I’m not the biggest fan of romance novels and I’m not very well versed in the likes of Hawthorne. With that said I was rather disappointed by this novel and found it very hard to get engaged in the text. But, as I read on and made progress through the long winded descriptions I noticed and undeniable tension that persists through all of the characters. Tensions between Coverdale, Hollingsworth, Zenobia and Priscilla that at first glance are seemingly healthy and a natural progression through development of each character but as we move on the tensions grow into something more, something more complex than emotional strain between all of the moving parts of this book. Coverdale is the problem with the entire book, we only see things the way he wants us to see them. We are only allowed to see what Coverdale thinks is of importance and because of this our view of each character is affected. I have a problem with this because it limits our ability to look at the texts objectively. By only seeing the characters through the eyes of Coverdale and his very unique look not only on the world but his place in it, the book starts to become this twisted tale of one’s personal life view. By essentially taking everyone’s problems and making them of his concern he starts to see people as objects that fit into his life. Hawthorne uses a very interesting ploy to allow Coverdale to act this way by claiming that he is an artist. But an artist only has so much room to say the things they want to say and play them off as art or say some cliché like art imitates life. Coverdale is a sad soul whom Hawthorne wants us to pity, which we do to some extent.
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Kent, Hawthorne may be trying to get us to pay attention to the idea that any perspective (including an artist's) is necessarily partial and subjective. Coverdale takes the limits that you mention and really presses them beyond our power to believe in (or in some cases like) him.
ReplyDeleteKent, you have a point in saying how subjective the perspective of this book is, but aren't all 1st person narratives this way? I think that rather than dwell on the oddities of Coverdale, it would be more beneficial to look at what he really wants throughout the novel, and the successes and failures of his methods. The big picture is unaffected by what any of us think about Coverdale as a character, and shows us that ideas are sometimes better than realities.
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