'Times portraiture' : the temporal design of hawthorne's shorter fiction
Date
2015-02-09
Authors
Cohen, Hazel Ann
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Abstract
A study of the shorter fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne reveals a rich
experimentation with narrative techniques, all working towards what
Edgar Allan Poe, Hawthorne's first critic, called a 'certain unique
or single effect'. The aim of this dissertation is to show how
Hawthorne's concern with the complex nature of man's temporal existence
governs both the theme and structure of his fiction. Time implies
both change and flux, and is inextricable from the historical, social
and psychological evolution of Hawthorne's characters. As theme,
time is used to disclose patterns of withdrawal and return, the problem
of the individual alienated from his society, and the tension between
the realm of art and the world of actuality. As structure, time is
used in various ways to govern the pace of a particular story and, most
certainly, to govern the unfolding sequence of events. Hawthorne
consciously experiments with different generic modes, with a diversity
of beginnings and endings, in order to explore the inexhaustible
manifestations of human time.