A Month of Sundays에 나타난 Hawthorne 신화

Abstract

A Study on the Hawthorne’s Mythologyin Updike’s A Month of SundaysJeong, Eun-jooA Month of Sundays is about Dimmesdale’s version of The Scarlet Letter. Updike focuses upon the verbal performance of Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter. Just as Dimmesdale who possesses the “Tongue of Flame” is a gifted speaker preaching to the people of Boston, so does Marshfield.Updike’s Marshfield is equally adept with language. Through his diary he displays his verbal powers. But Marshfield’s sermon differs from Dimmesdale’s. Marshfield delivers a comic performance filled with wordplay and silly puns. Marshfield attempts to revise America’s understanding of Christianity whereas Dimmesdale‘s speech emphasizes concealment. In appropriating Hawthorne’s story, Updike is afforded the opportunity not only to deal with same themes, issues, characters and plot, but also to revise Hawthorne, to recast The Scarlet Letter. Updike also joins Hawthorne in investigating the complex variables among sex, sin, and salvation. However, rejecting Hawthorne‘s distinction between the corrupt material and the pure spirit, Updike and his characters struggle toward a unity of the extremes at the cost of sexual transgression.Like this, though there are some differences between The Scarlet Letter and A Month of Sundays, Updike’s acquisition from Hawthorne’s work appears in many parts.