A C T A U N I V E R S I T A T I S L 0 D Z I E N S 1 S
F O LIA LITTERA R 1A 36, 1994
E lżbieta H. O leksy
H A W T H O R N E ’S F A T H E R S A N D S O N S
A nalysis o f H a w th o rn e ’s fiction in term s o f failed or ab sen t fathers reveals n o t only H a w th o rn e ’s ow n family d ram a, b ut also a larger historical crisis in paternal au tho rity . If w h at he says in D octor G rim shaw e’s Secret, which H a w th o rn e tried to com plete during the last years o f his life, (“ E ach son m u rd ers his fa th er at a certain age” ; 12 : 324) has a F re u d ian ring to it, the resolution o f the oedipal conflict in H a w th o rn e ’s life, as well as in his fiction, strikingly anticipates the po st-F reu d ian rh c to ric 1.
T h ere was a n u m b e r o f fa th ers, real and su rro g a te, ad m ired and despised, in H a w th o rn e’s life, but none H a w tho rn e could, or w anted to,
1 T he essay refers to the following sources: J. B r e u e r , S. F r e u d , Studies on H ysteria, trans, and ed. J. Strachey, Basic Books, Inc., New Y ork 1957; P. B r o o k s , Reading fo r the
Plot. Design and Intention in Narrative, cd. A. A. Knopf, New Y ork 1984; H. C i x o u s , Sorties: Out and Out: A tta cks/W a ys Out/Forays, [in:] H. C i x o u s , C. C l e m e n t , The Newly Born Woman, trans. В. Wing, U niversity o f M innesota Press, M inneapolis 1986; F. C. C r e w s , The Sins o f the Fathers. H awthorne’s Psychological Themes, Oxford University Press, N ew
Y ork 1966; G . E r l i c h , Family Themes and H awthorne’s Fiction, Rutgers U niversity Press, New Brunswick 1984; S. F r e u d , The Standard Edition o f the Complete W orks o f Sigm unt
Freud, trans, and ed. J. Strachey, Vol. 17-18, The H ogarth Press, London 1955; J. G a l l o p , The D aughter’s Seduction. Feminism and Psychoanalysis, Cornell University Press, Ithaca 1982;
J. G a l l o p , Reading Lacan, Cornell University Press, Ithaca 1985; R. G i r a r d , Violence and
the Sacred, trans. P. G reg ory, The John s H opkins U niversity Press, B altim ore 1977;
N . H a w t h o r n e , The Centenary Edition o f the Works o f Nathaniel Hawthorne, Vol. 1-20, O hio State U niversity press, Colum bus 1968; J. L a c a n , Ecrits. A. Selection, trans. A. Sheridan, W. W . N o rto n and C ompany, Inc., New Y ork 1977; A. G. L l o y d - S m i t h , Eve Tempted.
Writing and Sexuality in Hawthorne's Fiction, Barnes and Noble Bks., Totow a 1984; L. S.
P e r s o n , (Jr.), Aesthetic Headaches. Women and a Masculine Poetics in Poe, Melville, and
Hawthorne, The University o f G eorgia Press, Athens 1988. Page references to these sources
identify with. T his absence o f a model, which, asserts F reu d, is indispensable in the developm ent o f a m ale child, thw arted H a w tho rne’s m atu ra tio n process and created a recurring m o tif in his fiction. T here was C ap tain H atho rn e, N a th an iel’s biological father, w ho died when N athaniel was four; the n otoriou s H ath o rn e patriarchs, whom N athaniel on the one hand adm ired - especially W illiam, for his having defied, in 1666, K ing C harles IP s orde r to retu rn to E ngland and rep o rt on the recalcitrant colony - and on the o th e r hand despised for their fanatical practices (especially John); and U ncle R obert M anning, whose a utho rity H a w thorne evidently ab horred . I f we m ay agree w ith B ronislaw M alinow ski th a t a nephew /uncle relationship is free o f the ocdipal tension, since the m ale child is not to rn by contradictory feelings between identification with the father and the desire for w hat the fa th er desires, i.e., the m o th er, H a w th o rn e ’s relation ship with R o b ert M ann in g was far from congenial. A fter E lizabeth H aw tho rne had consented to R o bert M ann ing ’s intentio n to “m ake a m a n ” o f N athaniel by separating him from her, H aw thorne, in G lo ria E lrich’s w ords, felt “m anaged, played up on , and m an ip ula ted” by his uncle (68). He particularly resented having to share a bed w ith R obert in the crow ded M anning household. But even after R ichard M an ning m oved to R aym ond, and the Salem house w as no longer crow ded, N athaniel still com plained o f this unw anted intim acy.
It is also significant th at, even though H aw thorne th ro u g h o u t his writing explored explicitly and obliquely the sins o f his patern al ancestors, he rem ained consistently silent on the subject o f one his M anning fo rb ears’ incestuous relations with his tw o sisters2. T he closest he ever comes to using this m o tif in his fiction is in The House o f the Seven Gables, w here the very description o f the house contains an incestuous im age. T he structure is p ortrayed as “ a w hole sisterhood o f edifices, breathing th ro ug h the spiracles o f one great chim ney” (2: 11 ). Since H epzigah is given a life estate in the seven-gabled house, whose decay m irrors H epzibah’s physical appearance, we m ay claim th a t she is tropically conceived as the “ sisterhood o f edifices” . T h e focus o f H ep z ib ah ’s cosm os is her b ro th e r C lifford. T he “ g reat chim ney” th us figures as the proxim ity of a m ale organ, in the sense Jacques L acan uses the term “ phallus” : as a sim ulacrum . L acan also indicates th at the anxiety of castration (the discovery th at the m o the r lacks a penis) m akes the phallic function into a sym bolic function, thus detaching the subject from its dependence on the m other. A n analysis o f H epzibah and C liffo rd’s relationship reveals interesting details in this context, for n o t only does H epzibah “m o th er” C lifford, b ut her feelings for her b ro th er contain a strong sexual com ponent.
г As G loria Erlich reported, Nicholas M anning was accused, in 1680, o f incest with his
I am hardly the first to suggest the incestuous relations in The H ouse
o f the Seven Gables. A llan L loyd-Sm ith, for instance, has recently argued
th a t H epzibah and C lifford are the “ parents in the fantasy fam ily” (70) - parents, th a t is, to P hoebe and H olgrave. 1 contend, how ever, th at C lifford can hardly serve as a m odel o f a patern al figure, since he is consistently presented as a child. H aving introduced Clifford as a child “ first journcy[ing] across a floo r” (2: 104), H aw th orn e pursues this analogy at various jun ctures in the narrative. H e says, for instance, th at C lifford “ was a child, - a child fo r the w hole term o f his existence, be it long o r sh o rt” (2: 148). By futh er com m enting on C lifford’s m elancholic nature, H a w th orne in effect evokes the F reu d ia n insight th at m elancholy (F re u d ’s “ hom esickness” ) is a longing fo r a re tu rn to th a t lost hom eland o f the m o th e r’s w om b (F reud , 17: 245) - som ething H a w tho rn e m ay have experienced after R o b ert M a nn in g too k him aw ay from his m o ther. Jan e G allop reads m elancholy as a regret “ fo r som ething elapsed o r for w hat one has no t experienced” (Reading Lacan, 148), b o th m eanings inherent in H a w th o rn e’s presentation o f C lifford. H e yearns, it seems, to return to the pre-oedipal, or pre-phallic, stage th a t is p rio r to w hat L acan calls “ the castratio n com plex in the m asculine u nco n-scious” (281). In the F reu dian mythos o f a m ale child, the oedipal conflict is caused by the bo y’s belief th a t his m o th er has been castrated by his fath er, w ho will also ca strate him if he reveals his desires. A s G allo p points o ut, bo th L acan and K risteva elabo rate on this clarification, indicating th at the p h an to m o f the “ phallic m o th er” represents a threat equal to th a t o f th e P rim itive F ath er.
It m ig ht be interesting to n ote in this context th at, while C lifford does no t fit the paternal m odel, we in fact have such a m odel in the figure o f Jaffrey P yncheon3. D urin g his first conversation w ith H epzibah, Jaffrey proposes tha t the fo ur inh abitan ts o f the seven-gabled house m ove to his elegant countryside abode. H e pleads w ith H epzibah: “ A n you and I, dea r H epzibah, will consult together, and w atch together, and labo r together, to m ake ou r d ear C lifford ha p py ” (2: 128). W hat Jaffrey proposes, in effect, is th a t he and H epzib ah sub stitute for the natural parents o f C lifford, the child. F u rth em o rc, H a w th o rn e ’s characterization o f C lifford adm ixes bo th m asculine a n d fem inine traits. A t one po int in the narrative, H epzibah co n tra sts the phallocentric features o f her ancestor - and cousin Jaffrey, w ho is consistently presented as but a version o f th e pow erful pa tria rc h - w ith C lifford’s “ fem inine traits, m oulded inseparably w ith those o f the o th er sex” (2: 60). In thus seems th a t C liffo rd’s p ath to m a tu rity involves
3 Frederick Crews was the first to note the presence o f what he calls “ogrc-father” in the figures of JaiTrey Pyncheon in The House o f the Seven Gables and the m odel in The
the transcendence o f the stage o f patern al identification, identification w hich, as R ene G irard observes, need n o t be determ ined by parentage, for “ the child can select as m odel any m an w ho happens to fill the role th a t o u r society norm ally assigns to the natu ral fa th e r” (170). Such identification, in F reu dian term s, results in the sexual cathexis tow ard the m other. H ence, n o t only F ath e r b ut also M o ther, G allo p argues, “ m ust be expelled from the innocent, non-phallic p arad ise” ( The D aughter’s Seduction , 118). We m ight rem em ber in this context th a t H e pzib ah ’s attem pts at “m o th erin g ” C lifford, em phasized th ro u g h o u t the narrative, m eet with steadfast rejection.
A ccording to F reu d , the energy generated in the repression o f the m ale ch ild’s desire m ust be invested into other, m ore socially acceptable, activity. In The A rched Window, one o f th e m ost illum inating cha pters o f The H ouse
o f the Seven Gables, we witness C liffo rd’s a ttem p t to ju m p o u t o f the
w indow. H a w th o rn e explains th a t C lifford
[...] needed a shock; or perhaps he required to take a deep, deep plunge into the ocean of human life, and to sink down and be covered by its profoundness, and then to emerge, sobered, invigorated, restored to the world and to himself (2: 166 - emphasis added).
T h is passage expresses, in clear term s, n o t only the basic m ean ing o f catharsis (’’sink d o w n ” - kathados, “ em erge” - anodos), but also a possibility o f C liffo rd’s attain m en t o f adu lthoo d.
C atharsis is essentially a m edical m eta ph o r or, ra th er, a m edical term m etaphorically em ployed by A ristotle in his definition o f tragedy. T h e concept has been also used in reference to a psychotherapeutic m eth od (th ou gh is no longer referred to by th a t nam e) ever since B reuer and F reud first practiced it (and described in Studies on H ysteria, 1893) in th e trea tm en t o f hysterical patients. T he p atient was persuaded, under hypnosis, to relive, or a t very least rem em ber, the circum stances (w hat B reuer and F re ud call “ affect” ), u nder which the hysterical sym ptom s originated and to verbalize o r act o u t the repressed tra u m a tic experience. “ C atharsis” , says F reu d, “ cam e ab o ut w hen the p ath to consciousness was opened and there was a n orm al discharge o f affect” (F reud , 18: 236). F reud did n o t use th e term in his subsequent w orks, b u t, as Jam es S trachey w rites in his in tro d u ctio n to Studies on H ysteria, he did em ploy his (and B reuer’s) earlier findings in, for instance, B eyond the Pleasure Principle (1920). F re u d ’s rev olu tio nary the ory in B eyond the Pleasure Principle, w hich inspired P eter B ro ok s’ m odel o f tra d itio n al narrative, resonates w ith the jarg o n th a t was first used to describe th e cathartic m etho d. Let us com pare tw o passages from B reuer’s p ar t o f Studies on H ysteria and B eyond the Pleasure Principle, respectively:
Such feelings [’unpleasure’] are always generated when one o f the organism ’s needs fails to find satisfaction. Since these feelings disappear when the surplus q uantity o f energy which has been liberated is employed functionally, we m ay conclude th at the removal o f
such surplus excitation is a need o f the organism. And here for the first time we meet the fact th at there exists in the organism a ’tendency to keep intraeerebral excitation
constant [Freud’s insertion]’ (197). The pleasure principle [...] is a tendency operating in
the service o f a function whose business it is to free the mental apparatus entirely from excitation o r to keep the amount of excitation in it constant or to keep it as low as possible [emphasis added] (Freud, 18: 62).
A ltho ug h catharsis as a thcrap cu tic m ethod was induced by the th erap ist (F reud relinquished the m ethod in the conviction th a t it enforced the p a tien t’s dependence on the therapist), and the pleasure m echanism is instinctual, the principle rem ains the sam e. Significantly, F reud uses the term “ discharge o f affect” , which B rooks painstakingly em ploys in draw ing parallels betw een the resolution o f narratives and the clim ax o f (m asculine) sexual pleasure, in reference to bo th the cathartic m ethod and the pleasure principle. It app ears, how ever, th a t catharsis, with its sexually suggestive etym ology, can be em ployed as effectively as the pleasure principle in the capacity o f an intertcxtual link o f the kind sought by B rooks to narrative fictions; indeed, it was w ritten into literary theory tw enty three centuries ago.
N evertheless, B rooks’ m odel is very useful w here it unveils the relationship betw een textual “m iddles” and the ends o f narratives. T he m iddle, says B ro oks, “ the space o f retard , postponem ent, erro r, and p artial revelation - is th e place o f transfo rm atio n: where the problem s posed to and by in itiatory desire are w orked ou t and w orked th ro u g h ” (92). I will argue, how ever, th a t B ro oks’ m odel illum inates n o t so m uch H aw th o rn e’s individual texts, as a sequence o f texts. H a w th orn e’s last finished novel, The M arble
Faun, “doubles b a ck ” , in B ro oks’ w ords, to his “m id dle” novel, The House o f the Seven Gables. N ot only docs H aw thorm e prep are for his pow erful
scene o f the m u rd er o f the m odel, the scene th at can be read as ritu al catharsis, in Jaffrey P yncheon ’s m ysterious d ea th in The H ouse o f the Seven
Gables, b u t also catharsis brings ab o u t the tran sfo rm ation o f the central
m ale characters (C lifford and D onatello) in bo th texts.
F reu d discusses this phenom enon o f com pulsive repetition in his essay
The Uncanny and says th a t “ an uncanny experience occurs either when
infantile com plexes w hich have been repressed are once m ore revived by som e im pression, o r w hen prim itive beliefs which have been surm o un ted seem once m ore to be con firm ed” (F reud, 17: 249). H e also adds th a t the distinction betw een the tw o (prim itive beliefs and infantile com plexes) is often a “ hazy o n e” . F re u d does n o t explian at this p oint w hat he m eans by “ prim itive beliefs” or, for th a t m atter, by “ infantile com plexes” , th ou g h we m ay surm ise th a t the latter signify the O edipus com plex. In Preface to R eik ’s R itual: P sycho-A nalytic Studies, how ever, he suggests th a t we m ay benefit from the “ study o f p reh isto ry ” in trying to trace the O edipus com plex. H e proceeds to ro o t the O edipus com plex, with its desire to
“ elim inate the fath e r” , in the archetype o f archetypes - “ nam ely, th at G o d the F a th e r once w alked up on ea rth in bodily form and exercised his sovereignty as chieftain o f the prim al hum an horde until his sons united to slay him ” (F reu d, 17: 262).
T h e tw o F re u d ian concepts m erge in G ira rd ’s discussion o f w hat he calls the “m on stro u s d o u b le” . A ccording to G irard, ritual catharsis presupposes the existence o f a single ritual victim, w hose d u ality and m o n stro sity m an ifest them selves in b o th hu m an and an im al c h a ra c te -ristics (F re u d re p o rts th a t the ca str atio n anxiety frequ en tly m an ifests itself in a fe ar o f th e wolf)- T h e m o n s tro u s d o ub le n o t only com es from o utsid e th e com m u nity, b u t also m ak es his a p p ea ran c e “ at the height o f the crisis, ju st before the unanim ous re solu tion ” (162). I he m o n stro u s dou bles in H a w th o rn e ’s texts (Jaffrey in T he H ouse o f the
Seven Gables and the m odel in The M arble Faun) bo th com e from o u
t-side th e com m u nity, and th eir respective intrusion s cu lm in ate in the crisis. In o rd e r to m ak e the ritual sacrifice palpable, it is indispensable fo r the artist, says G irard , to
[...] cultivate the future victim’s supposed potential for evil, to transform him into a monster o f iniquity - no t for esthetic reasons, b ut to enable him to polarize, to literally draw to himself, all the infectious strains in the community and transform them into sources o f peace and fecundity (107).
H a w th o rn e ’s presen tation o f Judg e (Jaffrey) P yncheon fulfills ju s t such a fu nction in the n arrative o f The House o f the Seven Gables. I'he Ju dge app ears only twice in the novel: the first tim e when he m akes his acquaintance w ith P hoebe, w ho instinctively recoils from his em brace, and th e second, just p rio r to his de ath , w hen he talks to H epzibah. In b o th episodes, H a w th o rn e surrou nd s him w ith a host o f negative attribu tes, em phasizing “m assive accum ulation o f anim al substance ab o u t the low er region o f his face” , th a t has an “ u nctuous, rath e r th a n spiritual” look (2: 116). S ubsequent details reinforce his “a n im al” aspect: “ anim al substance” becomes “ anim al fo rm ” , then “ anim al developm ent” . H aw tho rn e observes th a t the J u d g e’s “ C re a to r m a d e him a great anim al, b u t the dinner h o u r m a de him a great b east” (2: 275). T he Jud ge incarnates the evil o f the past, w hose weight u po n the present m ust be purged, so th a t th e original state o f innocence can be restored in the futu re, and everything, in H aw th o rn e ’s w ords, will “ begin anew ” . Several critics have acknow ledged the blurring o f tw o types o f p atria rch s inh erent in H a w th o rn e’s depiction o f fa th er figures, w hat E rlich, ta lk in g ab o u t Jaffrey, calls a “ calculated m ix tu re o f anc estral H a w th o rn e an d c on tem p orary M an n in g ” (139). H olg rav e’s con versatio n w ith P hoebe, in th e ch ap ter The D aguerrotypist, addresses precisely this issue o f the new beginning th a t G ira rd sees as the underlying principle o f
ritual catharsis, w hich can eventuate only w ith the cathartic jettison in g o f the past:
Shall we never, never get rid of this Past? [...] It lies upon the Present like a giant’s dead body! in fact, the case is ju st as if a young giant were compelled to weste all his strength in carrying about the corpse of the old giant, his grandfather, w ho died a long while ago, and only needs to be decently buried (2: 182-183).
I f we try to im agine w hat the iconography o f the latter p a rt o f this passage com m unicates, we, in fact, get the im age o f the “ shapeless m a ss” introduced in The M arble Faun. In the scene w hen M iriam ’s p arty visits th e F o u n ta in o f T revi, M iriam bends over th e basis and sees “ three sep arate shadow s, all so black and heavy th a t they sink into the w ate r” . M iriam recognizes the right-hand shadow as D ona tello . T he left-hand shadow , how ever, puzzles her; it is “a shapeless m ass, as indistinct as the pre m on itio n o f ca lam ity ” (4: 145). I t is, o f course, the m od el, w ho incarnates the evil o f the p ast w hose weight up on the present m ust be destroyed. T he ob literatio n o f the physical fram e, characteristic o f the m o n stro u s d ouble, is m ade explicit in H aw th o rn e’s reference to the tw o corpses: o f JafTrey in The H ouse o f the Seven Gables and o f th e m odel in
The M arble Faun. Jaffrey’s “ features are all gone; there is only the paleness
o f them left. A nd how looks he now? [...] T here is no face! A n infinite, inscru table blackness has annihilated sight” (2: 276). A nd the m odel is “ a d a rk m ass, lying in a heap, w ith little o r nothing hu m an in its a pp ea ra nce ” (4: 173).
H aw th o rn e ’s preoccupation w ith ritual sacrifice underlies the first eighteen cha pters o f The M arble Faun. W hat m akes H aw th o rn e’s vision in this novel different from th at in The H ouse o f the Seven Gables, and a t the sam e tim e m o re h arm o niou s w ith G ir a rd ’s theory, is th a t b o th D o n atello and the m odel are conveyed in such term s as inhere in G ira rd ’s definition o f the m o n stro u s double. T he im age, according to G ira rd , com bines anim al, hu m an , and divine elements. G ira r d ’s first exam ple is taken from The
Bacchae, where P enth eus identifies th e double vision w ith the vision o f the
m o n ster incarnated in D ionysus, .who is m an, god, and bull in one person. M u ch is m ad e in The M arble Faun o f the fa u n ’s goat-like ears, w hich K eny on and M iriam playfully a ttrib u te to D ona tello . It is, how ever, the grad ual unveiling o f the m o del’s m o n stro us characteristics th at reveals the subtleties o f H a w th o rn e’s art. H e suggests the area o f co n no tatio ns, divinity and m on strosity com bined, w hen he first introduces the m odel:
He looked as if he might just have stepped out of a picture [...] being no other than one o f those living models, dark, bushy-bearded, wild of aspect and attire, w hom artists convert into Saints or assassins, according as their pictorial purposes dem and (4: 19 - emphasis added).
T hereafter, ch apte r after chapter, leading to the climax, H a w th orne accum ulates the m odel’s m onstrous characteristics, a strategy sim ilar to his charac terizatio n o f Jaffrey in The H ouse o f the Seven Gables. In both books, the tactic is m ean t to p repare the ground for the sacrifice o f the victim.
I he typology o f the m o nstrous double in The M arble Faun is a re-m ark a b le achievere-m ent on H a w th o rn e ’s p a rt th a t core-m bines psychology w ith m yth. T he tw o carnival scenes in the novel form a fram ew ork o f the cyclical structure connected with the tw o fundam ental impulses, hate and love. H a te is the culm inating po in t o f the first scene, love, th at o f the second carnival. T h e first carnival scene, prolonged into the follow ing chapters and culm inating in the m u rder o f the m odel, exhibits striking analogies with sacrificial rite. Such a rite, m aintains G irard, takes the form o f “ hysterical m im esis” , whereby the excitem ent aroused by chants, dances, and m ock com bats reaches a pitch o f intensity, and first “ young m en, then ad u lt m en and w om en are overcom e. T hey stagger ab o u t am o ng their com panions, then fall to the ground in convulsions, m oanin g and em itting piercing cries” (166). T hese rites generate an aggression in th e participa nts th a t finds its outlet in an act o f sacrificial m u rd er from which new order is to emerge. D uring the first carnival, D onatello is overcom e and “ frisks” aro un d M iriam , “ bubbling over with jo y ” , ges-ticulating extravagantly, and in no tim e he infects M iriam w ith his ex-uberance. N ow they ru n “ races w ith each other, side by side, with shouts and lau gh ter” , pelt each oth er w ith flowers (m ock-com bat), and M iriam playfully teases D onatello: “ W hen your curls shook ju st now, m etho ug ht I had a peep at the pointed ears” (4: 86). T hen oth er people becomc infected and are “ draw n to the spot, and struck into the dance, singly, or in pairs, as if they w ere all gone m ad with jollity” (4: 87). B ut the scene does no t last long, and ju st before it ends H aw thorne introduces ano th er dou ble im age th at transp aren tly indicates the source o f the overall icono-graphy. H e com pares the described proceedings to the “ sculptured scene on the fro nt and sides o f a sarcophagus” , in which “som e tragic event is shadow ed fo r th ” (4: 89). H aw th orne accentuates the analogy betw een the sculptured scene and the sylvan dance in bringing the latter to its close as M iriam is suddenly confronted by a “ strange figure th a t shook its fa nta stic garm ents in the air, and pranced before her on tiptoes alm ost vying with the agility o f D on atello himself. It was the M o d el” (4: 89). T he tw ofold function o f the last passage is to bring ou t the m o de l’s im ita tio n o f D o n a te llo ’s behavior, which indicates the sam e m ythical source: the m onstrous double; and to stress the m od el’s re-enactm ent o f the hysterical trance th a t leads to the collective expulsion, which also inheres in the description o f the sacrificial rite. F ollow ing the appearance o f the m odel, “ th e m usic ceased, and th e dancers cam e ab ru p tly to
a pause. All th a t m otley th ro n g o f rioters was dissolved as suddenly as it had been draw n tog eth er” (4: 89-90).
In The M arble Faun, the violence culm inating the sacrificial rite gets postponed until a later ch apter, presum ably because H a w th o rn e needs tim e to am algam ate the m on strou s characteristic o f the m odel in o rd er to m ake the aw esom e vision o f evil palpable. T his “ space o f re ta rd ” , to borro w a phrase from B rooks, also functions as a m eans o f pre parin g the ground fo r o u r u n d e rsta n d in g o f w ha t G ira rd calls “ th e role o f violence in aw akening desire” (144). It is o f considerable im port th a t M iriam ’s m ysterious follow er is referred to n o t by his real nam e b ut by the nam e o f th e M odel, significantly capitalized. F u rthe rm o re , the m o del’s m ysterio us claim on M iriam has a stron g im plication o f past sexual union, th ou g h never fully explored, and M iria m ’s tu telary affection for D on ate llo (rem iniscent o f H c p zib ah ’s feelings for C lifford), prior to the m u rd er o f the m odel, is co nstan tly underscored.
R etu rn in g to F r e u d ’s theory o f “prim itive beliefs” and “ infantile c om p-lexes” , we recall th at the distinction betw een them , according to F re ud , is often a “ hazy o n e ” . G ira rd em phasizes the underlying principle o f the sacrificial rite, and th e oedipal conflict, as th a t o f rivalry. T h e triangle G ira rd draw s is betw een the subject, the object, and the rival; in m y scheme, D ona tello , M iriam , an d the m odel, respectively. “T h e rival” , says G ira rd , “ desires the sam e object as the subject, and to assert the prim acy o f the rival can lead to only one conclusion” (145). A nd, we m ight add, to only one solution: the elim ination o f the rival. P receding this solution is w hat G irard calls “m im etic riv alry” or reciprocity, the la tter especially pertinen t to H aw th o rn e ’s text. G ira rd observes th a t “ to m ak e reciprocity com plete, [...] the disciple [the subject] can also serve as a m odel, even to his own m odel. A s for the m odel, no m a tter how self-sufficient he m ay ap p ear, he invariably assumes the role of disciple [em phasis added]” (147). In the sylvan dance described above, we rem em ber, the m o del’s appe aran ce is depicted as “ vying w ith the agility o f D on atello h im s e lf’. T he m odel thus represents the m on stro us p atria rc h or, in o th er w ords, the m erged em bo dim ent o f F re u n d ’s “ prim itive beliefs” and “ infantile com plexes” .
W h ether C lifford contributes to Jaffrey’s d e ath in The H ouse o f the
Seven Gables, as F rederick C rews cannily observes (177), o r only sees Jaffrey
dead, w h at we have here is H aw th o rn e’s first attem p t at articula ting the th eo ry o f felix culpa, the theory th a t is used as a ratio n ale o f the m u rd e r o f the m odel in The M arble Faun. D uring the train ride w ith Ile p z ib ah , C lifford says th a t “m urd erers [...] are often excusable in the m otives o f their deed, an d deserve to be ranked am ong public benefactors, if we consider only th e result” (2: 265). In the sam e ch apter (T he Flight o f Two
O w ls), H aw tho rn e reports th a t C lifford ’s process o f m a tu ra tio n has been
accom plished:
Thus it happened, th at the relation heretofore existing between her brother and herself was changed. A t home, she was his guardian; here, Clifford had become hers, and seemed to comprehend whatever belonged to their new position, with a singular rapidity of intelligence. H e had been startled into m anhood and intellectual vigor (2: 258).
Likewise, in The M arble Faun D o n atello ’s process o f m atu ra tio n unfolds follow ing the m u rd er o f the m odel. T h e c hap ter focusing on ancestral legends is b ro u gh t to its clim ax a t the point when D ona te llo bo asts to K eny on o f having once possessed the skill o f anim al language. K eny on , n atu rally sceptical, bids D o natello to dem o nstrate this u nique talent, and D o na tello attem pts to do so - in vain, o f course. B ut prio r to his attem p t, he tells K enyon: “ I d o u b t [...] w hether they will rem em ber m y voice now. I t changes, you know , as the boy grow s tow ards m an h o o d ” (4: 247). T he break ing o f the voice in puberty, to which H a w th o rn e alludes here, gives the w hole scene its psychological credibility, and we hardly need K e ny o n’s Ja m esian rem a rk (” I t is th e price we pay for experien ce” ) to gra sp
H aw th o rn e ’s m eaning.
C rew s w as first to no te the presence o f w hat he calls “ o g rc -la th cr” in the figures o f Jaffrey P ynchon and the m odel. H e says th a t “Jaffrey’s role in The
H ouse o f the Seven Gables is p atern al, and [...] the tw o sets o f characters w ho
survive him are sym bolically his children ” (175). C rew s’ analysis is rife with illogicalities. I f Jaffrey em bodies, according to Crew s, H a w th o rn e ’s “ filial co n cern ” , w here, we m ight ask, is the m o the r w ho, in the F re ud ian schem a, assum es the cen tral place in the oedipal triangle? Likewise, in his analysis o f
The M arble Faun, Crews acknowledges the oedipal scenario, from which the
m o th e r is entirely absent. H is in terp re ta tio n is as follows: the m odel is the father-figure to M iriam and D onatello, his sym bolic children; the con sum m a-tio n o f their un io n is incestuous. C rew s’ analysis w ould be m ore tenable had he n o t inserted th e qualifier “oedipal” to explore the situation. T h e underlying principle o f b oth the oedipal triangle and the incestuous relationship betw een siblings, according to F reud, is th a t o f rivalry. T he crucial difference betw een the tw o, how ever, is th a t in the case o f the oedipal conflict the rivalry exists between the father (m odel) and the son, the object o f rivalry being the m other. W hereas incest between siblings derives, if we accept F re u d ’s au th ority in this m a tte r, from rivalry over paren tal love. C rews argues th a t his conclusions are “ n o t a b o u t H a w th o rn e’s ch aracters b ut ab o ut their m eaning w ithin the p atte rn o f au th oria l obsession” (228). B ut we m ust see this obsession clearly: th ro u g h o u t his fiction, H aw thorne tried to com e to grips n ot only w ith an absence o f a reliable father-figure in his life, but with painfully aborted intim acy w ith his m oth er.
I f w hat F reud says ab o u t the “ m asculinity com plcx” in a fem ale child is true, then we could argu ab ly speak o f the “ fem ininity com plex” in a m ale child. “ M asculinity com plex” takes place, F reud contends, w hen a female child a b an d o ns her fem inine role, and th a t is w hen she tu rn s aw ay from her incestuous love for her father. She “ spur[s]’\ says F reud, her ‘“ m asculinity com plex’ [...] into activity, and from th a t tim e forw ard only want[s] to be [a boy]” (F re u d, 17: 191). A lth ough F reud docs no t exam ine an an alog ous situ ation fo r a m ale child, in the conviction th at his case is less “com plicated” , we can ju s t im gine the psychological trib ulatio ns o f the boy w ho is deprived o f the m asculine m odel and w hose childhood intim acy w ith the m othe r is painfully ab o rte d. H aw th o rn e’s fiction testifies to som ething akin to a “ fe-m inin ity cofe-m plex” , for it b oasts w ofe-m en, regardless o f type, w ho d isru pt F r e u d ’s activity/passivity paradigm , which assigns activity to m en and passivity to w om en.
In A esthetic H eadaches, L eland P erson pertinently notes H a w th o rn e ’s tendency to “ decon stru ct conventional m asculinity, which m anifests itself in objectifying pow er over w om en, in o rde r to archieve a ‘fem inized’ creative self, w hich com es into being th ro ug h the surrender o f pow er to w om en” (6). F o r all his a p p a re n t sym pathy w ith feminism (attested by a considerable n um b er o f fem inist ideas, acknow ledged in his in tro d u c -tion), P erson falls into a tra p laid by a theory th a t is tran sp aren tly m ale and argu ab ly inaccuratc. H e says th a t H a w th orn e explores “ the possibili-ty o f discoverning creative pow er th ro u g h com m unication w ith an other - w o m an a n d /o r text - by coo peration and receptivity to the o th er’s presence an d the o th e r’s discourse” (6). A ltho ugh the reductio n o f w o-m a n to the statu s o f text o-m ay have been unin ten tio nal, P erso n in effect evokes w hat H elene C ixous calls the “ reality” th a t “ su p po rts H isto ry ’s prog ress” (70): the distinction betw een m ale transcendence and fem ale im m a n en ce , m a le su bjectiv ity and fem ale o th ern e ss. P e rs o n ’s o p in io n seems to to m e unten ab le because it typically assigns the focal place in H a w th o r n e ’s fiction to m asculine consciousness, w hereas in reality it often is fem inine, as in The Scarlet L etter, or gender dem ocratic, as, for in stan ce, in The M a rble Faun. It is p erh ap s ironic th a t H a w th o rn e ’s u n d e r s ta n d in g and sy m p a th y f o r w o m en sh o uld stem fro m his ow n oedipal confusion. It was n o t until the end o f his life th a t H aw tho rn e openly adm itted to the pain o f “ grow ing up w ith ou t a m o th e r” and discarded his ow n m o n stro u s double4.
N orth-A m erican Studies Center U niversity of Łódź
Elżbieta / / . Oleksy
POSTACI OJCÓW I SYNÓW W TWÓRCZOŚCI HAWTHORNE’A
A rtykuł poddaje analizie postaci ojców i synów w twórczości pisarza amerykańskiego X X w., N athaniela H aw thorne’a. Większość powieści i opow iadań llaw th o m e’a charakteryzuje się obecnością silnych postaci kobiecych i słabych postaci męskich. Esej stawia tezę, że pow odów tej sytuacji należy upatryw ać w biografii pisarza, a szczególnie w uzależnieniu się pisarza od kobiet w jego życiu i obecności w jego życiu skomprom itow anych „ojców ” (naturalnego ojca, N athaniela H aw thorne’a i wuja Roberta). H aw thorne, według autorki eseju, wychowywał się bez modelu/w zoru ojca. D oprow adziło to do pow stania tzw. „kompleksu kobiecego” (autorka uzupełnia tutaj teorię Freuda o tzw. „kompleksie męskim” u dziecka płci żeńskiej o wyżej w spom niany „kom pleks kobiecy” u dziecka płci męskiej). W rezultacie, postaci mężczyzn w powieściach H aw thorne’a, a w szczególności The llouse o f the Seven Gables i The
M arble Faun pró bują wydobyć się z tego kom pleksu, co jest równoznaczne z procesem, który
zwykliśmy nazywać dojrzewaniem. W artykule w ykorzystano prace psychoanalityczne Freuda, B reuera, Lacana i G allop.
