English Language and Literature ETDs

Publication Date

12-16-1969

Abstract

While Nathaniel Hawthorne's tragic vision has been treated in depth in contemporary critical literature, his comic vision has received scant attention. One result of this trend has been to under-rate Hawthorne as a comic writer. Yet an analysis of his short fiction, both tales and sketches, reveals that Hawthorne was not deficient in the comic mode of writing. This dissertation takes up the problem of assessing Hawthorne as a comic writer, mainly from the point of view of irony. The ironic dimension, however, does not exclude tragedy; hence the area of investigation is not limited to the comic alone. In fact, the ironic dimension, as will be shown in this dissertation, encompasses both the comic and tragic literary expressions of Hawthorne in short fiction. To evaluate the ironic dimension objectively one must include all of Hawthorne's short works rather than select only a few tales or sketches. This material appears in Twice-Told Tales (1842), Mosses from an Old Manse (1846) and The Snow­Image (1851). Each tale and sketch is examined for ironic content, together with the critical literature related to Hawthorne's ironic vision. Because the sketches have received scant critical evaluation, it was deemed necessary to include them in this analysis. The first chapter reviews the critical assessments of the ironic dimension in Hawthorne's vision. It reveals that for many years the ironic dimension of Hawthorne's fiction was largely overlooked in favor of other more striking features. This dissertation endeavors to show that irony is a major feature in Hawthorne's short fiction. In each succeeding chapter, as the tales and sketches are examined, the striking fact emerges that irony pervades the short fiction of Hawthorne. It also becomes apparent that Hawthorne excelled in the use of dramatic irony in both the tragic and the comic forms and that he made extensive use of other kinds of irony: romantic or aesthetic irony, irony of self-mockery, and verbal irony. In fact, the irony is so extensive and pervasive that one is forced to raise the question: Was Hawthorne's vision, after all, basically ironic and skeptical rather than darkly tragic or lightly comic? The author of this dissertation holds the view that, at least in so far as Hawthorne revealed his vision through his short fiction, he was fundamentally a skeptic. This view explains, at least partly, why there is so much ambiguity in Hawthorne's short works.

Degree Name

English

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

English

First Committee Member (Chair)

Ernest Warren Baughman

Second Committee Member

George Warren Arms

Third Committee Member

Edith Buchanan

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

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