Abductions in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Literature
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Universidad de La Rioja
info
ISSN: 0213-201X
Year of publication: 1999
Issue: 15
Pages: 377-390
Type: Article
More publications in: Epos: Revista de filología
Abstract
The American nineteenth-century author Nathaniel Hawthorne was preoccupied primarily with the past and its influence on the present, with the nature of sin, and with the effects of guilt on individuals. In these themes he found the substance for much of his work. He was rarely associated with childhood and, with the exception of Pearl, his child characters and his children's stories were little heeded. However, some critics in the last decade have realised that his biography betrays an unusual interest in little girls, and that this fondness influenced the writings of his maturity in a crucial way. This brief study argues that these aspects were already at work in some of his earlier literature.