Nathaniel Hawthorne's History and Act of Writing

Abstract

This essay aims to examine Hawthorne’s interrogation of idealism and history in his short stories, especially “Earth’s Holocaust” which has been neglected by critics. For this purpose, this article interrogates his stance on the contemporary reform movement and the reform because his ideas about idealism and history are entwined with his attitude toward the reform. I also investigate Hawthorne’s idea about the act of writing revealed in the narrative form because it represents his ideas about idealism and history in his writings. Hawthorne is critical of the contemporary reform movement and the reform. Rather than objecting to the reform itself, Hawthorne criticizes the fact that the reformers insist only on their own voice, suppressing and silencing the others’ voices. Hawthorne illustrates that, through the process that one dominant voice silences all the other voices, swung by idealism, history can be a ‘nightmare.’Hawthorne also never allows one voice to dominate the whole narrative in his act of writing. He never lets one voice dominate the readers’ act of reading. Thus, Hawthorne never fixes his mouthpiece on one character such as the narrator or the observer, and represents his thoughts through multi-voices of the characters including the minor characters. By making various strata of meanings between the statement and what he really thinks, Hawthorne allows and sometimes forces the readers to participate in the interpretation of the story through their act of reading. In this sense it could be said that Hawthorne’s attitude toward idealism and history realizes itself in his act of writing.