ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with an examination of how Hawthorne uses the gothic to raise questions about ethical judgment and explores the seeming discrepancy between his early severity with the Puritans and his later hedging about slavery. All of Hawthorne’s own unresolved ambivalence about antebellum culture informs the tortured dialectics of the ponderous novel. When Hawthorne uses the gothic as a schema for historical narrative, it is always in order to mobilize this paradigmatic gothic preoccupation with justice and judgment. The tale is written in a gothic register and serves to illustrate the way that the gothic serves as a mnemonic device to keep the past alive. Critics have often noticed the novel’s pervading ambivalence, though they have differed in defining the terms of its polarities. No critical discussion of The Marble Faun fails to address the obvious opposition the novel establishes between the dark-complexioned and morally complex Miriam and pure and innocent fair-haired Hilda.
