PARTISAN REVIEW
In general, Poe and Hawthorne may be regarded as polar op–
posites in their attitude towards isolation, since Poe tries to
carry
it
to its ultimate limits while Hawthorne regards
it
as the cardinal
sin.
The most powerful of Poe's stories all deal with some young man
who is marked out from the rest of mankind by unusual talents or
desires or by some crime or abnormality and who cherishes
his
own
isolation. And while there is a neurotic compulsiveness in his flight
from ordinary humanity, his ultimate inability to find any lasting
happiness is
also
in conformity with the neurotic pattern. Living
in
solitary grandeur, pursuing recondite forms of learning or sensuous
pleasure or (occasionally) committing strange sins, he is usually
destined for sorrow or for untimely death. This is the melancholy
aristocrat of
The House of Usher
and
Ligeia,
the misanthrope of
The
Gold-Bug,
the omniscient analyst of
The Murders in the Rue Morgue,
the debauchC of
William Wilson,
and the criminal of
Hop-Frog
and
The Black Cat.
In general, he is characterized by a fantastic exag–
geration of the will to power, as manifested in unusual learning or
intellectual capacity, in great wealth, in exemption from ordinary
moral rules, or occasionally in the ability even to conquer death. And
although he is usually a doomed soul, there is little suggestion that it
was ever within
his
power to achieve a happier destiny. His position
is like that of the prince in
The Red Death,
who shuts himself into an
abbey in the hope of escaping from the plague. Poe premises isola–
tion, and assumes that the individual must seek security by trying to
make
it
complete.
In a number of the short stories of Hawthorne we find a similar
situation, but presented from the opposite angle. The typical Haw–
thorne character is emotionally (if not physically) isolated; but his
isolation is attributed to some sinful desire or some form of spiritual
pride which prevents him from loving other human beings. It is
therefore regarded as evil. The theme is stated most clearly, although
embroidered with those symbolic illustrations which are so character–
istic of Hawthorne's peculiar method of writing, in such stories as
Ethan Brand, Rappaccini's Daughter, Lady Eleanore's Mantle, The
Christmas Banquet,
and
The Bosom Serpent.
The novels preach the
same lesson, but present a more complex view of life. Two images are
placed in opposition to each other, suggesting two different kinds
of isolation: that of the puritan magistrate or reformer, who
is
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