In trying to figure out what I want to research regarding The Blithedale Romance, I am considering the following questions:
- What was Hawthorne’s main purpose in writing The Blithedale Romance and how does the historical context of the novel aid in discovering it?
- How was The Blithedale Romance received? How does its reception reflect on America at different times in history? Was it immediately assumed a statement on socialism?
- Was Hawthorne truly trying to make a statement on socialism through his novel, as many literary critics have suggested, or was socialism merely a backdrop for some other purpose?
All three of these questions are largely related, dealing with whether Hawthorne’s purpose was to condemn / advocate for socialism or something else.
With the first question, I would consider the possible purposes of Hawthorne’s novel, including to condemn/advocate for socialism, to condemn Coverdale’s selfishness, to condemn/advocate for feminism, etc. By looking at what was going on in both Hawthorne’s life and the world at the time, I may be able to discover which of these purposes he intended and which was most likely the focus of his novel.
It appears Hawthorne has been criticized for years for his lack of direction in The Blithedale Romance, with Yvon Winters saying, “[Hawthorne] began as a novelist, but lost himself towards the close in an unsuccessful effort to achieve allegory” (http://www.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-9831(195705)29%3A2%3C147%3AANROTB%3E2.0.CO%3B2-2). In this article, Frederic C. Crews insists other critics do not understand Hawthorne’s purpose because they have missed the novel’s most fundamental aspect, its plot, suggesting it has less to do with romance and more to do with the complex character of Coverdale. It seems I am not the only one confused as to what Hawthorne intended.
Thus, in order to get at Hawthorne’s true purpose, I will have to analyze socialism at the time, the Brook Farm experiment, his submissive wife Sophia, his purpose in The Scarlet Letter (published two years before), his personal letters and thoughts while writing the novel, and his opinion on the Salem Witch Trials.
In answering the second question, I could try to reveal how The Blithedale Romance has applied to America at different points in its history by viewing what people thought of the novel during the past 150 years. Or, as with the third question, I can focus the second question towards Hawthorne’s thoughts on socialism, by comparing how the novel was immediately received (as a condemnation or backing of socialism) with what I think Hawthorne purports in the novel.
Obviously, I am still trying to decide what I want to research, and probably even more questions will come to me in the next few days. But I am definitely interested in discovering what Hawthorne’s true intention was in writing The Blithedale Romance by looking at both its contents and historical context.
1 comment:
Wesley, those are some good starts, but it might be a bit much if you try to "analyze socialism at the time, the Brook Farm experiment, his submissive wife Sophia, his purpose in The Scarlet Letter (published two years before), his personal letters and thoughts while writing the novel, and his opinion on the Salem Witch Trials" in only a few weeks. Really, we want you to live to see fall semester.
In general, I suggest steering away from questions of authorial intention. They tend to create a sort of phantom ur-text that's supposedly more real and more authoritative ("what Hawthorne intended") but which also never existed as a text. It's usually more practical to focus on how our research sheds light on the novel, rather than on the author.
As you dig around, some ways to narrow your questions down will emerge.
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