The Moral Picturesque: Studies in Hawthorne's FictionThe book is a collection of fourteen essays by Abel on Hawthorne's fiction. The essays were published over a span of about thirty-five years in various scholarly journals. The author has revised some of these essays considerably and has added seven chapters to give the book continuity and unity. Abel studies two characteristics, besides the classic elegance of its style, that distinguish Hawthorne's fiction. One characteristic is Hawthorne's habitual use of a psychological approach to its subjects. He assumed an absolute of archetypal human experiences enacting a providentially directed drama of which he had an uncertain knowledge through sympathy with characters assuming primordial roles. The other characteristic was Hawthorne's use of the mode that he called "the moral picturesque." This was a mode of figuration of the archetypal experiences that his psychological preoccupations discovered. His sensibility penetrated more deeply than his often banal thought, and the picturesque mode enabled him to cognize perceptions that were not reducible to explicit statement. In all his work he was preoccupied with two concerns: how the ideal appears in the real world, and the distinction and relation of the sexes. He saw in both these concerns paradoxes of opposition and affinity. He dealt with these paradoxes, not as subjects of philosophical speculation, but as matters for artistic treatment. In fact, he thought that the problems of relation posed by these paradoxes were insoluble, and his sole concerns was to present them vividly and dramatically. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 87
Page 95
... fiction , he would weave in these little pictures . ( LL 1 : 197–98 ) In composing his fictions he drew upon a fond ... fiction : And now how narrow , scanty , and meagre , is this record of obser- vation , compared with the immensity ...
... fiction , he would weave in these little pictures . ( LL 1 : 197–98 ) In composing his fictions he drew upon a fond ... fiction : And now how narrow , scanty , and meagre , is this record of obser- vation , compared with the immensity ...
Page 104
... fiction is inescapably non - discursive ; the meaning or full meaning cannot be reduced to conceptual terms . " ( 157 ) Lesser says that the distinction between the terms image and symbol is mistaken : When the images of fiction have ...
... fiction is inescapably non - discursive ; the meaning or full meaning cannot be reduced to conceptual terms . " ( 157 ) Lesser says that the distinction between the terms image and symbol is mistaken : When the images of fiction have ...
Page 112
... fiction : Now the old toll - gatherer looks seaward , and discerns the light- house kindling on a far island , and the stars , too , kindling in the sky , as if but a little way beyond ; and mingling reveries of heaven with remembrances ...
... fiction : Now the old toll - gatherer looks seaward , and discerns the light- house kindling on a far island , and the stars , too , kindling in the sky , as if but a little way beyond ; and mingling reveries of heaven with remembrances ...
Contents
Ghostland and the Jurisdiction of Veracity | 3 |
PART | 51 |
The Stony Excrescence of Prose | 68 |
Copyright | |
8 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
actual appear artist beauty Blithedale Romance Boston Brook Farm called chapter character child Chillingworth conception consciousness Coverdale Coverdale's criticism dark Dimmesdale Dimmesdale's Donatello dream effect evil existence expression fact fancy figure flower Goodman Brown haunted mind Hawthorne's fiction heart Henry James Hester Prynne Holgrave Horatio Bridge House human idea ideal images imagination individual innocence intellect light literary living look magic man's mankind Marble Faun Margaret Fuller material meaning merely mind minister moral Nathaniel Hawthorne nature never Notebooks objects observation Old Manse passage passion Pearl perception persons Phoebe picturesque pink ribbon possible Press Priscilla Puritan Pyncheon reality remarked role says scaffold Scarlet Letter scene seemed sense sensibility Seven Gables shadow sketch Snow-Image society soul spiritual story suggest symbol sympathy tale things thorne thorne's thought tion traits transcendentalist truth Univ woman womanhood women York Young Goodman Young Goodman Brown Zenobia