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The symbolism in the story of NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
Symbolism in Hawthorne’s works
Hawthorne's use of symbolism
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In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Novel The House of the Seven Gables, the passage describes Judge Pycheons outer public image while hinting at the within. Judge Pycheon’s characteristics are embodied by the actions of someone who is self-indulged with luxury. Hawthorne subtly hints at his internal character with the listing of social status in contrast to his position followed by hypocritical actions, all of which is embraced by an insurmountable amount of wealth. The narrator toys with the concept of living for just pleasure and the facade of power structures. In the passage, Judge Pycheon is repeatedly shown as a person of good will, power, almost an embodiment of perfection. So perfect that he is seen as “this proper face was what he behold in the looking-glass. His life is such a portrait of wonder and deeds that there are no “darker traits.” The significance of the …show more content…
correlation to all these items is the concept of a perfect image. A looking glass shows something of wonder, whether good or bad. The irony of the looking glass is also most apparent in that it shows the inside, but he is so blinded by his self-made image in society that he fails to see the true beast within himself.
Who wouldn’t be blinded, after all his list of life achievements even include being the “treasurer of a widow’s and orphan’s fund,” and the “president of a bible society.” The narrator has built up a morally-motivated, highly prestigious, and seemingly compassionate man that is seemingly haunted by a single moment or misdeed he conducted in the past with “some one wrong act or that” every now and then. His actions are so hideous that it would “overshadow the fair aspect of a lifetime.” This sudden transformation is caused when you look within the looking glass. This looking glass changes a golden behemoth statue into a wax-statue. Hollow. And within this wax-statue are termites. Slowly gnawing at the manifestation of his self-built image that he has cast over “a great many years.” Of course, this narrator believes that Judge Pycheon, with all his achievements, is simply a positively-lighted Nathan Price in societies eyes. But at the very end of the day this man has nothing of significance. His days are filled with “five diurnal glasses of old
sherry wine,” in confinement of his household with only his “gold-headed cane” for company. All of this points to the single suggestion that Judge Pycheon is sick with a disease that will not be solved with all the wealth in the world, rather it is only the lack of it that would cure him. His lives work in the list is all just “splendid rubbish.” Hawthorne is using the narrator to get at the concept that under the covers of all the wealth, none of it matters. What Judge Pycheon lacks is self-reflection, self-knowledge and true understanding.
In her novel, Hope Leslie, Catharine Maria Sedgwick supplants the importance of strict adherence to religious tenets with the significance the human conscience and following one's own heart. This central theme of the novel is intimated to the reader in the scene where Sir Philip Gardiner, a character that completely defies this ideal, is described. Although he "had a certain erect and gallant bearing that marks a man of the world . . . his dress was strictly puritanical" (124). In other words, even though his demeanor is completely unlike that of a puritan, he adheres to the outward seeming of one. The scene describes in detail these markings and intimations of his person that would indicate an attitude not befitting a puritan. His face suggested the "ravages of the passions" while his constantly roving eyes indicated a "restless mind" (124). The only signs of Sir Philip's "puritanism" are his pretenses and his clothing, and these are enough to convince society he is a religious man, quite a "dandy quaker" (125).
In the short story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, the narrator, Bub, is as metaphorically blind as his guest, Robert, is literally blind. Bub has many unwarranted misconceptions about life, blind people in particular. He also has many insecurities that prevent him from getting too close to people. Through his interaction with Robert, Bub is able to open his mind and let go of his self-doubt for a moment and see the world in a different light.
In the article, “‘Young Goodman Brown’ and the Psychology of Projection”, Michael Tritt critically analyzes Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” to construct the process of how Hawthorne regards Goodman Brown’s behavior. Tritt examines the phenomenon of projection in psychology and believes that “Brown’s compulsive condemnation of others, along with his consistent denial of his own culpability, illustrates a classically defined case of projection” (116). He defines projection as an unconscious process when a person projects their own traits or desires onto other people, thus representing a false perception on whom the projection is made.
In the story "Cathedral" by Raymond Carver, the main character, goes through a major personal transformation. At the beginning of the story, his opinions of others are filled with stereotypes, discrimination and prejudice. Through interaction with his wife's blind friend Robert, his attitude and outlook on life changes. Although at first he seemed afraid to associate with a blind man, Robert's outgoing personality left him with virtually no choice. During Robert's visit, he proved to be a normal man, and showed the speaker that by closing his eyes, he could open his mind.
“The one on my right was a colossal affair by any standard – it was a factual imitation of some Hotel de Ville in Normandy, with a tower on one side, spanking new under a thin beard of raw ivy, and a marble swimming pool, and more than forty acres of lawn and garden…My own house was an eyesore, but it was a small eyesore, and it had been overlooked, so I had a view of the water, a partial view of my neighbor’s lawn, and the consoling proximity of millionaires…”
In Raymond Carver's "Cathedral," the husband's view of blind men is changed when he encounters his wife's long time friend, Robert. His narrow minded views and prejudice thoughts of one stereotype are altered by a single experience he has with Robert. The husband is changed when he thinks he personally sees the blind man's world. Somehow, the blind man breaks through all of the husband's jealousy, incompetence for discernment, and prejudgments in a single moment of understanding.
Charles Dickens viewed lawyers as being mean, cruel, and relatively heartless (Collins 175). Throughout much of Dickens' literature, lawyers are stereotyped through characters and these characters are used as a means of commentary about the lawyers of the time. Jaggers, from the novel Great Expectations, seems not to be an exception. Through the character of Jaggers, an understanding of Dickens' view of early nineteenth-century lawyers can be obtained.
In the end it is ironic that even though the narrator was attempting to teach Robert something it was the he who seemed to gain the most from the experience. The blind man and their drawing of the Cathedral are able to defy his previous conceptions of life and thus open a vast array of new possibilities. We are left wondering how much more the narrator learned about himself and about human communication than the blind man has learnt about cathedrals.
One example demonstrates Prynne’s conflict with society and her punishment. After Prynne’s public punishment on the scaffold, she obtained a shameful reputation throughout society. For Prynne, “the days of the far-off future would toil onward, still with the same burden for her to take up, and bear along with her, but never to fling down; for the accumulating days, and added years, would pile up their misery upon the heap of shame” (73). This sad description of Prynne’s life shows how the unending waves of pain become more unbearable as the days go by. However, Prynne accepts her punishment with patience while maintaining a sense of humility. Hawthorne uses this conflict to reveal Prynne’s humility and patience in the midst of a painful
In the novel, various forms of greed motivate the characters’ inhumanity by causing them to lose all knowledge of their responsibility to their fellow man. This is first displayed in the lawyer, Stryver, and the mistreatment of his business partner, Sydney Carton. Dickens writes “The more business he got, the greater his power seemed to grow of getting at its pith and marrow...”(Dickens 65). In Stryver’s attempt to gain money and popularity, he capitalizes on Carton’s long nights of hard work and takes all the credit for successes in court while Carton receives no recognition. Stryver’s cupidity to become a well-liked lawyer at the Old Bailey courthouse causes him to take advantage of his colleague. Greed and materialism are also demonstrated through Dickens sardonic descriptions of the French aristocracy. Dickens mockingly describes the Monseigneur in Town, “Of his pleasures, general and particular, Monseigneur had the other truly noble idea, that the world was made for them” (79). The Monseigneur in Town is not given a name because he is meant to symbolize a type of person, a Fren...
He proposes that the author appears unsympathetic toward characters like Hester or Dimmesdale when they embody the ideals of a revolution. He backs this up by explaining that ideas of revolution, bloodshed and everything else it accompanies, was repulsive to Hawthorne, and likewise the author of the Custom House. He calls to light important examples of when the Custom House author portrayed a character in a negative light, in accompany with a situation where that character was seen to be emulating certain revolutionary ideals. Reynolds directly states, “Specifically, when Hester and Arthur battle to maintain or regain their rightful place in the social or spiritual order the narrator sympathizes with them; when they become revolutionary instead and attempt to overthrow an establish order, he becomes unsympathetic” (625). He makes this claim in connection with the above mentioned scaffold. This revolutionary device is something that is meant to degrade and humiliate Hester, but instead, given the author’s negative feelings towards these revolutionary ideals, he uses it as a physical and metaphorical way to elevate Hester. The connection is further validated by the background knowledge Reynolds provides. Not just in this example, but throughout the piece, Reynolds gives the reader an insight into how Hawthorne was influenced by these ideals. He mentions how
Despite its frequently dreary nature, Romanticism runs rampant throughout the length of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The House of the Seven Gables. It becomes the most evident when one considers the curse that Matthew Maule laid upon Colonel Pyncheon during his execution. Just prior to his untimely demise, Maule proclaims, “‘God will give him blood to drink!’” (Hawthorne 3). Maule’s curse proves to be strangely telling being that it describes the manner in which the Colonel would die not long after his own death. When the Colonel’s death is taken into consideration by his descendants, it would appear as though they too are suffering and paying for his greatest sin—his false accusation of Maule. (The claim stated that Maule was a wizard and should be killed on account of his use of magic. The accusation was made so that Colonel Pyncheon could gain Maule’s lands following his execution). The notion that the Pyncheon family was struggling with their own nature, (an inclination toward malevolent behavior), and other intangible forces, which were not within their power to control, (Maule’s curse), played heavily into the prevalence of Romantic themes within Hawthorne’s novel.
At the first run down, the story seems to portray this Judge Pyncheon as an angel to the people who adventures on doing great deeds to all and affecting everyone in a positive manner. However, the details that Hawthorne includes provide a quick-witted rebuttal to the fake facade that Judge Pyncheon portrays. After listing Judge Pyncheon’s deeds to society, Hawthorne states, “what room could possibly be found for darker traits, in a portrait made up of lineaments like these!” (34-36). Referring to the Judge as a portrait exemplifies the idea that the Judge is acting as something not real to please those around him. Hawthorne’s attentiveness to details is shown through syntactical choices. The choice of having the incorrect punctuation, an exclamation instead of question mark, This grammatical choice is seen on numerous occasions, such as when Hawthorne exclaims, “what room could possibly be found for darker traits, in a portrait made up of lineaments like these!” (34-36),” and “what is there so ponderous in evil, that a thumb’s bigness of it should outweigh the mass of things not evil, which were heaped into the other scale!” (50-52). These choices portray the heavy sarcasm that Hawthorne contains towards these rhetorical questions. The questions serve to place the Judge on a pedestal of greatness, so that even with these
Lord Henry Wotton is an aristocrat who, in the beginning, is quickly branded as a cynical, witty man. The readers perceive Lord Henry Wotton as brilliant, when in reality; all this philosophies contradict each other, and this is noted in the book when he is called “Prince Paradox” (199). His words influence everyone who is unlucky enough to hear them; and he knows this. He “likes peoples better than principles” (11) and he understands the psychology of the human brain and has become a connoisseur in distinguishing the thoughts and words of people. Although Lord Henry isn’t necessarily an evil person, he is a depraved human being who “adores simple pleasures” (30) and classifies hedonism as more important than anything else. When Dorian asked if he was as bad an influence as Basil Hallward claimed, he replied slyly “there is no such thing as a good influence Mr. Gray. All influence...
...t Fielding tends to mock the upper class more and it can be argued they are the ones with worse characteristics however he also ridicules lower class characters such as Mrs. Slipslop, the middle aged plump lady's maid who is also a bully ; Peter Pounce, the swindling skinflint, Mrs. Tow-wouse, the scolding innkeepers wife and Pamela's hypocrisy in the sense she once saw Fanny as her equal but now deems herself to be superior. In conclusion we see that Fielding does not so much then make a distinction between class, but shows us that hypocrisy, vanity, unkindness and cruelty are vices that belong to all members of society and it is only those who see the goodness in humanity and who treat all others with kindness and respect regardless of class that are superior individuals.