THE IMAGE OF THE FATHER
377
another difficulty. To deal with these implications at
all
systematical–
ly, one is almost compelled to make some use of depth-psychology.
This is a kind of knowledge most critics are curiously loathe to
employ.
As
soon as We look at "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" more
closely, we discover that it is only in part a story of baffled search:
Robin is never so intent on finding
his
illustrious relative as he be–
lieves he is and as it appears. The story even tells us why this is so.
To some extent we understand from the very beginning; the explana–
tions offered serve basically to remind us of things we have ex–
perienced ourselves.
As
Robin walks into the town, it will be remembered, he realizes
that he should have probably asked the ferryman how to get to the
home of Major Molineux. Today we have scientific evidence for
what Hawthorne, and we, understand intuitively, the significance
of such forgetting. Earlier in the same paragraph we have been told
something equally significant. Robin walks into the town "with as
light a step as if his day's journey had not already exceeded thirty
miles, and with as eager an eye as if he were entering London city,
instead of the little metropolis of a New England colony." This
though he has momentarily lost sight of the reason for his visit!
As
early as this we begin to suspect that the town attracts the youth
for reasons which have nothing whatever to do with finding his in–
fluential relative. The intimation does not surprise us. Robin is eight–
een. The ferryman has surmised that this is his first visit to town. In
a general way we understand why his eye is "eager."
Robin makes his first inquiry for his kinsman with reasonable
alacrity. But a considerable time appears to elapse before his second
inquiry, at the tavern, and he is evidently spurred to enter it as much
by the odor of food, which reminds him of his own hunger, as by
any zeal to find the Major.
After his rebuff at the tavern it perhaps seems reasonable
enough that Robin should drop his inquiries and simply walk through
the streets looking for Major Molineux.
If
our critical faculties were
not already somewhat relaxed, however, it might occur to us at once
that this is a singularly inefficient way of looking for anyone. And
Robin does not pursue his impractical plan with any ardor. He
