Annotated Bibliography

Bell, Michael Davitt.  “Old and New Worlds in The Scarlet Letter.”  Swisher 153-158.

            Bell contrasts the Old World (England) and the New World (New England) in

order to show how Hester must sacrifice her rich, old world self to become an

American, while Pearl moves abroad and retains her Old World richness.

Bloom, Harold.  The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages.  New York:

            Harcourt, 1994.

            Bloom identifies the novel as canonical because its themes are timeless.  He also

makes connections between Shakespeare – the center of the canon – and

Hawthorne, who was a great admirer of the Bard’s work, although he didn’t rely

on Shakespeare as much as he did other authors, like John Bunyan.

Bradley, Sculley, Richmond Croom Beatty, and E. Hudson Long.  “The Social Criticism

            of a Public Man.”  Swisher 47-49.

            This short article contends that Hawthorne was actually very social, despite the

claims of some biographers, and that it was this interest in his fellow beings that

led him to examine the relationships between his characters and society.

Cameron, Sharon.  “The Self Outside Itself: ‘Wakefield’ and ‘The Ambitious Guest.’”

            Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Tales. Ed. James McIntosh.  New York: Norton, 1987.

            This article deals tangentially with “The Minister’s Black Veil” and claims that

the story of Hooper shows the split between body and soul in corporal form by

using the device of the black veil.

Canby, Henry Seidel.  “A Skeptic Incompatible with His Time and His Past.”  Swisher

            55-63.

            The argument here is that Hawthorne was neither a member of the growing

industrial age nor the Puritan past he wrote about.  Since he belongs to neither the

past nor the present, Hawthorne chooses a timeless topic: sin.  Within this

framework, the most important element is how characters respond to sin, not the

sinful acts themselves.

Chase, Richard.  “The Ambiguity of The Scarlet Letter.”  Swisher 145-152.

            SL is many things for this author: a paradox, a moral tale, a feminist tract, a

commentary on society and politics, and an “artview” on the world of allegory

and myth.  The novel needs all of these interpretations because it is so complex

that it cannot be confined to a simple analysis.

Cowley, Malcolm.  Introduction.  The Portable Hawthorne.  New York: Viking, 1966.

            1-21.

            Cowley’s comprehensive introduction focuses mainly on Hawthorne’s biography

            and the effect his hometown of Salem had on him.  Much of Cowley’s emphasis

is centered upon the events in Hawthorne’s life that led to him creating certain

types of stories.

Feidelson, Charles, Jr.  “Hawthorne as Symbolist.”  Kaul 64-71.

            Feidelson explores the symbolistic method – the repetition of universal and

specific symbols – employed by Hawthorne in countless works.

Ferguson, Suzanne C.  “Defining the Short Story: Impressionism and Form.”  Essentials

            of the Theory of Fiction, 2^nd ed.  Ed. Michael J. Hoffman and Patrick D. Murphy.

            Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1996.

            This article seeks to show how Hawthorne uses the same techniques in

storytelling that an Impressionist painter uses in painting; that is, giving a broad

impression of a scene while still allowing for much interpretation by the audience.

Fiedler, Leslie.  Love & Death in the American Novel.  New York: Anchor, 1992.

            Fiedler’s classic study claims that even though the three main characters of SL

agree to sell out to the devil, each is eventually tricked into grace and salvation by

the novel’s end.

Guerin, Wilfrid L., et al, eds.  “Traditional Approaches to ‘Young Goodman Brown.’”

            A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, 3^rd ed.  New York: Oxford UP,

            1992.

            This essay is one of many that look at Hawthorne’s storytelling techniques in

nearly every mode of critical interpretation.

Kaul, A. N., ed.  Hawthorne: A Collection of Critical Essays.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ:

            Prentice-Hall, 1966.

            Kaul’s collection is very scholarly, many of the essays coming from famous

Hawthorne scholars.  As a result, some of the views are stale or too readily

acceptable, but this is a good starting off point to discover how Hawthorne

criticism has ranged over the last fifty years.

Lawrence, D. H.  Studies in Classic American Literature.  New York: Penguin, 1977.

            Lawrence’s classic study mocks most of the elements in this novel as heavy-

handed and melodramatic, if not vastly important to the development of American

literature.

Leavis, Q. D.  “Hawthorne as Poet.”  Kaul 25-63.

            This exhaustive and exhausting work touches on almost every major work of the

author, focusing on the poetic devices like symbolism and phrasing which give so

many works so many different layers of meaning.  Hawthorne was so specific

and precise that his meanings cannot be seen as accidents of happenstance.

Lewis, R. W. B.  “The Return into Time: Hawthorne.”  Kaul 72-85.

            Lewis sees Hawthorne as the first American writer to see Eden in the American

experience and to mine the richness of the Bible’s first story so that America can

be seen in terms of man’s first sins.  Using several novels and stories, Lewis

weaves a thread of Original Sin and attempted redemption throughout the

Hawthorne oeuvre.

Stewart, Randall, and Dorothy Bethurum.  “History, Art, and Wisdom in The Scarlet

Letter.”  Swisher 168-177.

The argument here is that SL is a historical novel because it portrays Puritan New

England accurately, but it is also a carefully crafted work of art rife with

symbolism.  Hawthorne’s themes are universal because his human relationships

apply to all people regardless of time or place.

Sutherland, John.  “What Are the Prynnes Doing in Boston?”  Can Jane Eyre Be

Happy?: More Puzzles in Classic Fiction.  Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997.

This humorous puzzle-solving article contends that Hester was sent to America

to protect her virtue and that her experience with Dimmesdale is her first sexual

encounter.  These contentions help explain much of Chillingworth’s actions and

why Hester does not receive any death benefits.

Swisher, Clarice, ed.  Readings on Nathaniel Hawthorne.  San Diego: Greenhaven, 1996.

            Swisher’s collection is a hodge-podge of all different kinds of criticism, some

classic, some trashy.  Many of the essays are faddish or trendy and therefore

outdated.

Van Doren, Mark.  “The Scarlet Letter.”  Kaul 129-140.

            Van Doren calls SL the climax of Hawthorne’s tales in the sense that he was

dealing with the same issues in a grander way, and once he had made his boldest

statement on the subject of sin and redemption, his stories shifted towards

different thematic elements.

Waggoner, Hyatt Howe.  “Color and Light Images in The Scarlet Letter.”  Swisher

159-167.

Waggoner analyzes images in three categories: pure (literal), mixed (literal and

figurative), and drained (only figurative).  This process helps him explain that

each type of image gains meaning by its association with natural good, moral

good, natural evil, and moral evil.  Confused?  Me too.

Winters, Yvor.  “Maule’s Curse, or Hawthorne and the Problem of Allegory.”  Kaul

            11-24.

            While castigating Seven Gables and Marble Faun as “impure novels,” Winters

praises the sustained allegorical perfection inherent in SL.  To him, the novel is

one of the main masterpieces in English for this reason.

Ziff, Larzer.  “The Ethical Dimension of ‘The Custom House.’”  Kaul 123-128.

            Ziff analyzes how the “Custom House” section of the novel sets the tone for the

moral judgments that follow by portraying Hawthorne's co-workers in varying

degrees of morality and usefulness.  Ziff also discusses the real and imaginary

elements of this section and the novel as a whole.