호손의 단편들에서의 "시작(입문)"의 의미와 여성들의 역할

Abstract

The issue of ‘initiation’ is one of the most popular themes among artists. In general, they treat the characters who undergo the change from the state of innocence or ignorance to that of experience or maturity. Hawthorne also presents many characters in his major works who face a new environment or stage in their love, faith, art or career, and they show that their lives or destinies are entirely dependent on their ways of interpretation or reaction to these new and unknown milieux. In the 1830s when Hawthorne was yet in practice to be a full-time writer after his graduation from college, he was hopeful that he would start his intercourse with the world successfully, which is well revealed in Robin's experience and potential for his success in a New England town in “My Kinsman, Major Molineux.” Also in “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Man of Adamant,” he emphasizes the importance of active reaction and endeavor to comprehend the dual nature of good and evil in order to be a successful initiate in the real world. In these works, while the woman in “Major Molineux” works only as a temptress to test Robin's potential, those in the other two works provide the main characters opportunities to the knowledge of a real world or salvation, which both of them refuse and retire themselves into a life or death of misery. In the 1840s, Hawthorne suffered from economic and artistic dilemmas that frustrated him, and his belief in the better world through manmade endeavors collapsed. His frustration deepened when his experiment in Brook Farm ended in failure and his economic situation became worse. His works in this period show his strong concern in an artist's social role and his relationship with audience, and the three works of 1844 “Rappaccini's Daughter,” “Drowne’s Wooden Image” and “The Artist of the Beautiful” are about the artists who start a new pursuit, the need of inspiration for their art, or their position on the relationship with audience. Women in these works work as a work of art to be interpreted, an inspiration for an outstanding work, or one of the audience that appreciate a work of art. While Hawthorne recognizes his own weakness as a writer and invokes artistic inspiration necessary for works of art through the characters of these works, he also requires his audience to have a keen insight into art or inspire him to produce the works that will enable their desirable communication through art.