Hawthorne's Fearful Secret
Transcendentalists believed that intuition and the individual conscience transcend experience and were therefore better guides to truth than are the senses and logical reason. They respected the individual spirit and the natural world, believing that divinity was present everywhere. "Anti-Transcendentalists" like Hawthorne and his apprentice Melville, focused instead on the limitations and potential destructiveness of the human spirit, rather than on its possibilities. Hawthorne and Melville shared great admiration for one another and their relationship became a source of critique and interpretation that would ultimately influence each of their works. Both men were strongly influenced by the individualism represented in the works of transcendentalists such as Emerson. However, both men viewed evil as a dominant force in the world and focused on its' ubiquitous, and innate nature. The men's shared rejection of the transcendentalist view was based on the idea that the human condition can be paired into two poles: the happy ignorant and the suffering aware. Much of Hawthorne and Melville's work describes the human desire for knowledge and the alienation that such knowledge can bring. This the
The evil takes shape in Rappaccini's intellectual pride and his desire for divinity through creation. "If I hide my face for sorrow, there is cause enough," says Hawthorne's Reverend Hooper, who throughout his adult life veiled his face with a black crape, "and if I cover it for secret sin, what mortal might not do the same?" (Hawthorne, p 194) Melville's work is much more defiant, at times veering towards nihilism, but remains an illustration of his belief in the importance of sympathy and interdependence in our salvation. " The water in the fountain symbolizes the spirit, immortal and unaffected by the changes that have shattered its earthly basin. Throughout Hawthorne's work (such as the Minister's Black Veil) he expresses a deep sympathy as well as reverence for the human condition. As punishment, God cast them from paradise (condemning them to death). Rappaccini's intellectual pride results in his alienation from the natural. Adam and Eve desired to know the difference between good and evil, to be like God. Before Ethan Brand began his search for the Unpardonable Sin he was sympathetic toward the sufferings of humankind. Melville's religious views were rooted in dualistic assumptions. The title character in "Ethan Brand" carries within him a burden: the desire for knowledge of the Unpardonable Sin. Symbolically, the plants in the garden mimic God's creation in an "evil mockery of beauty. Hawthorne and Melville's literary works suggest those who sympathize and form relationships with others (as Ishmael does with Queequeg) are saved. Ishmael's survival and Ahab's death suggest a reliance on ethical sensibility over the rationalism of ends and means. This is most obvious in the perception that the other characters have of him as a crazed crank. Nature absolutely paints like the harlot, whose allurements cover nothing but the charnel house within.
Common topics in this essay:
Unpardonable Sin,
Ishmael Melville,
Hawthorne Melville,
Moby Dick,
Daughter Symbolically,
Reverend Hooper,
Ethan Brand's,
Dr Rappaccini's,
Due Ahab's,
Hawthorne's Brand,
ethan brand,
unpardonable sin,
moby dick,
hawthorne melville,
human condition,
rappaccini's daughter,
desire knowledge,
human desire knowledge,
quest knowledge,
sympathy interdependence,
melville's characters,
rappaccini's intellectual pride,
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Acceptance Essays
