, Research Paper
& # 65279 ; The Dark Side of Hawthorne
In The House of the Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
exhibits the destiny of a household due to a expletive by analysing
the most & # 8220 ; disagreeable & # 8221 ; secrets of a adult male & # 8217 ; s psyche ( Great Lives
1077 ) . Hawthorne shows the decay of an blue household
due to the wickednesss of the yesteryear. He uses fable within his
character & # 8217 ; s personalities and emotions to expose & # 8220 ; the truth
of the human bosom & # 8221 ; ( life ) .
Hawthorne & # 8217 ; s chosen location for this novel reflects
greatly on his life and specifically his childhood. Salem
is the place of The House of the Seven Gables. Ironically
this is the same town in which he was born in and lived in
through maturity. He was raised in this town, hence he
was really cognizant of the dark side of its yesteryear. He was a portion
of this past through his ascendants. One of which was a
justice in the ill-famed Salem enchantress tests. At this test
Hawthorne & # 8217 ; s uncle is cursed by a alleged enchantress with the
words, & # 8220 ; God will give you blood to imbibe & # 8221 ; ( Magill 2736 ) .
This expletive is much similar to Matthew Maule & # 8217 ; s expletive on the
Pyncheon household ( Magill 2734 ) . The purdah of his
characters reflects his childhood every bit good. Turning up, his
2
female parent kept herself off from people which led him to go
a really lone adult male for much of his life. As a immature kid
Hawthorne was lamed. During these old ages he became good
learned with the Hagiographas of Edmund Spenser, John Bunyan,
and William Shakespear ( CSLF 1570 ) . From these work forces he has
gained technique and manner.
Having lived in Salem most of his life, Hawthorne is
highly influenced by Puritanism. His Hagiographas greatly
reflect this. Hawthorne trades much with the wickednesss of a adult male
being pasted down for coevalss. This is really much a
Puritan belief. Puritans are a really superstitious type of
individual. Therefore, this explains Hawthorne & # 8217 ; s belief that a
expletive, such as Maule & # 8217 ; s expletive, can destruct a comfortable
household ( Walker 1577 ) . Hawthorne & # 8217 ; s characters dealt with
guilt forced on by their ascendant, much of which goes back
every bit far as the Puritans. He normally plays guilt against
artlessness within one character, Hepzibah Pyncheon. She
feels strongly that she must keep the life style and
tradition of her ascendant Colonel Pyncheon. He shows her
many personalities as a presentation of the & # 8220 ; secret
motives & # 8221 ; of the bosom ( life ) . Hepzibah is chained
to the expletive by her Puritan ascendants therefore her attempts
to get away are frequently doomed. When she no longer has the
money to contend the devastation of her blood line she turns
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to the store of the yesteryear for endurance.
The manner with which Hawthorne portrays this character
among others is really superstitious, and they deal much with
the evil side of a human being. He frequently uses a adult male & # 8217 ; s
conflict with wickedness and the Satan as a beginning of contention
( Great Lives 1077 ) . The Puritan background instilled in him
the world of the Satan and the immorality of transgressing. In
characters such as Hepzibah he uses evil and hurting as a game
( Encyclopedia of World Biography 214 ) . She spends her life
seeking to get away from the dreaded Maule & # 8217 ; s expletive which makes
her suffer in the isolation she has received as a
penalty. Hawthorne emphasizes the imperfectness of adult male
frequently ( Encyclopedia of World Biography ) . None of his
character are wholly good. They all have evil ideas
at one clip or another. His characters must cover with the
spliting line between what is existent and what is fanciful
( Great Lives 1077 ) . He focuses on the point that the & # 8220 ; truth
of the human bosom & # 8221 ; can non be found by any earthly beginning.
Therefore, Hepzibah & # 8217 ; s altering personalities display this
inquiry of whom a individual truly is. Are they good or evil?
Are their actions black or white? This leads into
Hawthorne & # 8217 ; s Transcendentalist beliefs.
In the clip Hawthorne is composing a motion known as
transcendental philosophy was impacting literature and art.
4
Hawthorne is known as a dark transcendentalist because he
focal points strongly on the dark and iniquitous side of human sort.
In The House of the Seven Gables, he focuses on the s
elf-
scrutiny of character which is a important thought in
transcendental philosophy ( Encarta Encyclopedia ) . He believes a
homo can non make the penetrations of transcendental philosophy by mere
animal experience. They must make a new degree of
understanding. This is similar to Hepzibah inability to
understand Clifford ground and province of head. He has been
entirely many old ages off from day-to-day wickedness and the darkness of the
immorality within the house. It besides relates to Hepzibah & # 8217 ; s
inability to understand her emotion until Phoebe comes into
the image. Phoebe helps her to see the visible radiation and that non
everything is dark and glooming. However, Hepzibah still has
to contend a conflict with the side of her that wants to stay
hidden and entrapped by the expletive of Old Maule.
Transcendentalists speak of the & # 8220 ; Godhead and supernatural
visible radiation & # 8221 ; ( gonzaga 1 ) . The House of the Seven Gables is
haunted with the supernatural and it takes a higher
understanding to interrupt the ironss of the expletive, Hawthorne
topographic points the visible radiation against the dark with Hepzibah the dark,
and Phoebe the visible radiation. Hepzibah & # 8217 ; s darkness ever out powers
Phoebe & # 8217 ; s felicity without connotation. The darkness
signifies the imperfectness of adult male that transcendentalists
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believe in.
Hawthorne & # 8217 ; s feelings on life entirely create the base of
bad luck whether by expletive or desire. His authorship is frequently
allegorical and moralistic when covering with the life of his
characters. They fight moral issues, many covering with the
loss and ownership of money. His characters live a really
stray life much like his ain. In The House of the Seven
Gables solitariness is the penalty Hepzibah pays for the
wickedness of the Colonel. The hurting in the character & # 8217 ; s lives comes
from this isolation, nevertheless when they try to populate among the
people they retreat back into their holes. ( WLC 1597 ) .
Hawthorne was indistinguishable to this until he met his married woman
Sophia. His characters & # 8217 ; pride is the beginning of their immorality.
They fight to keep the lives they lead without the
consideration to modern times. Their lives come into moral
struggle due to human imperfectness.
Hawthorne & # 8217 ; s transcendentalist positions of humanity and his
belief in the devil consequence in the evil side to his
characters. The expletive put upon them from coevalss back
pestilences them in modern clip due to their refusal to travel on.
Their personalities portray & # 8220 ; the truth of the human bosom & # 8221 ;
( life ) .
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Plants Consulted
Clendenning, John & # 8220 ; Nathaniel Hawthorne. & # 8221 ; The World Book
Encyclopedia. 1995. 114-115.
& # 8220 ; The House of the Seven Gables. & # 8221 ; Masterplots. Ed. Frank N.
Magill. Vol.5. Englewood Cliffs, 1976, 2734-2738.
& # 8220 ; Nathaniel Hawthorne. & # 8221 ; Dictionary of Literary Biography.
Ed. Joel Myerson. Vol. 1. Detroit, 1978, 80-101.
& # 8220 ; Nathaniel Hawthorne. & # 8221 ; Britanica. 1998. 765-766.
& # 8220 ; Nathaniel Hawthorne. & # 8221 ; *search.biography.com* .
& # 8220 ; Nathaniel Hawthorne. & # 8221 ; Encarta Encyclopedia. ( 1997 )
*http: //encarta.msn.com*
& # 8220 ; Nathaniel Hawthorne. & # 8221 ; The Critical Temper. Ed. Martin
Tucker. Vol. 4. A Library of Literary Criticism.
Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1979, 509-514.
& # 8220 ; Nathaniel Hawthorne. & # 8221 ; World Literature Criticism. & # 8221 ; Ed.
James P. Draper. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale Research Inc. ,
1992, 1592-1605.
& # 8220 ; Nathaniel Hawthorne. & # 8221 ; Novels and Novelists: A Guide to
the World of Fiction. Ed. Martin Seymour-Smith.
London: Shuckburgh Reynolds Ltd. , 1980, 154-155.
Wagenknecht, Edward. & # 8220 ; Nathaniel Hawthorne. & # 8221 ; Cavalcade of
the American Novel. New York: Henry Holt and Company,
1952, 90, 9, 20, 25, 38-57.
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Walker, Ronald G. & # 8220 ; Nathaniel Hawthorne. & # 8221 ; Critical Survey of
Long Fiction. Vol. 4. Englewood Cliffs: Salem Press,
1983, 1314-1328.
Van Doren, Carl. & # 8220 ; Nathaniel Hawthorne. & # 8221 ; The American Novel.
Ed. Revised. Vol. 1789-1939. New York: The Macmillian
Company, 1966, 58-83 135-137, 210, 213,
215.
& # 8220 ; American Transcendentalism. & # 8221 ;
*http: //www.gonzaga.edu/faculty/campbell/enl311/amtrans
.htm*
& # 8220 ; PAL: Nathaniel Hawthorne. & # 8221 ;
*http: //www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap3/hawtho
rne.html
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