The Unpardonable Reader

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The Hilltop Review

Volume 10 Issue 1 Fall Article 3

December 2017

Ariel Berry Western Michigan University

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Cover Page Footnote Ariel Berry Department of English PhD in Creative Writing 812-371-1502 [email protected]

This article is available in The Hilltop Review: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/hilltopreview/vol10/iss1/3 THE HILLTOP REVIEW

THE UNPARDONABLE READER

Ariel Berry Western Michigan University

awthorne’s prefaces to his Dwight points out that Hawthorne romances, though largely ignored scholars tend to treat the concept of the as a composite body of work, unpardonable sin as something that Hcontain key insights into reading his originated with Hawthorne, when in fiction. Each preface is a sort of instruction fact the origination is biblical (451). The manual directed toward the reader. unpardonable sin is a term referring to a Though the presentation is gentle, an New Testament description of a “sin against underlying firmness shows Hawthorne’s the Holy Ghost” that cannot be forgiven on sincerity and decisiveness. Hawthorne’s earth or in heaven (Dwight 449). With this prefaces consistently require two things in mind, Dwight suggests “it might well be of the reader: empathy and a willingness that the unpardonable sin in Hawthorne, to engage in magical thinking. These as in the Bible, is a transgression against qualities are directly linked to Hawthorne’s the Holy Spirit” (452). McCullen further representation of the unpardonable sin as a limits this definition to “presumption, cold lack of empathy and tendency toward despair, and impenitence” (223). Dwight’s disbelief. Therefore, a reader lacking in-depth definition of the unpardonable empathy and an openness to magical sin according to Hawthorne suggests: thinking would commit a readerly version The unpardonable sin—the self-destruction of the unpardonable sin. Hawthorne of the heart—is not an individual sin in provides examples of these unpardonable the same sense as an ‘ordinary’ sin. The readers in three of his tales: “A Christmas latter, regardless of how great the offence, Banquet,” “The Devil in the Manuscript,” is a specific act against God and no matter and “Alice Doane’s Appeal.” Though these how many of these sins are committed, readers’ attitudes are unpardonable, or how often they are repeated, they can in “Alice Doane’s Appeal” Hawthorne be forgiven as specific offences if God so provides the possibility of redemption. wills it. The unpardonable sin, as here Critics have long been fascinated by defined, is not a specific act. It is more Hawthorne’s handling of the “unpardonable in the nature of a process or procedure sin.” In regular Hawthornian fashion, the whose end result the hardening of the details of what this sin is are left ambiguous. heart is not achieved in any fixed length

8 Secatibe runtum earum sincilla velenimus auta nobit raecus di omniet Dwight suggests thaton thisjourney into the eventual coldness is impermeable, the sinnertoberepentant. Even though but onceaccomplished itisimpossible for detached. Oftenthishardening isaprocess, villains are nearly always cold, hard, and repeatedly inHawthorne’s characters. His We seethishardening enacted oftheheart of good into evil absolute. (455) of time. It isthegradual transformation the definition oftheunpardonable sinas made somecriticswary of flatly accepting own philosophizing (32). This awareness has working out ideas story primarily, not his points out, Hawthorne’s notebooks were for leaving someroom for doubt. AsBaym Hawthorne’s statement is not declarative, The question mark and toneimply that that thisdefinition is “speculative” (223). McCullen, among others, makes the point from (qtd. the heart? in McCullen 222) words, be the separation of the intellect to study itout. Would not this, inother whatever kindordegree, and only desiring content thatitshould bewicked in but from a cold philosophical curiosity,— with ahope orpurpose ofmakingitbetter, investigator priedinto itsdark depths, not Human Soul; inconsequence ofwhich, the in awant oflove and reverence for the The Unpardonable Sinmight consist in The American Notebooks: off oneof Hawthorne’s entries the unpardonable sinbased destination have theopportunity toescape. but thosewho have not yet reached thefinal some: thesinofcoldness isunpardonable, unpardonable sinismore nuanced than redeem himself (455-56). This view ofthe given theopportunity torepent and so the unpardonable sinthesinnercan be Many other criticsdefine THE HILLTOP REVIEW 9 chapters oreven histales, due toits a sketch rather than oneofHawthorne’s in someways resembles more strongly “A Chapter From an Abortive Romance” an “unpardonable sin.” The story, subtitled this concept more bluntly by suggesting sin and secrecy, “Ethan Brand” handles revolves around complicated questions of coldness and ofheart intellectual disbelief. unpardonable sinisacombinationof Notebooks, 106). In my reading, the “cold philosophical (Hawthorne, curiosity” reinforce thisdefinition, particularly the a close reading of “Ethan Brand” seems to (Hawthorne,heart” Notebooks, 106). Still, separation“the oftheintellect from the only sinthatdeserves arecompense of everything to its own mighty claims! The and reverence for God,and sacrificed over thesenseofbrotherhood withman, sinofan intellectas “the thattriumphed the unpardonable sinis, Ethan defines it “Ethan Brand,” 1055). When asked what seemed toovershadow him” (Hawthorne, That crime, initsindistinctblackness, for which Heaven could afford nomercy. confession, the only had committed crime withaman toheart, who,heart onhisown left alonewithEthan and “must nowdeal, successor, findshimself overwhelmed when from him. The new lime-burner, Ethan’s in theircuriosity, thetownspeople shrink about thespecifics ofthesinitself. Even the unpardonable sin,heismore secretive Ethan readily admits to having committed (Hawthorne, “Ethan Brand,” 1054). Though he places “hisfinger onhisown heart” ask himwhere hehasfound such asin, unpardonable sin. When hisold friends just returned from aquest todiscover the Ethan Brand isalime-burner who has structure and plot (Wegner 58). Inthestory, Though much ofHawthorne’s work THE HILLTOP REVIEW immortal agony!” (Hawthorne, “Ethan observer, looking on mankind as the subject Brand,” 1057). Essentially, Ethan is saying of his experiment, and, at length, converting that the unpardonable sin is the result of man and woman to be his puppets, and a lack of empathy, a coldness that keeps pulling the wires that moved them to such the sinner from forming the natural degrees of crime as were demanded for God-created bond with humanity. It is his study” (Hawthorne, “Ethan Brand,” also a sin that separates the sinner from 1064). By losing sight of the girl’s humanity, spirituality, creating a distance between Ethan has destroyed them both. His lack of the sinner and God. The unpardonable empathy toward her is his unpardonable sin. sin is the absence of empathy and of faith. Tied up in the unpardonable sin’s lack of Eventually more details of Ethan’s specific empathy is also disbelief. Cold detachment sin emerge. A father asks Ethan for news leads not only to cruelty toward fellow about his daughter. It is here that the reader, humans, but also a withering of the mind, a though none of the characters, learns that desecration of wonder. The unpardonable sin Ethan has committed the unpardonable sin is nurtured in an environment of disbelief, against this man’s daughter. She was “the very and a rejection of magical thinking. In girl whom, with such cold and remorseless addition to empathy a belief in magic and purpose, Ethan Brand had made the subject the supernatural is required. In his reaction of a psychological experiment, and wasted, to his puritan ancestor’s truly unpardonable absorbed, and perhaps annihilated her soul, sins during the Salem witch trials, Hawthorne in the process” (Hawthorne, “Ethan Brand,” does not ask us to say “witches do not exist!” 1060). This is Hawthorne at his most chilling. but instead assumes witches exist, while Ethan’s lack of empathy has caused him to suggesting that we should perhaps not hang lose sight of the young girl’s humanity. The them. He includes witches, unquestioned, specifics are unclear; the “psychological in many of his works—The Scarlet Letter, experiment” could be many things, from “Young Goodman Brown,” and “Feathertop,” sexual assault to emotional abuse to a to name a few. In many ways, Hawthorne’s more detached manipulation. Whatever romances could be considered an early form the manifestation, the consequence of of magical realism, a literary technique often Ethan’s coldness is the destruction of assigned to Latin American literature, but in another’s soul. Ethan recalls his previous reality it is transcontinental and far reaching “love and sympathy for mankind” and with (Clark 76). Clark defines magical realism as what “reverence he had then looked into fiction that “integrates elements of fantasy, the heart of man, viewing it as a temple or an imagined world into a life-like, or originally divine” (Hawthorne, “Ethan realistic text. Magical realist authors include Brand,” 1064). Throughout Ethan’s search magical occurrences in texts that essentially for the unpardonable sin, his heart “had and primarily mirror daily existence, or withered—had contracted—had hardened— present recognizable human experiences had perished! It had ceased to partake of the that authors identify in their writing” (76). universal throb” (Hawthorne, “Ethan Brand,” Magical realism, then, is quite literally the 1064). This hardening of heart is what led merging of magic and what is real. This, I him to commit the unpardonable sin against believe, is a reasonable way to approach the young woman. Ethan becomes “a cold Hawthorne’s fiction. His writing often

10 THE HILLTOP REVIEW includes fantastical details which we, and the may not establish on their own. At first the characters, are expected to accept without cause for this self-deprecating tone seems question. And yet Hawthorne’s characters to be insecurity, not an inconceivable stance and situations remain consistently relevant from a man who once said, “if I were to meet to and reflective of real life. Hawthorne’s with such books as mine, by another writer, magic is subtle at times; in some stories it is I don't believe I should be able to get through simply a vague hint of the impossible, while them” (Hawthorne qtd. in Wallace 207). This in others we are blatantly commanded to betrays a crippling self-image that followed accept bizarre circumstances as if they are Hawthorne throughout his career. Certainly, plausible. Considering this working these prefaces allow us to creep much closer definition of magical realism as it applies to Hawthorne’s self than we are generally to Hawthorne, we can see that an unspoken permitted in his fiction, and this familiarity part of the unpardonable sin is a refusal to does reveal some self-doubt. Still, I believe suspend disbelief. A cold lack of empathy another effect is at work as well. Hawthorne serves to separate humans from each other uses these prefaces as a kind of guidebook, emotionally. Empathy requires a certain instructing readers on the appropriate amount of trust, of believing in another’s way to read his writing. Though some of goodness and worth; it is an openness his words appear to be flippant asides, to another’s experience. In Hawthorne’s behind this gentleness is a firm, unflinching writing, a good reader empathizes with the opinion of Hawthorne’s: he is writing characters in the story and with Hawthorne for the kind of reader who will approach himself. Readers must suspend their him and his characters with empathy and disbelief by trusting Hawthorne as an author willingly follow him into magical thinking. in order to truly comprehend and appreciate The Preface to The Marble Faun, his use of magical realism. A willingness Hawthorne’s last romance, contains the to engage in magical thinking is crucial for clearest description of this ideal reader for a Hawthorne reader. A reader who lacks whom he hopes. He describes himself as these qualities of empathy and openness to writing for “that one congenial friend— magic would commit the unpardonable sin more comprehensive of his purposes, more of readership. Though this may not be as appreciative of his success, more indulgent of serious a sin as Ethan Brand’s, Hawthorne his short-comings, and, in all respects, closer makes it clear that it is the worst sin a person and kinder than a brother” (Hawthorne, could commit as a reader. An unpardonable Preface to The Marble Faun, 853). Though he reader destroys the possibility of story. This admits this reader is not a distinct person with identity of the unpardonable reader becomes whom he has corresponded, he explains that clear when we examine Hawthorne’s when he writes he addresses the imaginary prefaces as instructions for readers, and his “Representative Essence of all delightful tales for depictions of unpardonable readers. and desirable qualities which a Reader can Hawthorne’s prefaces serve as instruction possess” (Hawthorne, Preface to The Marble manuals for the reader. At times self- Faun, 853). This idea of the reader as friend is a deprecating, always modest, Hawthorne common theme throughout the prefaces. This uses the prefaces to create a familiarity “Representative Essence” is an empathetic with the reader that the texts themselves reader for the “fanciful story,” a reader who is

11 THE HILLTOP REVIEW willing to revel in fancy, to suspend disbelief to the “The Old Manse,” describing it as an on the path of magical thinking (Hawthorne, instance where he “favored the reader— Preface to The Marble Faun, 854). This is the inexcusably, and for no earthly reason, that reader Hawthorne is instructing us to be. either the indulgent reader or the intrusive author could imagine—with a description The “Representative Essence” Hawthorne of my way of life in the deep quietude addresses may only be named as such in of an Old Manse” (“The Custom-House” the Preface to The Marble Faun, but it exists 121). With typical self-deprecating humor, in all the preceding prefaces as well. In Hawthorne sets the stage for yet another “The Old Manse,” Hawthorne’s Preface to “autobiographical impulse” (“The Custom- Mosses from an Old Manse, he also asks for House” 121). After this self-deprecation, a sympathetic and magically minded reader. Hawthorne again describes the ideal type Because the locale in this case is his house, of reader he is looking for. He is clear that Hawthorne treats the reader as his “guest in “the author addresses, not the many who will the old Manse, and entitled to all courtesy in fling aside his volume, or never take it up, the way of sight-showing” (“The Old Manse” but the few who will understand him, better 1125). Treating his readers as houseguests than most of his schoolmates and lifemates” elevates them to “a circle of friends” whom (Hawthorne, “The Custom-House,” 121). He is he hopes will show empathy and openness to instructing the reader to read with empathy, the fantastical. As Weldon points out, there even more than he expects from his closest is also a paternalistic quality to Hawthorne’s associates. This is a high expectation for his attitude because he “leads his readers into readers. In this preface he is more explicit his work and hopes to control closely their about what it would mean if a reader lacked response” (43). This enforces my belief that these qualities, and it is here we begin to see the preface is not as humble and unassuming the correlation between the unforgivable sin as would at first appear; Hawthorne has an and Hawthorne’s instructions for readers. He agenda for his ideal reader. The forthcoming says that “thoughts are frozen and utterance story, he tells this “Representative Essence,” benumbed, unless the speaker stand in some occurs in a sort of “fairy-land” where “there true relation with his audience” (Hawthorne, is no measurement of time” (Hawthorne, “The Custom-House,” 121). Here we see “The Old Manse,” 1148). He wants readers the coldness referenced in Hawthorne’s to enter into magical thinking, even while discussions of the unpardonable sin. If he takes them on a tour of his home. readers lack empathy, they lack warmth. Hawthorne often scorns “the public” but Cold readers shatter a story, an unpardonable welcomes readers who will show empathy offense from a reader. Hawthorne says, for and an appreciation for the magical fairy his part as an author, “it may be pardonable lands he creates (“The Old Manse” 1149). His to imagine that a friend, a kind and congeniality with the reader is for a purpose: apprehensive, though not the closest friend, is modification of the reader’s behavior listening to our talk; and then, a native reserve into being the kind of reader he wants. being thawed by this genial consciousness, The Scarlet Letter’s Preface, “The Custom- we may prate of the circumstances that lie House,” which is one of Hawthorne’s longer around us” (“The Custom-House,” 121). The prefaces, he again asks for a certain type of empathetic reader will thaw what is frozen, reader. In this preface Hawthorne alludes warming a story and its characters. This

12 THE HILLTOP REVIEW is the kind of reader Hawthorne requires. would be cold and negative. He imagines one of them saying, “[w]hat is he? . . . A writer Hawthorne also describes himself as a “man of story-books! What kind of a business of thought, fancy, and sensibility” (“The in life,—what mode of glorifying God, or Custom-House,” 141). Again, he has chosen being serviceable to mankind in his day to emphasize fancy, the fantastical, alongside and generation,—may that be? Why, the more conventional realism. He then tells the degenerate fellow might as well have been a artificial history of how he learned of Hester fiddler!” (Hawthorne, “The Custom-House,” Prynne’s story, describing finding her letter 127). Here his puritan forefathers represent A, holding it against his chest, and feeling a his idea of the unpardonable reader: one “sensation not altogether physical, yet almost who is cold and skeptical. These, of course, so, as of burning heat” (Hawthorne, “The are also the ancestors whose lack of empathy Custom-House,” 146). Here, at this moment led to their heavy involvement in the Salem of magical thinking—can a cloth letter A witch trials. This, truly, was an unpardonable truly cause such sensations?—Hawthorne sin if such a thing exists. That these ancestors addresses readers who might doubt, saying, are also the ones who lack empathy to “the reader may smile, but must not doubt be good readers is surely significant. my word” (“The Custom-House” 143). Though Hawthorne’s account is somewhat tongue- In the Preface to The House of the Seven in-cheek, I think he means what he says. He Gables Hawthorne directly addresses magical is asking readers to suspend their disbelief, thinking again. It is here that he provides his be empathetic, and engage in the story. He famous definition of a “Romance” as opposed even presents some whimsical imaginings to a “Novel” (Hawthorne, Preface to Seven of the ghost of Surveyor Pue, furthering the Gables, 351). Hawthorne says that if “a writer magical atmosphere. This is how Hawthorne calls his work a Romance, it need hardly be approaches writing; stories happen when observed that he wishes to claim a certain “the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, latitude, both as to its fashion and material, and each imbue itself with the nature of which he would not have felt himself entitled the other” (“The Custom-House” 149). to assume, had he professed to be writing Hawthorne writes using magical thinking, a Novel” (Preface to Seven Gables, 351). A and to read his work we must do likewise. He Hawthornian Romance is an early form describes his time working at the Custom- of magical realism, offering Hawthorne House as a time where he is unable to engage unlimited artistic license. In contrast, a novel in magical thinking, and therefore unable “is presumed to aim at a very minute fidelity, to write (Hawthorne, “The Custom-House,” not merely to the possible, but to the probable 150). Here, again, refusing to engage in and ordinary course of man’s experience” magical thinking destroys story, making it (Hawthorne, Preface to Seven Gables, 351). impossible to engage. A reader who lacks For Hawthorne, the term “novel” means both empathy and the capacity for magical realism. No magical thinking is required. thinking is an unpardonable reader indeed. A novel, though fictional, is concerned with Hawthorne also reveals perhaps where he the truth of normal, realistic life. A romance got his ideas about unpardonable readers. “has fairly a right to present that truth [of He assumes his puritan ancestors’ reactions the human heart] under circumstances, to to his chosen profession as a storyteller a great extent, of the writer’s own choosing

13 THE HILLTOP REVIEW or creation” (Hawthorne, Preface to Seven conventional privilege seems to be awarded Gables, 351). Magical realism offers another to the romancer; his work is not put exactly way of telling the truth, of showing the spirit side by side with nature; and he is allowed a of the truth while disregarding some of the license with regard to every-day Probability, basic facts of realism. Romances free the in view of the improved effects which he is imagination of the author, but require more bound to produce thereby” (Hawthorne, from the reader. An author, Hawthorne tells Preface to Blithedale, 633). He is invoking us, would “be wise, no doubt, to make a very the magical realism definition as a guide moderate use of the privileges here stated, to reading his current work. He practically and, especially, to mingle the Marvellous scolds readers not to compare the book to real rather as a slight, delicate, and evanescent life, and to see it as magical art. Hawthorne flavor, than as any portion of the actual says that a Romance has “an atmosphere of substance of the dish offered to the Public” strange enchantment, beheld through which (Preface to Seven Gables 351). Here, it would the inhabitants have a propriety of their seem, Hawthorne is defining a subtle form own” (Preface to Blithedale 633). This is the of magical realism, and instructing the sort of environment he is instructing readers reader to approach this type of writing with to accept. He knows that readers must take a willingness to engage in magical thinking. this approach for his story to be effective. Though he has high expectations of his One thing is clear: Hawthorne’s instructions readers, he does not want to ask too much. It require two things of readers: empathy and is as though he is agreeing to meet the reader a willingness to engage in magical thinking. halfway: if the reader will be empathetic This is necessary for a reader to enter the and open to magic, he as the author will not magical realism of Hawthorne’s Romances, take advantage of the freedom he has given and to treat kindly the characters found himself. Still, ultimately, his instructions within. Hawthorne also makes it clear that are clear. He requests that the book “be read readers who lack empathy and willingness to strictly as Romance, having a great deal more suspend their disbelief are associated with a to do with the clouds overhead, than with sort of unpardonable sin. The unpardonable any portion of the actual soil” (Hawthorne, sin of calculated coldness, a complete Preface to Seven Gables, 353). He requires absence of empathy, shatters a person’s a reader who is open to whimsy, a reader relationships, and such a reader approaches who will engage in magical thinking. a story with coldness and disbelief. The Preface to The Blithedale Romance Hawthorne is clear that he does not want this provides specific reading instructions for the to happen to his stories. Readers’ coldness truth of the story he is about to tell. Hawthorne and refusal to suspend their disbelief causes uses the preface to clarify the fictionality of a story to fizzle, derailing the author’s hopes his characters and situations in the novel to and intentions. This is the representative avoid confusion with his actual time spent essence of an unpardonable reader. in a commune. He uses this opportunity to Hawthorne demonstrates the unpardonable continue the definition of a Romance that reader in some of his tales, which frequently he began in the Preface to The House of the star writers and story-tellers, and their Seven Gables. He reminds his readers that audiences provide mixed responses. In three “Fiction has long been conversant, a certain tales in particular, “A Christmas Banquet,”

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“The Devil in the Manuscript,” and “Alice 854). This coldness comes back repeatedly, as Doane’s Appeal,” Hawthorne provides well as Gervayse’s lack of empathy. He lacks examples of unpardonable readers and how warmth, both literally and metaphorically. they experience fiction. For the purposes Though Gervayse is outwardly successful, of my argument I am considering those with a family and career, he is “a cold who listen to an oral tale to be “readers” abstraction, wholly destitute of those rich in the sense that their interpretation hues of personality, that living warmth” requires the same empathy and magical (Hawthorne, “Christmas,” 862). He is unable thinking as one reading from a page. to feel any sort of empathy, even at a banquet “The Christmas Banquet” is a particularly for miserable people he is unable to “catch interesting tale in this regard because it deals its pervading spirit” and when the other with unpardonable sins on multiple levels. guests share their woes, he is “mystified In the tale Roderick reads his story to his and bewildered” (Hawthorne, “Christmas,” wife, Rosina, and their friend, the sculptor. 855). Even with his family, Gervayse has no Roderick’s story is about the epitome of the empathy; his children and wife find him unforgivable sin as Hawthorne has described cold and emotionless. Perhaps the most it: a man named Gervayse Hastings. The shocking instance of Gervayse’s coldness readers, Rosina and the sculptor, respond in is at one of the Christmas banquets. One of ways that show they are similar to Gervayse, the guests dies in his chair, a gust of laughter and are therefore unpardonable readers. having extinguished his diseased heart. At this horrifying sight, the other guests In the tale, Gervayse Hastings is the one are naturally upset, but Gervayse feels no guest who is invited, year after year, to a empathy. Instead of being startled, Gervayse Christmas dinner for “the most miserable is “gazing at the dead man with singular persons that could be found” (Hawthorne, intentness” (Hawthorne, “Christmas,” 860). “Christmas,” 850). Though the other guests Another guest confronts him about how have clear sources of misery, Gervayse seems he can be so passive, but Gervayse only at first to have a successful life. In his own responds that “men pass before me like preface to his readers, Roderick describes shadows on the wall—their actions, passions, Gervayse as a person with “a sense of cold feelings, are flickerings of the light—and unreality, wherewith he would go shivering then they vanish!” (Hawthorne, “Christmas,” through the world, longing to exchange 860). He feels no warmth, no connection his load of ice for any burthen of real grief with other people. Another person can that fate could fling upon a human being” die in front of him and he feels only cold, (Hawthorne, “Christmas,” 849). In Roderick’s intellectual curiosity. He is the embodiment story, the first indication that something of the unpardonable sin; his coldness is amiss comes when a mentally disabled toward people makes everyone shudder. guest “touched the stranger’s hand, but immediately drew back his own, shaking Because of Gervayse’s inability to empathize his head and shivering” (Hawthorne, with others, at the end of the story he “Christmas,” 854). The disabled man shuffles has learned nothing. Even after years of away, muttering about how unnaturally cold attending a banquet for miserable people, Gervayse’s hand is, but Gervayse “shivered Gervayse thinks his own misfortune is the too—and smiled” (Hawthorne, “Christmas,” worst (Hawthorne, “Christmas,” 866). He

15 THE HILLTOP REVIEW describes his affliction as “a chillness—a want Though the sculptor does not criticize of earnestness—a feeling as if what should be Roderick’s handling of the story, he is my heart were a thing of vapor” (Hawthorne, caught up in the literal creation of these “Christmas,” 866). Gervayse’s unpardonable “moral monsters,” rather than suspending sin may or may not be the most miserable his disbelief and getting into the spirit of affliction, but a crucial component of it is that the story. The sculptor cannot see past he must think it the worst because he cannot the real world and engage in the magical empathize with any other than himself. thinking required to enjoy it. Combined together, Rosina and the sculptor provide So goes Roderick’s story. Rosina and the the response of an unpardonable reader who sculptor’s responses, as readers, are what we is unable to empathize with the characters are now concerned with. After the story is and unwilling to engage in magical thinking. told, Roderick asks Rosina’s opinion. Rosina is unimpressed. “Frankly,” she tells him, In “The Christmas Banquet” we have two “your success is by no means complete . . . readers who are unpardonable due to lack It is true, I have an idea of the character you of empathy and magical thinking, unable endeavor to describe; but it is rather by dint to appreciate and appropriately interpret of my own thought than your expression” the story. We only see these readers for two (Hawthorne, “Christmas,” 867). Rosina, short moments, before and after Roderick’s unknowingly, is responding in just the way tale, and during that brief time we see no Gervayse Hastings would: she is unable to growth. By way of contrast, we do see growth understand and identify with someone else. of a reader in “The Devil in the Manuscript.” Her cold detachment as a reader prevents Here the reader starts out unpardonable her from engaging in the story and even but begins to have a change of heart. with her husband the author. As a reader, The narrator in “The Devil in the Manuscript” she lacks empathy both for Roderick and is visiting his friend, called Oberon, who is for the characters within. Still, she has at ranting about his collection of unpublished least the openness to magical thinking, stories, which Oberon has begun to resent as willing to use her own imagination to try a source of pain and humiliation. He has even to comprehend the character of Gervayse. begun to believe that a fiend lurks within The sculptor responds poorly as well. After them. The narrator has read the stories Rosina provides her feedback, he agrees in question, and is unimpressed. When with her. He lacks the ability for magical Oberon exclaims, “I have a horror of what thinking necessary to appreciate the story. was created in my own brain, and shudder He is concerned with how realistic Gervayse at the manuscripts in which I have that dark Hastings is as a character. Because the idea a sort of material existence. Would they description of Gervayse only says what he were out of my sight!” the narrator thinks cannot feel—empathy—the sculptor says “[a]nd of mine, too” (Hawthorne, “Devil,” he cannot identify with him. The sculptor 331). The narrator lacks empathy for the quibbles that “we do meet with these moral stories he has read and to some degree lacks monsters now and then—it is difficult to empathy for Oberon himself. Though he has conceive how they came to exist here, or enough tact to refrain from telling Oberon what there is in them capable of existence what he really thinks of the manuscript, hereafter” (Hawthorne, “Christmas,” 867). he remains quietly amused. When Oberon

16 THE HILLTOP REVIEW announces his plan to burn his manuscript thoughts” (Hawthorne, “Devil,” 335). It is in the fireplace, the narrator does “not very clear the reader is still skeptical, even snide. strenuously oppose this determination, Still, Oberon’s enthusiasm gradually begins to being privately of [his] opinion, in spite of influence him. As he keeps watching Oberon, [his] partiality for the author, that his tales he thinks “the writer’s magic had incorporated would make a more brilliant appearance in . . . the aspect of varied scenery” (Hawthorne, the fire than anywhere else” (Hawthorne, “Devil,” 335). He is beginning to believe and “Devil,” 332-33). He has no sympathy see what Oberon sees in the manuscript. with what he has read, no connection, When the fire is almost out, the flame making him an unpardonable reader. suddenly blazes up the chimney and the The narrator also ignores Oberon’s repeated reader realizes it has “flickered as if with claim that there is a Devil in his manuscript; laughter” (Hawthorne, “Devil,” 335). The he is unwilling to engage in magical narrator is surprised by this unforeseen thinking. When Oberon asks him if he has occurrence. Oberon exclaims that this flame felt the influence of the devil while reading is the devil that was in the manuscript, the manuscript, the narrator denies it and saying, “[y]ou saw him? You must have makes a joke that perhaps the “spell be hid in seen him!” (Hawthorne, “Devil,” 335). The a desire to turn novelist, after reading your narrator does not respond. In the moment delightful tales” (Hawthorne, “Devil,” 331). of his surprise, he seems almost ready to There is biting sarcasm in this reply, since believe, but never fully commits. Instead, he we know the narrator does not find the tales is drawn back into practical matters. At the delightful at all. He brushes off the possibility end of the tale, he is the one who realizes that of any sort of magical influence in the stories. the chimney is on fire, while Oberon stomps His inability to engage in magical thinking around the room ranting about his fire makes his reading of them unpardonable. demon (Hawthorne, “Devil,” 336). Ultimately, the narrator has gained empathy but is still This reader, however, undergoes a slight unable to engage in magical thinking. He change of heart. When Oberon is about to remains partly an unpardonable reader. throw his papers into the fire, the narrator has “remembered passages of high imagination, In “Alice Doane’s Appeal,” we finally see two deep pathos, original thoughts, and points readers who start out unpardonable but of such varied excellence, that the vastness truly change by the end. The story also has of the sacrifice struck [him] most forcibly” a unique form where the narrator is telling (Hawthorne, “Devil,” 334). Now that he feels a tale to listeners but summarizes large empathy for the good in the stories, he tries parts of it for the reader. The narrator, a to stop Oberon from burning the tales. He writer, is on an excursion with two female is unsuccessful; Oberon is determined and companions through a wood associated with it is too late. Though the narrator now feels the Salem witch trials. The ground of graves empathetic toward the tales in the fire, he still has a sort of aura about it; the narrator lacks magical thinking. He does not believe says that with “feminine susceptibility, my there truly is a fiend in the stories. As Oberon companions caught all the melancholy watches the tales burn, the narrator tells us associations of the scene” (Hawthorne, “Alice Oberon “described objects he appeared to Doane,” 206). It is a place of gloom and evil. discern in the fire, fed by his own precious In spite of this, the girls soon forget their

17 THE HILLTOP REVIEW melancholia, and “Their emotions came and the wizard’s sorcery and power. They refuse went with quick vicissitude, and sometimes to engage in magical thinking. The girls are combined to form a peculiar and delicious the definition of unpardonable readers. excitement, the mirth brightening the The narrator describes his displeasure at gloom into a sunny shower of feeling, and their unpardonable reaction. After they a rainbow in the mind” (Hawthorne, “Alice begin to laugh at his tale, he says, “I kept an Doane,” 206). Hawthorne has established awful solemnity of visage, being indeed a that the girls’ feelings are transitory, and it little piqued, that a narrative which had good is difficult to truly affect their sympathies. authority in our ancient superstitions, and The narrator decides to read one of would have brought even a church deacon to his manuscripts to the girls. He hesitates, Gallows Hill, in old witch times, should now suffering from “a dread of renewing [his] be considered too grotesque and extravagant, acquaintance with fantasies that had lost for timid maids to tremble at” (Hawthorne, their charm” (Hawthorne, “Alice Doane,” 207- “Alice Doane,” 214-15). He decides to try 8). After seeing their insufficient empathy, he again, to teach them a lesson. The next worries the girls will also lack the willingness story he tells is true, and he hopes this will or ability to engage in magical thinking. Still, incite a better response from his readers. he proceeds. His story is one of murder and This time, his story is about the Salem witch jealousy and accidental incest and magic. At trials, linked to the ground where he and one point, the narrator pauses to observe his his readers sit. This time the readers are “readers,” the girls. They have been attentive, enthralled. They are willing to engage in and “Their bright eyes were fixed on [him]; magical thinking even more than the story their lips apart” (Hawthorne, “Alice Doane,” requires; when Cotton Mather comes onto the 212). Thinking his audience is showing scene, the girls “mistook him for the visible empathy and suspending their disbelief, the presence of the fiend himself” (Hawthorne, narrator plunges into the final scenes. As a “Alice Doane,” 216). They leap from man to last dramatic touch, the narrator tells the fiend without being asked. The narrator is girls that they sit upon the grave of the evil pleased that his readers are engaging with wizard in the tale. He finally gets a reaction; magical thinking, and next reaches for “The ladies started; perhaps their cheeks their empathy. He probes his “imagination might have grown pale, had not the crimson for a blacker horror, and a deeper woe, and west been blushing on them” (Hawthorne, pictured the scaffold—” (Hawthorne, “Alice “Alice Doane,” 214). The narrator is pleased, Doane,” 216). Here the narrator’s appeal to his thinking his readers have given him the readers’ emotions is interrupted by just that: response he hoped for, one of empathy and empathy. His “companions seized an arm on suspension of disbelief. Soon, however, the each side; their nerves were trembling; and readers’ true feelings become apparent. sweeter victory still, I had reached the seldom To his chagrin, the girls “began to laugh, trodden places of their hearts, and found the while the breeze took a livelier motion, as if wellspring of their tears” (Hawthorne, “Alice responsive to their mirth” (Hawthorne, “Alice Doane,” 216). The readers have developed the Doane,” 214). The girls have no empathy for capacity for empathizing with the characters the characters in the story and the horrors in his story. Now that they have expressed they have faced, and are unimpressed by both empathy and magical thinking, the two

18 THE HILLTOP REVIEW readers are no longer unpardonable readers. Adams, Richard. “Hawthorne’s Provincial Tales.” The They have reformed. In fact, they share the New England Quarterly 30.1 (1957) : 39-57. Jstor. Web. narrator’s disappointment “that there is 6 Dec. 2015. nothing on its barren summit . . . to assist Baym, Nina. “The Head, the Heart, and the the imagination in appealing to the heart” Unpardonable Sin.” The New England Quarterly 40.1 (Hawthorne, “Alice Doane,” 216). The two (1967) : 31-47. Jstor. Web. 24 Nov. 2015. girls, once given a second chance, have now changed into the type of reader Hawthorne Becker, Allienne. “‘Alice Doane’s Appeal’: A Literary describes in his prefaces. They are no longer Double of Hoffman’s Die Elixiere des Tuefelsy.” unpardonable readers. They truly are the Comparative Literature Studies 23.1 (1986) : 1-11. “Representative Essence” of the kind and Jstor. Web. 24 Nov. 2015. gentle reader Hawthorne instructs us to be. Bier, Jesse. “Hawthorne on the Romance: His Prefaces Related and Examined.” Modern Philology Hawthorne’s instructions to his 53.1 (1955) : 17-24. Jstor. Web. 20 Nov. 2015. readers in his prefaces are firm. He expects empathy from his readers and openness to Brown, E.K. “Hawthorne, Melville, and ‘Ethan his version of magical realism. A reader must Brand.’” American Literature 3.1 (1931) : 72-75. Jstor. have these characteristics to fully understand Web. 24 Nov. 2015. and appreciate Hawthorne’s romances as Christophersen, Bill. “Behind the White Veil: Self- he defines them. A look at his exploration Awareness in Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance.” of the biblical concept of the unpardonable Modern Language Studies 12.2 (1982) : 81-92. Jstor. sin, exemplified primarily in “Ethan Brand” Web. 24 Nov. 2015. shows that these qualities are precisely what an unpardonable sinner is lacking. Cold Clark, Gloria Jeanne Bodtorf. “Big Mama in detachment from others and disbelief are Postmodern Society: Tracing Magical Realism in the ultimate crime. On a much smaller scale, Popular Culture.” Interdisciplinary Literary Studies then, it becomes clear that a reader who does 8.2 (2007) : 75-91. Jstor. Web. 6 Dec. 2015. not follow Hawthorne’s instructions would Cody, David. “Invited Guests at Hawthorne’s be an unpardonable reader. Though perhaps ‘Christmas Banquet’: Sir Thomas Browne and Jeremy not literally sinful, unpardonable readers Taylor.” Modern Language Studies 11.1 (1980-1981) : have the unfortunate power to freeze a story 17-26. Jstor. Web. 24 Nov. 2015. and crush an author. Story cannot exist in Doubleday, Neal. “Hawthorne’s Inferno.” College the presence of such a reader. Hawthorne English 1.8 (1940) : 658-670. Jstor. Web. 24 Nov. 2015. demonstrates this in his depiction of readers in his tales. Fortunately, in one tale, ---. “Hawthorne’s Satirical Allegory.” College English “Alice Doane’s Appeal,” Hawthorne offers 3.4 (1942) : 325-337. Jstor. Web. 19 Nov. 2015. an opportunity for redemption. Though Dusenbery, Robert. “Hawthorne’s Merry Company: unpardonable sinners may be beyond The Anatomy of Laughter in the Tales and Short repentance and salvation, unpardonable Stories.” PMLA 82.2 (1967) : 285-288. Jstor. Web. 24 readers are not. Hawthorne instructs, scolds, Nov. 2015. and offers forgiveness to those readers who ask for it. Hawthorne is the deity of Dwight, Sheila. “Hawthorne and the Unpardonable his readership, saving us from ourselves. Sin.” Studies in the Novel 2.4 (1970) : 449-458. Jstor. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.

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