Nathaniel Hawthorne 의 단편에 나타난 Head Figure 와 Heart Figure = Head Figures and Heart Figures in Hawthorne's Short Stories

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The head and the heart are two important symbols in understanding Hawthorne's fiction, For Hawthorne, the head is associated with intellect which enables man to make great achievements in science, medicine, or art. The head is also related with artificiality. In contrast, the heart is associated with humanity and nature. In his allegory of the heart in American Notebooks, Hawthorne compared the human heart to a dark cavern full of mysteries, fear, and wonder. According to Hawthorne, to ensure happiness in this world man must first achieve the balance between the head and the heart.
In his fiction, especially in short stories, Hawthorne presents many head figures and heart figures who illustrate that man may fall into misery or ruin if he loses the balance between the head and the heart. Many of Hawthorne's head figures, in spite of their intelligence and first-rate professional skills, are villains who victimize their dear people by violating the sanctity of the human heart because of their excessive intellectual curiosity. Many heart figures, virtuous and attractive, are victimized by these cold, intellectual head figures. Some heart figures are vulgar, common people who do not hold any intellectual aspirations or ideals. But these inferior heart figures usually display excellence in surviving in this world.
Four short stories, much anthologized and praised, are selected to discuss head and heart figures: $quot;Wakefield,$quot; $quot;The Birthmark,$quot; $quot;Rappaccini's Daughter,$quot; and $quot;Ethan Brand.$quot; Diversity is found among the head figures in these four stories. Wakefield is a pathetic man who isolates himself from the world because of his curiosity to pry into the heart of his wife during his absence. It is too late that he finds himself the outcast of the universe who has lost his own place in the human society. Aylmer is a tragic hero whose excessive romantic aspiration for high ideals leads him to conduct a dangerous experiment on his wife Georgiana to remove her birthmark from her face. The birthmark disappears, but Georgiana dies, leaving Aylmer in grief and loneliness. Rappaccini is a cold scientist who sacrifices his own daughter Beatrice by playing the role of crypto-God in creating his garden and imbuing Beatrice with deadly poison. Baglioni is a fiendish man who, from his jealousy of Rappaccini and Beatrice, tempts Giovanni and persuades Giovanni to give Beatrice the antidote to drink, which eventually kills hex. Giovanni is a lamentable hero who vacillates between the head and the heart and whose lack of faith in Beatrice's goodness brings about her death and his ruin. Ethan Brand is an unyielding rebel who defies God in search of the Unpardonable Sin. Yet all that remains for him after his defiance is his tragic death in the lime kiln.
Hawthorne's heart figures in these four stories also show diversity and originality. Mrs. Wakefield is a well-conditioned woman, practical and sensible, who can adapt herself to her new life after her husband's unannounced disappearance. Georgians is a beautiful and virtuous woman, whose birthmark is a symbol of the imperfectness of humanity after the Fall in the Garden of Eden. Her death implies that only the defective can live in this world. Beatrice, a beautiful and intelligent woman, has the poisonous body and the pure, innocent soul. She is the symbol of humanity because goad and evil coexist in her person. She is victimized by three selfish males--her father Rappaccini, her lover Giovanni,.and her competitor Baglioni, Aminadab and Bartram axe inferior heart figures, vulgar and ugly, who possess strong physical power and obtuse mental power. They lack in intellectual aspirations and high ideals, but they are the people who survive in this world.