to the relative consensus as to Goodman Brown's self-imposed moral demise,
Robin's initiation into malice and artifice is much more contested. While most critics interpret the
conclusion as dispiriting (cf. Connors; Broes), a few others such as Fogle consider the story as
emblematic of an efficacious maturation process which ‘ends in being therapeutic’ (111), or discern a
tragicomic sense in the character of Robin (Carpenter 53). The subsequent examination will address
the debate from the perspective of faith in the Ideal, and will, in view of the assortment selected,
corroborate the former interpretation of the tale which affirms the initiation of Robin into artifice.
Simultaneously, however, it will entertain a more positive notion of the tale than, for example,
Connors and Broes, in that the possibility of regeneration cannot be excluded, as the analyses of The
Scarlet Letter and ‘The Artist of the Beautiful’ will further illustrate.
Robin, like Brown, will be asserted to discard natural faith in the advantage of malice and
artifice on account of a deficient vision. Yet contrary to Goodman Brown, Robin wants the ability to
value imaginary insight in the assumption that solely external perception concurs with existential
truths. Robin accordingly internalizes the experienced manifestations of sin as truth in denial of the
internal revelation of natural faith. His moral incapacity to infer the ethical implications of this
revelation of the Ideal consequently exempts him from the better sphere attained by Owen or Ernest
and thus from the prospect of happiness within the actual experienced as inherently artificial and
immoral. This analysis will emphasize the association between sin, artifice and a denunciation of
nature and correlate it to Robin's eventual rejection of his vision. This focus will elucidate the
underlying ideological notion of the Ideal as the foundation of natural faith and the concurrent
possibility for redemption and spiritual elevation which thematically dominates the positive stories,
in an attempt to further delineate the philosophical synthesis advocated.
Set in a sphere of all-pervasive drowsiness and dream, the quality of Robin's quest has
De Lancker 22
oftentimes been debated. Yet, by contrast to 'Young Goodman Brown', scholars tacitly consent to the
idea that Robin's experiences are entrenched in reality. Carpenter, for instance, maintains that the
setting of 'My Kinsman, Major Molineux' ‘is altogether more substantial’ (51), and that whereas
Brown's quest is metaphysical, and conducted in isolation, Robin's confrontation is that of a young
man with the 'multiple evils of a social cosmos' (52). Broes further asserts the universal nature of
these experiences as a cue to connect Robin to Everyman (176). This dissertation will further support
and extend Broes’s observation in that Robin and Brown, but also Owen and Ernest, are all to be
defined as exemplary of Everyman and Everyman’s responsibility to actively participate in the process
of idealization by a paradoxical passive submission. In the case of Robin, this is to be attained by a
recognition and denunciation of artifice in the favor of the internalized vision of the natural Ideal – a
vision which will nevertheless be abandoned as external and without moral value to the self.
The artifice which Robin encounters is as such interrelated to the prospective Ideal vision,
and is to be briefly attested in order to frame the implicit model of faith. Artifice for Hawthorne
markedly signifies an irreverent existential state in denial of faith in Nature's potential. It is thus
consistent with Hawthorne’s ideological logic that the inhabitants of the manifestly artificial city - on
account of their vicious want of natural faith - are converted into symbols of sin. Broes’s perceptive
analysis justly distinguishes the Seven Cardinal Sins in the different individuals Robin encounters (176).
In this context, it is remarkable that the still naïve Robin, in his initial confrontation with the sin of
pride, ‘hastened away’ in surprise (Short Stories 219), typifying the existential confusion which is the
result of an initiation into humanity's egocentricity. The laughter, which Broes construes as
emblematic of the mocking of naïve innocence by the maliciously artificial adults (181), further
designates the consistent contrast Hawthorne creates between nature/artifice as part of a necessary
process of growth into experience and recognition (of artifice and malice) and, simultaneously, ethic
and esthetic faith (in the natural).
Before long, Robin encounters the next form of vice, gluttony, upon entering a tavern. Still, he
professes allegiance to the natural in that he is expressive of a desire to align himself to a few
strangers ‘supping on the bread of their own ovens, and the bacon cured in their own chimneysmoke.’ (Short Stories 520). He repudiates an association to unnaturally obtained food and favors own
produce.21 Being spurned again shortly after, Robin nonetheless continues his quest ‘with stronger
hopes than the philosopher seeking an honest man,’ (Short Stories 521) evincing like Brown an initial
tenacity. Upon meeting a prostitute - naturally iconic of lust - his resolve nevertheless dithers. The
woman, supposedly pure in compensation of male impurity (Milder 198), proves a more effectual
enticement, and naïve Robin is inclined to accept her invitation. Only the fortuitous arrival of a
watchman prevents his untimely demise. Robin continues, persuaded that he prevailed on account of
his shrewdness and an internalized sense of morality as 'being of the household of a New England
De Lancker 23
clergyman' (Short Stories 523). This moment, unnoticed in many studies of the tale, portends Robin’s
future denial of his internal vision of natural faith in that it illustrates his inclination toward
incorporating the external (whether a chance intervention or artifice) as an element internal to his
own system. Fogle, in his moderately favorable appreciation of Robin, notes his tendency to make
'inferences, “with his usual shrewdness,” about the meaning of his various encounters with
townspeople. Most of these inferences are mistaken.' (107) It appears that by contrast to Goodman
Brown, Robin trusts his adherence to an internal moral system while in effect, he acts on the cues of
the external experiential world, incorporating societal values as his own.
Furthermore, it will be contended that, contrary to general scholarly accord, the story’s moral
climax arrives before the conclusion. In view of faith in the Ideal potential of Nature, it will be
demonstrated that the final scene indeed epitomizes the transformation taken place, but that the
actual conversion arrives when Robin, dispirited by his futile search for Molineux, acquires a clear
view into a moonlit church. There, he perceives how 'one solitary ray had dared to rest upon the
open page of the great Bible. Had nature, in that deep hour, become a worshipper in the house which
man had builded [sic]? … The scene made Robin's heart shiver with a sensation of loneliness stronger
than he had ever felt.' (Short Stories 525) Fogle has closely examined the function of moonlight in the
story, and propounds that it ‘is a symbol of imagination,' which simultaneously 'provides aesthetic
distance and artifice' and 'is the verity of buried consciousness.' (112-13) The moonlit-Bible scene,
then, intends to instill in Robin a positive evaluation of the denied internal - the 'buried
consciousness'- as a complement to the external in order to balance the near-internalized artifice
with a vision of nature’s Ideal potential. As such, it ought to indicate 'that the world has not been
abandoned to the forces of darkness' (Broes 180). But, it is implied, the instance arrives too late. The
narrative’s transition to internal focalization divulges Robin's experience of the moment as fallacious.
He construes the ray of moonlight as indicative of the submission of natural faith to an artificial
religion literally circumscribed by walls of dogmatism in disjunction from nature.22 Yet, analogous to
Brown, he is not yet lost, and is offered a final test of faith - a vision of the Ideal. Contemplating the
moonlight, Robin recalls his family:
'assembled at the door, beneath the tree, the great old tree … There, at the going down of the
summer sun, it was his father's custom to perform domestic worship, that the neighbors might
come and join with him like brothers of the family, and that the wayfaring man might pause to
drink at that fountain, and keep his heart pure … *H+e saw the good man [his father] in the midst,
holding the Scriptures in the golden light … Then he saw [his family] go in at the door; and when
Robin would have entered also, the latch tinkled into its place, and he was excluded from his
home.’ (Short Stories 525)
De Lancker 24
His is an apparition of Ideal faith carrying 'all the conventional implications of human and divine love'
(Broes 180). Remarkable, however, is that this palpably positive form of faith is practiced within a
natural setting encompassing a tree (not church), golden sunlight and a pure fountain, emblematic of
true religion.23 Robin’s inability to fathom the relatively subtle meaning of moonlight is admissible,
but his failure to construe the much more blatant message of his Ideal vision is not. Incapable of
esteeming his vision of the Ideal, the family’s figurative exclusion of Robin signifies his existential
detachment from natural faith. Part of the maturation process, Robin successfully denounces naïve
innocence in an acknowledgment of artifice, but his inability to translate experience into true faith,
inspired by the Ideal potential, inadvertently transforms him into a constituent of the present
imperfection. Solely those who balance external perception with internal imagination are capable of
true faith and the subsequent passive creation and realization of the Ideal (cf. Owen, Ernest, the
Village Uncle) - and Robin cannot. His implicit denunciation of natural faith in the advantage of
artifice thus prepares him to accept the stranger's '[m]ay not a man have several voices, Robin, as
well as two complexions?' (Short Stories 527) Similar to Goodman Brown's Devil, the stranger
prophesies of the world as inherently artificial and malicious, and Robin, like Brown, has been
progressively prepared by his experiences to readily accept this vision.
The conclusion consequentially appears as the mere culmination of a process already
finalized, as an exhibition of what Connors terms ‘*Robin’s+ other complexion, linking himself to the
other characters in the story.' (301) Eventually encountering Molineux, demeaned and reduced to the
center piece of a frantic masquerade, Robin becomes not only a spectator but also an actor - 'the
crowning implement’ - in the major’s humiliation (Connors 301). Yet, the treatment befalling
Molineux is manifestly unjustifiable: The major appears as the only commendable individual in the
story, 'of large and majestic person', with a 'head grown gray in honor' (Short Stories 528-29) who
seems, 'for all that we and Robin know, [to be] totally innocent of the things for which he is
tormented and destroyed.' (Broes 182) Majestic even in his degradation, Molineux is the voice of
morality in the face of artifice – silenced, but nevertheless present. Still, the major can no longer
inspire the same qualities in his corrupted younger kinsman and Robin, aware of his own perfidy,
cannot but regard him with 'a mixture of piety and terror' (Short Stories 529). Robin has internalized
the artifice experienced as an existential truth, and now, confronted with the deprivation of this last
icon of morality, he apprehends the meaning of the earlier laughter as directed at his naivety.
Encircled by a pervasive sense of frenzy, Robin joins the mob in the derision of the Major. As such, the
conclusions manifests the process of incorporation of the external as the sole source of truth in
disavowal of imagination as a viable complement. By consequence of this deficient vision, Robin
cannot value the revelation the Ideal and is incapable of translating youthful naivety into true, natural
De Lancker 25
faith when confronted with the actual imperfection.
A further examination of the relationship between true vision, the Ideal and faith is expedient,
and will be conducted in regard to Hawthorne’s two icons of the Unpardonable Sin: Ethan Brand and
Richard Digby. The following discussion will attempt to illustrate the relationship between the
Unpardonable Sin and natural faith, in order to corroborate the close ideological correlation between
positive and negative tales.
4.2.1.4. The Man of Adamant
Hawthorne’s Unpardonable Sin is, as stated, the result of a complete refutation of faith in the
redemptive qualities of nature and humanity. The following analysis will subsequently be related to
The Scarlet Letter in an elaboration on salvation as a transitional concept between deficient vision
and Unpardonable Sin, and the ideal men represented in the next three optimistic stories. By
emphasizing the relationship between Dimmesdale and Pearl, The Scarlet Letter will be advocated to
epitomize the possibility of salvation and moral regeneration by consequence of an acceptance of the
actual state of imperfection through a balanced vision of the external/mundane and the
spiritual/Ideal.
In reference to the Unpardonable Sin, it is notable how its proponents Brand and Digby have
been disproportionally examined.24 Attention for 'Ethan Brand' appears paramount while his
counterpart Richard Digby remains largely ignored. Nevertheless, the following discussion contends
that Digby does not only personify the same radical rejection of faith in nature, humankind and
deliverance, but does so far more profoundly. Digby appears excessively horrid in his cold repudiation
of the redemptive force of a pure woman, an opportunity never explicitly offered to Brand. As only
McCullen and Guilds have asserted these two stories in unison from the perspective of faith, their
examination will form the foundation of the subsequent analysis. Yet, whereas their study is
restricted to the Unpardonable Sin itself, the following discussion will relate Digby and Brand to
positive examples of the possibility of regeneration, and postulate an ideological synthesis more
extensive and vigorous to Hawthorne than the Unpardonable Sin per se. The subsequent discussion
will focus on ‘The Man of Adamant’, as the story, in spite of its conciseness, illustrates the significance
of the possibility of redemption more explicitly as well as more effectively. Occasional references to
Ethan Brand serve to clarify the point made more distinctly, and to highlight the thematic parallels
between the two tales which will be illustrated to be in correspondence with a larger ideological
motif of faith and the Ideal.
Firstly, it is requisite to extricate Brand and Digby as rather static emblems of sin (McCullen
and Guilds 226) from the more dynamic characters of Goodman Brown and Robin. Whereas the latter
two exemplify the process of deficient vision and, consequentially, a loss of natural faith, Brand and
De Lancker 26
Digby symbolize the subsequent radical state of monomania, so isolated from love and sympathy by
an unfaltering trust in humanity's inherent sinfulness that their hearts are literally petrified. Insomuch
as natural faith and its redemptive quality is the primary investigative interest, this analysis will
centralize the moment of Richard Digby’s potential spiritual regeneration and his implicit rejection of
the possibility by consequence of his defective vision.
In brief, 'The Man of Adamant' is the account of Richard Digby, a religious zealot who, in his
belief that all mankind is immoral, seeks sanctuary in a secluded, damp and manifestly dangerous
cave to meditate in isolation. There, he receives an unexpected visitor from his past, the pure,
compassionate and loving Mary Goffe, who attempts to not only cure his physical illness, but also,
concomitantly, his morality. But Digby, in his aberration, construes her as an icon of the sinful
humanity he has scorned. The repercussion of his refutation of this explicitly angelic being and the
salvation she harbors, is immediate: Digby is befittingly petrified into a 'man of adamant'.
Similar to ‘Young Goodman Brown’, it will be argued that Hawthorne presents a pure woman
who in her embodiment of the Ideal (human) potential within the actual is meant to instigate natural
faith in the main character. As such, the story also demonstrates the disconsolate possibility for man
to enter a state of delusional pessimism where he becomes incapable of recognizing the Ideal even in
a direct confrontation. Seemingly dispiriting in its moral, the story is to be examined as a companion
piece to not only the other dark tales with their moral cautions, but also to the positive tales which
may illustrate the alternative model of regeneration and serenity, not sin and fall, as the midpoint of
Hawthorne’s ideological model.
In this context, the introductory passage of the story is significant as Hawthorne confronts the
reader directly with Digby's spiritual essence: A monomaniac pride in his own morality and rectitude,
and an abhorrence of his fellow humans and their presumed moral depravity. Consequentially, he has
developed a ‘plan of salvation … [that] could avail no sinner but himself’ (Short Stories 496), and in
order to execute it, he cultivates isolation and darkness, remote from the sun-lit valley of the rest of
humanity. McCullen and Guilds justly notes that currently, Digby has already been diagnosed with a
corporeal disease, portending his moral state, which threatens to petrify his heart. Yet, in his
persuasion that salvation is his alone, Digby opts to disregard these warnings in the process
disallowing 'nature, a possible ally' (226). It is to be observed that the designated passage serves as a
prefiguration of his subsequent dismissal of the wholesome natural cure offered to him by the pure
woman Mary, and is thus also symbolic of his refutation of faith in redemption and Nature. A static
icon of sin, Digby, like Brand, epitomizes the final phase of pessimistic perfidy which excludes him
from accepting deliverance even from the outset.
In accordance with his monomania, Digby, as aforesaid, subsists in disjunction from human
sympathy. The importance of isolation as a key factor in differentiating between 'regular' sinners and
De Lancker 27
Unpardonable Sinners may be evinced by reference to 'Ethan Brand'.25 Fogle has rightly noted that in
his depiction of the village’s local sinners, Hawthorne is remarkably benevolent (45). The lawyerturned-soap-boiler is particularly noteworthy within the context of submission in faith in the Ideal
potential as Hawthorne explicitly commands respect for the man who, in spite of the many hardships
of life, ‘the world could not trample on, and had no right to scorn … since he had still kept up the
courage and spirit of a man, and asked nothing in charity’ (Short Stories 478-79). The source of his
strength implicit, the ex-lawyer is patently distinct from, for instance, Digby and Brand in his quiet
submission to the actual – a perception which only a reading in inclusion of the optimistic tales can
disclose. Furthermore, it is intimated that this passive submission causes an active change in the
soap-boiler and other sinners’ social position, as they, in acceptance of their present state and by
faith in humanity's merciful potential, have successfully recuperated a certain social respectability.
These sinners already crudely typify the possibility of regeneration and re-institutionalization which
this thesis will further advocate as central to Hawthorne’s ideological notion of faith.
Within this context, it is expedient to further assert the contrast between the societal
inclusion of the regular sinners, and the austere isolation of Unpardonable Sinners Brand and Digby.
Accordingly, it is significant that whereas the ex-lawyer and his associates participate in ‘universal
laughter, clapping of hands and shouts …’ with the rest of the community, Brand’s subsequent ‘awful
laugh’ immediately interrupts the mirthful celebration (Short Stories 481). Social exiles, Brand and (by
extension) Digby are literally peripheral individuals, debarred from communal existence (which
informs an essential aspect of the actual) to the margins void of the happiness attainable through
submission to and acceptance of Nature. Fogle has elaborated on Hawthorne’s usage of illumination
for characterization, and as such it is significant to indicate Brand’s physical marginality in darkness in
contrast to the inclusion of society in the warmth of firelight (51), an exclusion which similarly hints at
a corresponding existential state.
Digby testifies to an analogous accordance between physical isolation and darkness and
spiritual estrangement from humanity. As aforesaid, he has retreated into the isolation of the damp,
murky cave which is manifestly destructive of nature in that ‘*t+he fallen leaves and sprigs of foliage …
and the little feathery shrubs … were not wet with natural dew, but had been embalmed by this
wondrous process [of petrification+.’ (Short Stories 497) The grotto is furthermore spiritually
endangering in that its dusky nature obfuscates the natural daylight of true religion, and causes Digby
to ‘read the Bible … amiss’ and ‘convert all that was gracious and merciful to denunciations of
vengeance and unutterable woe on every created being but himself.’ (Short Stories 498-99) Evidently,
the cave and Digby form an existential unit illustrative of Digby’s incapacity to decode the truths of
the external world and its natural warnings in a megalomaniac self-absorption and an exclusive
reliance on erroneous imaginary insight in the presumed apocalyptic state of the world (cf. McCullen
De Lancker 28
and Guilds 227).
Digby is furthermore so fixated on celestial salvation that in his inability to interpret the
external natural world, he neglects deliverance when attainable within the sphere of the material.
As such, he is offered and rejects an explicit vision of the Ideal and redemption in the person of Mary
Goffe, expressly virtuous in her ‘white garment, which thus seemed to possess a radiance of its own.’
(Short Stories 498). In her redemptive capacity, she proffers her love and sympathy as well as a cup of
medicine to purify body and soul. The liquid is significantly not composed of the poisonous, petrifying
water of the cave, emblematic of his bigotry, but of nature’s fountain of pure faith and Mary’s tears
symbolic of human forgiveness (McCullen and Guilds 228). Thus, Mary and her hallowed drink
exemplify the actualization of the Ideal potential which unifies the qualities of perfect human
sympathy and sublimated nature, both part of the mundane actual, into a redemptive vision
complementary to the celestial salvation Digby fallaciously expects to attain. Yet, Digby, who gives no
credence to the possibility of salvation (nor the Ideal) within the mundane, repudiates her on account
of exactly these qualities. To him, Mary is but an 'earthly one', a ‘perverse woman’ iconic of man’s
current imperfect state (Short Stories 499-500). His truly defective vision transfigures, in a monstrous
derision of the ethic and esthetic, truth into falsehood, virtue into vice.
Digby indeed appears ‘responsible for his own damnation' (McCullen and Guilds 228) in his
rejection of salvation. As such, the ideological focus of the story is not the inevitability of
imperfection scholars assume to discern in Hawthorne (cf. Kloeckner 335), but the possibility of
redemption and regeneration which is furthermore suggested to be humanity’s own responsibility to
realize. Digby has no faith in its attainability within the actual, and the resultant dehumanization of
both other and self logically culminates in a literal petrification (Ringe 122) caused by the cave of
artificial dogmatism. McCullen and Guilds note that a 'lack of faith in divine mercy' underlies Digby’s
demise (227), but the above analysis illustrates instead that an inability to value the experiential
earthly sphere in addition to the spiritual and divine is what truly excludes him. He egocentrically
expects celestial salvation while concurrently wanting the understanding that divine mercy can also
come in the shape of material deliverance, and thus disregards his redemptive vision of the Ideal,
Mary Goffe.
Moreover, this analysis advocates, Digby appears as even more appalling than Brand. First, in
spite of a their shared monomaniac pride and a lack of faith in Nature, only Brand is capable of
conceding to humanity’s responsibility in creating and entertaining a pessimistic vision, and testifies
to a greater existential insight than his zealous counterpart. Before dying, Brand admits, in
recognition of both man and nature’s essential ethic and esthetic qualities, a mea culpa: ‘O mankind,
whose brotherhood I have cast off, and trampled thy great heart beneath my feet! O stars of heaven,
that shone …, as if to light me onward and upward!’ (Short Stories 483) No such insight is imparted to
De Lancker 29
Digby. He cannot, like Brand, see his own sin, and is therefore incapable of entertaining any doubts
about the validity of his apocalyptic vision.26 Brand undoubtedly is an abysmal person megalomaniac in his aberrant pride, demonic in his bleak spirituality, solitary in his cold, self-imposed
isolation – but eventually, he preserves a sense of humanity. He possesses sufficient insight to
recognize personal responsibility, so that his petrification is an act of willful release from his selfconscious role in shaping the agony of an existence experienced as inherently sinful. Not so for Digby.
He is adamant in his delusional sense of personal purity while relentless toward the rest of mankind,
and is appalling in his transfiguration of testimonies of the ethic and esthetic potential of Nature into
manifestations of sin. It is therefore not a hyperbolic statement of McCullen and Guilds to proclaim
that '[i]n Digby, perhaps more than in any other Hawthorne character, the horrors of willful isolation,
blind pride, scornful certainty, self-consciousness, and churlish ignorance dominate from beginning to
end.' (226) And yet, the ascribed attributes do not form the central theme of the tale. A further
analysis of Hawthorne’s works will divulge that, in analogy with The Scarlet Letter and the optimistic
tales, the ideological emphasis is rather on the possibility of the attainment of the Ideal within the
actual (a potentiality Digby vehemently repudiates), and on humanity’s responsibility to have faith
therein in order to also realize this potential.
In sum, both Brand and Digby unquestionably are Unpardonable Sinners (Hawthorne himself
imparted that title to Brand), but it is strongly intimated that Richard Digby, albeit less studied, is
even more horrific. He is exposed to manifestations of the Ideal potential of Nature in the shape of
the peaceful, sun-lit village, the pure fountain outside the cave, and especially Mary Goffe, the
personification of the possibility of deliverance, yet disregards all. Digby and Brand are emblematic of
the responsibility to entertain ethic and esthetic faith, attained by an openness of experience.27 The
subsequent discussion of The Scarlet Letter - more specifically the relationship between the equally
existentially deluded Dimmesdale and his transformative daughter Pearl - will elucidate the
importance of a luminal ability to look beyond both the external mundane and the internal imaginary
in order to recognize and internalize the Ideal potential on one of these rare occasions where it
exposes itself to our sensory system. In this respect, The Scarlet Letter forms a transitory space
between the pessimistic and optimistic stories by illustrating most vividly the possibility of
regeneration and spiritual rebirth within the imperfect actual by faith and acceptance.
4.2.2. Faith, Redemption and Acceptance
4.2.2.1. Introduction
As the above discussions have indicated, salvation is attainable on condition of faith in its possibility
De Lancker 30
and a preservation of a luminal state of mind and vision to identify it. Brown, Robin, Brand and Digby
are all symbolic of a failure to sustain a truthful vision of the Ideal when confronted with either
internally or externally perceived imperfection. Owen, Ernest and the Village Uncle, by contrast, are
exemplary of people capable of coalescing the actual with the imaginary in a submission to an Ideal
vision, and they accordingly experience existence as blissful in spite of a recognition of its
imperfection. On an intermediary level are people such as Roderick from ‘Egotism, or the Bosom
Serpent’ and, more evocative and therefore selected here for analysis, Dimmesdale of The Scarlet
Letter. Initially incapable of acceptance of the mundane experiential sphere in the advantage of
spirituality aimed at celestial salvation, Dimmesdale will come to include both sides in faith – and
thus be redeemed - under the impulse of the transformative Pearl and her demands for recognition
and acceptance.
Scholarly research of The Scarlet Letter forms a micro-scale representation of the general
lacuna in Hawthorne studies. Examined from countless perspectives (e.g. formal analyses of narrative
techniques and rhetoric, gender and psychoanalysis, biographical and historical accounts),28 the
general scholarly opinion seems to postulate a relatively dark moral conclusion with sin as the central
thematic interest of the novel.29 The subsequent analysis will advocate a more positive approach to
the novel contesting the centrality of the dark moral themes identified by the manifold disassociated
readings of The Scarlet Letter which either consider the novel autonomously or in an exclusive
relationship to either Hawthorne’s other novels (cf. Ullén) or his pessimistic fictions (cf. Ringe).
Instead, it asserts an alternative recurrent thematic interest: The possibility and attainability of
redemption within the imperfect actual by faith in its Ideal potential. The current state of the art has
revealed many valuable insights expedient to the following analysis, but has nonetheless failed to
consider a larger thematic-ideological unity within Hawthorne’s fictions and resultantly denied The
Scarlet Letter its central role within the synthesis proposed as a transitional element illustrative of
Hawthorne’s moderately optimistic moral of acceptance in faith instead of a negative sense of futility
and loss.
As such, the following discussion will purport to institute salvation - like the Ideal - as
fundamentally earthly and therefore realizable within the actual. Naturally, this thematic interest in
the possibility of redemption is to be understood in reference to the necessity of faith in nature and
humanity's Ideal potential for forgiveness, and to an overall acceptance of the mundane. It is in
consequence of this interest that attention for Hester has been subordinated to a study of
Dimmesdale and his struggle to sustain spiritual fatherhood to his congregation while simultaneously
having to acknowledge his sinfully conceived, mundane offspring Pearl.
The central issue in The Scarlet Letter thus appears to be the necessity to maintain true,
natural faith in the Ideal potential of Nature in order to attain acceptance of the imperfect mundane
De Lancker 31
in addition to the spiritual. Dimmesdale embodies this ideological paradox most explicitly in his
dynamic development from similar to the abovementioned sinners in his initially deficient vision, to
affiliated with the ideal men in a triumphant realization of his personal Ideal potential by passive
acceptance. More specifically, he will be considered as initially fixated solely on spiritual salvation in
denial of the actual. It is as such that he manipulates Hester (willingly according to Person 472) into
compliance with his desired spiritual purification through suffering. However, in prioritizing spiritual
salvation and his position as a spiritual father to his congregation, Dimmesdale erroneously
disregards his responsibilities as a mundane father to Pearl. This analysis will hence postulate the
notion that Dimmesdale’s sole possibility of true deliverance is a positive valuation of his earthly
fatherhood (of the mundane actual) in addition to the spiritual. Only in recognition of his task as an
earthly guide for Pearl can he eventually become a true spiritual father in that acknowledgment of
the mundane actual additionally requires an expression of faith in the exculpatory qualities of
humanity. Conspicuously, Pearl herself has a crucial role to play, not only as the passive medium
through which Dimmesdale reaches salvation, but also as an active agent coercing him to accept the
actual. Her relentless requests that he make their relationship public are part of a justifiable endeavor
to establish her place in society. Budick emphasizes the importance of this identification in a
patriarchal society, and examines the societal, gendered conceptions of maternity as opposed to
paternity. Whereas motherhood is supposedly certain, fatherhood is not, and as such, she identifies
two fathers for Pearl, a biological one (Dimmesdale) and a legal one (Chillingworth) (203). The
following discussion will instead assert an alternative conception of paternity (earthly vs. spiritual) on
the basis of the observed ideological notion, and focus on Dimmesdale’s acceptance of mundane
fatherhood as the moment of conversion in providing Pearl with a stable societal and personal
identity which therefore also allows her to realize her function as sublimating Hester by a
reconstitution of the lost past (cf. Reynolds 65).
Thus, the subsequent analysis will favor a study of the relationship between Dimmesdale and
Pearl over an assertion of Hester’s role which has been extensively studied as being unrepentant for
the majority of the novel (see for instance Fogle; Reynolds). Her eventual deliverance is attributable
to Pearl’s abovementioned re-establishment of her aristocratic past, symbolized additionally by the
re-institution of a herald (Greenwood 209). The relationship Dimmesdale-Pearl nevertheless proves
more fruitful in that Dimmesdale’s struggle seems not only more dynamic, but also divulges more
clearly the importance of a balance between the mundane actual and the imaginary spiritual in
attaining salvation and happiness. In this respect, The Scarlet Letter appears highly expressive of
humanity’s personal responsibility in entertaining a vision of the Ideal and thus in the creation and
realization thereof by submission.
De Lancker 32
4.2.2.2. The Scarlet Letter
In accordance with the aforementioned interest, it is opportune to evaluate those moments which
most explicitly demonstrate Dimmesdale’s internal conflict. Most frequently, these are the result of a
direct confrontation with the manifestation of his sin, Pearl, and her demands for clarification and
openness. By examining these moments, the following analysis will elucidate Dimmesdale's inner
transformation from subjected to a deficient vision of solely the spiritual to acceptant of the actual as
a valid existential mode holding redemptive potential when experienced in a faithful submission.
In brief, The Scarlet Letter is the psychological portrait of the both literally and figuratively
stigmatized Hester and those around her in repercussion of her adulterous affair with local minister
Dimmesdale. As such, the novel opens with the methodically perused ‘first scaffold scene’ where the
reader is introduced to the locale and main characters Hester, Dimmesdale and (Hester’s legal
husband) Chillingworth as well as, tacitly, to the relational dynamics. As mentioned, Hester's role has
been investigated to satisfaction, and so has the revolutionary attitude which these first moments
prefigure as indicative of her continuous attempts to actively change her social position (cf. Reynolds).
Dimmesdale’s role, however, has lead to more diversified academic state of the art which appears
divided between positive and negative evaluations of the minister’s eventual success in attaining
salvation - a debate the subsequent analysis will endeavor to address in reference to natural faith and
submission.30
The opening scene is of particular interest for this research’s focus on an acceptance of
mundane paternity in reference to the moment where Hester is compelled by the patriarchs of the
Puritan society to disclose the identity of her illegitimate baby’s father. His oratory skills meticulously
examined, it has been noted that Dimmesdale manipulates Hester to not disclose his name, willingly
adding 'hypocrisy to sin' in order to self-consciously facilitate his spiritual salvation by an
intensification of his mundane sufferings (Person 473). Yet the narrator simultaneously makes explicit
that Dimmesdale’s earthly sin also entails a defiling of the spiritual faculty, in that he, as a minister, is
in charge of Hester’s, and by extension, Pearl’s soul which are ‘momentous to *his+ own’ (SL 57).
Implicitly signifying the interconnection between mundane parenthood and spiritual fatherhood,
Hawthorne already submits the notion that spiritual salvation cannot be attained without a prior
purification of the earthly sphere. Several confrontations with Pearl will nevertheless be requisite
before Dimmesdale apprehends the necessity of being a mundane father to his offspring in order to
become a true spiritual father to his congregation. It is the progression toward this understanding,
instigated by Pearl, which will be argued to inform the mental and narrative development of
Dimmesdale as a character.
Before advancing this point, it is expedient to first delineate Pearl who is characterized as
De Lancker 33
transmutable and luminal by Hawthorne throughout the novel. As mentioned, Budick has insightfully
examined Pearl’s need for stable patrilineal parentage, and did so in comparison to a similar thematic
quest by the narrative character ‘Surveyor Hawthorne’ (203). I would like to add that not only is she
in search of paternal security, she is, like Surveyor Hawthorne, to create her rightful father. Pearl’s
dissent to control causes her to acknowledge as a father only one who does not seek to actively
control her, but who express faith in her ability to transform herself (and therefore also Hester)
according to her Ideal potential. Initially wanting the required faith in Pearl and humanity,31
Dimmesdale will eventually come to be this person in an acceptance of both his mundane and
spiritual parental responsibilities. Pearl and Dimmesdale’s mutual approval of his parental role will be
argued to be the sublimation of the imperfect earthly state in that this acceptance will coincide with
both a personal and communal spiritual elevation in light of the Ideal. But in order to attain this state
of spiritualizing the actual in acceptance of the actual, Dimmesdale has to reacquire his lost faith
through a series of confrontations with his personal sinfulness.
The second of these confrontation arrives in Hester’s confrontation of the societal patriarchs
to dispute their decision to accommodate Pearl in a more appropriate educational environment.
Albeit in her right,32 Hester, as a woman, is required to rely on Dimmesdale to convince the
establishment of the justness of her request (Person 475). In his subsequent speech supporting
Hester’s claim, Dimmesdale expresses an instinctive insight in Pearl's function in that he accentuates
how ‘if *Hester+ brings the child to heaven, the child also will bring its parent thither!’ (SL 97) In other
words, Dimmesdale senses - but as yet does not interpret correctly- that salvation for him and Hester
(as parents) will be the result of an actualization of Pearl’s happiness within the present, so that his
spirituality can only be sublimated in acceptance of his mundane parental responsibilities,.
Dimmesdale’s restrictively spiritual worldview becomes increasingly apparent in the novel. In
this respect, the narrator observes how the tormented Dimmedale, endeavoring to purify himself of
the material actual, partakes in ‘fasts and vigils … in order to keep the grossness of this earthly state
from clogging and obscuring his spiritual lamp.’ (SL 102) Evidently, Dimmesdale cannot yet perceive
the value of the actual material in the attainment of deliverance,33 and accordingly, he assumes only a
minor role for himself in that he considers himself unworthy ‘to perform *Providence’s+ humblest
mission here on earth.’ (SL 102) Chillingworth recognizes Dimmesdale's exclusion of his latent
animalistic side in the advantage of the spiritual by perceiving that ‘*t+his man … pure as they deem
him – all spiritual as he seems – hath inherited a strong animal nature from his father or mother.’ (SL
109) The narrator moreover confirms this experiential deficiency in negative terms by labeling
Dimmesdale a 'true priest', in need of ‘the pressure of a faith upon him, supporting, while it confined
him within its iron framework.’ (SL 104) At this point, Dimmesdale’s spirituality is merely ‘a[ny
dogmatic] faith’ which confines existence and salvation by incapacitating his ability to perceive the
De Lancker 34
Ideal potential of humanity in ‘trusting no man as his friend’ (SL 110). His preoccupation with the
spiritual additionally blinds him to the importance of his ‘humblest mission here on earth’ –
fatherhood, so that only a denunciation of institutionalized dogmatism in the favor of true natural
faith in the Ideal potential of Nature can lead to the necessary acceptance.
This acceptance would logically take the shape of a confession - a public admittance of his
paternal responsibilities and a symbolical expression of faith in both Pearl's and society's potential to
absolve the sinner and be guided by the father into spiritual elevation. The realization, however,
comes gradually, and initially Dimmesdale dismisses the exculpatory function of confession in that
‘revelations … are meant merely to promote the intellectual satisfaction of all intelligent beings.’ (SL
111) Ironically, it is the near-demonic Chillingworth who correctly analyzes it in proclaiming that ‘if
[sinners] seek to glorify God, let them not lift heavenward their unclean hands! If they would serve
their fellow-men, let them do it by making manifest the power and reality of conscience’ (SL 112).
Chillingworth’s self-interested attempt to discover the identity of his wife’s lover thus points at the
earthly consequences of a confession as both spiritually elevating to a congregation and selfinterestingly eliciting divine and human benignity for the confessor, and as such he inadvertently
provides Dimmesdale with the key to true salvation.
Meanwhile, Dimmesdale's inner crisis is intensified further by an increasing sense of falseness
and hypocrisy. As he thenceforth comes to realize, his disposition not to acknowledge the material
eventuates in him becoming a false father to his congregation, and his self-condemnatory halfconfessions accordingly serve rather to consecrate than to purify him in the eyes of the community
(Katz 10; Fogle 141). As such, Dimmesdale progressively starts to apprehend that he can only attain
his spiritual ideal of true spiritual fatherhood in guidance of his figurative offspring (the congregation)
by simultaneously being an earthly father in guidance of his literal offspring (Pearl).
It is by consequence of this insight that the second scaffold scene – his third true encounter
with Pearl – is fundamental to his understanding of deliverance. Under the cover of darkness,
Dimmesdale invites Hester and Pearl to join him on the scaffold while holding hands. The moment
subsequently causes him to experience ‘a tumultuous rush of new life, other life than his own,
pouring like a torrent into his heart … as if the mother and the child were communicating their vital
warmth to his half-torpid system.’ (SL 130) Ringe, amongst others, rightly observes Dimmesdale’s
rejuvenation by the reunification with what he terms the ‘chain of humanity’ (127). This statement
nevertheless seems too general in that Hawthorne expressly accentuates the transfers taking place as
being between mother-child-father. As such, this discussion instead advocates a specification
identifying the ‘chain of humanity’ as designating the nuclear family. Dimmesdale is thus revitalized
by the truthful function he holds within this family of social exiles as a mundane father but cannot as
yet acknowledge this publically. The family, at this point, can only exist in a remote sphere of isolation
De Lancker 35
and darkness outside the boundaries of the actual albeit being natural, as the meteor’s light
illustrates. Ambiguously interpreted by the different characters, Hawthorne seemingly meant to
ascribe a positive meaning to the meteor as illuminating ‘the connecting link between those two
*Hester and Dimmesdale+ … as if it were the light that is to reveal all secrets’ (SL 131), and in this
respect, it ought to suggest to Dimmesdale the moral and natural implications of the scene, but to no
avail. Levy notes how ‘[j]ust as Dimmesdale’s guilt and suffering become obsessive and all-consuming,
so must the illumination it casts upon the physical world in which he moves’, and he perceives the
light as forming an ‘A’, iconic of his adultery (387). When Pearl finds her request to ‘stand here with
Mother and me, tomorrow noontide’ (SL 130) ineffective, she interrupts the rejuvenating connection
and additionally disregards Dimmesdale’s appeals to disclose the identity of Chillingworth as ‘*t+hou
wast not bold! – thou wast not true!’ (SL 133) Thus, Pearl, in her retributive capacity, will not help
Dimmesdale in attaining salvation as long as he is incapable of publicly asserting his biological
fatherhood and become a true father to both her and society.
The revival of his senses, however, appears only temporarily, and Dimmesdale soon descends
into an even greater despondency. Increasingly affected both mentally and physically by his guilt,
Dimmesdale sets on a solitary forest walk which leads to his next encounter with Hester and Pearl.
Hester, sensing the minister’s dangerous moral state, anticipated the meeting in hopes of rescuing
him from Chillingworth’s influence. It is significant in this respect that Dimmesdale is imperiled by
'that eternal alienation from the Good and the True, of which madness is perhaps the earthly type’
(SL 164), a description evocative of the existential despair represented by Brand and Digby, and
reminiscent of the necessity of faith in the Ideal. On account of his current inability to sustain this
faith, Dimmesdale is about to become an Unpardonable Sinner. Hester, albeit revolutionary and
unrepentant, in effect still endeavors to resist pessimism (cf. Ringe 126) and thus appears sanctioned
to instigate new faith in Dimmesdale. She assures him of the possibility of redemption in that
‘*h+eaven would show mercy … hadst thou but the strength to take advantage of it’ (SL 167) in
reference to a need for some earthly resolve. Indeed, Dimmesdale at that moment still feels he must
‘drag on *his+ earthly existence’ (SL 168), indicative of a negative subjection to the actual, but in
contrast to before, he now experiences his anxiety and aversion for the mundane and earthly
fatherhood as unnatural and 'terrible' (SL 176). Thus, his existential crisis culminates in an agonizing
acknowledgment of an erroneous internalized mentality which he nevertheless cannot yet abandon.
The mundane, admittedly more positive, still is experienced as an intermediary phase on the way to
the attainment of celestial salvation.
Dimmesdale evidently remains incapable of accepting mundane paternity, and Pearl is thus
again disinclined to acknowledge him. Instead, she experiences him as an intruder into the social
sphere she constitutes with her mother who ‘modified the aspect of them all’ (SL 178). Pearl
De Lancker 36
expresses a desire to find confirmation for the natural relationship she instinctively senses, but
Dimmedale cannot yet enact this role publicly. Pearl nevertheless persists in her demands for
ratification within the actual and in her indisposition to comply to artifice and pretense, she logically
finds support [in nature] itself in that the ‘hidden multitude [of nature] were lending her their
sympathy and encouragement.’ (SL 179)
Moreover, in his general irresoluteness, Dimmesdale allows Hester to persuade him of
absconding their guilt by a return to the continent. However, such an active pursuit of happiness in
denial of guilt and sin cannot be viewed in a positive light by Hawthorne (cf. Reynolds 63; Katz 13),
and Dimmesdale enters a mental state termed an ‘unredeemed, unchristianized, lawless region’ (SL
172).34 Whereas Ringe, for instance, interprets the behavioral change as positively inspirational (129),
Reynolds construes it as essentially dangerous (63). This analysis propounds a balanced alternative
which emphasizes that the new moral state, albeit manifestly dangerous because unredeemed and
lawless, also marks Dimmesdale’s departure from dogmatic religion and morality and the
internalization of more free experiential mode. Evidently a positive development, Dimmesdale has
nevertheless not yet supplemented this moral freedom with an ethic and esthetic faith in the Ideal
potential, so that he is ‘incited to do some strange, wild, wicked thing or other’ (SL 186). He comes to
resemble Goodman Brown in that he projects his inner sinfulness on the external world (Levy 387)
and is noted to imagine ‘certain blasphemous suggestions’ (SL 186) concerning his deacon. Ostensibly,
Dimmesdale’s adherence to inner imaginary insight in spite of external evidence has caused a loss of
faith in man's inherent good.
Fortunately, the above impression soon appears incorrect. Scholars have noted that the
moment of Dimmesdale’s actual conversion is not been made explicit (Levy "The Landscape Modes of
the Scarlet Letter" 388), although Katz has suggested that the confrontation with his own deplorable
blasphemous thoughts might be the cause of Dimmesdale's return to a sense of faith (13). In either
case, Dimmesdale returns back to his lodgings a reformed man. Pearl's insistence on recognition,
Chillingworth's revelation of the positive effects of confession, his own gradual realization of Nature's
value and his denunciation of dogmatism culminate in the climax of the novel – the final scaffold
scene. Resolute in his decision to publicly confess and acknowledge his fatherhood, Dimmesdale has
reclaimed the spiritual posture he futilely tried to sustain by secrecy. With an eye on purification and
faith, Dimmesdale can eventually become a true spiritual father to his congregation, freed of
dogmatic constraints, acceptant of the present imperfection in view of a vision of the Ideal. It is as
such that his election sermon ‘*bursts+ its way through the solid walls and *diffuses+ itself in the open
air’, beyond dogmatism into nature, and as such that his sermon is impelling. Justly analyzed as
manipulative (cf. Fleischner 523), Dimmesdale's speech is only truly effective because it contains
'spiritual sense' (SL 207). Significantly, in accordance with the proposed synthesis, this spiritual sense
De Lancker 37
is explicated a few pages later as a prophecy of a 'high and glorious destiny', revealed in his faculty as
‘an angel, in his passage to the skies, [who] had shaken his bright wings over the people for an
instant … and had shed down a shower of golden truths upon them.’ (SL 212) Visibly, Dimmesdale has
recovered personal ethic and esthetic faith in the Ideal potential of Nature, and in his subsequent
acceptance of the imperfect actual, he has additionally attained a previously less efficacious moral
and spiritual authority as an inspirational father.
Subsequent to the sermon, Dimmesdale finally reveals his paternity to Pearl and the Puritan
community. In this display of faith in humanity (cf. Fleischner 524; Reynolds 65), Dimmesdale truly
reaches spiritual regeneration and elevation. He, as a confessor, confides in the capability of his
congregation to appraise and absolve their sinful father, inspired by the ethic and esthetic faith he
instilled in them by his prophetic vision of the Ideal; Similarly, he can finally concede to his mundane
responsibility as a father by having faith in his daughter’s ability to transform herself into a truly
human being. In this context, it is opportune to refer to Hester's earlier doubts about Pearl. Aware of
her manifestly luminal, transmutable nature, Hester experienced a sense of inhumanity in her
daughter’s comportment, who ‘had not the disease of sadness’ and consequentially ‘wanted … a grief
that should deeply touch her, and thus humanize and make her capable of sympathy.’ (SL 157) Hester
thus admits to the necessity of an acknowledgment of gloom and imperfection in order to become a
truly responsible human being, but finds it wanting in her near-supernatural child. It is Dimmesdale
who in his acknowledgment of Pearl provides her with a stable social space and personal identity (cf.
Budick 204) so that his death, in faith of her transformative abilities, also brings about the faithfully
imagined transformation. Pearl concedes to his implicit dying wish that ‘she would grow up amid
human joy and sorrow, nor forever do battle with the world, but be a woman in it.’ (SL 218) Thus, she
reconstitutes the coat of arms, symbolic of Hester's aristocratic past, and comes to personify the
happiness and unification denied to her parents within the actual, being the medium through which
Dimmesdale's faith will be rewarded and affirmed, and through which Hester will attain her eventual
acceptance and submission (cf. Reynolds 65; Greenwood 209).
Furthermore, the congregation at large benefits from Dimmesdale's reconstitution as a true
father as well in that he ‘*impresses+ on his admirers the mighty and mournful lesson that, in the view
of Infinite Purity, we are sinners all alike.’ (SL 220) Not only does Dimmesdale emphasize humankind’s
responsibility for sympathy in their communal sin, he moreover also centralizes the Ideal potential of
‘Infinite Purity’ as a source of faith. His prophetic vision of the Ideal combined with an acceptance of
the imperfect actual has ‘enhanced the people’s knowledge and understanding.’ (Bayer 258) Thus,
they are capable of finally granting the agonized minister the longed-for pity and redemption (cf.
Bayer 260). Ringe and Levy, for instance, have nevertheless interpreted the final scene as a
communicative failure for Dimmesdale based on the subsequent want of consensus in respect to the
De Lancker 38
Puritan community’s interpretations. This analysis instead argues, in accordance with Bayer, that in
spite of some minor deviations, the entire community has understood the essence of Dimmesdale’s
vision - and has moreover confirmed his faith in their compassionate absolution. He has disclosed to
them the notion that within the imperfect actual, even the most elevated humans are earthly
creatures, that even angelic ministers make carnal mistakes, and that what has eventually elevated
him above the common level is not a semblance of divinity, but an acknowledgment of his earthiness
and a genuine faith in humanity's merit. As a spiritual father and confessor combined, he has both
displayed his personal ethic faith to his community and, in consequence, also inspired the
internalization of the Ideal vision in them. Thus, Dimmesdale can die ascertained that he has reached
if not divine salvation, then earthly redemption. His confession constitutes a reestablishment of his
morality and true position ‘within the order of the community and within the order of the kingdom of
God’ (Reynolds 64), that is, both within the actual and the spiritual. It is furthermore notable that it is
only a passive submission to the Ideal could actively transfigure the imperfect actual (embodied by
Pearl's marginal status and poverty) into the Ideal actual (embodied by Pearl's future wealth and
social standing). Dimmesdale, then is the ultimate icon in Hawthorne's fiction of the possibility of
deliverance and regeneration through faith in the Ideal potential of Nature.
In conclusion, it appears that contrary to general scholarly opinion, The Scarlet Letter and, by
extension, Hawthorne’s fiction in general does not emphasize sin and fall, but alternatively centralizes
humanity’s responsibility to have faith in the Ideal potential. In this respect, the gloomy moral often
discerned in the novel seems far more positive than usually assumed. The main characters of The
Scarlet Letter are indeed stigmatized by sin and guilt, but they nonetheless successfully complete
their parental roles in an acceptant submission to faith in the future, embodied by Pearl, where the
Ideal can and will be realized by a re-institution of the happiness denied to them. A study to the
above dark stories may impart the impression that Hawthorne was a pessimist; a reassessment in
view of his positive tales, however, indicates a significantly more optimistic albeit paradoxical
ideological logic . As such, the tales of 'The Village Uncle', 'The Artist of the Beautiful' and 'The Great
Stone Face' serve to further illustrate the personal responsibility in the creation of happiness inspired
by a vision of the Ideal.
4.2.2.3. The Artist of the Beautiful
The optimistic tales have been asserted to be far less studied than the pessimistic tales. Indeed, of
these optimistic stories, only 'The Artist of the Beautiful’ has received ample attention, but as David
Urban states in his analysis, ‘*c+ritical opinion towards Owen’s pursuit … has been divided.’ (Urban
499) In spite of this lack of attention, two other, lesser-known stories are also central to this
dissertation: 'The Village Uncle' and 'The Great Stone Face'. As academic research is scarce - not to
De Lancker 39
say wanting - they will not be considered in their own right but in relationship to the well-studied
'The Artist of the Beautiful' to further elucidate the notion of faith. Owen, it will be advocated, is
victorious - even if materially defeated - as it was not the material product, but the mental process
that elevated him. He recognizes the imperfection of the actual while simultaneously investing faith
in his vision of Nature’s Ideal potential, and in the process, he comes to submissively accept the
actual, as Hawthorne’s ideal man ought to. Additionally, he will be argued to complete the task of the
true artist by proclaiming a vision of the Ideal, much like Ernest and the poet in 'The Great Stone
Face', and thus to contribute to not only the creation of personal happiness, but also to a revelation
of the Ideal potential in the advantage of the rest of mankind.
'The Artist of the Beautiful' is the story of mechanical clockmaker Owen Warland, who aspires
to become an artist in his vexed quest for the Beautiful. Unappreciated by a materialist utilitarian
society, the spiritual idealist Owen attempts to create an object of true esthetic value for his
unattainable love Annie. He eventually actualizes his ideal in the form of a butterfly, but his efforts
remain unrecognized and the material object is shattered. Yet, the narrator proclaims, Owen
experiences the moment as victorious, having attained a purer, higher moral ground.
The following analysis will demonstrate that Hawthorne meant for Owen to embody not only
the ideal artist, but also the ideal (Every)man. However, it is manifest that Owen does not achieve this
status instantaneously. He experiences a process of growth from childish naivety and innocence into
an adult acknowledgment of imperfection which is even so complemented with a true faith in the
Ideal vision (cf. Brill 383). In this respect, the story is analogous to 'The Great Stone Face', which
narrates of Ernest, a simple boy with a resolute faith in the prophetic arrival of an ideal man. In spite
of a succession of disappointing encounters with imperfection, Ernest, iconic of mankind’s Ideal
potential, does not discard his faith but rather reinforces it. Eventually, an insightful poet reveals
Ernest himself - by then an old man - to be the promised prophet, but in his modesty, Ernest cannot
accept this title and continues to live in expectant faith of the arrival of the Ideal.35 Owen and Ernest,
esthetic and ethic faith, are emblems of Hawthorne's ideal of man sublimating himself through
confrontations with the actual imperfection in faith in its inherent Ideal potential. Similarly, 'The
Village Uncle' presents the reader to the poetic reflections of the dying Village Uncle, a man who,
once an idealistic poet, committed himself to a life of simple labor (in this way combining Artist with
Everyman). Retaining his imaginary insight in a perception of the Ideal within the actual, however, he
effectively experienced his life as sublime happiness and parts with it in an acknowledgment of the
need to accept the actual in submission and simplicity, which the other stories prove to be the result
of his Ideal vision.
Similar in message and vision, the stories also expose a few attitudinal disparities which give
rise to different evaluations by scholars. Albeit few in number, critics of 'The Great Stone Face' are in
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agreement regarding their positive appreciation of its main character, Ernest (cf. Lynch; Levy
"Hawthorne and the Sublime"; Murphy), yet such an unanimously positive view is not observable in
respect to 'The Village Uncle' and ‘The Artist of the Beautiful’. While the former testifies to a certain
ambiguity in its moral (cf. Levy "The Mermaid and the Mirror: Hawthorne's 'the Village Uncle'" 207)36
'The Artist of the Beautiful’s ostensibly contradictory conclusion has inspired ardent debates. Accused
of naïve idealism, conservatism, weakness and selfishness (cf. Urban; Curran) Owen Warland seems
to be an exceptionally polarizing character. Indeed, the story's ambiguities and aporia seem
inexplicable, but an assessment in reference to the other two tales of positive Ideal faith may suggest
some insights in support of more positive evaluations of Owen. In this respect, the following analysis
postulates that Owen is gradually altered from a relatively pitiable person to an ideal artist and
Everyman on account of his internalization of the Ideal vision as existential truth. This discussion will
use the stories of Ernest and the Village Uncle to further elucidate the paradoxical synthesis of faith.
In discussing ‘The Artist of the Beautiful’, both essays asserting Owen as defeated and
unsuccessful,37 and analyses postulating Owen as triumphant (see for instance Fogle 90; Brill 386)
have appeared valuable in providing insights. Dean W. Bethea’s essay especially was fruitful on
account of its appreciation of the dialectical, paradoxical nature of the solution propounded and of its
acknowledgment of the necessity to ‘fuse the mechanic material and the ideal’ (33). Perhaps as a
result of a restricted textual context, he nevertheless does not elaborate on the manner of
attainment of this fusion, a lacuna this study will attempt to account for by considering the role of
faith in the realization of a synthesis between the material actual and the spiritual ideal, in the
process corroborating the thematic link with The Scarlet Letter and the dark stories.
Fogle’s authoritative study analyzes the theme of 'The Artist of the Beautiful' as based on
oppositions: spiritualism versus materialism, utilitarianism versus aestheticism, time versus
experience (72). Owen appears as an antithetical entity, immersed in a society diametrically opposed
to his own world view. This distinction between opposites has been generally observed and accepted
(cf. for instance Brill 381; Ringe 124; Harshbarger 187), but the eventual solution or non-solution to
the conflict has been much debated. Still, Owen Warland's original position as a character appears
adequately established by now. In agreement with Liebmann, it is clear that Owen is 'initially a trivial
and unworthy character,' (qtd. in Bethea 23) who assumes to have no connection to the material,
being ‘altogether spiritual’ (Short Stories 425). He appears as an idealistic extremist not unlike Digby
in his withdrawal from public society, and is evidently not meant to be appreciated as exemplary.
However, contrary to what Urban suggests, neither should be his material counterpart, Robert
Danforth (354). Danforth is, as Fogle justly postulates, too material and therefore too limited in his
understanding to be an ideal human. Albeit an essentially good person, he lacks the imaginary faculty
(84), like his father-in-law Hovenden, to attain a vision of the Ideal and see the essential message of
De Lancker 41
faith within such a vision. Urban, who rigidly denounces Owen and concedes a preference for the
utterly material Hovendens (344), considers Danforth as exemplary of simplicity and societal
participation, but this assessment seems to disregard the narrative tone of the story. Undoubtedly
the strongest argument against a positive interpretation of the story, Owen at the conclusion of the
tale indeed lives in isolation, whereas the very mundane Danforth has a happy family. For Urban, this
severance from society testifies to the idealistic artist's inability to be part of human communion. Yet
it has been convincingly argued that the fault is not Owen's. Admittedly withdrawing from society at
the outset, Owen gradually seeks to immerse himself into it and thus is to be appreciated far more
positively than Urban for instance will admit. This analysis will furthermore advocate that his
narrative development is the result of confrontations with the actual that challenge and destabilize
his artistic vision, but eventually transform the warring idealist (cf. his surname) into an acceptant
ideal artist (and man) through the notion of faith.
In this respect, it is notable that Owen initially is not unlike the artist of 'The Prophetic
Pictures'(cf. Fay 16), as he too suffers from a 'self-imposed isolation from actuality' and, consequently,
'his art has become more important in his eyes than God's creations' (Dichmann 193) – a view Urban
confirms in conclusion of his own analysis (352). By analogy to the unnamed artist of ‘The Prophetic
Pictures’, Owen is at risk of neglecting the moral implications of being an artist, which require not
only an insight in existential truths, but also responsibility in retaining faith in the Ideal and exposing
this vision to humankind as art for Hawthorne may impact on the psychological state of humans (Fay
192). Thus, it is the task of the ideal artist to utilize his imaginary insight not only to find faith, but
also to use his vision for the sake of the larger community and 'articulate the vision gained in solitude'
(Bethea 27) which Fogle aptly explains as serving ‘to remind us that heaven exists by showing us
visions of it’ (214). It takes several confrontations with the imperfect state of the actual - followed by
regenerative encounters with a vision of the Ideal potential of Nature - for Owen to reach the
sublimated state of the ideal artist.
Yet, it is remarkable that Owen is not entirely solitary even at the outsetin that he already
attempts, as a mechanical clockmaker, to create ‘golden drops of harmony’ (Short Stories 424) for a
society which, as Bethea states, nevertheless 'will tolerate absolutely nothing that does not conform
to its definitions' (25), refuting Owen's attempts to define the esthetic within the actual. Too remote
from the societal sphere of utilitarian materialism, the beautifying, ethereal melodies he creates for
the town people’s clocks are unappreciated. Indeed, his victory as an ideal man too will go
unrecognized and he remains isolated - but no longer by a self-imposed withdrawal, as he now
actively seeks to be a member of society (Brill 385). Owen is certainly not as successful socially as his
counterpart, Everyman Ernest. Whereas the latter is recognized as a prophetic sage, Owen is not. In
contrast to Ernest’s society, however, his is resistant and unappreciative, and he does not command
De Lancker 42
the power of words – while both Ernest and the poet, his complement (Murphy 365), achieve their
status by expressing verbally the Ideal ethic vision they have. Hawthorne acknowledges the power of
words in ‘The Great Stone Face’ in reference to a politician so eloquent ‘that whatever he might
choose to say, his auditors had no choice but to believe him.’ (Short Stories 468) Lynch too confirms
the poet’s ability of transforming his personal interpretation of life into ‘a permanent possession’ of
humanity (143). As this power is denied to Owen, he can represent his esthetic faith only figuratively,
and is reliant on humanity's ability to look beyond surface into meaning. Consequently, the failure to
communicate the message is the failure of the spectators who cannot command sufficient imaginary
insight to translate the material butterfly into a moral testimony of faith in the Ideal potential of
Nature – not the artist’s.
This Ideal vision which he comes to sublimate in the form of a mechanical butterfly infused
with spiritual power is the result of a gradual process from childish naivety into experience and true
faith. The several stages have been intensively studied, and it is generally agreed by both proponents
and adversaries of Owen that each of the confrontations is more (positively or negatively) effectual
than the previous (see for instance Sanders 82). It is therefore unnecessary to explore the precise
moments of discouragement in too great detail. Instead, I will focus on how Owen succeeds in
achieving a more intense natural, testifying to spiritual growth as a result of being confronted with
the imperfect actual (cf. Bethea 26). His true faith in the Ideal potential bestows on him the power to
embark on a positive initiation in life (as opposed to Brown and Robin, who lack this positive
dimension).
The first confrontation described is with what Fogle terms the 'earth-fiend' Danforth (85) and
his destructive materialism. Dispirited by this embodiment of physical prowess and matter, Owen
abandons his spiritual idealism and temporarily commits himself to utilitarianism. His easy
submission to oppositional forces is indicative of a more vaccilant faith in his esthetic ideal and is
reminiscent of Goodman Brown rather than Ernest, whose ethic faith allows him to be ‘as hopeful as
if he had never hoped in vain’ after each disappointment (Short Stories 467). Ernest, however, is part
of a community connected to nature, and is spiritually elevated by the beneficent support of Nature
herself in the form of the Great Stone Face (cf. Levy "Hawthorne and the Sublime" 395), so that his
innate tendency toward natural faith is corroborated by the larger contextual setting. Owen, on the
other hand, is surrounded by a society emblematic of materialism and industrialization and finds no
such direct inspiration in the external world. Indeed, the poet, who is Ernest's equal in terms of
verbal power and inspirational strength, and who helps Ernest ‘attain a profounder sense *of the Ideal
vision+ than either could have attained alone’ (Short Stories 472) is impelled by the persistent
resistance of artificial city life to admit that he has not always been able to entertain his vision of the
Ideal.
De Lancker 43
Owen’s disillusionment thus appears excusable as a logical consequence of the external
circumstances, and will be intensified by the subsequent confrontation with and accidental
destruction of his artwork by the skeptical materialism that Peter Hovenden, his former master,
embodies. Hovenden’s scornful mockery of Owen’s idealism causes the latter to abandon work
altogether, and he retreats into an idle, spiritual slumber. Eventually, he is awakened by the arrival of
summer and the subsequent hunt for butterflies, 'an apt emblem of the ideal pursuit in which he had
spent so many golden hours' (Short Stories 427) which leads to his first realization: The Ideal is not
entirely spiritual, but lies within the potential of the actual, natural world. The narrator expresses this
idea by equating the ideal pursuit with the pursuit of the beauty of Nature, but he is also careful to
note that its realization within the material sphere is an impossible task for the artist who must
necessarily do with a manifestation 'imperfectly copied from the richness of their visions.' (Short
Stories 427) The imperfection of the actual state indeed resists an active realization of the ideal
beauty perceived in the vision, but the moral purity of the pursuit and the resultant faith will
nevertheless be advocated to passively elevate the submissive individual into a realization of
humanity’s Ideal potential. Owen, however, has not yet reached this phase. Still, his regeneration in
spite of counterproductive external circumstances is remarkable and accentuates Owen’s merit in
that he does not only regain his earlier spiritualism, but also supplements it with a (limited)
acceptance of the value of the natural and the actual. Consequently, he no longer supports his
previous, erroneous belief that his existence is entirely spiritual, but this insight is still premature,
and as Bethea notes, he 'has not fully aligned his artistic vision with the material world, for he
pursues his work only “by night”.’ (27) A more profound confrontation is thus required to help him
internalize this understanding as an existential truth: His confrontation with his love Annie’s
imperfection.
This third encounter will prove the most effectual in dispiriting the idealistic artist and
creating the ideal artist. Through a wrongful treatment by and of Annie, Owen will learn to value
human society and, accordingly, the need to create in service of an elevation of humanity - not in a
sphere of egocentric isolation; A realization he will fully come to embrace toward the conclusion of
the story. Until this third disillusionment, however, Owen wrongly considered Annie primarily as an
inspirational source for art based on an idealized conception of her. As such, my analysis agrees with
Urban’s negative appreciation of Owen Warland in respect to his attitude toward Annie (348), yet I
would like to add a modification as well in that Owen, albeit less manifestly, also seeks Annie’s
sympathy as a human being capable of aiding his self-development, and tries to ‘gain the sympathy
of the only being whom he loved!' (Short Stories 428) He evidently attempts to connect to human
sympathy, but does so principally out of a erroneous artistic interest. From this perspective, Annie’s
accidental destruction of his art will be advantageous to Owen in that it forcefully confronts him with
De Lancker 44
the imperfect actual (of Annie) and with the necessity to modify his spiritualized ideal vision (of
Annie). He understand that his previous idealization of the imperfect actual to near-angelic has foiled
his (unjustly motivated) attempt to attain human sympathy within the actual. The need to accept
humanity’s actual state before being capable of attaining sympathy may be further illustrated by
means of a brief comparison to the Village Uncle's and his relationship to his wife Susan. He, like
Owen, has an innate tendency to artistically idealize the actual, even if he is dedicated to a life of
simple labor like Everyman Ernest. Thus, upon first meeting his future wife, he too imbues her with
the artist’s idealizations, imagining her 'akin to the race of mermaids' (Short Stories 154). In his
transient faculty between Artist and Everyman, however, he is immediately capable of also accepting
the actual, and is gladdened 'to find [Susan] nothing but a pretty young girl'(Short Stories 155). His
ability to perceive that '*the actual and the imaginary+ are strangely commingled,' (Levy “Mermaid”
209) allows him to successfully enter an intimate human relationship, founded on a truthful
acceptance imbued with an Ideal vision. Thus, the Village Uncle admits to his initial mistake of
'dipping her image into my mind and coloring it of a thousand fantastic hues, before I could see her as
she really was' (Short Stories 155) and Owen too realizes his personal responsibility in unjustly
idealizing the actual by expressing that 'it was not your fault, Annie' (Short Stories 429). But this
acknowledgment of the imperfect actual Owen cannot as yet combine with a vision of the Ideal like
the Village Uncle does, and he again regresses into despondency and materialism – this time,
however, notably in the company of (albeit riotous and alcoholic) other human beings.
Once more, the appearance of a butterfly is the cue for Owen to reestablish his esthetic faith.
Having earlier recognized the value of nature, he now learns to interpret his vision, and starts to
sense that '[the butterfly's] airy track would show the path to heaven' (Short Stories 430). Before truly
incorporating the meaning he instinctively senses, however, Owen is informed of Annie's marriage to
Danforth and he relapses into depression. Hawthorne does not specify the manner of his subsequent
rebirth; For all we know, Owen is inspired by an inner strength wanting before. In either case, he
reemerges in the possession of true esthetic faith. During his cocoon-like hibernation,38 Owen has
internalized a vision of the Ideal which integrates the material actual in the spiritual, and he
understands accordingly that the ideal artist does not endeavor to improve on nature, but to
'[produce] a beauty that should attain to the ideal which Nature has proposed to herself in all her
creatures, but never taken pains to realize.' (Short Stories 432) He no longer attempts to create and
impose, but submits to his vision of Nature's potential, and only actualizes materially what he
visionary experiences as the existential truth inherent to Nature – or, as Bethea summarizes, 'The
realm of pure thought … is rejected in favor of the dialectical interpenetration of the creative mind
and the physical world.' (29) Owen has attained the same state of elevation embodied by Ernest and
the poet who both prophesy of the ideal potential in Nature which Hawthorne explicitly terms ‘the
De Lancker 45
truest truth’ (Short Stories 471). In this respect, Ernest and Owen evince Hawthorne's conception of
ideal men, capable of attaching the spiritual Ideal vision to the sphere of the material actual within
which our existence is necessarily rooted.
Ultimately Owen, braced with natural faith, is ready to confront Annie, symbolic of his earlier
inability to accept the actual, her earthly husband Danforth, and the materialistic, utilitarian
Hovenden. Each has previously destabilized Owen’s faith, and as such, his deliberate choice to
confront them is indicative of a steady conviction of the justness of his vision (cf. Brill 385).
Additionally, his visit to the Hovendens also testifies to Owen's ethic faith that they, as representative
of the least imaginative kind of humans, may possibly be willing to receive his vision. Urban criticizes
this expectation as overly idealistic (351), but this interpretation seems biased by a negative
appreciation, and the above examination of other stories has already disclosed resolute faith in
humanity as a positive quality which may even be redemptive (cf. Dimmesdale). Thus, Owen enters
the familial community to come to expose his piece of artistry: A butterfly emblematic of the natural
Ideal potential which Fogle cryptically hints at in describing it as ‘Natural, yet superior to Nature in
that it embodies Nature’s essence’ (78). However, Owen has more to offer than just the butterfly, and
also procures a jewel box for the butterfly as a present. This box
‘was carved richly out of ebony by his own hand, and inlaid with a fanciful tracery of pearl,
representing a boy in pursuit of a butterfly, which, elsewhere, had become a winged spirit, and was
flying heavenward; while the boy, or youth, had found such efficacy in his strong desire that he
ascended from earth to cloud, and from cloud to celestial atmosphere, to win the beautiful.’ (Short
Stories 437)
Few critics, amongst others Fay and Bethea, have drawn attention to the box’s inlay, but none have
truly examined the relationship the box holds to its contents. Fay’s analysis, in its negative
examination of the butterfly, ascribes a greater value to the box in that it more effectively
communicates the message she perceives as being the essence. Indeed, the box ‘links the real and
ideal’ (Fay 26), but it does not, as she furthermore asserts, explicate more explicitly and concretely
what the butterfly abstractly represents ( Fay 23). ‘The box’, as Bethea somewhat cryptically states,
‘evinces the solid foundation upon which that vision is based' (34), and foundation (Ideal vision) and
realization (butterfly) are here expressive of different aspects. Only an interpretation of the inlay and
the butterfly combined reveals a message otherwise partly understood. The goodhearted Danforth is
appreciative of the box, but expresses a mere esthetic appreciation of the material object (Fay 25);
None of the Hovendens is capable of correlating surface/matter to essence/idea in consequence of
their imbalanced vision. As such, it remains largely unrecognized that whereas the butterfly displays
De Lancker 46
the literal attainability of the Ideal potential within the actual, the box evinces how faith in the
possibility of realization is what elevates humans above their imperfect present state of existence.
Attempts to actively alter reality are inadvertently unsuccessful (the butterfly); submission to the
Ideal potential of reality, on the other hand, is capable of transforming the individual to a higher
existential state that could be termed ‘Ideal’ (the box).
Accordingly, it is not surprising that even when the butterfly is destroyed by the Hovenden
baby39 Owen 'looked placidly at what seemed the ruin of his life's labor', knowing that '[w]hen the
artist rose high enough to achieve the beautiful, the symbol by which he made it perceptible to
mortal senses became of little value in his eyes while his spirit possessed itself in the enjoyment of
the reality.' (Short Stories 437) Significant in this respect is that the butterfly and not the box is
obliterated, indicating the indestructible eternal nature of the vision as opposed to its manifestation,
and it is from this faithful viewpoint that Owen remains indifferent to the destruction of what seemed
his lifework. He, as the box displays, has attained celestial happiness in his faith in the Ideal vision,
elevated by the process - not the result - and as such, he remains placid in the face of present
imperfection and inability to interpret his message (cf. Ringe 124).
By comparison, Ernest too is elevated by a simple faith in the Ideal potential of the future
within the actual and can accordingly consent to the imperfect present. Lynch postulates the moral of
'The Great Stone Face' as one where ‘one must not be content to live “among poor and mean realities,” and must have faith in “the grandeur, the beauty and the goodness … in nature and in human
life.”’ (145) Lynch’s proposition, albeit insightful, implies a contradictory moral in that reality must be
transcended as ‘poor and mean’ while simultaneously being good and beautiful. The above discussions have illustrated that a paradoxical ideological conception may impart a more coherent conclusion which propounds that the present imperfection must be accepted, not transcended, by faith in
its future Ideal potential. Indeed, the Village Uncle, by exposing his Ideal vision as part of reality, instills faith in his children in 'point*ing+ to nature’ and ‘discours[ing] of the mighty works and coextensive goodness of the Deity.' (Short Stories 158)
Furthermore, exposing this paradoxical visionary insight is the primary task of the artist, yet
the strong analogy between Everyman Ernest and the poet implies that it also is the moral task of
every-man. The attainment of celestial happiness on earth is humanity’s own responsibility - not only
on a personal level, but also for mankind in general as collective natural faith in the Ideal is what will
realize the Ideal which in a social context, as 'The Great Stone Face' tells us, implies a ‘pure and high
simplicity’ reflected in ‘good deeds‘ and thoughts which ‘moulded the lives of those who heard [it]’
(Short Stories 468). The Ideal state is one where elevated ideas correlate with good deeds, or, in short,
the state Ernest and Owen embody. The ideal man hence experiences the Ideal vision not only
internally, but also displays it externally in order to guide the larger community spiritually (cf. Bethea
De Lancker 47
31). It is in this respect that Dimmesdale too, in spite of his sin, has succeeded in sublimating himself
and has attained the coveted salvation. The Village Uncle, both Artist and Everyman, also ensures the
reiteration of the sublimating process by revealing the secondary cause, preconditioned by faith, for
the fulfillment of happiness and personal elevation to his family members by prophesying that '[i]n
chaste and warm affections, humble wishes and honest toil for some useful end, there is health for
the mind, and quiet for the heart, the prospect of a happy life and the fairest hope of heaven.' (Short
Stories 160) Having finalized his social role, it is now the responsibility of the next generation of
Artists/Everymen to implement these internalized preconditions in the actual and create their own
ideal narrative.
To return to Owen, all the abovementioned people indeed are more efficacious than he is at
articulating this message. But, whereas they command the power of the word, he is necessarily
dependent on abstract visualizations and the unimaginative society to which he exposes his vision
cannot decode this non-verbal message which requires an imaginative faculty to balance the external
material view on existence. Thus, contrary to what for instance Urban and Curran have claimed,
Owen appears as victorious. Proponents of Owen’s defeat, these scholars focus on the reception of
Owen’s art by society, yet this society itself has emerged to be at fault. Furthermore, Owen is
successful in realizing his vision of the Ideal and in uniting his imaginatively observed spiritual vision
with the previously disregarded material one (Bethea 33). He transcends his former, pitiable self and
becomes an elevated human being. That this remains unnoticed and unappreciated by society can
hardly be on his account, as he actively seeks to engage them in his Ideal vision by the sole means at
his disposal: visual art. As Brill correctly states in his concluding notes, '[t]hat he soared above the
world and most of its inhabitants is undeniable; that he is also of them as he was not before is,
surprisingly, also true.' (386) Elevation of the self above common humanity in faith of a more Ideal
future also necessitates an immersion of the self into humanity and community by submissive
acceptance – as Owen does. He is exemplary of the ideal man who shapes his own experiencing of
the world by a recognition of the current imperfection (as a precondition for true faith to supplant
naïve innocence) and an intermingling of this actual with a vision of the Ideal potential. The resultant
individual is accordingly responsible and capable of actively creating his own happiness by the
requisite passive submission to the present realities of life. Hawthorne thus proposes a 'pattern of life
resembling a work of art,' (Levy “Mermaid” 210) in which one can invent and shape felicity by what
can be rightfully be termed 'an eye of faith'.
5. Conclusion
The analyses of the above tales have thus exemplified a thematic unity between pessimistic and
De Lancker 48
optimistic tales. It has been argued that the pessimistic tales, generally experienced as preoccupied
with sin and degeneration, are instead revolving around the possibility of regeneration. Brown and
Robin, Digby and Brand are erroneous - and in the case of the latter two, Unpardonable Sinners – not
as a result of their wrongful treatment of other human beings or of other moral crimes, but by
consequence of their inability to perceive the Ideal when it exposes itself to their sensory systems.
Immerged in pessimism either internally or externally motivated, their defective vision causes an
internalization of artifice and malice as the essence of existence and excludes a luminal ability to
acknowledge the value and meaning of the Ideal. In their hesitant or resolute rejection of the Ideal,
causing a loss of faith, these characters except themselves from the possibility of salvation which
nevertheless is offered to every human – even to the horrid Digby. They are, in short, incapable of
creating their own joyous narrative and elevating themselves above the perceived present
imperfection by faith. By a submission not to faith in the Ideal potential but to a belief in the inherent
sinfulness of the world, they become active agents in shaping their own agony, as Ethan Brand admits.
Dark in their moral, these stories are disconcerting, not because they attest to the inevitability of sin
and degeneration, but because they illustrate how humanity is responsible for recognizing and
creating salvation and happiness – an obligation Hawthorne presents as too great for those incapable
of entertaining a balanced vision of existence and faith in Nature’s Ideal potential.
This possibility of moral regeneration in spite of sin is explicated further in The Scarlet Letter,
where personal responsibility is emphasized. Dimmesdale, initially not unlike the sinners from
Hawthorne’s dark tales, is enveloped in pessimism about the existential state of both self and other.
Discounting the value of the material external world, he does not recognize the Ideal potential of
humankind and nature to forgive, and is focused exclusively on divine redemption. As such, he will
not acknowledge his mundane fatherly role to his illegitimately conceived daughter Pearl, mistakenly
assuming that this would endanger his spiritual fatherhood as a minister. Gradually, however, he
comes to realize the impossibility of being a true spiritual father without a submissive acceptance of
the imperfect, mundane actual and dies while passively creating his absolution. As such, Dimmesdale
demonstrates humanity’s capability of shaping and transforming the current imperfect, sinful state by
both a recognition and a submission in true faith to the Ideal potential which the actual concurrently
embodies. Contrary to general scholarly opinion, The Scarlet Letter is thus not as much preoccupied
with fall as it is with regeneration through spiritually elevating natural faith.
It is this natural faith and its capability of spiritual elevation which finally brings The Scarlet
Letter and the pessimistic tales into an ideological unity with the optimistic tales. Emphasizing the
role of faith in the Ideal potential of Nature as embodying both nature and humanity, those humans
capable of balancing their vision between the external material and the internal imaginary are able of
an acceptance of the present imperfection in light of the Ideal potential simultaneously perceived. In
De Lancker 49
contrast to the likes of Brown and Robin, they acknowledge the Ideal when it presents itself to their
sensory system by means of their luminal openness of vision and mind. Like the characters from the
dark stories, however, they also recognize the current imperfect state, and are necessarily subjected
to a loss of innocent naivety – which they can nevertheless successfully supplant with the natural
faith of the mature ideal man. In this capacity of ideal men, they additionally need to expose the
spiritually elevating vision of the Ideal to the rest of humanity by whatever means they can.
Hawthorne clearly indicates the power of words in transferring this vision to a world largely
unrecognizing, so that Owen Warland, the artist of physical manifestations of beauty, is less
successful than his verbally gifted counterparts. Yet his attempts to live up to his social role as well as
his personal advancement illustrate that in spite of a failed communication as an artist, he is
victorious as a human being, capable of shaping the actual in a paradoxical submissive acceptance of
its imperfection.
The recurrence of the abovementioned theme of faith and its relationship to complete vision,
sin and regeneration thus exposes the ideological unity between the positive and the negative stories
as far greater than hitherto assumed by academic research. Hawthorne does not inconsistently
alternate a view on inherent sinfulness and degeneration with one of optimistic self-elevation, but
professes of a single ideological notion centered around faith. The wide applicability of the concept to
both types of stories thus calls for further research investigating its exact range. Indeed, ‘Rappaccini’s
Daughter’ could be included to the list of stories about an incapability to recognize the Ideal as a
result of deficient vision. Similarly, ‘The Maypole of Merry Mount’ could be analyzed to illustrate the
transition from childish naivety into mature true faith, while ‘Egotism, or the Bosom Serpent’ is a tale
of regeneration in faith through the medium of the Ideal woman. It is apparent that other stories
than those selected here can illustrate (albeit less explicitly) the ideological synthesis the concept of
faith forms. In view thereof, the possibility for application of the notion of faith to Hawthorne’s other
fictions is present, and may be an stimulating investigational angle for future research.
This faith has furthermore been advocated to be, in many instances, dissimilar from dogmatic
forms of religious worship and is alternatively rooted in a personal ideological notion. It may
therefore be expedient - as an addition to the current state of the arts - if scholars with expertise in
the larger theological-philosophical debates would compare the model outlined above to, for
instance, Puritan theology and Transcendentalist philosophy. This application may establish the
degrees of ideological correspondence between the paradoxical notion here observed textually and
the larger socio-historical context, and thus aid to add a few insights to the ardent academic debates
concerning this topic.
In sum, the paradox of faith implicates a stronger ideological coherence in Hawthorne’s
fictions than generally assumed, while simultaneously reaffirming the frequent comments on the
De Lancker 50
ambiguous, contradictory nature of his writings. One can only come to understand Hawthorne if one
evaluates his fictions not in terms of certainties but in acceptance of paradoxes as valuable
interpretative means. Ullén argues the need for the reader to accept contradiction as Hawthorne
ought to be read with an eye on faith in order to sublimate the imperfect work of art to its intended
ideal state. Similarly, this thesis advocates that humanity too needs to experience life with an eye of
faith in order to actualize the Ideal potential it holds. As this dissertation has come to demonstrate,
the paradoxical nature of Hawthorne’s artistic practice is not only an interpretative obstacle, and thus
an inspirational source for ardent debates, but also one of the strengths of Hawthorne as a writer: It
invites continuous re-readings and reinterpretations of his fictions, and the different individual
perspectives thus employed will hopefully continue to open up new examinational pathways to
explore. This dissertation offers merely one of the many alternative roads to follow; Still, it hopes to
have imparted a few modest insights to add to the rich Hawthorne studies.
De Lancker 51
Notes
1
It is thus consequential of a heightened scholarly interest for Hawthorne during the abovementioned period
that most bibliographical material is of a relatively old date.
2
"The Book Marketplace I," The Columbia History of the American Novel, eds. Emory Elliott, Cathy N. Davidson,
Patrick O'Donnell, Valerie Smith and Cristopher P. Wilson (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), vol. 1, 1
vols. and “The Romance,” The Columbia History of the American Novel.
3
Matthiessen’s influence has been acknowledged by, amongst others, Magnus Ullén, "Reading with 'the Eye of
Faith': The Structural Principle of Hawthorne's Romances," Texas Studies in Literature and Language 48.1 (2006):
2.
4
W. B. Carnochan, ""The Minister's Black Veil": Symbol, Meaning and the Context of Hawthorne's Art,"
Nineteenth-Century Fiction 24.2 (1969), Shirley M. Dettlaff, "The Concept of Beauty in 'the Artist of the
Beautiful' and Hugh Blair's Rhetoric," Studies in Short Fiction 13 (1976), Stephanie Fay, "Lights from Dark
Corners: Works of Art in 'the Prophetic Pictures' and 'the Artist of the Beautiful'," Studies in American Fiction
13.1 (1985), Ullén, "Reading with 'the Eye of Faith': The Structural Principle of Hawthorne's Romances." All the
above scholars are occupied by this thematic interest. Plentiful more could be enumerated, but the above
examples suffice to illustrate that throughout time, Hawthorne’s aesthetic position has been intensively studied
and debated by scholars.
5
Bayer too confirms Hawthorne’s determination to disclose an ideal artistic vision to his readers, and
recognizes his awareness that the realization of ideal art was necessarily impaired by its rootedness in the
imperfect actual, so that the vision was dependent on the readiness of the reader to actively construe it. It is as
such that he notes how Hawthorne creates the ideal reader by ‘prepar*ing+ that reader for his narrative role,’
(256) but simultaneously expects the reader to ‘exercise his own acumen’ (257). John G. Bayer, "Narrative
Techniques and the Oral Tradition in the Scarlet Letter," American Literature 52.2 (1980).
6
A comprehensive overview of all relevant essays logically is nonviable. Instead, reference will be made to
those analyses which have been most influential and/or useful. Concerning Puritanism and Transcendentalism
(here compounded as most authors consider both at once), Emily M. Budick, "Hester's Skepticism, Hawthorne's
Faith: Or, What Does a Woman Doubt? Instituting the American Romance Tradition," New Literary History: A
Journal of Theory and Interpretation 22.1 (1991), Millicent Bell, "Hawthorne's "Fire Worship": Interpretation
and Sources," American Literature 24.1 (1952), Jerry A. Herndon, "Hawthorne's Dream Imagery," American
Literature 46.4 (1975), Robert Milder, "Hawthorne's Winter Dreams," Nineteenth-Century Fiction 54.2 (1999),
Robert Daly, "Fideism and the Allusive Mode in 'Rappaccini's Daughter'," Nineteenth-Century Fiction 28.1
(1973), Bill Christophersen, "Agnostic Tensions in Hawthorne's Short Stories," American Literature 72.3 (2000),
Scott Harshbarger, "Bugs and Butterflies: Conflict and Transcendence in 'the Artist of the Beautiful' and 'the
Apple-Tree Table'," Studies in Short Fiction 26.2 (1989), Mary Sue Schriber, "Emerson, Hawthorne, and 'the
Artist of the Beautiful'," Studies in Short Fiction 8 (1971). et al. have been pivotal. In reference to Mesmerism,
Taylor Stoehr, "Hawthorne and Mesmerism," Huntington Library Quarterly 33.1 (1969).was most useful.
7
Christophersen, "Agnostic Tensions in Hawthorne's Short Stories.", Viola Sachs, "The Gnosis of Hawthorne and
De Lancker 52
Melville: An Interpretation of the Scarlet Letter and Moby-Dick," American Quarterly 32.2 (1980). All three
perceive in Hawthorne at least an admittance of religious doubt (Christophersen), and even agnosticism
bordering the esoteric and mystical (Sachs). The latter article has proven extraordinary provocative in its focus
on numerology and claims of mysticism in Hawthorne and Melville, and will therefore not be utilized for future
reference.
8
Christophersen’s “Agnostic Tensions” adverted to the Quakers with regard to Hawthorne’s “The Gentle Boy”
and asserted the author’s distrust for both Puritan and Quaker zealotry. I would like to add that the same
distrust is noticeable for Shakers, as appears from “The Shaker Bridal”.
9
Milder notes that Hawthorne was dependent on what he ‘allowed him to believe’, being ‘[n]either a Platonist
nor a Transcendentalist, and still less a professing Christian’ (197). Similarly, it is noted that in ‘The Gentle Boy’,
Hawthorne reveals both faiths *Puritanism and Quakers+ as religions that have and have not’ by W. R.
Thompson, "Theme and Method in Hawthorne's 'the Great Carbuncle'," South Central Bulletin 21.4 (1961). Cf.
also Leo B. Levy, "Hawthorne and the Sublime," American Literature 37.4 (1966): 392.
10
More specifically, these ‘dark stories’ consist of ‘Ethan Brand’, ‘Young Goodman Brown’, ‘My Kinsman, Major
Molineux’, ‘The Birthmark’, ‘Rappaccini’s Daughter’, ‘The Minister’s Black Veil’ and others. Other tales like ‘The
Man of Adamant’ or ‘The Christmas Banquet’, could equally be listed here, but are less studied.
11
Indeed, Christophersen, Milder, and McCullen and Guilds all assess several tales in connection, but none
consider the dark stories as consistent with the optimistic ones. Fogle’s The Light and the Dark analyzes both
positive and negative tales, but does not connect them thematically until the very last chapter entitled
“Hawthorne’s Heaven and Earth”, where he acknowledges a complex relationship between the actual and the
celestial yet concludes that ‘there is no synthesis in Hawthorne’s thinking, only thesis and antithesis in balance’
(220). Most explicitly, Norford states that Hawthorne proposes ‘the pessimistic conclusion that there is an
unbreachable gap between the ideal and the actual.’ Don Parry Norford, "Rappaccini's Garden of Allegory,"
American Literature 50.2 (1978): 186.
12
In comparison, a search entry on Ebsco for ‘Young Goodman Brown’ yields 138 results; ‘The Village Uncle’ a
meager eighteen – most being nothing more than references to the story in essays on different topics. Likewise,
‘My Kinsman, Major Molineux’ produces 102 results, whereas ‘The Great Stone Face’ results in only 29 essays,
the majority of which are notes and comments.
13
Millicent Bell, "Hawthorne's "Fire Worship": Interpretation and Sources," American Literature 24.1 (1952).
Bell investigates the relationship between Hawthorne’s sketch ‘Fire Worship’ and the Zoroastrian belief in the
presence of both good and evil in the world. She perceptively notes, moreover, that unlike the
Transcendentalists’ optimistic dismissal of evil, Hawthorne, in a Puritan fashion, admits to its presence, but
rejects an all-pervasive sense of sinfulness nonetheless (35). This insight is conform to the observed paradox of
faith, as will be expanded on later.
14
In order to distinguish between the ‘ideal’ without capitalization, and the ‘Ideal’, the latter will be used in
reference to the paradox of faith as signifying the Ideal potential of nature, whereas the former will be used in
its dictionary form meaning ‘a conception of something in its absolute perfection’. Similarly, ‘Nature’ will be
De Lancker 53
used to indicate the actual experiential world consisting of nature and humanity in relation to faith, while
‘nature’ will indicate ‘the world of living things and the outdoors’, and will be used in contrast to ‘artifice’, the
world as created by mankind in denial of nature.
15
Especially in reference to ‘The Artist of the Beautiful’, critics like Urban tend to corroborate this view in their
denial of Owen’s success as a Platonic, metaphysical artist (344). Oftentimes, the assumption remains implicit
but Fogle, in his discussion of ‘The Artist of the Beautiful’ explicitly states that Owen embodies ‘the Platonic
belief in the ultimate identity of Goodness, Truth and Beauty’ (77) and ‘the Platonic fashion in which
Hawthorne envisions the artist’s gift’ (87). Harshbarger interprets Owen as ‘the archetypal platonic of
transcendental artist’ Harshbarger, "Bugs and Butterflies: Conflict and Transcendence in 'the Artist of the
Beautiful' and 'the Apple-Tree Table'," 188. Cf. also Norford, "Rappaccini's Garden of Allegory."
16
Kloeckner contends as much in his essay on ‘Rappaccini’s Daughter’, where he analyzes the central conflict as
between humanity’s need to have faith in the purity of nature and their subsequent tendency toward
manipulation. Alfred J. Kloeckner, "The Flower and the Fountain: Hawthorne's Chief Symbols in "Rappaccini's
Daughter"," American Literature 38.3 (1966): 327;34. Milder too makes reference to Hawthorne’s distaste for
artifice in relation to his Notebooks (190). Hawthorne himself allegorically illustrates the need for a natural way
of life in, amongst others, ‘The New Adam and Eve’ by consistently placing the good, natural way of life they
embody in opposition to the artifice of his own time; and in ‘The Celestial Railroad’, where the negative attitude
towards Vanity Fair’s artifice is unequivocal.
17
Artifice appears here as manifestly demonic in that the narrator, even in his delusional religious modernism,
instinctively discerns the interconnection between the monstrous mechanical (artificial) train and its drivers,
the minions of Beelzebub (297).
18
The disagreement is most intensive in relation to ‘My Kinsman, Major Molineux’, where scholarly opinions
are divided between those consenting to a negative view of Robin as having pledged himself to artifice and evil
(amongst others Herndon, "Hawthorne's Dream Imagery.", Thomas E. Connors, "My Kinsman, Major Molineux:
A Reading," Modern Language Notes 74.4 (1959), Arthur T. Broes, "Journey into Moral Darkness: "My Kinsman,
Major Molineux" as Allegory," Nineteenth-Century Fiction 19.2 (1964). and a positive interpretation considering
Robin as grown up into a likable, independent human being, as for instance Fogle does.
19
For instance, Richard C. Carpenter, "Hawthorne's Polar Explorations: "Young Goodman Brown" and "My
Kinsman, Major Molineux"," Nineteenth-Century Fiction 24.1 (1969), Paul J. Hurley, "Young Goodman Brown's
"Heart of Darkness"," American Literature 37.4 (1966), Milder, "Hawthorne's Winter Dreams," 180.et al.
20
It has been noted by Hurley that Brown denounces societal morality without any definite proof (415),
prefiguring his more effective yet equally unsubstantiated dismissal of natural F/faith.
21
In this context, reference can be made to ‘The New Adam and Eve’, where the two humans reborn do not
recognize extravagant cookery as food (turtle soup, venison) but only that which nature directly has to offer to
them (fruit), and ‘eat it without sin’ (Short Stories 334).
22
Again, a comparison to ‘The New Adam and Eve’ reveals a contextual correspondence. Upon entering a
church, the newborn Adam feels inclined ‘to look upward’, but cannot as ‘it troubles me to see this roof
De Lancker 54
between us and the sky.’ Eventually, Adam and Eve turn to religious worship outside in nature, in ‘the spirit’s
natural instinct of adoration’ (Short Stories 330).
23
Fountains, like many objects in Hawthorne’s universe, have a manifestly allegorical connotation. Kloeckner
recognizes ‘eternity of life or spirit’ in a fountain (329), while Fogle similarly analyzes it as ‘the true water of
eternal life.’ (231) Clearly, fountains carry the positive connotation of purity and spiritual eternity, and are as
such correlated to true religion and faith.
24
Ebsco for instance offers fifty-two results on ‘Ethan Brand’, but only fifteen for ‘The Man of Adamant’ - most
of which are references made to the tale in articles on other topics.
25
It is notable in this context that neither Brown nor Robin live in isolation; Brown, albeit pessimistic, still lives
within society, and Robin’s immergence into an artificial society instead of the previous natural brotherhood,
even if perceived as negative, still constitutes an inclusion into some form of community.
26
Brand does. When confronted with the abovementioned sinners, he entertains a momentary doubt that
maybe his irreverence for other humans is not the Unpardonable Sin. He seems to sense instinctively that
something else holds that title, but cannot answer the question to satisfaction (Short Stories 479). As such,
McCullen and Guilds has proven extraordinary valuable in their assessment of what the Unpardonable Sin
entails, if not a lack of human love, but the study has insufficiently examined the greater thematic unity
between tales concerned with sin, and those termed optimistic as unified by an underlying ideology.
27
Abstractly stated, this openness has been observed to result in a ‘fullness of subjective responsiveness
(unarmored experience) [which] provides the preconditions for objective knowledge and critical insight.’ David
Downing, "Beyond Convention: The Dynamics of Imagery and Response in Hawthorne's Early Sense of Evil,"
American Literature 51.4 (1980).
28
Assessments of The Scarlet Letter from a formal perspective emphasizing narrative techniques and rhetoric
are for instance Bayer, "Narrative Techniques and the Oral Tradition in the Scarlet Letter.", Marshall van Deusen,
"Narrative Tone in "the Custom House" and the Scarlet Letter," Nineteenth-Century Fiction 21.1 (1966), Ullén,
"Reading with 'the Eye of Faith': The Structural Principle of Hawthorne's Romances.". From a psychological
perspective (including gender and psychoanalysis) there is for instance Zelda Bronstein, "The Parabolic Ploys of
the Scarlet Letter," American Quarterly 39.2 (1987), Budick, "Hester's Skepticism, Hawthorne's Faith: Or, What
Does a Woman Doubt? Instituting the American Romance Tradition.", Leland S. Person, "Hester's Revenge: The
Power of Silence in the Scarlet Letter," Nineteenth-Century Fiction 43.4 (1989).. Biographical analyses include,
amongst others, Larry J. Reynolds, "The Scarlet Letter and Revolutions Abroad," American Literature 57.1 (1985),
Paul John Eakin, "Hawthorne's Imagination and the Structure of "the Custom-House"," American Literature 43.3
(1971).
29
Fogle, for instance, postulates that ‘[t]he sentiment is too darkly tragic’ (132) with ‘no hue of heaven’ (134).
Similarly, it is stated in reference to Hester and Dimmesdale’s common burial slate that it ‘underscores their
common humanity – with all that that implies in Hawthorne’s world of guilt, sin and redemption’ by Douglas
Greenwood, "The Heraldic Device in the Scarlet Letter: Hawthorne's Symbolical Use of the Past," American
Literature 46.2 (1974): 210. Furthermore, Levy identifies the message of The Scarlet Letter as that one ‘must be
De Lancker 55
aware of the past as a ruin, and hence skeptical … .’ since the new mirrors the old, and makes a search for
improvement futile. Leo B. Levy, "The Landscape Modes of the Scarlet Letter," Nineteenth-Century Fiction 23.4
(1969): 382;84.
30
Whereas most research indeed attests of a successful realization of his intentions upon his death, some
scholars like Ringe perceive a communicative failure (130) or an inability to emotionally inspire his congregation
(cf. Levy “The Landscape Modes of The Scarlet Letter” 391).
31
In this context, it is remarkable that Dimmesdale, up to the point where he has regained his faith in humanity
and confesses, did not trust Pearl’s Ideal potential, and previously expressed his doubts in that ‘whether
capable of good, I know not.’ (SL 113)
32
Reynolds convincingly advocates the justifiable nature of her request by comparing the narrative tone of this
instance of a mother’s natural rights (sympathetic) to later instances of Hester’s dangerous revolutionary
thoughts (disproving) (60).
33
In this respect, he is not unlike Digby, who similarly retreats from the natural and material in abstinence. It is
furthermore interesting to note that ministers and preachers in Hawthorne are frequent victims of deficient
vision in Hawthorne: Digby and Dimmesdale, but also Mr. Hooper from ‘The Minister’s Black Veil’ testify to an
exemption from the value of the material.
34
Hawthorne’s incapability to approve of a denial of responsibility has been fictionally typified by 'The Maypole
of Merry Mount', where the idle mirth and vanities of the Merry Mount community have to give way to the
responsible, gloomy world of the Puritans. However, the story also envisions the ideal alternative in the form of
the Spring Lord and Lady Edgar and Edith (McWilliams 18), who recognize their responsibility to acknowledge
imperfection but do so in light of a vision of the Ideal which they find in their mutually profound love. Hence,
their ethic faith in an Ideal in recognition of imperfection allows them to accept in submission and thus ‘*go+
heavenward, supporting each other along the difficult path’ (SL 47).
35
Lynch notes that this situation stimulates ambiguity as ‘[Ernest] is not to see the man of destiny because of
his refusal to view himself in that role.’ (139) Just in his observation, this paradoxical situation does not
undermine Ernest’s personal happiness within and contentment with the actual, as will be illustrated. See
James J. Lynch, "Structure and Allegory in 'the Great Stone Face'," Nineteenth-Century Fiction 15.2 (1960).
36
All subsequent references to Levy in respect to "The Mermaid and the Mirror: Hawthorne's 'The Village
Uncle'", will be indicated by the abbreviation ‘Levy “Mermaid”’.
37
Cf. Ronald T. Curran, "Irony: Another Thematic Dimension to 'the Artist of the Beautiful'," Studies in
Romanticism 6 (1966), John L. Idol, Jr., "A Show of Hands in 'the Artist of the Beautiful'," Studies in Short Fiction
22.4 (1985), Fay, "Lights from Dark Corners: Works of Art in 'the Prophetic Pictures' and 'the Artist of the
Beautiful'.", David V. Urban, "Evasion of the Finite in Hawthorne's 'the Artist of the Beautiful'," Christianity and
Literature 54.3 (2005).
38
Sanders, Harshbarger, Brill and Bethea all use the image of a butterfly and a cocoon to illustrate Owen’s
maturation, an image which seems very evocative in reference to this tale about transformation into a more
‘elevated’ phase of (human) existence.
De Lancker 56
39
The baby has alternately been interpreted as representative of an equally unappreciative future (Bethea 34),
or, more positively, as a representation of ideal art, found on human relationships (Urban 353). Most
interpretations, however, construe the Hovenden child as emblematic of matter and/or spirit. Idol for instance
discerns childish, innocent spirituality in combination with a (victorious) materialism inherited from his
grandfather in the child (459).
De Lancker 57
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