Rewriting the Feminine: Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the works of Margaret Fuller and Charlotte Bronte

Abstract

In spite of the disparaging remarks Hawthorne made about the inferior work of the "damned mob of scribbling women" he was both interested in, and ultimately threatened by his feminine counterparts. By their very existence female authors threatened to displace him, since their writings challenged the cultural ideal of womanhood, an ideal created by the traditional patriarchal aesthetic he participated in. Hawthorne dealt with this threat by rewriting, and therefore controlling those he feared. In The Blithedale Romance he fictionalized the life of the nineteenth century feminist, Margaret Fuller. As "Zenobia" Fuller is depicted as a tragic, sinful figure who strains fruitlessly against the natural bonds of her sex. Although Hawthorne is believed to have turned once again to Fuller's life for inspiration when he wrote The Marble Faun, this thesis argues that He was also influenced by Villette, Charlotte Bronte's final novel. The similarity between these two works suggests that Hawthorne rewrote, re-interpreted portions of Bronte's work in his own novel in an effort to establish control over a voice which threatened the primacy of his own.