Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tales

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

A NORTON CRITICAL EDITION NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE'S TALES AUTHORITATIVE TEXTS BACKGROUNDS CRITICISM Second Edition Selected and Edited by JAMES McINTOSH THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN W • W • NORTON & COMPANY:* New York • London Contents Preface ix Preface to Second Edition xiii The Texts of the Tales My Kinsman, Major Molineux 3 Roger Malvin's Burial 19 The Gentle Boy 36 The Wives of the Dead 62 Mrs. Hutchinson 67 The Haunted Mind 73 The Gray Champion 77 Young Goodman Brown 84 Wakefield 96 The Ambitious Guest I03 The May-Pole of Merry Mount no The Minister's Black Veil 120 The Man of Adamant 131 Dr. Heidegger's Experiment '37 Endicott and the Red Cross 146 The Birthmark 152 The Celestial Rail-road 166 Earth's Holocaust 181 The Artist of the Beautiful 198 Drowne's Wooden Image 218 Rappaccini's Daughter 228 Ethan Brand 254 Feathertop 267 A Note on the Text Textual Variants 286 Hawthorne's Revisions of "The Gentle Boy" 288 The Author on His Work PREFACES 293 The Old Manse 295 Preface to the 1851 Edition of Twice-told Tales 3'7 Preface to The Snow-Image 321 CONTENTS LETTERS 323 To Elizabeth C. Hathorne, March 13, 1821 324 To H. W. Longfellow, June 4, 1837 325 To H. W. Longfellow, June 19, 1837 328 To H. W. Longfellow, January 12, 1839 328 To Sophia Peabody, October 4, 1840 330 To G. S. Hillard, July 16, 1841 332 To Margaret Fuller, August 25, 1842 332 To Margaret Fuller, February 1, 1843 334 To E. A. Duyckinck, July 1, 1845 336 To E. A. Duyckinck, April 15, 1846 336 To R. W. Griswold, December 15, 1851 338 To James T. Fields, April 13, 1854 339 FROM THE AMERICAN NOTEBOOKS 34O Criticism EARLY CRITICISM 357 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Hawthorne's Twice-told Tales 359 Edgar Allan Poe • [Twice-told Tales, Second Edition] 362 Edgar Allan Poe • Tale-Writing—Nathaniel Hawthorne 363 Margaret Fuller • [Hawthorne's Mosses from an Old Manse] 367 Herman Melville • Hawthorne and His Mosses 370 Henry James • Early Writings 385 MODERN CRITICISM 393 Q. D. Leavis • Hawthorne as Poet 395 John P. McWilliams Jr. • Hawthorne and the Puritan Revolution of 1776 409 Frederick C. Crews • The Logic of Compulsion 418 Michael J. Colacurcio • Visible Sanctity and Specter Evidence: The Moral World of Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Rrown" 429 Jorge Luis Borges • Nathaniel Hawthorne 446 Sharon Cameron • The Self Outside Itself: "Wakefield" and "The Ambitious Guest" 458 J. Hillis Miller • Defacing It: Hawthorne and History 464 Robert B. Heilman • Hawthorne's "The Birthmark": Science as Religion 477 Judith Fetterley • Women Beware Science: "The Birthmark" 484 Nina Baym • [The Tales of the Manse Period] 494 Leo Marx • ["Ethan Brand"] 499 CONTENTS vii Martin Bidney • Fire, Flutter, Fall, and Scatter: A Structure in the Epiphanies of Hawthorne's Tales 507 Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Chronology 525 Selected Bibliography 529 .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

Hawthorne's Use of Mirror Symbolism in His Writings
The Woman's College of The University of North Carolina LIBRARY CQ COLLEGE COLLECTION Gift of Jane './nicker lie lie tt KSLLSTT, JANS WHICKER. Hawthorne's Use of Mirror Symbolism in His Writings. (1968) Directed by Dr. Robert 0. Steohens. pp. 60 Ihroughout the course of Nathaniel Hawthorne's writin* one notes an extensive use of mirrors and other reflecting objects—brooks, lakes, fountains, pools, suits of armor, soao bubbles, the Duoils of oeople's eyes, and others. Surprisingly enough, few scholars and critics have had much to say about this slgnigiCRnt mirror symbolism; perhaps Hawthorne succeeded so well In concealing; these images that they exoress meaning without directing attention to their Dresence. Nevertheless, they are very much in evidence and for a very definite purpose. Hawthorne, whose works cover the problem of moral growth in man, was attempting to show mankind that only through an intense self-lntrosoectlon and self-examination of the interior of his Innermost bein°:—his heart—would he be able to live in an external world which often apoeared unintelligible to him; and through the utiliza- tion of mirror images., Hawthorne could often reveal truths hidden from the outer eyes of man. Hawthorne's Interest in mirrors is manifest from his earliest attempts in writing; indeed, he spoke of his imaerination as a mirror—it could reflect the fantasies from his haunted mind or the creations from his own heart. More Importantly, the mirror came to be for Hawthorne a kind of "magic" looking glass in which he could deoict settings, portray character, emphasize iraoortant moments, lend an air of the mysterious and the suoernatural, and disclose the meaning beneath the surface.
[Show full text]
Lehigh Preserve Institutional Repository
Lehigh Preserve Institutional Repository Nathaniel Hawthorne : an existential interpretation of the journey motif in selected short fiction Collins, Dennis C. 1974 Find more at https://preserve.lib.lehigh.edu/ This document is brought to you for free and open access by Lehigh Preserve. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of Lehigh Preserve. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE1 AN EXISTENTIAL INTERPRETATION OF THE JOURNEY MOTIF IN SELECTED SHORT FICTION by Dennis C, Collins A Thesis Presented to the Graduate Committee of Lehigh University in Candidacy for the Degree of Master of Arts in English Lehigh University 1974 (9/10/74) This thesis is accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts. ( at ) ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I submit this thesis in warmest gratitude to the following people• to Professor Carl F, Strauch for the thorough background he presented in his Hawthorne seminar, out of which grew my thesis topic; to Professor Edward G, Gallagher, my thesis advisor, for offering me his valuable time, his patience, and his insightful suggestions; and to Jenny Saloky who unselfishly gave her time and typing skill, iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page i Certificate of Approval ii Acknowledgments iii Table of Contents iv Abstract 1 Chapter Onea "The Hollow of Three Hills" 3 Notes 18 Chapter Two 1 "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" 22 Notes 40 Chapter Three 1 "Young Goodman Brown" 44 Notes 58 Chapter Four 1 "Ethan Brand" 61 Notes 75 Bibliography
[Show full text]
Beyond the American Landscape: Tourism and the Significance of Hawthorne’S Travel Sketches
The Japanese Journal of American Studies, No. 27 (2016) Copyright © 2016 Toshikazu Masunaga. All rights reserved. This work may be used, with this notice included, for noncommercial purposes. No copies of this work may be distributed, electronically or otherwise, in whole or in part, without permission from the author. Beyond the American Landscape: Tourism and the Significance of Hawthorne’s Travel Sketches Toshikazu MASUNAGA* INTRODUCTION: 1832 After graduating from Bowdoin College in 1825, Nathaniel Hawthorne went back to his hometown, Salem, Massachusetts, where he concentrated on writing in order to become a professional writer. His early masterpieces such as “Young Goodman Brown” and “My Kinsman, Major Molineux” were written during the so-called solitary years from 1825 to 1837, and he viewed those Salem years of his literary apprenticeship as “a form of limbo, a long and weary imprisonment” (Mellow 36). But biographers of Hawthorne point out that this self-portrait of a solitary genius was partly invented by his “self-dramatizations” (E. H. Miller 87) to romanticize his younger days. In fact, he maintained social engagements, and his sister Elizabeth testified that “he was always social” (Stewart 38). He was more active and outgoing than his own fabricated self-image, and he even made several trips with his uncle Samuel Manning as well as by himself.1 While strenuously writing tales, he undertook an American grand tour alone, traveling around New England and upstate New York in 1832. He was one of those tourists who rushed to major tourist destinations of the day such as the Hudson Valley, Niagara Falls, and the White Mountains in order *Professor, Kwansei Gakuin University 1 2 TOSHIKAZU MASUNAGA to spend leisure time and to find cultural significance in the scenic beauty of the American natural landscape.
[Show full text]
F, Sr.Auifuvi
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE' S USE OF WITCH AND DEVIL LORE APPROVED: Major Professor Consulting Professor Iinor Professor f, sr. auifUvi Chairman of" the Department of English Dean of the Graduate School Robb, Kathleen A., Nathaniel Hawthorne;s Fictional Use of Witch and Devil Lore. Master of Arts (English), December, - v 1970, 119 pp., bibliography, 19 titles. Nathaniel Hawthorne's personal family history, his boy- hood in the Salem area of New England, and his reading of works about New England's Puritan era influenced his choice of witch and Devil lore as fictional material. The witch- ci"aft trials in Salem were evidence (in Hawthorne's inter- pretation) of the errors of judgment and popular belief which are ever-present in the human race. He considered the witch and Devil doctrine of the seventeenth century to be indicative of the superstition, fear, and hatred which governs the lives of men even in later centuries. From the excesses of the witch-hunt period of New England history Hawthorne felt moral lessons could be derived. The historical background of witch and Devil lore, while helpful in illustrating moral lessons, is used by Hawthorne to accomplish other purposes. The paraphernalia of witchcraft with its emphasis on terrible and awesome ceremonies or practices such as Black Sabbaths, Devil compacts, image-magic, spells and curses, the Black Man in'the forest, spectral shapes, and familiar spirits is used by Hawthorne to add atmospheric qualities to his fiction. Use of the diabolic creates the effects of horror, suspense, and mystery. Furthermore, such 2 elements of witch and Devil doctrine (when introduced in The Scarlet Letter, short stories, and historical sketches) also provide an aura of historical authenticity, thus adding a v dimension of reality and concreteness to the author's fiction.
[Show full text]
Hawthorne's Conception of History: a Study of the Author's Response to Alienation from God and Man
Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1979 Hawthorne's Conception of History: a Study of the Author's Response to Alienation From God and Man. Lloyd Moore Daigrepont Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Daigrepont, Lloyd Moore, "Hawthorne's Conception of History: a Study of the Author's Response to Alienation From God and Man." (1979). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 3389. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/3389 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This was produced from a copy of a document sent to us for microfilming. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the material submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or notations which may appear on this reproduction. 1.The sign or “target” for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is “Missing Page(s)”. If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting through an image and duplicating adjacent pages to assure you of complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a round black mark it is an indication that the film inspector noticed either blurred copy because of movement during exposure, or duplicate copy.
[Show full text]
The Birth-Mark Hawthorne, Nathaniel
The Birth-Mark Hawthorne, Nathaniel Published: 1843 Type(s): Short Fiction Source: http://gutenberg.org 1 About Hawthorne: Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804, in Salem, Massachu- setts, where his birthplace is now a museum. William Hathorne, who emigrated from England in 1630, was the first of Hawthorne's ancestors to arrive in the colonies. After arriving, William persecuted Quakers. William's son John Hathorne was one of the judges who oversaw the Salem Witch Trials. (One theory is that having learned about this, the au- thor added the "w" to his surname in his early twenties, shortly after graduating from college.) Hawthorne's father, Nathaniel Hathorne, Sr., was a sea captain who died in 1808 of yellow fever, when Hawthorne was only four years old, in Raymond, Maine. Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College at the expense of an uncle from 1821 to 1824, befriending classmates Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and future president Franklin Pierce. While there he joined the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. Until the publication of his Twice-Told Tales in 1837, Hawthorne wrote in the comparative obscurity of what he called his "owl's nest" in the family home. As he looked back on this period of his life, he wrote: "I have not lived, but only dreamed about living." And yet it was this period of brooding and writing that had formed, as Malcolm Cowley was to describe it, "the central fact in Hawthorne's career," his "term of apprenticeship" that would eventually result in the "richly med- itated fiction." Hawthorne was hired in 1839 as a weigher and gauger at the Boston Custom House.
[Show full text]
Visualizing the Romance: Uses of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Narratives in Comics1
Visualizing the Romance: Uses of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Narratives in Comics1 Derek Parker Royal Classic works of American literature have been adapted to comics since the medium, especially as delivered in periodical form (i.e., the comic book), first gained a pop cultural foothold. One of the first texts adapted by Classic Comics, which would later become Classics Illustrated,2 was James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, which appeared in issue #4, published in August 1942. This was immediately followed the next month by a rendering of Moby-Dick and then seven issues later by adaptations of two stories by Washington Irving, “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Headless Horseman.”3 As M. Thomas Inge points out, Edgar Allan Poe was one of the first, and most frequent, American authors to be translated into comics form (Incredible Mr. Poe 14), having his stories adapted not only in early issues of Classic Comics, but also in Yellow- jacket Comics (1944–1945) and Will Eisner’s The Spirit (1948).4 What is notable here is that almost all of the earliest adaptations of American literature sprang not only from antebellum texts, but from what we now consider classic examples of literary romance,5 those narrative spaces between the real and the fantastic where psychological states become the scaffolding of national and historical morality. It is only appropriate that comics, a hybrid medium where image and text often breed an ambiguous yet pliable synthesis, have become such a fertile means of retelling these early American romances. Given this predominance of early nineteenth-century writers adapted to the graphic narrative form, it is curious how one such author has been underrepresented within the medium, at least when compared to the treatment given to his contemporaries.
[Show full text]
Romantic Ameran Literature: Sources for Criticism. a Research Guide
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 329 984 CS 212 734 AUTHOR Van Noate, Judith, Comp. TITLE Romantic Ameran Literature: Sources for Criticism. A Research Guide. INSTITUTION North Carolina Univ., Charlotte. J. Murrey Atkins Library. PUB DATE 90 NOTE 23p.; For other guides in this series, see CS 212 732-739. Small print on some pages may affect legibility. PUB TYPE Guides - Non-Classroom Use (055)-- Reference Materials - Bibliographies (131) -- Reference Materials - Directories/Catalogs (132) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Authors; English Literature; Higher Education; Library Guides; *Library Materials; Library Skills; *Literary Criticism; *Nineteenth Century Literature; *Reference Materials; *Romanticism; *United States Literature IDENTIFIERS University of North Carolina Charlotte ABSTRACT This handcut is a guide to library resources in the J. Murrey Atkins Library at the University ofNorth Carolina-Charlotte for the criticism of Romantic (19th century) American literature. The guide explains important referencesources in the Atkins library reference collection and howto find biographical and critical information in books andperiodicals. The guide's sections cover three sources of criticism: (1)general reference works (biographical and critical information);(2) books on individual authors and their work; and (3) indexesto criticism in periodicals. (SR) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the bestthat can be made from the original document. ***************************************************%***A***************
[Show full text]
'Troubled Joy' : the Paradox of the Female Figure in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Fiction
'TROUBLED JOY' : THE PARADOX OF THE FEMALE FIGURE IN NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE'S FICTION by Sciretk ROSEMARY GABY B.A. Hons. Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA NOVEMBER 1984 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Prefatory Note i Abstract .. ii Introduction .. 1 Background: The Figure of Woman in Nineteenth Century America 5 II Woman's Fatal Flaw: The Tales 25 III Hester Prynne 57 IV Zenobia and Priscilla 77 V Miriam and Hilda .. 96 Conclusion • • 115 Bibliography . 121 PREFATORY NOTE This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other higher degree or graduate diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person, except when due reference is made in the text of the thesis. (k9)9Acs-\ The style of presentation is primarily in accordance with the MLA Handbook (New York: Modern Language Association, 1977), but some features of style, notably the use of single quotation marks for quotations of words, phrases or short prose passages, have been determined by the Style Sheet of the Depart- ment of English, University of Tasmania. ABSTRACT The figure of woman is of central importance to the whole pre- sentation of meaning in Nathaniel Hawthorne's fiction. In comparison to other writers of the nineteenth century, and especially his male compatriots, Hawthorne grants the female figure a remarkable degree of prominence and significance in his works. His presentation of woman is noteworthy not only for the depth and subtlety with which his female characters are portrayed but also for the unique way in which he mani- pulates the standard female stereotypes to explore through symbolic suggestion the whole purpose of woman's existence and the foundations of her relations with man.
[Show full text]
Giving the Devil His Due. PUB DATE 1998-00-00 NOTE 25P
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 418 428 CS 216 319 AUTHOR Mallett, Sandra-Lynne J. TITLE Giving the Devil His Due. PUB DATE 1998-00-00 NOTE 25p. PUB TYPE Guides Classroom Teacher (052) Opinion Papers (120) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Characterization; *Classics (Literature); Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Instructional Effectiveness; Interpretive Skills; *Literary Criticism; *Short Stories IDENTIFIERS Hawthorne (Nathaniel); Response to Literature; *Young Goodman Brown ABSTRACT In their anthology, Guth and Rico cite as preface to Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," a student paper saying: "The mere doubt of the existence of good and the thought that other human beings are evil can become such a corrosive force that it can eat out the life of the heart." This is what happens to Brown. In the story, he has help from the promptings of the Devil, or, he succumbs to his imagination and projects his own guilt upon his neighbors and family. A choice of these two interpretations may be left up to the individual reader. Teachers' manuals and the questions posed in texts about this story make clear that it is subject to varied interpretations. However, it is helpful in interpretation to consider the devil himself. The worldly-wise, sophisticated older man, as he is portrayed in the story, assists Brown to reach the conclusion or excuse that "everybody does it." The Devil does this by using tactics in current use by advertisers and politicians: poisoning the well and encouraging hopping on the bandwagon. He relies chiefly on his oldest tactic, the business that gave him his name: slander.
[Show full text]
The Scarlet Letter ― the Pursuit of “Some Sweet Moral Blossom” ―
The Scarlet Letter ― The Pursuit of “Some Sweet Moral Blossom” ― 文学研究科英文学専攻博士後期課程在学熊田岐子 Michiko Kumada Contents Introduction ChapterⅠ Sinful Hester and Innocent Dimmesdale in the Public Eye 1. The Pillory in the Daylight 2. The Governor’s Hall 3. The Pillory in the Night 4. The Seven Years of Hester and Dimmesdale ChapterⅡ Temptation in the Forest ChapterⅢ Chillingworth’s Evil and Hester’s Wild Nature ChapterⅣ Of “The Custom-House” ChapterⅤ Pearl’s Morals Conclusion Notes References Introduction In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne brought out The Scarlet Letter, which was one of his valuable romances and, moreover, came to a masterpiece throughout the world. He worked at the custom-house in his native town Salem for a living without writing his works, where he seemed to be an efficient surveyor. Although he was dismissed unexpectedly for the vicissitude of the political situation, he began to write the work, as there is no time like the present. His wife Sophia, on the other hand, gave generous support to him by her side job to make lump shades. In this period, his mother was dead of sick, who brought up her children by herself. Around him there were some women including his brilliant sisters who gave inspiration to him - 69 - and attracted him to their individualities, with the result that he found out the human heart as the first author writing women who have personalities in the history of American literature. In the opening chapter of The Scarlet Letter, “a wild rose-bush,” of which the air would be saturated with the perfume, takes root in front of the prison-door.
[Show full text]
Little Masterpieces
Little Masterpieces By Nathaniel Hawthorne Little Masterpieces Dr. Heidegger's Experiment That very singular man, old Dr. Heidegger, once invited four venerable friends to meet him in his study. There were three white-bearded gentlemen, Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr. Gascoigne, and a withered gentlewoman, whose name was the Widow Wycherly. They were all melancholy old creatures, who had been unfortunate in life, and whose greatest misfortune it was that they were not long ago in their graves. Mr. Medbourne, in the vigor of his age, had been a prosperous merchant, but had lost his all by a frantic speculation, and was now little better than a mendicant. Colonel Killigrew had wasted his best years, and his health and substance, in the pursuit of sinful pleasures, which had given birth to a brood of pains, such as the gout, and divers other torments of soul and body. Mr. Gascoigne was a ruined politician, a man of evil fame, or at least had been so, till time had buried him from the knowledge of the present generation, and made him obscure instead of infamous. As for the Widow Wycherly, tradition tells us that she was a great beauty in her day; but, for a long while past, she had lived in deep seclusion, on account of certain scandalous stories, which had prejudiced the gentry of the town against her. It is a circumstance worth mentioning, that each of these three old gentlemen, Mr. Medbourne, Colonel Killigrew, and Mr. Gascoigne, were early lovers of the Widow Wycherly, and had once been on the point of cutting each other's throats for her sake.
[Show full text]