I. The characters are personally incompatible with society.
II. The characters’ social problems cause conflicts.
III. The social estrangement relieves the characters’ incompatibility and conflicts.
Hawthorne’s Society
Social estrangement is reflected in the development of both characters and conflict as Nathaniel Hawthorne, throughout his novels, uses this concept to effectively navigate and build the protagonists. Hepzibah, in The House of the Seven Gables, is held back by frozen aristocratic values and must learn to interact with society. Miriam in The Marble Faun, finds difficulty with her past and present social interactions and her ability to deal with them. Like Miriam and Hepzibah, Coverdale in The Blithedale Romance, is hindered by his socially faulty exploits and personality.
The characters in these novels are personally incompatible with society. They possess more distinctive traits and therefore stand to the side of the beaten track. The community is at odds with them and causes each to experience a more aloof life, in a wide rift from others. The problem is first manifested through their personal insight, flawed qualities, or repulsive interactions.
Hepzibah’s personal insight in The House of the Seven Gables is the main cause of her isolation. She has a personality that is distant and proud which makes her prefer solitude. One of Hepzibah’s earliest episodes in the novel is opening a shop at the back of the family manor. Over the years she has never had to work, coming from a sundered and fading line of gentry. Her money is running short, and it forces her to come down to the working class level and interact with locals. All of the customers are dreaded, and interact with her very stiffly. This is completely new to Hepzibah and the neighbors. Usually they do not expect anything from this gruff old lady who shuts herself in the somber house. Hawthorne writes that Hepzibah was not mean or hateful towards others, just rather tired of the world. “And yet there was nothing fierce in Hepzibah’s poor old heart; nor had she, at the moment, a single bitter thought against the world…but wished, too, that she herself were done with them, and in her quiet grave.”1 This weariness stems from her ill-ease in society.
Judgment of other people comes too quickly to Hepzibah, and this a faulty tendency of hers. This instant assessing is particularly shown with the arrival of her much younger cousin Phoebe. “ ‘But what does she want here? And how like a country cousin, to come down upon a poor body in this way, without so much as a day’s notice, or asking whether she would be welcome!’ ”2 Privately she goes on about the visitor that she knows nothing of, her false judgment kicking in. “…pride in the high social degree becomes a part of the Pyncheon tradition,” writes Roundtree. “which, like all aristocratic traditions, it based on a flimsy tradition.”3 This high held thinking is proved wrong, as she becomes closer with Phoebe and has to look past her rural background. .The experience she has as a dignified patrician causes her to assume things and have a lacking in civil skills and association.
Miriam in The Marble Faun has flawed qualities that are responsible for her disassociation with others and awkward handling of social situations. She is a fiercely rebellious person, who would rather go about dealing with problems her own way. The friction resulting from these actions is immense, and indirectly affects those around her and results in consequences unforeseen. The affluent and proper family of Miriam expected etiquette and traditions to be strictly adhered to “but there was something in Miriam’s blood, in her mixed race, in her recollections of her mother-some characteristic, finally, in her own nature-which had given her freedom of thought, and force of will…”4 By running away from her arranged marriage and family she goes against what her family wanted and joins a loner and two artists in Rome. This group is unusual and different from the norm and enjoys reveling in the arts, which takes them from daily living. “…a deep, half serious, half mirthful impression on these three friends had taken them into a certain airy region, lifting up…their heavy, earthly feet from the actual soil of life.”5 Eventually this day-dreaming and avoidance of society causes strife and a break in the group. Miriam leaves the others and goes off with the loner Donatello.
Miriam’s rebelliousness against standards and society causes her to refuse criticism. This quality gets in the way of her relationships with family and friends, and thus severs ties to those closest to her. Since she ran away from home, she had no contact whatsoever with any of her family members, and had to rely on her friends for comfort. Her companions Hilda and Kenyon, are privy to the fatal incident Miriam has with her stalker and Donatello. “Poor Hilda had looked into the court-yard, and saw the whole quick passage of a deed, which took but that little time to grave itself in the eternal adamant.”6 There are many things she hides and the homicide is another she tries to keep from them, not realizing Hilda or her other friends had witnessed it. When her stalker/ ex-fiancé appears, she lies about him, even when he directly intrudes. These decisions will come to backlash at her and leave her all alone.
Coverdale in The Blithedale Romance is quite repulsive in his social interactions. Foremost, he is openly critical of everyone else at the Blithedale commune, even when they are friendly with him. Coverdale explains to Hollingsworth that his plan is pointless and not worth the effort and in his narrative position to the reader, goes over the man's bad traits. Another member of the commune, Zenobia, is shown a lot of disapproval too. When Coverdale becomes terminally ill, he reminisces that, “Zenobia brought me my gruel every day, made by her own hands (not very skillfully, if the truth must be told)…her mind was full of weeds…”7 Coverdale searches for a perfect atmosphere and is at Blithedale to find it. His opinion that everyone is faulty, leads to his leaving the commune to get away from these people. Each time he finds something ideal, he is shut into his own little world, though he wishes to see more of the earth. Soon enough, it is wrested from him through his poor relations with others, and he must gain a foothold elsewhere. “Like Westervelt, the world itself beckons Coverdale to become an active participant, but, as his name suggests, he must be secretive and withdrawn…Both are outcasts whose problem of alienation becomes the story Hawthorne wishes to tell.”8 Publicly and internally he estranges himself from his fellows, though they had set out to make a society of their own, apart from humanity.
The social difficulties of the characters through these situations cause the main conflicts to arise. With their personal problems, they are at odds with society and make room for trouble to occur. They are driven into their own corner and affected by the strife with those they hold closest. “The leading characters…so that in addition to being set, as Coverdale says, in a ‘relation of hostility’ to the world outside in their effort to compete with it commercially, they come finally to be hostile to each other.”9 Even if they are at odds with one another, they are intermingled in conflict. In turning their backs from the world, the protagonists have turned their backs from friends, family, and themselves.
Hepzibah Pyncheon is unable to deal at first with the conflict that comes from her social estrangement. She must deal with her cousin Judge Pyncheon, a wealthy yet greedy man. There is a considerable amount of “lost” Pyncheon family land, worth a lot of money that draws him to search for it and consistently bother her. The
”family honor” is used in trying to reach her, Hepzibah is too proud to listen to him. She will not accept money to give up the business, and continues to run the shop, though she dislikes customers. As Tuckerman says, “They respectively symbolize the poles of human existence… [Magnetism] and socialism are admirably introduced; family tyranny in its most revolting form, is powerfully exemplified.”10 The clash between them cannot be prevented, since her social skills are poor, and she is not used to dealing with people.
Unknown to Hepzibah, another societal problem lurks in her own house. It originates from the first Pyncheons, who usurped land from a poor family named the Maules. At his hanging, Matthew Maule curses the Pyncheon estate and family, and thereafter is believed as the cause of death in several Pyncheons later. “But the most important analogy,” writes Bell. “…lies in the abiding feud between Pyncheons and Maules. In both ages, Hawthorne is saying, one can clearly see the essential conflict between the opposed social forced of Pyncheon and Maule, haughty aristocrat and egalitarian democrat.”11 This feud is one of the major sources of Hepzibah’s pride, and her feud with society. Like many in her family, she acknowledges the house as a symbol of her nobility and therefore did not see one of her social problems move right in. Holgrave is a tenant in one of the gables, and unknown to anyone, a descendant of Matthew Maule. The disgust he harbors is not noticeable, so she unwittingly allows him to roam the house, and dangerously consort with her cousin Phoebe.
Miriam’s social difficulties and her hindered ability to solve such things brings a plaguing conflict on her. Rebellious unconformity causes her to run from her arranged marriage, and anger her fiancé into stalking her. She is unable to evade him and has trouble keeping him from interfering with her new idealistic and artsy life. Through this “…she is given an opportunity to learn more about humanity and thus more about herself.”12 In attempting to find some resolution, she turns from everyone, and goes into even more isolation from the world. The boundaries that confined her allow the extent of the situation to sink in and affect her. Her friends no longer see her, and the authorities who search for her ex-fiancé's killer have no idea she committed the crime. No one would be able to find her, since she haunts desolate areas and the house of her partner in crime, Donatello. Her crime breaks up their group of friends, and sends each off into troubling solitude, which will cause them to personally transform enough to solve their troubles.
Like Hepzibah and Miriam, Coverdale cannot deal with his social rifts, and consequently causes the conflicts through it. He makes the decision to leave Blithedale for a place of his own, making it the second attempt to free himself from basic social bonds. The close space of the farm the Blithedale inhabitants must live in causes problems for what they originally planned. Like Zenobia explains, “ ‘Our own features, and own figures and airs, show a little too much familiarity with one another’s realities, that we cannot remove ourselves, at pleasure, into an imaginary sphere.’ ”13 Society’s enveloping standards and norm are what drove them into the commune in the first place. In being so close, disagreement begins to arise as everyone struggles to be an independent person in their own little reality. Coverdale’s criticism and maintained individuality are threatened through Blithedale and he leaves because, “society itself is what truly threatens the pioneering spirit, for it destroys individualism by turning it into the demonic.”14 The Blithedale Romance centers around everyone’s hidden identities and individualities, so as they become destroyed, the conflict imperils each person. Their closeness immediately reveals Hollingsworth’s plan to take over the commune, and a wedge is put between the two men and the others.
Each character begins to go separate ways in their quest for becoming socially stable again, Coverdale especially does this in his roaming around the city. Coincidentally he comes upon other people involved with Blithedale, and learns their secrets. Zenobia becomes cold and distant when she finds out what he learned because:
Emphasis is on seeing and observing, on solving the mysteries that form the basis of the plot, on penetration of disguises and finding out who people are, on establishing identities. On the other hand, the attempt is made to conceal identities. Zenobia, with apparently the most secrets, is, despite her strength of character, sensitive to Coverdale’s observation because it threatens her identity. She refuses to be too well known, both physically and emotionally. There characters are not intimate with each other; they have secrets and do not know one another. Zenobia more than many a Hawthorne character strives for individuality, against both her creator and her associates. It is fundamental that her passionate nature is not allowed to identify with a lover and her being consequently not allowed to be fulfilled. And it is significant…that discovery of who Priscilla is leads nowhere in particular. Priscilla’s identity is persistently violated and is in the first place dependent on another for completion, perhaps as a way of showing Zenobia what she must do. 15
Certain secrets can seriously mend damage to the relationships and public relations that Coverdale has suffered, by revealing the truths and actions of each person and why they are at odds with him. The social estrangement of the characters relieves their incompatibility and conflicts. The flawed qualities of the protagonists and the conflicts are brought on by the civil discord that they experience. Each problem has tried to suppress the protagonist’s personal evolving. Their dealing with the conflicts though, makes them eventually solved and their personalities are effectively changed.
Hepzibah personally improves and resolves her problems while going through the conflict. She is finally confronted in a show down by Judge Pyncheon about the family land and valiantly supports her brother, who he wishes to cart away and interrogate about the hidden deed. In doing this, she comes out of her shell, and is able to face the other people in society. The Maule curse finally strikes down Judge Pyncheon and the good Pyncheons, Phoebe, Clifford, and Hepzibah, are free of him. Holgrave forgives the family with the death of the last evil aristocrat, and everyone is able to purge their social solitude. Like Carlson says about the house, “…it serves as a visual referent for the characters who live within its walls and have no communication with the external world. Hepzibah is the very type of an antiquated aristocracy…represented by the house…”16 A vast estate is inherited and they are not tied to the broken heritage of the seven gabled house anymore. Her abandonment of the house shows an obvious resolution of the conflict, and literal leaving behind of her social faults.
Miriam resolves her flaws through solving the conflict that has estranged her from others. She is divided from her friends and Donatello, her partner in crime, when they all reveal what she did. Disgusted, her friends are forced into their own little corners of the world and transform as a result of it. “As Donatello learns to climb the ‘dismal stairway’ of Monte Beni’s tower to a level of knowledge at which the promptings of natural instinct are subordinated to a moral vision, Kenyon is touched by his suffering and grief… his experience with Donatello and Miriam kindles in him a nascent willingness to identify himself with the real world.”17 They come to accept Miriam for her troubles as a result of her influencing them to be pushed away. The stalker is gone, and the friends are able to resolve their friendship and the conflict.
Coverdale improves by ending the conflict that plagues the book. He returns from his hermitage changed and with newfound information that pushes him toward the other characters. Every move he makes has an underlying social strategy that comes to repair the fallouts from earlier. Cohen says, “Socialism, in this romance, is prominent enough to fill the book…Socialism is apparently made responsible for consequences which it utterly condemned, and tried, at least, to remedy.”18 Coverdale comes into confrontations with both Priscilla and Zenobia and resolves his troubles with them. Unfortunately it is too late for Zenobia, who fights a constant battle with the public and her image until committing suicide. Coming to Blithedale for him meant trying to find a utopia and a place separate from society where, “…the ages rolled away, into the system of a people and a world.”19 Instead he is placed in a transforming rift from others and comes to solve it through what it forces him to do.
The novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne consistently use estrangement of the characters in order to personally change them and steer down the chosen path. Their traits caused them to be at odds with the world and caught in their own transformation. Others in their communities are odds with them due to their conflicts, until the time comes for them to solve each of their problems. They are able to settle the conflict with their new non-recluse traits and experiences. Hepzibah, Miriam, and Coverdale are stronger protagonists because of this method.
1 Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables (Cambridge: Riverside P, 1952) 61.
2 Ibid., 91.
3 Thomas J. Roundtree, Critics on Hawthorne (Coral Gables: U of Miami P, 1972) 97.
4 Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun (New York: Modern Library, 2001) 388.
5 Ibid., 12.
6 Ibid., 28.
7 Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance (New York: Modern Library, 2001) 42.
8 Donald J. Crowley, Nathaniel Hawthorne (London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1971) 55.
9 Hyatt Howe Waggoner, The Presence of Hawthorne (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1979) 202.
10 Henry T. Tuckerman, “Nathaniel Hawthorne,” The Southern Literary Messenger June 1851: 343-49.
11 Michael Davitt Bell, Hawthorne and the Historical Romance of New England (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1971) 214.
12 Emily Schiller, "The Choice of Innocence: Hilda in The Marble Faun." Studies in the Novel Winter 1994: 372.
13 Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance 99.
14 Edgar A. Dryden, Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Poetics of Enchantment (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1977) 53.
15 Jac Tharpe, Nathaniel Hawthorne: Identity and knowledge (Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1967) 130.
16 Patricia Ann Carlson, Hawthorne’s Functional Settings: A Study of Artistic Method (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1977) 181.
17 Benjamin Bernard Cohen, The Recognition of Hawthorne; Selected Criticism Since 1828. (Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1969) 67.
18 Hugo McPherson, Hawthorne As Myth-Maker: A Study in Imagination (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1969) 165.
19 Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance 222.
Works Cited
Bell, Michael Davitt. Hawthorne and the Historical Romance of New England. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1971.
Carlson, Patricia Ann. Hawthorne’s Functional Settings: A Study of Artistic Method. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1977.
Cohen, Benjamin Bernard. The Recognition of Hawthorne; Selected Criticism Since 1828. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1969.
Crowley, Donald J. Nathaniel Hawthorne. London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1971.
Dryden, Edgar A. Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Poetics of Enchantment. Ithaca: Cornell State UP, 1977.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Blithedale Romance. New York: Modern Library, 2001.
__________________. The House of the Seven Gables. Cambridge: Riverside P, 1975.
__________________. The Marble Faun. New York: Modern Library, 2001.
McPherson, Hugo. Hawthorne As Myth-Maker: A Study in Imagination. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1969.
Roundtree, Thomas J. Critics on Hawthorne. Coral Gables: U of Miami P, 1972.
Schiller, Emily. “The Choice of Innocence: Hilda in The Marble Faun,” Studies in the Novel Winter 1994.
Tharpe, Jac. Nathaniel Hawthorne: Identity and Knowledge. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1967.
Tuckerman, Henry T. “Nathaniel Hawthorne,” The Southern Literary Messenger June 1851.
Waggoner, Hyatt Howe. The Presence of Hawthorne. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 1979.
