What did Hawthorne really mean?

Ugh, as I'm going back through my draft I'm realizing that my original argument - that the portrayal of Hollingsworth as a selfish, mutinous, misogynistic character elates to the selfishness of society as a whole - was too general and really didn't work. It doesn't help that my thesis/hypothesis only focused on his selfishness, when I discussed two other traits. Also, expanding Hollingsworth's character to Hawthorne's view on society just doesn't cut it.

Right now, then, I'm trying to figure out some new generalizations to make about what Hawthorne was trying to get across through his description of Hollingsworth. I keep asking myself the question, "Why would Hawthorne display a philanthropist in such a negative light?" So far, I'm starting to think that maybe Hawthorne is warning against the nature of people's hidden characters. Hollingsworth is a philanthropist on the outside, but on the inside he possesses traits contrary to that of a philanthropist. Also, it seems other characters are the same way - Coverdale's true character, as we see at the end, is just a hidden, passive shell. I'm leaning towards this as a new thesis - most of my essay actually talks about Hollingsworth's facade and how it is chipped away in the passage that I selected.

I'm also toying with a theme of ideal vs. reality, which is somewhat similar to the above theme. Ideally, Hollingsworth would build his reformation school and not completely betray Coverdale, Zenobia, and Priscilla. But, in reality, he accomplished nothing and lived the rest of his life in torment. Hawthorne's portrayal of Hollingsworth shows how even the most ideally noble people can turn out to be scum. Hmmm...kind of wrote a hypothesis right there.

I really just want to replace my old thesis, and then rewrite my last page so that it focuses on the generalization. I know I want to keep my analysis on Hollingsworth's character, so my first three-four pages are probably going to be kept the same, with a few revisions. I definitely did not expect revision to be this difficult =(.

Well, off to go figure out a thesis statement and clarify my paper!