Tregre, Fuller and Hawthorne

An interesting fact I would like to share with the class is the fact that Hawthorne's character Zenobia in The Blithedale Romance, is supposed to be modeled after Margaret Fuller. Margaret was a guest at Brook Farm, the community Blithedale is also modeled after. Before The Blithedale Romance was written, Brook Farm was a community to act as the epitome of a perfect one. Blithedale was the result of Hawthorne’s reflection of his experiences.
Here’s a list of coincidences and things that do not match up between Fuller and Zenobia:
-Zenobia's death was modeled another women named Martha who drowned herself and not the shipwreck that ended Fuller's life. Though the manner of death does not match, there are other parallels between Zenobia and Fuller.
-Like Fuller, Zenobia was an activist for women's rights.
-Many critics think that when Hawthorne has the character, Priscilla, hand off a letter from Fuller, it is to draw attention away from the fact that he made Zenobia resemble Fuller so much.
-The character Zenobia wore flowers in her hair, much like Fuller would wear tropical flowers in hers.
-Her character was also similar to Zenobia in the way she liked to be in the center of attention and was educated.
-There were too many mirrors for the public to deny that Zenobia closely resembled Fuller.
-Before Blithedale was written, the community of Brook Farm existed. It was the transcendentalist's enterprise, Margaret Fuller was a transcendentalist.
-Fuller’s family believed the Zenobia to be modeled after Margaret and were furious.
Hawthorne was coy. Whether it was intentional or not for Zenobia and Fuller to mirror eachother, The Blithedale Romance was modeled after Hawthorne’s stay on Brook Farm as to which Fuller often visited.
Coincidence? I think not.

cats, hearts, and depravity

The idea of hell on earth was around well before the gothic writers, the Puritans we have studied believed that they were alone in the wilderness and that the devil was always ready to tempt them away from the righteous path. A new theme of gothic writing would be that the hell we live in is of our own creation. Just as in “Endicott and the Red Cross” where the landscape’s reflection can be seen on Endicott, the opposite must be truth.
The natural depravity of man is easier seen in Poe’s writing. In “The Black Cat”, the narrator blamed his actions on outside influences, mainly alcohol. Until that point, he described himself as a well mannered and caring man, but it is not the alcohol but his reactions to the drug. The drink cannot bring out something that is not already there, so this dark side must have already been within him. Because every human is capable of such actions, it would be hard to describe anyone as fully innocent. The exception to this would be Georgiana from “The Brithmark” who thought only of her husband and agreed to the most dangerous of procedures just to make herself more pleasing for her husband. Unfortunately, the mark was connected to her heart and when it was severed so was her life. Hawthorne shows how depravity of another can corrupt hearts and thus their innocence.

The Use of Gothic Elements in Poe and Hawthorne

Poe’s story, “The Black Cat,” chronicles the fall of a man from innocence into corruption. The narrator states that he was always fond of animals and had many pets. However, driven by “the instrumentality of the Fiend Intemperance,” the narrator tortures and eventually lynches his favorite black cat. The gruesome actions of the narrator incite the reader’s horror, a gothic element that shows the narrators responsibility in the death. The narrator makes sure that he distances himself from his actions by blaming the external force of alcohol for his loss of sanity and innocence. But what caused him to drink in the first place? His natural depravity, of course. He uses reasoning to show that he still possesses his humanity. However, his lack of empathy is what truly angers him. The narrator attempts to kill the second cat because it seems to be more human than he is. The world around him shows him his depravity, such as when his house burns down and his wife’s tomb in the wall howls when the police are there. These gothic elements elucidate the depravity of the narrator’s loss of empathy and innocence.

In “My Kinsman, Major Molineux,” Hawthorne tells the coming of age story of Robin, a youth from the country seeking his kinsman to help him set up a living as he moves from innocence to experience. He arrives in town when it is ominously dark, signaling that he is moving away from the light (and innocence) of the country. The people he meets also possess a duality; when Robin asks where he can find Major Molineux, the people are brisk, angry, or silent. When Robin walks away, they all laugh cheerfully at the irony that Molineux will be killed very soon by a mob. These gothic elements confirm Robin’s original naiveté. Robin initially thinks that he will simply go home after he finds out the fate of his kinsman, but decides that it serves his interests better to join the rebellious mob and become part of the “community of sin.” He begins to understand that this is how the world works; his innocence would not allow him to adapt so he leaves it behind by embracing human depravity.

Both these stories contain the paradoxical idea that innocence is innate, but there is also a natural depravity that counteracts this. The gothic elements, such as the darkness or morbidity of the people or actions, are used as signals to demonstrate that things are changing and innocence can no longer remain.

Perfection and Naivety

I know the above image is quite large, but it is important to see the need and desire for the girl to achieve a perfect body. The above picture relates to the American Dream developing. Human nature to be perfect and the innocence that one can defeat death emerge in these stories. This girl wants to be perfect, no matter how skinny she gets she will not reach it, for it does not exist. Perfection does not exist.

In relation to Poe and Hawthorne, the two stories I read were "The Mask of the Red Death," and "The Birthmark." Both were very interesting stories written in a tragic sense. It is evident that the authors, Poe and Hawthorne, were now starting to write about human depravity and the idea of American innocence. Americans are starting to deviate from the Puritan norm and starting to write about the "fall of Eden." The quest for perfectionism and to escape death, two things that are not possible.
In "The Mask of the Red Death," the main character tries desperately to avoid a plague by hiding in his abbey with seven rooms. As he tries to evade death, death comes to him in the end and kills him instantly and first. One cannot be so naive to believe they can beat death. Prince Prospero locked himself in his abbey with a couple hundred people and locked the plague out. However, the plague still crept in and turned out to be a guest at the ball. His human nature was to evade this inevitable terror, but in the end, everyone succombs to death. Prospero made the crucial mistake of believing him smarter than this creature of death, but this gothic tale depicts the harsh truth of life. For a short further summary click here.
Then in "The Birthmark" it depicts the human instinct to strive for perfectionism. A man marries a beautiful woman who has a birthmark on her face. While men are pleased with her appearance, her husband grows more grotesque with her birthmark as each day passes. When the couple finally remove the birthmark, she instantly dies after she wakes up. The husband was able to have one moment of his wife's perfection, then lost her for good. He sacrificed a satisfying, loving life in order to achieve a perfection that simply was not possible. His nature of wanting his wife to be perfect was granted at a severe cost. While cutting out her birthmark, he cut out his wife's heart. The perfection was not love, but human depravity cost him his love. It showed him that he had all he needed and that his future was perfect right in front of him. For a different analysis with sexuality, click here.
These two concepts of human nature and innocence come crashing down in these authors' stories. Human nature is bad and deviates from God during this time and innocence has yet to be jaded.

Blog Assignment: Poe and Hawthorne

Choose one Poe story and one Hawthorne story and discuss how the gothic elements in each story help to elucidate the conflict in American Literature between the idea of natural depravity and the idea of American innocence. This blog will be due on March 5. Blogs posted after March 5 will not be accepted.

Posted by: Mary McCay