THE DARK LADY
367
of experience with the all-too-apparent theme of sin. Yet the two
themes, regardless of their mutual relation from a theological
standpoint, are quite distinct as life-elements-though Hawthorne
could not hut confuse them. Perhaps it is this that was intuitively
sensed by D.
H.
Lawrence, when he spoke of the duplicity of that
"blue-eyed
Wunderkind
of a Nathaniel," thus construing as
double-dealing a douhle-mindedness the roots of which lie deep
in
American history. But the melodramatic twist of Lawrence's
insights is scarcely a valid reason for discounting them. He accu–
rately noted the split in Hawthorne between his outward conform–
ity and the "impeccable truth of his art-speech," between his
repressed under-meanings and the moonshiny spirituality of his
surface.
The evidence, of course, .is in the tales and romances. There
is one heroine they bring to life who is possibly the most resplend–
ent and erotically forceful woman in American fiction. She domi–
nates all the other characters because she alone personifies the
contrary values that ·her author attached to experience. Drawn on
a scale larger than reality, she is essentially a mythic being, the
incarnation of hidden longings and desires, as beautiful, we are
repeatedly told, as she is "inexpressibly terrible," a temptress
offering the ascetic sons of the puritans the "treasure-trove of a
great sin."
We come to know this dark lady under four different names–
as Beatrice in the story
Rappaccini's Daughter,
Hester in
The Scar–
let Letter,
Zenobia in
The Blithedale Romance,
and Miriam in
The
Marble Faun.
Her unity as a character is established by the fact
that in each of her four appearances she exhibits the same physical
and mental qualities and plays substantially the same role. Haw–
thorne's description of her is wonderfully expressive in the full–
ness of its sensual imaginings. He is ingenious in devising occa–
sions for celebrating her beauty, and conversely, for denigrating,
albeit in equivocal language, her blonde rival-the dove-like,
virginal, snow-white maiden of New England. But the two women
stand to each other in the relation of the damned to the saved, so
that inevitably the dark lady comes to a had end while the blonde
is awarded all the prizes-husband, love, and absolute exemption
from moral guilt. There is obviously an obsessive interest here in
