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. |
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Page 21
... thoughts , but that they entertain thoughts . Nietzsche wrote , " A thought comes when ' it ' will , not when ' I ' will . " ( 18 ) Persons do not so much think thoughts as thoughts think them . " Is Ahab Ahab ? " Thoughts are like fish ...
... thoughts , but that they entertain thoughts . Nietzsche wrote , " A thought comes when ' it ' will , not when ' I ' will . " ( 18 ) Persons do not so much think thoughts as thoughts think them . " Is Ahab Ahab ? " Thoughts are like fish ...
Page 54
... thought , by the discoloration of the marble , which made her " an inmate of the heart , as well as a spiritual existence . " ( RE 10 : 291 ) He admired the Venus because she effectually kindled his idea of womanhood : I do not , and ...
... thought , by the discoloration of the marble , which made her " an inmate of the heart , as well as a spiritual existence . " ( RE 10 : 291 ) He admired the Venus because she effectually kindled his idea of womanhood : I do not , and ...
Page 253
... thought it had " more merit than The Scarlet Letter " and was " more characteristic " of his powers . It is strange that Haw- thorne , one of the best self - critics among American writers , should have thought so highly of a work ...
... thought it had " more merit than The Scarlet Letter " and was " more characteristic " of his powers . It is strange that Haw- thorne , one of the best self - critics among American writers , should have thought so highly of a work ...
Contents
Ghostland and the Jurisdiction of Veracity | 3 |
PART | 51 |
The Stony Excrescence of Prose | 68 |
Copyright | |
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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