THE DARK LADY
375
James who invent excruciatingly subtle reasons for renouncing
their heart's desire once they are on the verge of attaining it. But
in ']ames there are also other characters, who, while preserving
Dimmesdale's complex qualities of conscience and sensibility,
finally do succeed in overcoming this tendency to renunciation.
Lambert Strether of
The Ambassadors
and Milly Theale of
The
Wings of the Dove,
whose ideal aim is "to achieve a sense of having
lived," are plainly cases of reaction against Hawthorne's plaint:
"I have not lived but only dreamed of living!"
This link with James is further evidence that, though in no
position to show his hand and not even fully conscious of what was
at stake, Hawthorne dealt with the problem of sin mainly insofar
as it served him as a mold for the problem of experience. It is
difficult to believe in the sins committed by his characters for the
simple reason that he hardly believes in them himself. Consider
how he stacks the cards, how he continually brings up extenuating
circumstances and even lapses into tell-tale defensive statements,
so that before long we cannot but lose the conviction of evil and
corruption. Who, actually, are his sinners? The minor figures
cannot, of course, be taken into account in this respect, for, like
Chillingsworth, Westervelt, Miriam's model and even Judge
Pyncheon, they are nothing more than conventional villains, and
at that most of them are so unreal that their conduct is of little
consequence. It is only the protagonists, then, who count; But of
these, with the exception of Dimmesdale, there is scarcely one who
can be objectively regarded as a wrongdoer. Among the women
only Hester's guilt is definitely established, yet even she is shown
to have so many rights on her side that it is impossible to see in
her anything more portentous than a violator of the communal
mores.
It is not, however, by their flouting of the communal
mores
that we judge the great transgressors pictured in literature. These
big biters into the apple inevitably sin against the Holy Ghost.
Zenobia and Miriam wholly exemplify Hawthorne's bias
against the dark lady, a bias which, instead of being supported
and objectified by a credible presentation of her ·misdeeds, is
limited in its expression to atmospheric effects, insinuations, and
rumors. He wants to destroy the dark lady at the same time that
he wants to glorify her; hence his indictment of her is never really
