ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the idea of fragmentation in Romantic literature in general and relates the idea to the Romantics' perceived opposition between nature and art. It also examines all four of the books — A Simple Story, Nature and Art, The Scarlet Letter and The Marble Faun — to explore Inchbald's and Hawthorne's use of fragmentary figures in the Romantic moral romance. The chapter looks at the fragmentary figures in Hawthorne's books to suggest that, not only was Hawthorne conciliatory toward Anglo-European tradition in The Marble Faun, but he also was more accepting of the idea of a shared tradition in The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne's general use of fragmentary figures is well documented. The chapter provides a visual representation of the characters' positions within the tales and of the symbolic continua that help to define the Romantic moral romance.
