Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tales create a picturesque effect to reveal a moral purpose, which is most evident in The May Pole of Merry Mount and The Marble Faun. Hawthorne’s tales are both aesthetic and historical, and they reveal a borrowing of sources for the surroundings in which his characters undergo moral transformations. Jorge Luis Borges, in his essay entitled "Borges on Nathaniel Hawthorne," examines Hawthorne’s metaphors and setting, and he describes Hawthorne’s use of characterization to reveal a moral purpose. "Hawthorne first imagined, perhaps unwittingly, a situation and then thought of characters to embody it" (Borges 72). But Hawthorne goes beyond the effects of Original Sin to reveal a deeper meaning; Hawthorne reveals the necessity for a middle ground where the human experience should base itself on modesty and moral righteousness. In The May Pole of Merry Mount, man’s moral awareness manifests itself through the process of maturity. The theme of transformation unfolds through characterization and the destruction of the May Pole to establish that truth is uncovered through symbol and tragedy. One notion examined in this particular analysis is Hawthorne’s use of the pastoral and the organic metaphor of the flower to reveal the theme of pleasure resigned to virtue and man’s dual nature. "Pastoral literature depicts nature as a hieroglyphic to man’s inner self through the loves and sorrows of musical Shepherds, usually in an idealized Golden Age of rustic innocence and idleness" (Baldick 186). Through the marriage bond motif, Hawthorne establishes that the right of passage into a newly established community must entail the knowledge of both good and evil. Edgar and Edith discovered that "from the moment they truly loved, they had subjected themselves to earth’s doom of care and sorrow, and had troubled joy, and had no more home at merry Mount"(46). The notion of sin reconciled to virtue is best articulated by Roy Male who writes that in Hawthorne’s tales "the woman must become curious about man’s province of knowledge; the man must become passionately attracted to the woman and through this attraction become involved with time, sin and suffering"(Male 9). Similarly, in The Marble Faun, Miriam’s gaze persuades Donatello to commit murder, and through this act, he experiences a moral transformation, which allows him to perceive his world differently as a moral and wiser man. Although The May Pole of Merry Mount is rooted in New England history, the tale goes beyond a historical account. The tale reveals a colonial society and the necessity to find a middle ground amongst two conflicting ideologies. Hawthorne reverts to the two conflicting historical accounts of the incident at Merry Mount in his epigraph, as I will later discuss. Through the pastoral theme of transformation and moral growth, The May Pole of Merry Mount envisions the destruction of a conflict among colonists, the recovery of morality, and a new vision for subsequent generations.

Before commencing, I would like to introduce some of the criticism that has helped me form and condense my argument. Through synthesizing a variety of criticism, I have found that the several variations on theme and interpretation have led me to reconsider some recurring motifs in Hawthorne. One motif examined by a variety of critics is the "Fortunate Fall." Sydney Moss examines Hawthorne’s narrative presentation as support for her argument that Hawthorne was obsessed with the Fortunate Fall motif. In the following excerpt, Moss describes that in The Marble Faun, Miriam’s narrative presentation depicts Donatello’s moral awareness through the murdering of the model.

Moss’s interpretation parallels with the human drama found in The May Pole of Merry Mount, as Edgar and Edith must endure the destruction of pleasure symbolized by the cutting down of the May Pole by Endicott the "Puritan of Puritans." Endicott establishes that the young couple must adhere to the universal laws of "chaste adversity" to gain acceptance into a new Puritanical society. Moss’s interpretation relates to Roy Male’s "Hawthorne’s Tragic Vision." Both critics agree that sin is the vehicle to man’s moral awareness, but it is the tragedy of human folly that unfolds a greater sense of moral righteousness. Roy Male is concerned with Hawthorne’s depiction of the consequences of sin and the universal condition of man’s moral growth. "We need to keep these universal conditions of moral growth in mind to prevent confusion in reading Hawthorne. Any reader who approaches his work with the vague notion that these stories are simply concerned with the effects of sin, as the cliché goes, will never fully appreciate Hawthorne’s art"(Male 162). Roy Male defines and describes the organic-mechanical antithesis, which was prevalent during Hawthorne’s time. He discusses that like Emerson, Hawthorne interpreted an ethical implication of the organic metaphor. Hawthorne’s era of industrial revolution serves as the backdrop for his concern with the mechanical versus the organic perception of the world. Hawthorne agreed that "the full complexity of human life is best approached through metaphor, symbol and myth; the mechanical, mathematical, and static concepts are incapable of grasping the rhythmic unity of living things; and that man and his artistic achievements must be considered as an integral part of this unity" (20-21). Hawthorne’s organic symbolism, such as flower imagery, enforces Roy Male’s argument that through symbolism, Hawthorne transcends a more complex theme of man’s moral awareness and the male female bond, which is centered upon Original Sin. In his introduction, Male describes Hawthorne’s use of love stories. "As ‘love stories,’ Hawthorne’s romances are centered upon Original Sin. For it seems that he interpreted Original Sin as the mutual love of man and woman"(8). Though many of the critics in this analysis have various interpretations of the tale, they all explain and analyze Hawthorne’s fundamental attitude towards life and art. Before commencing this analysis, I would like to look to the words of Hawthorne himself in his notebooks, and rediscover his own perception of revelry and morality; it seems as though, like Edith and Edgar, Hawthorne himself somehow felt caught in the middle of two extremes. In one journal entry, Hawthorne writes of the masqueraders while at Brook Farm on September 28, 1841:

In the previous excerpt, Hawthorne reveals his own involvement with a bohemian society and how he, the spectator, somehow managed to remain isolated. Hawthorne observes the two conflicting societies, pagan and Christian and he describes himself, in a transcendental manner, as a spectator looking on to the landscapes. Perhaps he imagined, through the previous observation, the clashing philosophy that some how grounded America. In The May Pole of Merry Mount, Edgar and Edith represent the recovery of a nation who, because they become morally aware and psychologically mature, learn to function as the future generation of Puritans who learn to come to terms with both good and evil. Beginning with the description of landscapes, indicative of the new colony, Hawthorne sets the foundation for which his characters inevitably experience a new form of transformation.

As mentioned, pastoral literature alludes to the Golden Age and depicts the loss of innocence and the transformation of ideals. The Golden Age in Hawthorne seems analogous to the period of man’s innocence in Eden. Hawthorne’s implementation of the pastoral implies that moral awareness, like the human condition, must commence with a state of innocence and then transition into a complex state of awareness. "Because pastoral retreat ideally generates spiritual recovery in a natural place, the pastoral traveler measures his success in his ability to find meaning in his environment, to interpret nature’s hieroglyphic text and apply its lessons to life" (Anhorn 34). In The May Pole of Merry Mount, the description of landscapes depicts the transformation of ideals and it develops the notion of national fantasy that dominated the new world. Commencing with the pastoral scheme of movement back and forth from the old world to the new world’s landscapes, the seasonal pattern of the May Pole is described: "But May, or her mirthful spirit dwelt all year round at Merry Mount, sporting with the Summer months, and reveling with Autumn, and basking in the glow of Winter’s fireside"(40). The narrator depicts nature during midsummer’s Eve, which enforces the notion of fertility and change. "Midsummer eve had come bringing deep verdure hue than the tender buds of spring. But May, or her mirthful spirit, dwelt all year round at Merry Mount"(40). Just as in conventional pastoral literature, the narrator commemorates the new Puritan colonists and parallels praise with the book of Psalms in the Bible where God is praised for the new harvest: "Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us" (Psalm 67:5-6). Hawthorne uses similar narrative presentation in The May Pole of Merry Mount. "O, People of the Golden Age, your chief husbandry was to raise flowers!"(42). The people of the Golden Age are celebrated and commemorated as they fertilize the earth and attempt to create an idealistic society; they are of a rustic innocence and do not yet envision an adverse world. The pastoral backdrop in the introduction serves as the canvas for the conflict that will inevitably arise. As the landscapes experience the inevitable change of seasons, the central characters are introduced. "But what was the wild throng that stood hand in hand about the Maypole? It could not be that the fauns and nymphs, when driven from their classic groves and homes of fable, had sought refuge, as all the persecuted did, in the fresh woods of the West"(44). The fresh wood, according to the tale, sets the foundation for the original Puritans who sought emancipation and the freedom to worship. The narrator goes on to introduce the "Gothic Monsters" and parallels their description with their association with paganism. "These were the Gothic monsters, though perhaps of Grecian ancestry…a second, human in all other points, had the grim visage of a wolf; a third, still with the trunk and limbs of a mortal man, showed the beard and horns of a venerable he-goat"(43). The symbolism of the he-goat may be indicative of the depravity suspected by the Puritans at Merry Mount. The narrator later makes a comparison between the original Puritans and the revelers and later contrasts their laughter with Puritanical choruses. "The Puritans affirmed that, when a Psalm was pealing from their place of worship, the echo which the forest sent them back seemed often like the chorus of a jolly catch, closing with a roar of laughter"(43). The roar of laughter, in this context, is associated with the jollity and perversity of the revelers in the tale. Through the pastoral, Hawthorne depicts a hope that will manifest itself through the two protagonists. "The pastoral hope of literal return to an unaltered place and uncorrupted self is impossible, if beautiful dream" (Anhorn 41). This idea of hope is centered upon the Lord and Lady of the May, and it is the female character that will help the male’s transformation; the pastoral landscape aids them in interpreting the changing of the seasons with the human notion of inevitable change. Edgar and Edith will be the intermediations amongst the colonists, and they symbolize the hope of the new Puritanical society envisioned by the narrator. Along with the notion of hope, the pastoral landscape also depicts the perversity and Puritan rigidity of the two conflicting societies; the pastoral landscape in the tale is also Calvinistic. The conflict is between the two fundamentally fanatical societies, the Puritans and the Revelers, who colonize Merry Mount, the land of pastoral retreat, and attempt to impose their belief systems upon the young couple.

Up with your nimble spirits, ye morris-dancers, green men, and glee ladies, bears and wolves, and horned gentlemen! Come; a chorus now, rich with the mirth of Merry England, and the wilder glee of this fresh forest; and then a dance to show the youthful pair what life is made of (45).

The "flower decked priest" calls the votaries of the Maypole to aid him in imposing the false teaching of no limitations, and the revelers assist him in teaching the couple that life is made up of pleasure. The Gothic monsters demonstrate fanaticism in their behavior and in their acts of drunkenness and revelry, but in a similar manner, the original Puritans, later represented by Endicott, are also fanatic in their rigidity and in their inability to envision anything other than religious piety. As the Lord and Lady of the May "the two airiest forms" are introduced, the flowers they are surrounded by reflect upon their transparency and delicate nature. Edgar and Edith, the "airiest forms," will have to endure the reality of sin and moral righteousness to find the purpose of their union. Edith and Edgar are to find hope and piety and never to return to their original place of sin; the wreath of celestial roses symbolizes hope and virtue. The flower symbol continuously underlines three central themes: fertility and change, man’s dual nature, and the celestial male female bond centering upon Original Sin.

In The May Pole of Merry Mount, flowers play a large part in the meaning of the tale especially in the reconciliation of the conflict. Commencing the tale, as previously mentioned, flower symbolism alludes to the new world’s colonizers beginning with the pastoral scheme of original innocence. Fredrick Crews argues that we need to resort to Freudian dream-equivalences for flowers. It is his inclination that flowers are representatives of man’s unawareness of his sexual passions. Fredrick Crews makes this connection in Rappaccini’s Daughter. He argues that Hawthorne satirizes Giovanni’s unawareness of his sexual passions. Such as the following: "Along several obscure passages and emerges into the garden, forcing himself through the entanglement of shrub" (407). Much like in Rappaccini’s Daughter, we find that The May Pole of Merry Mount uses phallic symbolism and sexual in nature, such as the gilded staff held by Edgar and the obvious May Pole. But the tale is concerned with Edgar and Edith’s new moral awareness, which is indicated through the destruction of pleasure, and through Endicott’s destruction of the May Pole. In The May Pole of Merry Mount, flower imagery functions as the symbol of fertility and change. Through the flower as the organic-metaphor, nature is interpreted as the hieroglyphic of the human condition; the narrator reverts to the colonists and celebrates the lush forest and the planting of English seeds. "Garden flowers, and blossoms of the wilderness, laughed gladly forth amid the verdure, so fresh and dewy that they must have grown by magic on that happy pine-tree. On the lowest green bough hung an abundant wreath of roses, some that had been gathered in the sunniest spots of the forest, and others, of still a richer blush, which the colonists had reared from English seed"(42). Like the Golden Age, the narrator establishes the illusion of a utopian society through the personification of nature. Roy Male writes of the influences of the organic doctrine in Hawthorne’s works such as Goethe, Coleridge, and Thoreau. Male states that "Hawthorne habitually, almost compulsively, referred to himself and his work as organic: the Twice Told Tales which he likened to ‘flowers which blossomed in too retired a shade;’ the tales and sketches in Mosses from an Old Manse which ‘blossomed out like flowers in the calm summer of my heart and mind’ ‘the ripened fruit’ gathered in The Snow Image—these were the harvest of an author who often compared himself to a hawthorn-bush or a dubious bough on the family tree"(218-219 "From the Innermost Germ"). Since Hawthorne made the comparison between art and the image of a flower, it is my inclination he paralleled the symbol of flowers with his own idealistic perception of change and the man’s dual nature. Through flower imagery, it is relevant to consider Hawthorne’s antithesis of Joy and Sorrow. "In the May Pole of Merry Mount, light and gaiety are associated with classical paganism, gloom with northern Christianity, a connection which resembles The Marble Faun, in which the faun derives from Arcadia and the spectra is twice connected with the word ‘Gothic’ to say nothing of his monastic associations"(Waples 235). The association between The Marble Faun and The May Pole of Merry Mount is best described by Dorothy Waples, as she makes a direct comparison to classical paganism and contrasts it with Northern Christianity; it is evident that both the novel and the short story implement an antithesis of light and darkness in the description of landscapes. Dorothy Waples insists upon the notion that Hawthorne saw the need to implement sun and shade life and death in his tales. This is important when considering the theme of finding a middle ground among colonists. In The May Pole of Merry Mount, the flower image both establishes the marriage-bond motif and simultaneously foreshadows the destruction of idealism. While surrounded by flowers, Edith becomes apprehensive of the revelers, and Edgar becomes cognizant of sin. The flower then is contrasted with the antithesis of life and death. "Edith, sweet Lady of the May," whispered he reproachfully, "is yon wreath of roses a garland to hang above our graves, that you look so sad?"(42). As Edgar begins to question Edith, her expression of apprehension, much like Miriam’s gaze, foreshadows the destruction of the Maypole through the symbol of the withering rose. "Just then, as if a spell had loosened them, down came a little shower of withering rose leaves from the Maypole"(42). The roses, like the human condition, represent man’s inevitable fall. In The May Pole of Merry Mount, flowers contrast with the heathen perversity surrounding the protagonists, and the heathen priest curiously wears them in an over-decked fashion. "Behind this lightsome couple, so close to the Maypole that its boughs shaded his jovial face, stood the figure of an English priest, canonically dressed, yet decked with flowers, in heathen fashion"(43). The description of the priest’s flowers in heathen fashion establishes that the flower image is two-fold: the flower depicts the two extremes of innocence and overindulgence. The image of the flower also surrounds the central action of the tale, and it foreshadows and reconciles the conflict between the celestial Puritans and the over-indulgencing bohemians. In this sense, the flower reveals that the human condition is both good and evil and that it must base itself on modesty in order to function as a society. The roses surround the Maypole are symbolic of the marriage-bond, but the bond is not finalized until the protagonists learn that their union is meant for the purpose of setting the standard for future generations. The heathen depiction of the union is "flowery" but it is not complete until Endicott consecrates the marriage with his wreath of roses. "The wreath of roses, that hung from the lowest green bough of the Maypole, had been twined for them, and would be thrown over both their heads, in symbol of their flowery union"(43). The heathen roses hang from the lowest bough in contrast to the wreath of roses that is later thrown on the couple’s heads by Endicott, signifying a new sense of intellect and psychological maturity. The flowery union, for Edith and Edgar, must entail both innocence and perversity or the knowledge of good and evil. The analogy between spirit and nature is presented in the covenant that is finalized through the wreath of roses:

Endicott throws the wreath of flowers over Edgar and Edith’s heads to indicate their acceptance into the Puritan society. The flower imagery like love "begins and ends in the soul but it is also fertile producing knowledge and virtue" (Flannagan 113). The flowers surrounding the new Puritans, Edgar and Edith, separate them from the world and help them find a new purpose. The narrator describes their dark glossy curls and contrasts them with roses positioned on their head and at their feet depicting the beginning and end, or the inevitable wages of sin and death. Like the Lady of the May, flowers are central in their association with affection and virtue. In the Epigraph of the tale, Hawthorne refers to Strutt’s account of the English May Day festival. In Strutt’s account, the female is the central image of the May Day festival, and its legend reinforces association between the flowers and the female male bond:

Strutt’s book illustrates the consecration of the Lady of the May or "Goddess of flowers." The previous excerpt explicates the legend and the custom of consecrating the female or the Lady of the May. The significance of Lady Edith, in Hawthorne’s account, parallels with her role in the origins of the legend; the Lady of the May is most significant for the purpose of revealing the moral in the tale. Some critics argue as to whether Hawthorne was retelling history or simply using history as the atmosphere for his fiction. John Vickery’s The Golden Bough at Merry Mount states: "it is a commonplace to observe that Hawthorne’s short stories draw heavily on myth, legend and folklore both for materials and atmosphere"(Vickery 203). Vickery examines the legendary and folklore material Hawthorne used to determine the possible significance it may have for this and other stories. The legend Hawthorne makes known in this tale, according to Vickery, reveals the central theme of mirthful pleasure among rigid Puritan ideals. In The May Pole of Merry Mount, Hawthorne’s use of folklore and legend establishes that the female character is associated with flower imagery, and like Original Sin, she is associated with man’s awareness of evil. Several parallels links The May Pole of Merry Mount to Milton’s Adam and Eve in Paradise Lost. Several critics have interpreted flower imagery as Hawthorne’s recurring Edenic motif. That is, flowers have both perverse and celestial implications. Hawthorne may

*The Sports and Pasttimes of the People of England, ed. Williams Hone (London Chatto and Windus, 1876)

have alluded to John Milton’s Paradise Lost for flower imagery in The May Pole of Merry

Mount. In Book III, Milton uses flower imagery as the foreknowledge of man’s original sin and his later redemption:

In Paradise, fast by the Tree of Life

Began to Bloom, but soon for man’s offence

To Heav’n remov’d where fast it grew, there grows,

And flours aloft shading the Fount of Life,

And where the river of Bliss through midst of Heaven

Rowls o’re Elysian Flours her Amber streams;

With these that never fade the Spirits elect

Bind their resplendent locks inwreath’d with beams (III, 364).

Milton’s flowers, as indicated in the previous excerpt, are originated from Heaven shading over the Fountain of Life. The flower images, like the Puritans, are indicative of the "Spirits elect" or the society that will later fertilize the new world with propriety and stern faith. This parallels with the commencement of The May Pole of Merry Mount, where flowers also reveal a celestial Golden Age innocence. Beginning with the description of the roses that sit on the lap of the fertile earth; flowers commence the tale, surround its plot, and bring forth a final resolution. Hawthorne may have alluded to Milton’s flowers in Paradise Lost to intensify their purity. In Book IV of Paradise Lost, Milton implements the image of classical fecundity:

On Juno smiles, when he impregns the Clouds

That shed May Flowers and pressed her Matron lip

With kisses pure: aside the Devil turned (IV, 500).

According to the footnote in the epic, "it was appropriate to implement the image of classical fecundity since Jupiter is the one who impregnates clouds, which then in turn give birth to flowers"(Flannagan 457). In Georgics 2.325, Virgil pictures Jupiter descending through the air, pouring fruitful, showers (he is a sky God) of all human beings and, more importantly because she is a married woman of social rank" (Flannagan 457). The marriage bond motif is also relevant in the reconciliation of the tale and the recovery of morality for the protagonists.

The female protagonist is central in the male’s transformation. Beginning with Edgar, it is not until his female companion aids him in seeing beyond mirthful pleasure that his eyes are opened. Edgar stands erect and his is blinded by the intense light of his "gilded staff," while Edith’s expression is perplexed and apprehensive. Edgar will have to become aware of Edith’s apprehension and later pledge to give his own life for the sake of their love. A similar pledge occurs for Donatello in The Marble Faun. For Donatello, the drastic measure of murder establishes his new moral awareness, and the action of murder, or his willingness to commit murder for Miriam, serves as a symbol of the ultimate human sacrifice, the sacrifice of his soul. Prior to Donatello’s fall, he is envisioned in an idealistic society, but this society is not his native Rome but rather the "new world" he has found in "knowing" Miriam. "He found himself in her society, not as heretofore, in the gloom of Rome, but under that bright, soft sky and in those Arcadian woods" (77). Donatello, like Edgar, is blinded by a present state of idled innocence and is concerned with "dancing along the wood-path flinging him self into attitudes of strange, comic grace" (78). But it is in this Arcadian society that both Miriam and Donatello are bonded and share genuine love for one another. Much like the commencement of The May Pole of Merry Mount, Donatello and Miriam share a common bond in nature, and both couples must envision a darker element or the antithesis of the human condition of man’s dual nature of good and evil. "Donatello’s unsophisticated heart would be more readily attracted to a feminine nature of clear simplicity, like his own, than to one already turbid with grief or wrong, as Miriam seemed to be" (79). The narrator goes on to justify man’s need for the darker element. "Perhaps, on the other hand, his character needed the darker element which it found in her" (79). The darker element is necessary in Hawthorne’s use of man’s dual nature; Miriam is both the sinner and the redeemer of Donatello’s morality. Edith’s character is also multifaceted in that she is innocent and transparent in nature, but critical enough to envision that their jovial friends are in fact counterfeit while standing as a "fair maiden" with "slender fingers" loosely grasping onto Edgar’s right hand "the ensign of high dignity among the revelers." The male character, standing tall and erect, begins his own transformation once the female makes him aware. In The Marble Faun, a similar transformation occurs for Donatello. The subsequent excerpt introduces Miriam and Donatello in their state of innocence:

They played like children or creatures of immortal youth; for (so much had they flung a side the somber habitudes of daily life) they seemed to be sportive forever, and endowed with eternal mirthfulness instead of any deeper joy. It was a glimpse far backward into Arcadian life, or, farther still, into the Golden Age, before mankind was burdened with sin and sorrow, and before pleasure had been darkened with those shadows that bring into high relief, and make it Happiness"(84).

Donatello and Miriam are described as "creatures of immortal youth," and sportive and playful in nature. Allusions to the Golden Age establish the pastoral element of movement from one ideal to another in the novel. Like Miriam and Edgar, the young couple set in a position of idealism, before mankind was aware of good and evil representative of the new world and the possibility to establish a stern faith of devoted Puritans. The short story reveals the theme of transformation through the use of historical characterization as a backdrop.

It is relevant to consider how critics have interpreted Hawthorne’s use of history in his fiction. Sheldon W. Leibman reviews Hawthorne’s Miltonic backdrop and the borrowing of other sources for The May Pole of Merry Mount suggesting that Hawthorne’s setting and characterization outweighs its historical account, while it underlines the recurring theme of pleasure reconciled to virtue. John P. Mc Williams contrasts with Leibman’s argument by describing The May Pole of Merry Mount as "an opportunity for reflection of the origins of the national character" (Mc Williams 4). Mc Williams bases his argument on the actual history of Merry Mount, or Mount Wollaston, reconstructing the tale through tracing William Bradford and Thomas Morton’s accounts of the incident at Merry Mount. Mc Williams argues that both Morton and Bradford, much like the Puritans and the Revelers in the tale, had conflicting ideologies resulting in the destruction of the May Pole and the formation of ethics. Supporting his argument with Governor William Bradford’s unpublished account of Merry Mount in the History of the Plymouth Plantation 1620-1647, Mc Williams argues that "to follow Merry Mount from the accounts of Bradford and Morton, through historian’s reconstructions to historical literature is to survey one of the adaptable legends by which a people continues to define itself" (Mc Williams 4). This is relevant when unfolding John Endicott’s intervention. In the May Pole, John Endicott’s arrival shifts the action on the tale.

In The May Pole of Merry Mount, Endicott’s intervention, the "Puritan of Puritans," commences a new vision through his destruction of the Maypole. The "Immitigable Zealot," the epithet used to describe him, is symbolic to the destructiveness of fanaticism and man’s need to find a common ground in order to form a society; it is only through his entrance that the antagonists begin to transform their thoughts and actions. Endicott’s actual destruction of the May Pole is one of the central concerns of the tale; it is through its destruction that Edith and Edgar’s sincerity and love is revealed. The genuine love expressed by both Edgar and Edith establishes the transformation of ideals. It is also this love and sincerity that softens Endicott, the "Puritan of Puritans." The narrator is also concerned with the spiritual recovery of Merry Mount. As tale progresses, the narrator leaves the marriage scene and begins to retell the history of the original colonists. The narrator introduces the "stern band of Puritans" and the revelers who shared different interests and intentions. Some colonists were concerned with piety, while others were interested in trading with the savage Indians. Hawthorne’s narrative presentation describes the conflicting ideology amongst two groups of colonists:

Two hundred years ago, and more, the old world and its inhabitants became mutually weary of each other. Men voyaged by the thousands to the West: some to barter glass beads, and such like jewels, for the furs of the Indian hunter; some to conquer virgin empires; and one stern band to pray…The men of whom we speak; after losing the heart’s fresh gayety, imagined a wild philosophy of pleasure, and came hither to act out their latest dream (42).

The previous excerpt defines and describes the original intent of the colonists. The journey to the West, like the people of the Golden Age, had fertilized the new world with new ideals and decorated its landscapes with idealistic dreams and the vision of a new society. The conflict arised, according to the previous narrative, when the voyagers lost sight of their morality and learned the new "philosophy of pleasure." The narrator describes the old world and how it brought unto the new world pagan customs, which were interpreted as perverse and blasphemous for the Puritans. "Its votaries danced round it, once at least, in every month; sometimes they called it their religion" (43). Similarly, the narrator goes on to describe the Puritans as the "most dismal wretches" who, in a sense, worship their whipping post in a similar manner.

The selectmen are criticized for their behavior as they too demonstrate perverse worshiping of the whipping post. The narrator describes the dangers of hypocrisy and satirizes the early colonists. "There were the silken colonists, sporting round the Maypole; perhaps teaching a bear to dance or striving to communicate their mirth to the grave Indian…they made game of their own stupidity and began a yawning match"(44). Through Hawthorne’s social satire, the reader is able to envision the ignorance, the original intentions and the final outcomes of the colonizers. The feud between the two groups personifies the philosophical foundation of two conflicting societies. Once this occurs, the central action shifts to the Puritan May Pole or the "Whipping Post." Through Endicott’s entrance, the gaiety diminishes and the revelers begin their transformation from mirth to sorrow. "So stern was the energy of his aspect, that the whole man, visage, frame, and soul, seemed wrought of iron, gifted with life and thought, yet all one substance with his headpiece and breastplate. It was the Puritan of Puritans; it was Endicott himself!"(44). Endicott’s arrival changes the focus of the action from the dancing masqueraders to their dreadful cry. "At the sound, the Puritan leader glanced at the Crew of Comus (the personification of perversity) each a figure of broad mirth, yet at this moment, strangely expressive of sorrow and dismay"(44). The figures previously mentioned are representative of a change or metamorphosis from mirth to doom depicting the darker element of the human condition. These central characters, like Edith and Edgar, inevitably witness the destruction of the May Pole and the new birth of ideals. Endicott, mirroring the flower-decked priest in his extreme behavior, fanatically calls out to the Puritan who asks what to do about the dancing bear. "Shoot him in the head…I suspect witchcraft in the beast (46)." Endicott’s narrative presentation establishes that the Puritanical ideology is as extreme as the perverse activity of the pagans. This notion of extremism is destroyed as the May Pole is destroyed, as both groups of colonists must learn to reach a consensus. The cutting down of the Maypole functions as the symbol of the attempt to form a middle ground and the transformation from perversity to modesty; the recovery of morality parallels with Hawthorne’s concern for finding this middle ground among colonists.

Though the destruction of the May Pole is also an extreme act, it is through this destruction that the colonists are able to envision a new perspective for the future. Endicott states, "give each of these bestial pagans one other dance round their idol…Wherefore bind the heathen crew, and bestow on them a small matter of stripes apiece, as earnest of our future justice"(45). Endicott longs to punish the heathen crew as an indication of justice, but this does not establish the justice he longs for. Justice is found in the marriage-bond which is centered upon the two extremes of revelry and Puritanical rigidity. The two protagonists must sway the rigid Puritan to create a society that is able to know both good and evil. But this seemingly Calvinistic society must adhere to the laws of Puritanism in modesty and adversity, as the couple must transform their attire to suit Endicott. A similar spiritual recovery must occur in The Marble Faun. In The Marble Faun, "the spiritual recovery of Eden parallels with the vineyards of Donatello’s native place; his native garden appears differently to him as his experiences alter his moral awareness" (Anhorn 34). The parable of the workers in the vineyard provides the background of The Marble Faun’s theme of moral recovery. The recovery also occurs when Miriam and Donatello transform from their initial childishness of the Arcadian woods to their serious marriage-bond in the Eden of the present world. The marriage-bond is the difficult path of righteousness in which the couple will endure adversity, sin and suffering. In the following excerpt, Donatello and Miriam find a new purpose for their union:

The fancy impressed him, that she too, like Donatello, had reached a wayside Paradise, in their mysterious life-journey, where they both threw down the burden of Before and After…To-day, Donatello was the sylvan Faun; to-day Miriam was his fit companion, a Nymph of grove or fountain, tomorrow—a remorseful Man and Woman, linked by a marriage-bond of crime—they would set forth towards an inevitable goal" (435).

The May Pole of Merry Mount. The previous excerpt describes the "remorseful Man and Woman" and the mysterious law of human tragedy. That is, the marriage-bond is serious and underlines man’s purpose in life. Unlike the "flowery union" that was falsified by the pagan priest, the union of man and woman is for the purpose of the soul’s moral growth. The marriage will establish the recovery of Eden, which manifests through the transformation of Edgar and Edith and their acceptance into the Puritan community; both Edgar and Edith are the future generation of a mature and more rational level of consciousness. "But never had their youthful beauty seemed so pure and high as when its glow was chastened by adversity"(46). It is curious that despite the commencement of the tale, Edgar and Edith are not described as being physically attractive until they have both superseded the fall and destruction of the May Pole, or the "Fortunate Fall." Edith’s character is the female representation of Original Sin and suffering by which the male becomes aware of his moral purpose. "Be it death," said Edith, "and lay it all on me!"(46). Their final pledge and willingness to sacrifice their own life and never to return to a life of sin is the vision that they establish for the colonists, and it is this vision that grants them their redemption. Edith’s mystery leaves her with a "dreary presentiment of inevitable change"(42). Edith is searching for truth, which according to Hawthorne, must come from within the human heart. In The Marble Faun, both Miriam and Donatello transform their thoughts and actions.

Immediately behind Miriam and Donatello stand the eternal woman and man in Milton’s story of the Fall; the woman’s yearning for further knowledge, her effort to achieve increased efficiency through division of labor—her desire, in short to ‘know’ the man; the man’s initial unity with nature, his impassioned longing for a mate, and his ‘glorious trial of exceeding love’ as he joins Eve in Paradise Lost remain the best introduction to Hawthorne" (Male 162).

The previous quote adequately describes perhaps Hawthorne’s model for both The Marble Faun and The May Pole of Merry Mount. This interpretation supports the claim that the male female bond is both virtuous and celestial. Through the yearning for further knowledge, the central characters and their unity with nature; Hawthorne reveals that his tales go beyond the effects of sin. Through finding a middle ground among colonists, Edgar and Edith create a new vision for the new world, as the couple’s bond is finalized according to the laws of Puritanism, a new moral awareness is manifested. The young couple learns that their marriage bond sets the foundation for a people who must learn to know both good and evil. The couple learns to set the Puritan example of morality for future generations.

Beginning with the marriage bond motif characterized by The May Pole of Merry Mount, I envision the Puritanical perception of marriage through the transformation of an early colony and their attempt to bestow their ideology. But Hawthorne criticized fanaticism, and that he saw the need to eliminate extreme behavior of all forms. It is interesting to observe how Hawthorne traces his own genealogy and pays tribute to the original intentions of his ancestors, but simultaneously acknowledges their flaws and their extremism. This is evident in most of his fiction. It is also interesting to envision how Hawthorne, the son of Puritan forefathers, interpreted the old world in The Marble Faun how he envisioned a young couple’s bond on the backdrop of Roman ruins. Without sounding too cliché, I find that it is inevitable to read Hawthorne and not see the moral picturesque behind his short stories and novels. Through examining various interpretations, one common theme among many critics mentioned in this analysis is the Hawthorne’s allegorical representation of the human condition; Hawthorne believed, according to critics, that man cannot create a perfect world without the darker element or the understanding of good and evil. Much like Miriam and Donatello pelting each other with flowers in the Arcadian woods, Hawthorne pelts us with vague insights of the meaning behind his art and only reveals small increments of his original intention; perhaps Hawthorne intended to disclose that truth is always at our grasp but that truth could only reveal itself through the subconscious and through metaphor and symbol. The preface to The House of Seven Gables, has truly given me a better understanding of Hawthorne’s ambiguity:

Kenyon in The Marble Faun wittingly describes that one of the greatest mistakes is to try to understand the human condition through language. "It is a great mistake to try to put our best thoughts into human language (says Kenyon). When we ascend into the higher regions of emotion and spiritual enjoyment, they are only expressible by such grand hieroglyphics as these around us (258). Hawthorne explored the "higher regions" and interpreted the human condition through metaphor. He described "nature, in beast, fowl and tree and earth, flood and sky, is what is was of old; but sin, care and self consciousness have set the human portion of the world askew; and thus the simplest character is ever the surest to go astray" (239-240). Hawthorne agreed with the Transcendentalists that moral reform must come from within, but he believed in the need for human tragedy, which is most evident in The Marble Faun. Jorge Luis Borges writes that "his solution was to compose moralities and fables; he made or tried to make art a function of the conscience" (79). Borges discusses Hawthorne’s notebooks and describes his obsession with the implementation of morality in his art. "The notebooks in which he jotted down ideas for plots have been preserved; in one of them, dated 1836, he wrote, ‘A snake taken to a man’s stomach and nourished there from fifteen years to thirty five, tormenting horribly.’ "That is enough, but Hawthorne considers himself obliged to add" ‘A type of envy or some evil passion’ (70). Hawthorne’s own words in The Marble Faun help enforce the theme of this analysis. "And most precious privilege of all, whatever their perplexity, sorrow, guilt, may weigh upon their souls, they can fling down the dark brethren at the foot of the Cross, and go forth and sin no more, nor be any longer disquieted—but to live again in the freshness and elasticity of innocence"(355). It seems as though Hawthorne longed to revert to a state of innocence, perhaps to Merry Mount’s eternal spring, where the transgressions of his predecessors could diminish in his memory. "In 1958 Hawthorne stood, like his Donatello, upon the battlements of his own life, an American exile yearning against expectation to return to the forbidden green garden of his memory and his ambition"(Anhorn 41). Perhaps Hawthorne’s would one day return to his green garden in death; at least this is what his Puritan forefathers believed.