Home > Gothic Literature > Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1804 - 1864) - Neal Frank Doubleday (Essay Date February 1946)

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NEAL FRANK DOUBLEDAY (ESSAY DATE FEBRUARY 1946)

SOURCE: Doubleday, Neal Frank. "Hawthorne's Use of Three Gothic Patterns." College English 7, no. 5 (February 1946): 250-62.

In the following essay, Doubleday illustrates Hawthorne's view of the Gothic tradition and how he adapted it to treat moral and psychological themes.

Hawthorne's critics have generally considered Hawthorne's literary methods as manifestations of his temperament and, in particular, his use of the Gothic convention as evidence of limited imaginative resources or of morbidity. There is a tempting picturesqueness in a disproportionate emphasis upon the "spectral" qualities of Hawthorne's art; but the interpreters of Hawthorne have often lost sight of important contemporary influences upon his literary practice and important motives for it. Hawthorne's use of the Gothic is a particularly good illustration of his way of adapting conventional...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Primary Sources
   1. Nathaniel Hawthorne (Story Date 1830)
4. General Commentary
   1. Neal Frank Doubleday (Essay Date February 1946)
   2. Jane Lundblad (Essay Date 1946)
5. Title Commentary
   1. The Marble Faun
6. Further Reading

1. Nathaniel Hawthorne