Ruhr-Universität-Bochum
Fakultät für Philologie
Englisches Seminar
WS 02/03

Reading Hawthorne’s Romance

New meets Old
Hawthorne’s Representation of America and Europe in The Marble Faun

by

Tonia Fondermann

Contents

1. Introduction   2

2. Europe – The American Problem in the 19th century  3

3. The Myth of America  4

4. Transferring the topic into a story
4.1. The preface  5
4.2. Using the stereotypes  6

5. Who is Hilda?
5.1. A characterization of Hilda  7
5.2. Hilda as the moral center  9
5.3. Hilda’s crises  11

6. From inferiority to superiority  12
6.1.The changing description of Rome  13
6.2. The Americans’ development towards superiority  14
6.3. And the winner is  16

7. Conclusion  17

8. Works Cited  19

1. Introduction

In this paper I will deal with Hawthorne’s last romance The Marble Faun or The Romance of Monte Beni. Since it is Hawthorn’s only romance that he wrote in and about Europe, I am interested in the representations of Europe and America within the book.
In my analysis I want to show that Hawthorne represents America and Europe as opposites and turns them into opponents in the fight of America versus Europe. In the course of this paper I would like to find out about the reasons for his contrary representations of the two continents. Furthermore I want to uncover the purpose of Hawthorne’s different representations.

The thesis, which I want to prove here, is that Hawthorne deals with the American feeling of cultural inferiority towards Europe and its eventual overcoming by means of the Myth of America. The characters in The Marble Faun are created according to the American and European stereotypes, which the myth makes use of, and serve as means for expressing the conflict. In this context, I want to show that The Marble Faun is a pro-America romance. Pro-America because Hawthorne is conform to the Myth of America and praises innocence, a virtue which America claims exclusively for itself. Based on the claim of innocence America claims leadership, which is supported by Hawthorne.

First of all I will deal with the roots of the tensions between Europe and America and the traditional stereotypical treatment of them. Then I will explain the Myth of America and the reason for its invention.

After these two introductory parts I want to concern myself with the question of how Hawthorne transferred the topic of America versus Europe into a story. Proceeding from the assumption that the Myth of America served as a basis, I want to deal more closely with the stereotypes and point out the parallels to the main characters. Coming from the stereotypes I will take a closer look at the female figures, Miriam and Hilda. I will show that they represent the stereotypical Europe and America most perfectly. The American character Hilda is for me of great interest because she constitutes the moral center of the romance. Moreover Hawthorne uses mostly her figure to carry out the pro-America tendencies of the book. By looking at Hawthorne’s treatment of Hilda I will demonstrate the strong orientation at the Myth of America and his praise of the American virtue.

In the last chapter I will come back to the American feelings of cultural inferiority towards Europe. My intention is to show how Hawthorne deals with the problem and how he uses the Myth of America to turn the American characters’ cultural inferiority into overall superiority.

2. Europe – The American Problem in the 19th century

America and Europe are traditionally thought as opposites. Europe is the Old, America the New World. Additional to old and new there are attributes which have always been used when comparing the two continents, such as guilt, past, history, culture for Europe and innocence, future, and lack of history, lack of culture for America. These contrasting representations or stereotypes go way back in time; they evolved in the course of the American separation process from Europe.

Over a long period of time America had not been able to exist without Europe. The new world depended economically upon the old continent. Culturally America was in Europe’s shadow and did not manage to get out of it until the 20th century, and America’s political influence was small. The American idea was not thinkable without thinking at the same time of Europe. Already the terming of the two continents makes these depend encies visible: “new” does not make sense without “old”¹.

The strong dependency on Europe resulted in a feeling of inferiority, especially felt by American artists whose works had to live up to and were measured by European standards. To produce art without the label “European imitation” clinging to it was nearly impossible. This circumstance generally lead to a negative or at least ambivalent attitude towards Europe. For the European Americans the Old World was both fascinating and contemptible. Fascinating because it was the land of their forefathers and it was packed with history and cultural, contemptible because America did not possess history and culture which had developed out of its own. The presence of Europe in the American conscience denied America the wish to be original and independent. Out of these ambivalent feelings many Americans travelled to Europe in the 19th century. Europe was part of the American history. To find the American identity required to deal with what had been taken along from the old continent and what had newly developed in America. Their intention was to get to know the familiar stranger Europe, and to find their roots and the American identity².

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1 Aber zumindest bis zur Unabhängigkeit war die Gesellschaft der Weißen in Nordamerika ... zunächst einmal “Fragment Europas“ gewesen. Europa war präsent in Amerika, und selbst wenn politisch die Unabhängigkeit erkämpft werden konnte, blieben die wirtschaftliche und kulturellen Beziehungen zum Mutterkontinent sehr eng. (Opfermann 14).

2 We go to Europe to be Americanized (qtd. in Opfermann 16).