Two Giants in Novel-writing Hawthorne and Melville

Nathaniel Hawthorne ( ) I. Literary Status Greatest Romance-writer Pioneering psychological novelist Moral novelist II. Life 1804, July 4, in Salem, Massachusetts, a Puritan family Ancestors’ role in the Salem Witchcraft Trial in 1692 Bowdoin College – read widely – writing tales and novels

Nathaniel Hawthorne ( ) III. Major Works Short story collection: Twice-Told Tales (1837) Moses from an Old Manse (1846) Romances: The Scarlet Letter (1850) The House of the Seven Gables (1851) The Blithedale Romance (1852) The Marble Faun (1860)

Nathaniel Hawthorne ( ) IV. Hawthorne’s Black Vision of Life All his life, Hawthorne seems to be haunted by his sense of sin and evil in life. Most of his works deal with evil one way or another. A. Evil exists in the human heart (“Earthy Holocaust”) B. Everyone possesses some evil secret (“Young Goodman Brown”) C. Everyone seems to cover up his innermost evil (“The Minister’s Black Veil”) D. Evil seems to be man’s birthmark. E. Evil comes out of evil though it may take many generations F. One source of evil is overweening 自负的 intellect. (The tension between the head and the heart) Hawthorne’s intellectual characters are usually villains, dreadful because devoid of fellow feelings. (Hollingsworth, Chillingworth, Dr. Rappaccini – Hawthorne’s negative attitude toward science is reflected in his writings and characterizations).

Nathaniel Hawthorne ( ) V. Hawthorne and his romance Romance is in Hawthorne’s mind the predestined form of American narrative. VI. The analysis of his masterpiece – The Scarlet Letter 1. Story and Plot: an aging English scholar Chillingworth – his young beautiful wife Hester Prynne – young and promising priest Arthur Dimmesdale – Pearl 2. Theme: A. Romantic or Puritan? A story of love or sin? a moral or immoral story? B. the adaptation of American Romanticism to American Puritan moralism – the load of didacticism – the desire to elevate C. What Hawthorne was predominantly concerned with was the moral, emotional, and psychological effect of the sin on the people in general

Nathaniel Hawthorne ( ) 3. The analysis of the characters A. Hester Prynne: This book is not a praise of Hester Prynne sinning, but a hymn on the moral growth of the woman when sinned against. Hester’s life eventually acquires a real significance when she reestablishes a meaningful relationship with her fellowmen. Symbolic of her moral development is the gradual, imperceptible change which the scarlet letter undergoes in meaning. A – “Adultery” “Able”, “Angel” (“Adamic” the original sin or “America”) B. Arthur Dimmesdale banishes himself from the society. Deeply concerned with himself, he lives a stranger among his admirers. He undergoes the tragic experience of physical and spiritual disintegration. C. Roger Chillingworth, the real villain of the story, embodies pure intellect, who commits “the unpardonable sin” (the violation of heart)

Nathaniel Hawthorne ( ) 4. Structural features The 24 chapters of The Scarlet Letter are closely knitted together by means of the scaffold scenes which appear 3 times, almost symmetrically, in the beginning, in the middle, and the end of the book, each time bringing the four major characters (Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and Pearl) together. Chapters I-II, XII and XVIII serve as the props holding up the frame of the novel. 5. Psychological complexities All the major characters have complex psychologies; there is a semblance of interior monologues which reveal their states of mind. 6. Ambiguity One salient feature of Hawthorne’s art is his ambiguity, of which the technique of multiple view employed in the book.

Nathaniel Hawthorne ( ) VII. Hawthorne’s Symbolism (The Scarlet Letter) the names of the characters, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, little Pearl, the flower at the prison door, etc. (The House of the Seven Gables) the house, the rise and fall of the family fortune, the chickens dwindling in size, the love between the two young people (“The Young Goodman Brown”) nightly journey – the inner urge of the young to grow up and get initiated into the adult world – the murkiness of night engenders a sense of uncertainty and fear – the grown-up situation – Faith – young Goodman Brown (Everyman) VIII. Hawthorne’s influence Herman Melville – Henry James – Hemingway – William Faulkner...

Herman Melville ( ) I. Literary Status sea novelists, cannibal novels, etc. II. Life and Career Little education – began to work early bank clerk, salesman, a farm-hand, school teacher A. Going out to sea B. his marriage C. friendship with Hawthorne (1850) III. His View of the World Tragic humanism

Herman Melville ( ) IV. His major works: His novels: Typee (1846); Omoo (1847) Mardi (1849); Redburn (1849) White Jacket (1850) Moby Dick (1851) Pierre (1852); Confidence Man (1857) Billy Budd (unfinished) His poetic work: Clarel His short stories: “Bartleby”, “Benito Cereno”

Herman Melville ( ) V. His masterpiece: Moby Dick 1. Essence: a. Herman Melville’s masterpiece is Moby Dick, one of the world’s greatest masterpieces. b. To get to know the 19th century American mind and America itself, one has to read this book. c. It is an encyclopedia of everything, history, philosophy, religion, etc. in addition to a detailed account of the operations of the whaling industry. d. But it is first a Shakespeare tragedy of man fighting against overwhelming odds in an indifferent and even hostile universe. 2. Content: Ishmael, Pequod, Ahab, Moby Dick

Herman Melville ( ) 3. Idea: his bleak view of the world The world is at once Godless and purposeless. Man in this universe lives a meaningless and futile life, meaningless because futile. Man can observe and manipulate nature in a prudent way, and he must ultimately place himself at the mercy of nature. Man cannot influence and overcome nature at its source. Once he attempts to seek power over nature, he is doomed. The idea that man can make the world for himself is nothing but a transcendentalist folly. Melville never seems able to say an affirmative yes to life: his is the attitude of “Everlasting Nay”. The loss of faith and the sense of futility and meaninglessness were expressed in Melville’s works.

Herman Melville ( ) 4. Themes and subjects: A. Alienation: he found existing on different levels, between man and man, man and society, and man and nature. (e.g. Ahab) B. criticism against Emersonian self-reliant individual: Ahab is too much of a self-reliant individual to be a good human being. He stands alone on his own one leg among the millions of the peopled earth. For him the only law is his own will. To him the world exists for his own sake. His selfhood must be asserted at the expense of all else. C. Rejection and Quest: Ishmael resembles his namesake in the Bible in that he is a wanderer. Tired with and rejecting his early lifestyle, he tried to seek for a happy and ideal life. He gradually comes to see the folly of Ahab seeking to conquer nature and begins to feel the significance of love and fraternity among mortal beings. Voyaging for Ishmael has become a journey in quest of knowledge and values.

Herman Melville ( ) 5. Symbolism in the novel Moby Dick A. the voyage itself is a metaphor for “search and discovery, the search for the ultimate truth of experience.” B. the Pequod is the ship of the American soul and consciousness. C. Moby Dick is a symbol of evil to some, of goodness to others, and of both to still others. D. The whiteness of Moby Dick is a paradoxical color, signifying death and corruption as well as purity, innocence and youth; it represents the final mystery of the universe. 6. The multiple view of point:

Herman Melville ( ) 7. The revival of Melville A dedicated artist There was, to be sure, a great deal of Ahab in him. “I have written a wicked book” Born in the 19th century, Melville did not receive recognition until the 20th century. In the 1920s, a Columbia scholar, G. M. Weaver, did solid work in reviving him.