Nathaniel Hawthorne

by Louise DeSalvo

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0391035134
• ISBN13: 9780391035133
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Humanities Press Intl
• Length: 156 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Well-documented feminist criticism on Nathaniel Hawthorne

In her book, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Louise De Salvo presents Hawthorne's ambivalence toward women in his life and in his novels. He saw women as ethereal beings who were less intelligent than men (12). He felt that if a woman suffered, it was her own fault for deviating from society's norms (5). This belief is evident in his depiction of Zenobia in The Blithedale Romance. Still, though critical of feminists such as Anne Hutchinson and Margaret Fuller, Hawthorne admired intelligent women such as his sister-in-law Elizabeth Palmer Peabody. Also, he encouraged his wife Sophie's work in painting and helped her cook and take care of their children. Hawthorne shows this simultaneous rejection and admiration for women in his works. De Salvo focuses her discussions about Hawthorne's works on the treatment of women. In Fanshawe, women are admired when they are passive and helpless and punished when they are assertive (46). About Hester's portrayal in The Scarlet Letter, De Salvo argues that Hawthorne depicts Hester as a heroine to divert attention from the cruelty of his ancestors toward women (65). In The House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne's protagonist is a man, rather than a woman, who is persecuted for witchcraft. De Salvo points out that Hawthorne's version of the legend ignores women's suffering in Puritan New England (80). Through De Salvo's discussion of The Blithedale Romance, one can see Hawthorne's personality and ambivalence toward women through his narrator Coverdale. Hawthorne lived on Brook Farm in 1841 and wrote to a friend about a group of people that he saw in costumes; Coverdale saw something very similar (98). Hawthorne and Coverdale are also similar in that they are both described as shy, Hawthorne by a contemporary and Coverdale through his speech (99). Additionally, both showed admiration and exasperation for intelligent, assertive women. Still, as De Salvo says, it is scary to see how Coverdale assumes a misogynous point of view so indifferently that he makes it seem normal (99). She asserts that Coverdale is an unreliable narrator and that even he admits it when he says that his narration was "nothing but dream-work and enchantment" (qtd. in De Salvo 101). In fact, De Salvo doubts that Zenobia has committed suicide and suspects that Coverdale may have murdered her. De Salvo's book provides valuable insights for feminist readings of Nathaniel Hawthorne. She has plenty to say about his works and supports her assertions convincingly. The only statement that may be controversial is the one that she makes regarding Hawthorne's attempt to de-emphasize his ancestors' persecution of women in The Scarlet Letter. She points out the relevance of Hawthorne's beliefs to her analyses of Fanshawe, The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, and The Blithedale Romance. Anyone assuming a feminist point of view when reading Hawthorne's works should read Louise D