Hawthorne's Man of Science

8/13/2019 Hawthorne's Man of Science

1/70

his is the html version of the file http://repositories.tdl.org/ttu-ir/bitstream/handle/2346/10198/31295001748325.pdf?sequence=1.oogle automatically generates html versions of documents as we crawl the web.

HAWTHORNE'S MAN OF SCIENCE

by

LOUIS HENRY BRYAN, JR., B. A.

A THESIS

IN

ENGLISH

Submitted to the Graduate Faculty

of Texas Tech University in

Partial Fulfillment of

the Requirements for

the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

http://repositories.tdl.org/ttu-ir/bitstream/handle/2346/10198/31295001748325.pdf?sequence=1


2/70

May, 1970

ge 2

SOS"

970

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am deeply indebted in the preparation of this thesis to

Dr. M. S. Carlock, whose lectures first interested me in Hawthorne

when I was an undergraduate, and to Dr. J. T. McCullen, whose

assistance as my director has been beyond that which I deserved or

even expected.


3/70

11

ge 3

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

I. INTRODUCTION 1

II. HAWTHORNE'S MEN OF SCIENCE 4

The Stereotype 4

"^Roger Chillingworth 5

—Aylmer 11

-©r. Rappaccini 17

~Frofessor Baglioni 21'

Septimius Felton 25

Dr. Portsoaken 29

—Dr. Heidegger 32

Dr. Grimshawe 35

Dr. Dolliver 38

Holgrave ^1

Owen Warland 44


4/70

III. THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY STEREOTYPE OF THE

MAN OF SCIENCE 47

IV. CONCLUSION 55

BIBLIOGRAPHY 57

111

ge 4

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne's work there exists a charac

ter often described in critical works as "the standard Hawthorne ma

of science." Yet the critic then offers but little discussion of th

qualities which constitute this "standard" creation. This study

will first demonstrate that a "standard man of science" does indeed


5/70

exist in Hawthorne's work and then show that it was the contemporar

stereotype of the man of science that led Hai'7thorne to use him as

stock character in his examinations of the nature of sin and its

effect on the individual.

It may be well at this point to comment upon the avoidance

thus far of the word scientist. The Oxford English Dictionary

records the coining of scientist in 1840 and lists several instance

2

in which the word was used in the years inmiediately following. Whe

one considers that during the nineteenth century new words crossed

the Atlantic with relative slowness, that Hawthorne died in 1864,

that excluding The Marble Faun and Our Old Home he published nothin

written after 1854, that there is no certainty that he was ever

See, as an example, Edward H. Rosenberry, "Hawthorne's

Allegory of Science: 'Rappaccini's Daughter,'" American Literature,

XXXII (March, 1960), 40.

^The Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press,

1933), IX, 223.

ge 5

acquainted with the vjord, and that his tastes in matters of orthog-

raphy and rhetoric v/ere rather conservative, it is hardly surprising

to find no instance of his using scientist. That Hawthorne did not

use scientist only suggests that he either confined himself to terms

describing the practitioner of a specific branch of science (for


6/70

3

example, his reference to Roger Chillingworth as a physician), or

used some other means to express the concept of the practitioner of

science in general. Most frequently, Hawthorne used the specific,

but when he wanted a general term he used "man of science." Of the

specific characters with whom this paper is concerned, Havjthorne

referred to Aylmer in "The Birthmark" (II, 47), Roger Chillingworth

in The Scarlet Letter (V, 151), and Giacomo Rappaccini and Pietro

Baglioni in "Rappaccini's Daughter" (II, 116) as "men of science."

This paper V7ill retain Hawthorne's usage in the belief that an

anachronism vjhich retains appropriate nineteenth-century flavor

and connotations is justified.

The above-mentioned men of science (Aylmer, Chillingworth,

Rappaccini, and Baglioni) are those with whom this paper is primarily

concerned. In addition, secondary attention will be given to Owen

Warland of "The Artist of the Beautiful," Holgrave of The House of

the Seven Gables, Dr. Heidegger of "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," and

3

The VJorks of Nathaniel Havrthorne, With Introductory Notes

George Parsons Lathrop (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1882-

1883), V, 150; subsequent references will be by volume and page numbe

inserted in the text.

ge 6

4to the protagonists of three of Hawthorne's four unfinished novels—


7/70

Dr. Grimshawe of Dr. Grimshawe * s Secret, Dr. Dolliver of The Dolli

Romance, and Septimius Felton of the novel of the same name. Brief

though Hawthorne's reference to him is. Dr. Portsoaken of Septimius

Felton must also be included. Ethan Brand of the short story of the

same name and Professor Westervelt of The Blithedale Romance both

exhibit certain characteristics of the man of science; however,

neither of them is sufficiently protrayed as a man of science to

warrant his inclusion in this study.

One final introductory note concerns the use of The Dolliver

Romance, Dr. Grimshawe's Secret, and Septimius Felton in this study.

To accept the characters in these works as complete portrayals would

be unthinkable, inasmuch as the works in which they are found were

not considered by Hawthorne to be fit for publication; however, to

produce a study in which one, ostrich-like, ignores characters suit-

able for inclusion would be equally unthinkable. The characters in

question are—especially in the instances of Dr. Dolliver, Dr. Port-

soaken, and Dr. Grimshawe—poorly developed; but they are nevertheles

men of science and must be treated herein. Finally, it seems worth

noting with respect to Hax>^thorne' s unfinished novels that in his

struggle to produce another romance after The Marble Faun he, in all

three attempts, seized upon men of science as his protagonists. The

man of science, then, obviously fascinated Hawthorne; hopefully this

study will provide some insight into his interest.

4

Only if one considers The /ancestral Footstep a separate

novel would there be four.

ge 7


8/70

CHAPTER II

HAWTHORNE'S MEN OF SCIENCE

The Stereotype

The best approach to an understanding of Hawthorne's man

of science may be a listing of his characteristics. The man of

science is a pale, thin old man whose age is strikingly contrasted

with that of a youth or a child found in his proximity. He is, in

the modern sense of the word, an intellectual. His work is of an

esoteric nature and usually concerns life, especially human life;

he is most often a physician. If we learn anything of his laborator

we find that it is isolated and fiery and has an oppressive atmosph

laden with various chemical fumes. When the man of science engages

upon a project, it almost invariably fails after having given the

initial appearance of impending success; and the man of science

generally can be found taking an ecstatic delight and reveling in

premature triumph over his assumed successes. In spite of his fail-

ures, he becomes so fanatically devoted to his work that it become

an obsession with him. He will stop at nothing to increase his

store of knowledge or achieve his ends and is possessed of a consum

ambition and an immense pride. His very nature, tHen, causes him to

lose touch with the world; and this isolation from humanity serves


9/70

ge 8^

once as the cause and source of his sin—the "want of love and rever-

ence for the Human Soul. . .the separation of the intellect from the

heart," attitudes and actions described by Hawthorne in an often-

quoted notebook entry in which he speculates upon the nature of the

unpardonable sin. The man of science ultimately suffers direly as

a consequence of his sin, but he is clearly the cause of his own

destruction—there is no deus ex machina in his downfall. Finally,

he has within him an element of greatness which causes him to approac

the status of a tragic hero. (R. B. Heilman has discussed this point

while speaking of Aylmer in "The Birthmark." )

Roger Chillingworth

Turning now to an examination of Hawthorne's men of science

individually, we might first choose The Scarlet Letter and consider

Roger Chillingworth—a man who stands as the classic example of

Hawthorne's man of science.

Roger Chillingworth is, as expected, "small of stature"

(V, 81) and has a "pale, thin, scholar-like visage" (V, 79). He is

old, and his age is frequently contrasted with that of the other

three main characters in the novel. He speaks to Hester of their

marriage as the occasion "when I betrayed thy budding youth into a

false and unnatural relation with my decay" (V, 150). Hawthorne,


10/70


11/70

were converted into drugs of potency" (V, 160). Like many of Haw-

thorne's men of science, Chillingworth practices medicine without a

degree; in the previously-mentioned interview with Hester he observe

that "my old studies in alchemy. . .and my sojourn, for above a year

past, among a people well versed in the kindly properties of simples

have made a better physician of me than many that claim the medical

degree" (V, 94). Shortly thereafter, Hawthorne refers to him as "the

physician, as he had a fair right to be termed" (V, 94).

ge 10^. .',^ 1MI*-^-«i-«• IWI II -^

Hawthorne says little of Chillingworth's laboratory; but, a

can be expected with a man of science, it is isolated "on the other

side of the house" (V, 154) and is "provided with a distilling appa-

ratus, and the means of compounding drugs and chemicals" (V, 155).

Too, in developing Chilling\^7orth's character, Hawthorne later

reports the town rumor that the fire in Chillingworth's laboratory

"had been brought from the lower regions, and was fed with infernal

fuel" (V, 156).

We have said that when a man of science engages upon a proj

it almost invariably fails after having given the initial appearance

of impending success; this observation is partially true of Chilling

worth. If we maintain that Chillingworth's goal is to become "not a

spectator only, but a chief actor, in the poor minister's interior

world. . .[to] play upon him as he chose" (V, 171); to "burrow and

rankle in his heart. . .[to] cause him to die daily a living death"


12/70

(V, 206), then certainly Chillingworth is eminently successful.

But the very nature of Chillingworth's revenge is such that he can

achieve only a partial success; when, during their forest interview,

Hester asks him, "Hast thou not tortured him enough?. . .Has he not

paid thee all?" Chillingsworth replies, "No!—no! He has but in-

creased the debt!" (V, 208). Too, in the penultimate chapter vrhen

Dimmesdale prepares to mount the scaffold and make his public con-

fession, Chillingworth no longer has reason to live and kneels besid

him "with a blank, dull countenance, out of which the life seemed to

have departed," repeating, "Thou hast escaped me!" (V, 303).

e 11

Thus, even though he has been the death of his enemy, he has failed

in his ultimate goal—the eternal earthly torment of Dimmesdale.

Chillingworth clearly fits the stereotype, though, in his

ecstatic delight over his success in discovering the identity of

Hester's correspondent:

After a brief pause, the physician turned away.

But with what a wild look of v7onder, joy, and horror!

With what a ghastly rapture, as it were, too mighty to be

expressed only by the eye and'features, and therefore

bursting forth through the whole ugliness of his figure,

and making itself even riotously manifest by the extrava-

gant gestures with vjhich he threw up his arms toward the

ceiling, and stamped his foot upon the floor! Had a man

seen old Roger Chillingworth, at that moment of his ecstasy,

he would have had no need to ask how Satan comports himself

when a precious human soul is lost to heaven, and won into

his kingdom (V, 169).


13/70

In spite of failures and setbacks, the man of science is so

fanatically devoted to his work that it becomes an obsession with

him. Chillingworth had early devoted himself to his work; in his

first interview with Hester he refers to himself as "having given my

best years to feed the hungry dream of knowledge" (V, 96). We have

already discussed his knowledge of medicine, and it can be assumed

that this knowledge was not gained without a certain devotion to its

acquisition. However, it is only when he undertakes the discovery

of Hester's paramour that we sense the beginnings of Chillingworth's

obsession as, his eyes aglow, he says, "Sooner or later, he must

needs by mine!" (V, 98). Hawthorne describes the development of

Chillingworth's obsession as follows: "But, as he proceeded, a ter-

rible fascination, a kind of fierce, though still calm, necessity

ge 12

seized the old man within its gripe, and never set him free until

he had done all its bidding" (V, 158). Chillingworth's obsession

develops such intensity that in time he becomes a very fiend in his

torment of Dimmesdale. Hawthorne declares: "In a ^^7ord, old Roger

Chillingworth was a striking evidence of a man's faculty of trans-

forming himself into a devil, if he will only, for a reasonable

space of time, undertake a devil's office" (V, 205). In discussing

with Hester his torment of Dimmesdale, Chillingworth says, "A mortal


14/70

man, with once a human heart, has become a fiend for his [Dimmes-

dale' s] especial torment!" (V, 207). Later, during the same meeting

Hester expresses her pity for Chillingworth "for the hatred that has

transformed a wise and just man to a fiend" (V, 209).

Chillingworth possesses in abundance the pride and consuming

ambition characteristic of the man of science; we see his pride in

his arrogant self-confidence during his first meeting with Hester

when he tells her:

I shall seek this man [Pearl's father], as I have sought

truth in books; as I have sought gold in alchemy. There

is a sympathy that will make me conscious of him. I shall

see him tremble. I shall feel myself shudder, suddenly

and unax\Tares. Sooner or later, he must needs be mine!(V, 98).

Chillingworth's pride is even more apparent in his forest interview

with Hester when he declares:

I tell thee, Hester Prynne, the richest fee that ever physician

earned from monarch could not have bought such care as I have

wasted on this miserable priest! But for my aid, his life would

have burned away in torments, within the first two years after

the perpetration of his crime and thine. . . .What art can do,I have exhausted on him. That he now breathes, and creeps about

on earth, is owing all to me! (V, 206).

ge 131^

Closely associated with Chillingworth's pride is his ambitio

in Chapter IV he confidently predicts: "His [Hester's correspondent'

fame, his position, his life, will be in my hands" (V, 99). After he

has achieved this goal and has mercilessly tormented Dimmesdale for


15/70

some time, Hester begs Chillingworth to "leave his further retribu-

tion to the Power that claims it!" (V, 209). Chillingworth refuses

and thus demonstrates what must be the ultimate in ambition—that of

usurping a heavenly prerogative.

We have said that the man of science has lost touch with the

world, that he is isolated. Chillingworth early characterizes himsel

as "isolated from human interests" (V, 99), and Hawthorne describes

hira as having chosen "to withdraw his name from the roll of mankind

(V, 145). Thus Chillingworth falls into his principal sin—the "want

of love and reverence for the Human Soul. . .the separation of the

intellect from the heart." That Chillingworth displays a "want of

love and reverence" for Dimmesdale's soul is seen even before he dis

covers that Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl: Having recognized tha

Dimmesdale is one "whose body is. . .conjoined. . .with the spirit

whereof it is the instrument" (V, 166), Chillingworth mutters, "A ra

case!. . .1 must needs look deeper into it. A strange sympathy be-

twixt soul and body! Were it only for the art's sake, I must search

this matter to the bottom!" (V, 168). (Italics mine.) When, during

their forest meeting, Hester informs Dimmesdale that Chillingworth

was her husband, the minister realizes the enormity of Chillingworth

sin and declares: "He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a

human heart" (V, 234).

ge 1415

Chillingworth suffers for his sin and is clearly the cause


16/70

of his own destruction; in the concluding chapter Hawthorne remarks:

This unhappy man had made the very principle of his life to

consist in the pursuit and systematic exercise of revenge;

and when, by its completest triumph and consummation, that

evil principle was left with no further material to support

it, when, in short, there was no more Devil's work on earth

for him to do, it only remained for the unhumanized mortal

to betake himself whither his Master would find him tasks

enough, and pay him his wages duly (V, 307).

Chillingworth's presumably unrepentant death "within the yea

(V, 308) is the culmination of his tragedy. That a man who, in Haw-

thorne's words, "had been calm in temperament, kindly, though not of

warm affections, but ever, and in all his relations with the world,

pure and upright man" (V, 158) could allow himself to become so con-

sumed with hatred that he makes himself a probable candidate for ete

nal damnation is a tragedy of the highest order. It is perhaps for

this reason that Hawthorne concludes his treatment of Chillingworth

with a hint of possible redemption, suggesting that "in the spiritua

world, the old physician and the minister. . .may, unawares, have

found their earthly stock of hatred and antipathy transmuted into

golden love" (V, 308).

Aylmer

After Roger Chillingworth, Hawthorne's most clearly-dra\\Ti

of science is Aylmer of "The Birthmark"; most of Chillingworth's

characteristics as a man of science can be found in Aylmer.

In his physical description Aylmer fits the stereotype of th

man of science. He has a "slender figure" and a "pale, intellectual


17/70

ge 15

1

face" CII, 55); however, unlike most of Hawthorne's men of science,

he is not described as old. It is difficult to fix Aylmer's age; but

Hawthorne's reference to Georgiana as Aylmer's "young wife" (II, 47),

his mention of the discoveries Aylmer had made "during his toilsome

youth (_II> 53), and his failure to refer to Aylmer as young suggest

that V7e may best consider Aylmer to be of middle age. Also, Hav7thor

use of "young" in his descriptions of Georgiana provides, to a lesser

degree, the youth-age contrast typically associated with the man of

science.

Certainly Aylmer is an intellectual; Hawthorne tells us that

he "had made discoveries in the elemental powers of Nature that had

roused the admiration of all the learned societies in Europe" (II, 53

and describes him as "an eminent proficient in every branch of natura

philosophy" (II, 47). And surely we may label esoteric investigations

into "the secrets of the highest cloud region and of the profoundest

mines. . .the causes that kindled and kept alive the fires of the

volcano, and. * .the mystery of fountains" (II, 54).

Although not a physician, Aylmer has "at an earlier period. .

studied the v7onders of the human frame, and attempted to fathom the

very process by which Nature assimilates all her precious influences

. . .to create and foster man, her masterpiece" (II, 54); thus he doe

deal with human life. Too, and more significantly, the very theme of

"The Birthmark" concerns Aylmer's attempts to remove a birthmark from

the cheek of his otherwise perfect V7ife.


18/70

ge 161

Aylmer's secluded laboratory is described in greater detail

than that of any of Hawthorne's other men of science. When Georgiana

strays from that portion of the laboratory which her husband has con-

verted into her boudoir for the duration of the experiment, she

encounters the unadorned world of the man of science:

The first thing that struck her eye was the furnace,

that hot and feverish worker, with the intense glow of its

fire, which by the quantities of soot clustered above it

seemed to have been burning for ages. There was a distilling

apparatus in full operation. Around the room were retorts,

tubes, cylinders, crucibles, and other apparatus of chemical

research. An electrical machine stood ready for immediate

use. The atmosphere felt oppressively close, and V7as tainted

with gaseous odors which had been tormented forth by the

processes of science (II, 63).

In the above description we find the fire and oppressive atmosphere

characteristic of the man of science's laboratory; the element of

isolation may be found in Hax^thorne's statement that Aylmer and

Georgiana "were to seclude themselves in the. . .laboratory" (Italics

mine.) (II, 53).

We have said that the projects of the man of science are

almost invariably failures; Aylmer's work illustrates this point

vividly. When Aylmer is trying to "soothe Georgiana, and, as it

were, to release her mind from the burden of actual things" (II, 56),

he fails miserably in a pair of abortive experiments: He produces a

flower which becomes blighted at Georgiana's touch; and, in an


19/70

attempt to "take her portrait by a process of his own invention"

(which seems strikingly similar to daguerreotypy) (II, 57), he pro-

duces a portrait in which the only clear feature is the hated birthma

ge 17

Too, when Georgiana reads through the folio in which Aylmer has re-

corded his experiments, she discovers that:

Much as he had accomplished. . .his most splendid successes

were almost invariably failures, if compared with the ideal

at which he aimed. His brightest diamonds were the merest

pebbles, and felt to be so himself, in comparison with the

inestimable gems which lay hidden beyond his reach. The

volume, rich with achievements that had won renown for its

author, was yet as melancholy a record as ever mortal hand

had penned (II, 61).

Small wonder that Georgiana feels "a less entire dependence on his

judgment than heretofore" (II, 61)! Even so, she remains prepared

to join Aylmer in his most monumental failure: his attempt to render

her birthmarked cheek "as flavzless as its fellow" (II, 53).

Typically, impending failure has the initial appearance of

success: The almost-magical plant actually produces a flower before

it is blighted at Georgiana's touch. Too, Aylmer is successful in

removing the birthmark from Georgiana's cheek, but "as the last

crimson tint of the birthmark. . .faded from her cheek, the parting

breath of the now perfect woman passed into the atmosphere" (II, 69).

Thus, the "almost irrepressible ecstasy" (II, 68) v/hich Aylmer,


20/70


21/70

deepest thought—thought which might almost have enlightened me to create a being less perfect than yourself. . . .1 feel

myself fully competent to render this dear cheek as faultless

as its fellow; and then. . .what will be my triumph when I

shall have corrected what Nature left imperfect in her fairest

work! (II, 53).

By recounting Aylmer's dream of being "inexorably resolved"

(II, 53) to surgically remove the birthmark, Hawthorne early estab-

lishes that, as a typical man of science, Aylmer is prepared to go

to any extreme to accomplish his ends. Aylmer later explains to

Georgiana: "Know, then, that this crimson hand, superficial as it

seems, has clutched its grasp into your being with a strength of

which I had no previous conception. I have already administered

agents powerful enough to do aught except to change your entire

physical system" (II, 65). Aylmer's obsession is such that he can

ge 19

16

admit to Georgiana that "only one thing remains to be tried. If that

fail us we are ruined" (II, 65). Even so, he is compelled to make

the attempt. It may be argued that in our presentation of Aylmer's

obsession we have painted him a shade too black, that we have over-

looked Georgiana's willingness to be the object of his experimentation.

However, Georgiana's insistence upon the initiation and continuation

of the experiment and her avowal that she would "take a dose of poison

if offered by [Aylmer's] hand" (II, 64) seem to indicate how strongly

his obsession has affected her; for her willingness to submit is but

a reflection of Aylmer's desire that she submit.


22/70

Aylmer's desire to perfect Georgiana's "sensible frame"

(II, 66) that it might equal her spirit in perfection indicates that

he has lost touch with the world. Surely one who had not isolated

himself from humanity would realize that there is invariably a "fatal

flaw of humanity which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps inef-

faceably on all her productions" (II, 50). Too, by subjecting

Georgiana to the anguish she suffers as a result of his obsession,

Aylmer demonstrates a "want of love and reverence" for her soul.

Hawthorne leaves somewhat ambiguous the question of Aylmer's

fate; thus, one can only speculate upon the consequences of his sin.

Whether Aylmer suffers as a direct result of Georgiana's death is a

difficult question, but his treatment of Georgiana as an object of

experimentation suggests that the love he possibly feels for her is,

in actuality, merely a reflection of his self-love. Thus, his

destruction of Georgiana in his attempt to perfect her—his failure

ge 20

1

to understand that "the fatal hand. . ".was the bond by which an

angelic spirit kept itself in union with a mortal frame" (II, 69)--

can be assumed to be forgotten almost as easily as he "forgot [the]

mortifying failures" (II, 57) with the ephemeral plant and the

daguerreotype. His pride and his lack of wisdom can scarcely permit

otherwise.

As Heilman states, Aylmer resembles the tragic hero; however


23/70

since Aylmer—in Heilman's words—"cannot see the Furies," he is not

complete as a tragic hero. Aylmer's nobility, his element of great-

ness, is his intellect; his tragic flaw is that his knowledge never

becomes wisdom. Hawthorne writes: "Yet, had Aylmer reached a pro-

founder wisdom, he need not thus have flung away the happiness which

would have woven his mortal life of the selfsame texture with the

celestial" (II, 69). Perhaps Aylmer's most tragic aspect is that,

like most of Hawthorne's men of science, he will never have suffi-

cient wisdom to become a tragic hero.

Dr, Rappaccini

Signor Giacomo Rappaccini exhibits the physical appearance

of the Hawthorne man of science: he is an "emaciated, sallow, and

sickly-looking man, . . .beyond the middle term of life" (II, 112).

Rappaccini's age and infirmity are vividly contrasted with the youth

and vibrance of his daughter in Hawthorne's initial descriptions.

Heilman, The South Atlantic Quarterly, XLVII, 583.

ge 21

Unlike her "emaciated, sallow, and sickly-looking" father, Beatrice

Rappaccini is "redundant with life, health, and energy" (II, 113).

When Rappaccini calls to Beatrice "in the infirm voice of a person


24/70

affected with inward disease" (II, 113), she answers with "a rich and

youthful voice. . .a voice as rich as a tropical sunset" (II, 113).

Like most of Hawthorne's other men of science, Rappaccini is

often referred to as intellectual. Hawthorne describes his face as

being "pervaded with an expression of piercing and active intellect"

(II, 124). Too, Rappaccini's work is of an esoteric nature and

concerns human life; Professor Pietro Baglioni tells Giovanni that

Rappaccini "is said even to produce new varieties of poison, more

horribly deleterious than Nature, without the assistance of this

learned person, v7ould ever have plagued the world withal" (II, 117)

and intimates that Rappaccini has "nourished [Beatrice] with poisons

from her birth upward, until her whole nature was so imbued with them

that she herself had become the deadliest poison in existence" (II,

135-136). Rappaccini is, as his scientific studies indicate, a

physician; and he is characterized by Baglioni as "eminently skilled"

and having "as much science as any member of the faculty—with perhaps

one single exception—in Padua, or all Italy" (II, 116).

Rappaccini's laboratory is not described, but Hav7thorne's

very failure to even mention it suggests that, like that of the typical

man of science, it is isolated. Too, Rappaccini's garden is, in a

sense, his laboratory; when Giovanni has gained access to the isolated

ge 22

19


25/70

garden, Beatrice tells him, in a statement more meaningful than she

perhaps realizes, that "this garden is his [Rappaccini's] world"

(II, 129).

One of the most significant characteristics of the man of

science is that his projects fail after having given the appearance

of success. Rappaccini is even more successful in transforming

Beatrice than Aylmer was in removing Georgiana's birthmark; the

process of transformation, itself, does not kill Beatrice. Never-

theless, Beatrice becomes, like Georgiana, a "poor victim of man's

ingenuity and of thwarted nature, and of the fatality that attends

all such efforts of perverted wisdom" (II, 147). But, before failure

becomes obvious, Rappaccini indulges in the man of science's charac-

teristically premature triumph:

The pale man of science seemed to gaze with a triumphantexpression at the beautiful youth and maiden, as might an

artist who should spend his life in achieving a picture or

a group of statuary and finally be satisfied with his t)

success. He paused; his bent form grew erect with conscious

power (II, 146).

.^^'

We have said that the man of science becomes fanatically

devoted to his work in spite of his failures. In Rappaccini's case,

the only failures of which we learn (other than his ultimate failure

with Beatrice) are those alluded to by Baglioni when he declares that

Rappaccini "should be held strictly accountable for his failures"

(II, 117). It is clear, though, that Rappaccini is devoted to his

work; his eminence as a scholar and physician would not otherwise be

likely. Too, with superb irony of anticipation, Baglioni I ells Gio-

vanni that Rappaccini "would sacrifice human life, his ov.m among the


26/70

ge 23

20

rest, or whatever else was dearest to him, for the sake of adding so

much as a grain of mustard seed to the great heap of his accumulated

knowledge" (II, 116). Baglioni further informs Giovanni that "Rap- r.

paccmi, with what he calls the interest of science before his eyes,

will hesitate at nothing" (II, 138). Thus, Rappaccini clearly dis-

plays the v/illingness of the man of science to go to any extrem.e in

pursuit of his ends.

Rappaccini's pride and ambition are seen in his attitude

toward Giovanni and Beatrice when he tells her: "My science and the

sympathy between thee and him have so wrought within his system that

he now stands apart from common men, as thou dost, daughter of my

pride and triumph, from ordinary women" (II, 146-147). (Italics

mine.) Also, the very nature of Rappaccini's undertaking indicates

an ambition uncommon in all but men of science.

Rappaccini's failure is the direct result of his having lost

touch with the world and his attempt to render Beatrice even more

isolated from humanity than he is. He shows a "want of love and

reverence for the Human Soul" in being, as Baglioni expresses it,

"not restrained by natural affection from offering up his child in

this horrible manner as the victim of his insane zeal for science"

(II, 137). "The separation of the intellect from the heart" is seen-^

in Baglioni's description of Rappaccini as being "as true a man of

science as ever distilled his ov/n heart in an alembic" (II, 137-138).

Again, one can only speculate upon the degree to which Rappa-

V


27/70

ccini will suffer as a result of his sin. Certainly, as Sister Jane

ge 24

2

Marie Luecke writes, "There is little doubt that Rappaccini himself

was convinced that he was performing an inestimably good service to

o

his daughter." That Rappaccini cannot be accused of malice, how-

ever, does not absolve him from guilt in being at least partially

responsible for Beatrice's death. Rappaccini has a noble ambition:

to protect his beloved daughter from harm. In his attempt to protect

her, however, he violates her soul and commits an affront to nature

that he readily repeats with Giovanni. Thus, like Aylmer, his

greatest flaw is that he lacks the wisdom to apply his knowledge

as a man of science.

Professor Baglioni

Closely associated with Rappaccini is Professor Pietro

Baglioni. Like Rappaccini, Baglioni is old; Hawthorne describes

him as "an elderly personage" (II, 115). Too, his age is frequently

contrasted with Giovanni's youth; when he accosts Giovanni on the

street, he calls him "my young friend" (II, 123).

As a "professor of medicine in the university" (II, 115) and

Rappaccini's opponent in "a professional warfare of long continuance"

(II, 117), Baglioni can logically be termed an intellectual. Also,


28/70

if we assume that he has prepared the antidote that he gives Giovanni

for Beatrice, we can properly say that he shares Rappaccini's interest

o

Sister Jane Marie Luecke, "Villians and Non-Villians in

Hawthorne's Fiction," PMLA, LXXVII (December, 1963), 554.

ge 25

22

in the esoteric science of compounding drugs. As "a physician of

eminent repute" (II, 115), he is clearly concerned with human life;

and his very role in the story revolves around his ultimate destruc-

tion of Beatrice.

Baglioni's laboratory is not described, nor is any clear

indication given that he even cultivates an herb garden. However,

if we again assume that he has prepared the antidote, there is at

least the possibility that he has prepared it of materials he has

himself gathered.

Baglioni is atypical as a man of science in that he achieves

a final success in his major undertaking, his attempt to thwart Rap-

paccini. In fact, the only failure that may be ascribed to Baglioni

is found in Hawthorne's early comment that Rappaccini "was generally

thought to have gained the advantage" (II, 117) over Baglioni in

their professional war. Even so, Baglioni ultimately has a real

success over which to congratulate himself. Having apparently sta-

tioned himself in Giovanni's chamber in order that he might savor his


29/70

triumph at its moment of realization, he calls to the stunned Rappa-

ccini: "Rappaccini! Rappaccini! and is this the upshot of your

experiment!" (II, 148). That he speaks thus, "in a tone of triumph

mixed with horror" (II, 148), recalls Chillingworth's ecstasy over

discovering Dimmesdale's secret.

Baglioni seems to be devoted to his work as "a teacher of the

divine art of medicine" (II, 116), and he is clearly devoted to his

chief goal, that of thx-7arting Rappaccini. Baglioni characterizes

ge 26

2

himself as well as Rappaccini when he tells Giovanni that Rappaccini

"will hesitate at nothing" (II, 138) to achieve his ends. A profes-

sional rivalry of the sort enjoyed by Baglioni and Rappaccini is not

possible without significant pride on both their parts, and it is

Baglioni who is presented as taking the offensive against Rappaccini.

He derogates Rappaccini in his first meeting with Giovanni; and when

he realizes, after having accosted Giovanni on the street, that "Rap-

paccini has a scientific interest" (II, 125) in the young student,

he thinks: "This must not be. . . .Besides, it is too insufferable

an impertinence in Rappaccini, thus to snatch the lad out of my ovm

hands" (II, 125). Too, when Baglioni is describing Rappaccini as

"having as much science as any member of the faculty," his pride

induces him to add the modifier, "with perhaps one single exception


30/70

[i. e., himself]" (II, 116).

In view of the "light that Hawthorne throws around Baglioni

9as his chief culprit" mentioned by Sister Luecke, one is tempted to

think of his destruction of Beatrice as V7illful. And there is some

textual evidence to support this view. Baglioni's avovjed goal is to

thwart Rappaccini, and he is struck early in the story with the

thought of thwarting Rappaccini through his daughter: "This daughter

of his! It shall be looked to. Perchance, most learned Rappaccini,

I may foil you where you little dream of it!" (II, 125). Baglioni

can achieve his goal equally well by either of two methods: first, by

returning Rappaccini's supposedly-invulnerable daughter to a normal

^Luecke, PMLA, LXXVII, 554.

ge 27

human state; or second, by demonstrating that Beatrice is not as

invulnerable as her father thinks. Even more so than the empiricist

Rappaccini, the traditionalist Baglioni, who admits to "reading an

old classic author lately" (II, 135), ought to be aware of the clas-

sical theory of antidotes that "those herbs, stones, or any other

thing, which being put into a Serpents mouth, doth kill him, is an

Antidote against his poyson." That Baglioni knows that the anti-

dote will probably have the same effect on Beatrice is suggested by

his leaving Giovanni to conclude that the antidote will have the

effect of transforming Beatrice's nature from poisonous to benign;


31/70

he tells Giovanni only to "hopefully await the result" (II, 138).

Even so, since Baglioni can achieve his goal of foiling Rappaccini

without killing Beatrice, the safest critical argument may be found

in maintaining that he is callously indifferent to Beatrice's welfare.

Whichever critical view one takes of the extent of Baglioni's

malignity, it is clear that he demonstrates a "want of love and rev-

erence" for Beatrice's soul and that his use of Giovanni to further

his ends is scarcely less callous. Thus, in this final characteris-

tic he fits Hawthorne's stereotype as a man of science.

John Baptista Porta, Natural Magick, ed. Derek J. Price

(New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1957), p. 225; this work is a facsimile

of the 1658 London translation of Porta*s Magiae naturalis libri XX

In quibus scientarium naturalium divitiae et deliciae demonstrantur

"(Naples, 1589).

ge 28

Septimius Felton

Turning now to Septimius Felton. which, according to Una

Hawthorne, was the last novel her father wrote (XI, 227), we find

that the protagonist is a standard man of science in many particulars.

Hawthorne describes Septimius as having a "slender, agile

figure" (XI, 351); and after he has been engaged for some time in


32/70

his obsessive attempt to prepare an elixir of life, he develops the

pallor characteristic of the man of science. Septimius is not old,

but he ironically enough undergoes a transformation from the vigor

of youth to a premature old age during the course of his quest for

immortality. Robert Hagburn, with whom the youthful Septimius is

compared at the first of the novel, returns from war and tells

Septimius: "Study wears upon you terribly. You will be an old man,

at this rate, before you know you are a young one" (XI, 389).

Septimius is, above all, an intellectual man of science.

At the beginning of the novel, Hawthorne informs us that "Septimius

had early manifested a taste for study" (XI, 321); his minister tells

him: "Your reputation as a scholar stands high at college" (XI, 237);

and Hawthorne later refers to "the intellect, which was the prominent

point in Septimius" (XI, 270). Septimius' attempt to produce an

elixir of life can clearly be called esoteric; and in his fervid

efforts to decipher the manuscript which he thinks holds the secret

of immortality, he is "said by tradition to have found out many wonder-

ful secrets that were almost beyond the scope of science" (XI, 381).

ge 29

The man of science is typically a physician, and Hawthorne

relates that after Septimius' departure "the people. . .remember


33/70

him as a quack doctor" (XI, 382). Too, at the wedding of Rose

Felton and Robert Hagburn, Dr. Portsoaken asks: "And how has been

my learned young friend Dr. Septimius,—for so he should be called"

(XI, 419).

Septimius' laboratory is but briefly described; however, it

contains "implements of science, crucibles, retorts, and electrical

machines" (XI, 421). Also, a legend that springs up after Septimius

has gone tells that "old Aunt Keziah used to come with a coal of fire

from unknown furnaces, to light his distilling apparatus" (XI, 381),

recalling the rumors about the source of Chillingworth's fire.

We have said that the man of science's projects fail after

giving the appearance of success; certainly Septimius is, for a time,

sure of success. His only question seems to be one of "whether Sibyl

Dacy shared in his belief of the success of his experiment" (XI, 412).

But Septimius does, of course, fail in his attempt to create an elixir

of life because Sibyl deceives him into using a false ingredient that

converts "the drink into a poison, famous in old science" (XI, 426).

When Septimius has his flash of insight into the secret of

the cryptic manuscript dealing with the elixir of life, he exhibits

the characteristic ecstasy: "His brain reeled, he seemed to have taken

11

Rose Felton is Rose Garfield in the first part of the novel

too, she is earlier Septimius' fiancee rather than his sister.

ge 30 \


34/70

a draught of some liquor that opened infinite depths before him, he

could scarcely refrain from giving a shout of triumphant exultation,

the house could not contain him" (XI, 397). Too, when he is sure of

success in compounding the draught of immortality, he spends happy

hours with Sibyl in mapping out their lives for millennia to come.

At the beginning of the novel Septimius becomes deeply con-

cerned with the question: "Why should I die?" (XI, 240), and his

fixation gradually worsens; Hawthorne comments: "It was strange how

every little incident thus brought him back to that one subject which

was taking so strong hold of his mind" (XI, 242). At first Septimius

applies himself "v7ith earnest diligence to his attempt to decipher and

interpret the manuscript" (XI, 336). Then, believing that he knows

all the manuscript's secrets, he begins to work at preparing the medi-

cine and becomes thoroughly obsessed: "He had a strange, owl-like

appearance, uncombed, unbrushed, his hair long and tangled; his face

. . .darkened with smoke; his cheeks pale; the indentation of his brow

deeper than ever before; an earnest, haggard sulking look" (XI, 382).

That the man of science is willing to go to extremes to

achieve his ends has been established. After Aunt Keziah's final

illness, during which Septimius has precipitated a marked v/orsening

of her condition by adding a new ingredient to her nostrum, Hawthorne

ironically comments: "Septimius, much as he loved life, v7ould not have

hesitated to put his own life to the same risk that he had imposed on

Aunt Keziah; or, if he did hesitate, it would have been only because,

if the experiment turned out disastrously in his own person, he would


35/70

ge 31 \

not be in a position to make another and more successful trial;

whereas, by trying it on others, the man of science still reserves

himself for new efforts, and does not put all the hopes of the world,

so far as involved in his success, on one cast of the die" (XI, 362).

Septimius' pride and ambition are seen most vividly in his

presumption in asking, "Miy should I die?" and in his efforts to

thwart nature by concocting an elixir of life; but he also shows his

pride in lesser ways, We learn that when Septimius first looked at

the strange manuscript he had gotten from Cyril Norton, the young

British officer whom he had umcfillingly killed, he "could not with

certainty read one word!" (XI, 280); however, he is shown to be

untroubled by his inability "because he felt well assured that the

strong, concentrated study that he would bring to it would remove

all difficulties" (XI, 280-281).

Those of Septimius' qualities described thus far are suffi-

cient to cause him to lose touch with the world. During the first

day recounted in the novel, Septimius is portrayed as feeling "himsel

strangely ajar with the human race" (XI, 250). Later, when Septimius

has become obsessed with his attempt to concoct the elixir, Hav7thorn

tells us that "he shunned the glances of his fellow-men, probably

because he had learnt to consider them not as fellows, because he

was seeking to withdraw himself from the common bond and destiny"

(XI, 382).


36/70

As Septimius withdraws from humanity, he turns to introspec-

tion and seeks to achieve a "separation of the intellect from the

heart" within himself. That he is partially unsuccessful in this

ge 32

29

effort is seen in his becoming romantically involved with the myster-

ious Sibyl Dacy. However, Septimius does exhibit a "want of love and

reverence" for his omi soul in that his attempt to become immortal

contravenes natural order, and he is "crushed and annihilated, as it

were, by the failure of his magnificent and most absurd dreams" (XI,

430). Thus, demonstrating yet another characteristic of the man of

science, he suffers as a direct result of his own actions.

The man of science is typically portrayed as unwilling to

profit from his mistakes; that Hawthorne leaves Septimius' ultimate

fate a matter of speculation suggests the possibility that Septimius,

the last man of science that Hawthorne portrayed, may deviate from

the pattern by recognizing his error and thereafter undergoing a

positive transformation of character. Whether V7e can jump to this

conclusion or not—perhaps it requires too great a leap of faith—

we do see that Septimius at least abandons his efforts to prepare

an elixir of life.

Dr. Portsoaken

Another man of science found in Septimius Felton introduces

himself as "Doctor Jabez Portsoaken, . . .late surgeon of his


37/70

Majesty's sixteenth regiment" (XI, 301). Hawthorne describes him

as a "somewhat elderly man" (XI, 300), and his age is contrasted

with Septimius' youth. He tells Septimius: "I must have been twice

your age before I got so far [in knowledge]" (XI, 302).

ge 33

3

Portsoaken is an intellectual; Hawthorne refers to him as

"the erudite doctor" (XI, 303), and Septimius finds "a great deal

of imagination" (XI, 307) in him. Portsoaken's work is especially

esoteric even for a man of science. In his first meeting with

Septimius, he tells him: "I have hung my v7hole interest in life on

a spider's web" (XI, 302); and he demonstrates, as Septimius tells

Aunt Keziah, an extraordinary "knowledge of herbs and other mys-

teries" (XI, 305). Too, the "eminent chemist and scientific man"

(XI, 363) is a doctor; and at the conclusion Hawthorne recalls the

popular suspicion that Portsoaken, "with his fantastic science and

antiquated empiricism, had been at the bottom of the scheme of

poisoning, which V7as so strangely intertwined with Septimius's

notion, in which he went so nearly crazed, of a drink of immor-

tality" (XI, 429).

Hawthorne is somev7hat ambiguous in his treatment of Port-

soaken as a man of science whose grandest project fails. Portsoaken's


38/70

first love as a man of science seems to be his experimentation with

spiders, their webs, and their venom; and despite Portsoaken's in-

junction to "see if the mere uninstructed observation does not

discover a wonderful value in him [a favorite spider]" (XI, 370),

one learns of no tangible benefit that the doctor may have achieved.

That Portsoaken is a failure in other ways is suggested by Hawthorne's

description of him as being "a humbug in scientific matters" (XI, 429)

And finally, Portsoaken's connection with his niece, Sibyl Dacy, is

such that "he appeared to have consented to, or instigated. . .this

ge 34

31

poor girl's scheme" (XI, 429). Thus, if we think of Portsoaken as

the instigator of Sibyl's plot to poison Septimius, we can properly

say that this project, too, fails.

We see a hint of the man of science's fanatical devotion to

his work in Portsoaken's enraged outburst when Septimius blandly

admits having killed spiders and destroyed their V7ebs. Portsoaken

cries:

Crush them! Brush away their webs! . . .Sir, it is

sacrilege! Yes, it is worse than murder. Every thread of

a spider's web is worth more than a thread of gold; and

before twenty years are passed, a housemaid will be beaten

to death with her own broomstick if she disturbs one of

these sacred animals (XI, 303).

However, Hawthorne does not clearly describe Portsoaken as obsessed,

nor is he shown to possess the man of science's willingness to go to


39/70

any extreme to further his ends. Perhaps Portsoaken's singular mod-

esty and apparent lack of any really consuming ambition make him more

cautious in his goals, or perhaps Hawthorne's portrayal is simply

incomplete—Septimius Felton is, after all, an unfinished v7ork.

Portsoaken can be termed isolated in that the esoteric nature

of his v7ork with spiders tends to isolate him from the common people.

As he tells Septimius, "I run some risk from my intimacy with this

lovely jewel [the spider], and if I behave not all the more pru-

dently, your countrymen will hang me for a wizard and annihilate

this precious spider as my familiar" (XI, 370). Even so, the

measures that Portsoaken takes to "behave all the more prudently"

tend to make him rather less isolated than most men of science.

ge 35

Hawthorne's portrayal of Portsoaken as being at least aware

(and possibly the instigator) of Sibyl Dacy's scheme shows his "want

of love and reverence for the Human Soul," but the brevity of Haw-

thorne's treatment of him renders any really deep analysis impossible.

Dr. Heidegger

One of Hawthorne's earlier short stories, "Dr. Heidegger's

Experiment," has a man of science as its protagonist. In Hawthorne's

portrayal of Dr. Heidegger as an "old gentleman" (I, 260), his ref-


40/70

erence to Heidegger's "snowy head" (I, 270), and his description of

the "ashen visages" (I, 260) of the doctor and his friends, we see

the advanced age typical of the man of science. The frequently-seen

contrast of youth with age is found in "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment"

with an unusual twist; for Heidegger's age is contrasted with the

transitory false youth of his aged contemporaries as one of them

strives "to imitate the venerable dignity of Dr. Heidegger" (I, 268)

and the Widow Wycherly asks him to dance: "The four young people

laughed louder than ever, to think what a queer figure the old doctor

would cut" (I, 268).

Heidegger's work is esoteric, and since he is a doctor it

clearly concerns human life. The very focus of the short story is

upon his experiment with the water of the Fountain of Youth. Too,

his subjects are apparently familiar with his penchant for experi-

mentation; Hawthorne informs us that "they anticipated nothing more

wonderful than the murder of a mouse in an air pump" (I, 261).

ge 36

33

Here again, we see the emphasis on life, and we can also suspect

that it was more than Hawthorne's lust for alliteration which led

him to describe the experiment upon the mouse as murder.

Certainly nothing in Heidegger could be more true to the

stereotype of the man of science than the failure of his experiment


41/70

after its initial apparent success. The briefly-youthful subjects

quickly discover that "the Water of Youth possessed merely a virtue

more transient than wine" (I, 270). Too, Hawthorne continuously

suggests that the youth the four old people briefly enjoy is as

illusionary as it is transient. Hawthorne relates that "the tall

mirror is said to have reflected the figures of three old, gray,

withered grandsires, ridiculously contending for the skinny ugliness

of a shrivelled grandam" (I, 269). Also, Hav7thorne says that "the

delirium which it [the water of youth] created had effervesced

away" (I, 270). Finally, we should note that, as Hav7thorne describes

the event, "above half a century ago. Dr. Heidegger had been on the

point of marriage with [a] young lady; but, being affected with some

slight disorder, she had swallowed one of her lover's prescriptions,

and died on the bridal evening" (I, 260).

Dr. Heidegger does not exhibit the man of science's character-

istic ecstasy over his apparent success; in fact, he sits "watching

the experiment with philosophic coolness" (I, 264). The ecstasy is

seen in Heidegger's subjects, who become "a group of merry youngsters,

almost maddened with the exuberant frolicsomeness of their years"

(I, 267) and exult: "We are young! We are young!" (I, 267).

ge 37

34

A delicious irony is found in that "the most singular effect of

their gayety was an impulse to mock the infirmity and decrepitude


42/70

of which they had so lately been the victims" (I, 267).

Heidegger does not seem to be obsessed with his work; how-

ever, Hawthorne does portray him as being "constantly in the habit

of pestering his intimates" (I, 261) with scientific demonstrations.

Too, as a "very strange old gentleman, whose eccentricity had become

the nucleus for a thousand fantastic stories" (I, 260), Heidegger

seems to be somewhat isolated.

Although to a certain degree Heidegger demonstrates the

typical "want of love and reverence for the Human Soul," he is not

the grievous sinner that the man of science often is. Certainly

he can be accused of being perhaps too little concerned with the

souls of his four venerable friends; he experiments upon them

seemingly as readily as he would upon a mouse. However, he does

not bear them any ill will, and he does not seem to cause them any

harm other than the disappointment they experience when their newly

regained youth has fled. Too, Hawthorne portrays Heidegger as

learning from his experiment; at the conclusion Heidegger tells

his friends: "If the fountain gushed at my very doorstep, I would

not stoop to bathe my lips in it—no, though its delirium were for

years instead of moments. Such is the lesson ye have taught me!"

(I, 270).

Unlike Heidegger, his friends do not learn from their

experience: "The doctor's four friends had taught no such lesson

to themselves. They resolved forthwith to make a pilgrimage to

ge 38


43/70

35

Florida, and quaff at morning, noon, and night, from the Fountain of

Youth" (I, 271). A final factor in ameliorating Heidegger's sin of

experimentation is that Hawthorne never presents Heidegger's foolish

old subjects—a bankrupt merchant, a wastrel, a ruined politician,

and a fallen woman—as objects of pity. We can never feel for them

as we do for Georgiana or Beatrice; thus, in comparison, Heidegger

appears almost admirable in his wisdom.

Dr. Grimshawe

Another of Hawthorne's isolated doctors is the protagonist

of the collection of fragments (seven brief preliminary studies and

two lengthy drafts) kno\ra as Doctor Grimshawe's Secret. In the

introduction to his faithful reproduction of the above-mentioned

manuscripts, Edward Davidson details Julian Hawthorne's "editorial

sleight of hand" in revising, rearranging, and otherwise altering

the available material in order to produce the grossly corrupt

Dr. Grimshawe's Secret found in the 1883 Lathrop edition of Haw-

12thorne's works. It should also be mentioned that Hawthorne uses

a variety of names for Grimshax^re in the several drafts and even

varies the name in repeated uses on the same page (DGS, 18); in the

first few pages of the second draft the doctor's name is Ormskirk,

but Hawthorne later changes this name to Grimshawe (DGS, 213) and

12

Hawthorne's Doctor Grimshawe's Secret, ed. by Edward H.

Davidson (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954), p. 15. Subse-

quent references in this chapter will be by means of the abbreviation

"DGS" and the page number inserted parenthetically in the text.


44/70

ge 39

36

retains this name throughout the second draft. Since the second

draft portrayal of Grimshawe more clearly presents him as a man of

science, this portrayal will be used in the following discussion."*"^

Grimshawe is a typical man of science in that he is old; he

is introduced in the second draft as "an elderly person of grim

aspect" (DGS, 204). Too, his age is contrasted with the youth of

his wards, Ned and Elsie. Hawthorne says:

We began with calling the grim Doctor an elderly per-

sonage; but, in so doing, we looked at him through the eyes

of the two children who were his intimates, and had not

learned to decypher the. . .purport and value of his

wrinkles. . .whether as indicating age or a different kind

of wear and tear. Possibly, he appeared so vigorous, . . .

he might scarcely have seen middle age; though here again

we hesitate, finding him so stiffened into his o\vm way, solittle fluid, . . .that he must have left his youth very

far behind him (DGS, 208).

Throughout the draft there are scenes in which Hav7thorne repeatedly

conveys "the effect of these two beautiful children in such a sombre

room, looking on a graveyard, and contrasted with the grim Doctor's

aspect of heavy and smouldering fierceness" (DGS, 212).

As a man of science, Grimshawe is an intellectual; for Haw-

thorne presents him as "being a man of a good deal of intellectual

ability made available by much reading and experience" (DGS, 217).

And certainly, his work is esoteric; like Dr. Portsoaken, he manifests

an interest in spiders and has a study festooned with cobwebs in which

reposes an "enormous spider, the biggest and ugliest ever seen, the


45/70

mo

13

Davidson points out that the second draft portrayal is

deled on Seymour Kirkup, the Florentine necromancer (DGS, 11).

ge 40

37

pride of the grim Doctor's heart" (DGS, 209). Too, our man of

science is described as a doctor who "was not generally acknow-

ledged by the profession, with whom, in truth, he had never claimed

a fellowship, nor had ever assumed, of his own accord, the medical

title by which the public chose to know him" (DGS, 207). Finally,

Hawthorne pictures Grimshawe's laboratory as being "fitted up with

book shelves, and. . .various machines and contrivances, electrical,

chemical, and distillatory, wherewith he might pursue such researches

as were wont to engage his attention" (DGS, 207).

Grimshawe seems to be obsessed; however, Hawthorne's por-

trayal of him is so incomplete that it is difficult to state

precisely the nature of his obsession. Hawthorne early relates

that "it appeared to be his unfortunate necessity, to let his

thoughts dwell very constantly upon a subject that was hateful to

him" (DGS, 221). Later, after having been helped by Seymour, the

Yankee schoolmaster who had come to his aid against a pack of angry

villagers, Grimshawe appeals to him: "Wliat would I be likely to do,

. . .supposing I had a darling purpose, to the accomplishment of

which I had given my soul—yes, my soul—my hopes in life, my days


46/70

and nights of thought, my years of time; dwelling upon it, pledging

myself to it; until, at last, I had grown to love the hideous, to

bed it, and not to regret my own degradation" (DGS, 244-245).

Although Grimshawe does not seem to be excessively proud or

inordinately ambitious, he does show the isolation typical of the

man of science. Hawthorne declares: "It is a hard case with a man

ge 41

3

who lives on his own bottom and responsibility, making himself no

allies, sewing himself on to nobody's skirts, insulating himself"

(DGS, 233). After he has sent Ned away to school, Grimshawe becomes

even more isolated and eventually tells Elsie: "I have wrought this

many a year for an object; and now, taking all things into consider-

ation, I don't know whether to execute it or no. . . .1 will let

myself die, therefore, before sunset" (DGS, 268).

While Hawthorne has incompletely sketched the object for

which Grimshawe has worked (It seems to be to prepare Ned to become

the heir to an English estate.), the doctor's motives are even more

obscure. Thus, since Grimshawe's goals are obscure, and since he

relinquishes them before his death, it is quite difficult to paint

Grimshawe very black as a sinner. Even his intemperate consumption

of brandy—"half, at least, of the fluids in the grim Doctor's system

must have derived from that same black bottle, so constant was his


47/70


48/70

physicians, stingy of civil phrases and over-jealous oftheir o\


49/70

Dolliver, however, is himself a failure in that his grandson, "whom

he had instructed in all the mysteries of science, . . .was generally

believed to have poisoned himself with an infallible panacea of his

own distillation" (XI, 25) (Italics mine.). Too, "Dr. Dolliver's

once pretty flourishing business had lamentably declined" (XI, 25)

after the death of his grandson, and he is reduced to a state of

genteel poverty.

The obsession with work normally associated with the man of

science is seen more fully in Edward Dolliver than in his grandfather.

We learn that old Dr. Dolliver's "legend of the miraculous virtues

of these plants [in the herb garden]. . .took so firm a hold of his

[Edward's] mind, that the row of outlandish vegetables seemed rooted

in it, and certainly flourished there with richer luxuriance than in

the soil where they actually grew" (XI, 37).

Dr. Dolliver strikingly shows the man of science's isolation;

we learn that:

Walking the streets seldom and reluctantly, he felt a drearyimpulse to elude the people's observation, as if with a sense

ge 44

41

that he had gone irrevocably out of fashion, and broken his

connecting links with the net-work of human life. . . .He was

conscious of estrangement from his tov7ns-people, but did not

always know how nor wherefore, nor why he should be thus

groping through the twilight mist in solitude (XI, 32).

Dr. Dolliver is such a benign creature in general, however,

that he is not easily forced into the mold as a man of science.


50/70

Perhaps the most derogatory aspect of his character is his willing-

ness to thwart nature by extending his life span; but even here his

sin, if we can deem it such, is mitigated by the purity of his

motives. Dolliver muses: "I only wish. . .that I may live longer

to earn bread for dear Pansie. She provided for, I would gladly

lie down yonder [in the adjacent cemetery] with Bessie and our

children" (XI, 51-52). And even in the same thought, he realizes

"the vanity of desiring lengthened days" (XI, 52). Finally, when

14the salubrious effects of his mysterious cordial have begun to

manifest themselves, he does not take credit himself; rather,

"thanking Heaven that he was spared" (XI, 53) and showing "much

gratitude to Providence" (XI, 53), he gives all credit to God.

Holgrave

The penultimate man of science to be discussed in this paper

is Holgrave of The House of the Seven Gables. Holgrave is not especi-

ally typical as a man of science, but he does possess a sufficient

The cordial is said, in the first fragment, to have been

prepared by Dolliver's grandson (XI, 16); however, in the third

fragment Dolliver prepares the cordial himself (XI, 49).

ge 45

number of the characteristics of the stereotype man of science to


51/70

make his inclusion necessary.

First, Holgrave is described as "a slender young man. . .

with rather a grave and thoughtful expression for his years"

(III, 61). Too, his thinness is accompanied by the pallor fre-

quently associated with the man of science; we learn that "the

artist looked paler than ordinary" (III, 355) on the occasion of

Phoebe's return to the Pyncheon house.

Holgrave's work is esoteric; he is introduced as "an artist

in the daguerreotype line" (III, 46), and the reader learns later

that Hepzibah "had reason to believe that he practised animal mag-

netism, and. . .[was] apt to suspect him of studying the Black Art"

(III, 108-109). Hepzibah's suspicions are, at least in part, well

founded, for Holgrave "had been a public lecturer on Mesmerism, for

which science (as he assured Phoebe, and, indeed, satisfactorily

proved. . .) he had very remarkable endowments" (III, 212).

While Holgrave does not display the unbounded arrogance of

the stereotype man of science, he is at least appreciative of his

own merits; Hawthorne remarks that it is pleasant to behold a man

"with so much faith in himself" (III, 218). Too, Hawthorne later

mentions the "insight on which he [Holgrave] prided himself" (III,

218). Holgrave's self-confidence, however, never leads him to the

obsession of the typical man of science. Even so, Holgrave displays

a certain fixation on the subject of the Pyncheon family history;


52/70

ge 46

he tells Phoebe, "This subject has taken hold of my mind with the

strangest tenacity of clutch since I have lodged in yonder old

gable" (III, 223).

The isolation of the man of science is also seen in Holgrave.

He inhabits "his own solitary gable" (III, 119) of the Pyncheon house

and Hawthorne writes that Holgrave was not eager to "betake himself

within the precincts of common life" (III, 360-361). Holgrave's

isolation from humanity is further seen in his apparent "isolation of

the intellect from the heart." Phoebe early thinks of Holgrave as

"too calm and cool an observer" (III, 213) to be affectionate and

realizes that "in his relations with them, he seemed to be in quest

of mental food, not heart-sustenance" (III, 213). Holgrave later

admits, "It is not my impulse, as regards these two individuals

[Hepzibah and Clifford], either to help or hinder; but to look on,

to analyze, to explain matters to myself" (III, 258). He also shows

an inclination toward the man of science's willingness to go to

extremes in the furtherance of his ends. He tells Phoebe, "Had I

your opportunities, no scruples would prevent me from fathoming

Clifford to the full depth of my plummet line" (III, 214).

After telling Phoebe the legend of Matthew Maule's domination

of Alice Pyncheon, Holgrave realizes that Phoebe is on the brink of

being mesmerized. Howthorne declares that "to a disposition like

Holgrave's, at once speculative and active, there is no temptation

so great as the opportunity of acquiring empire over the human spirit;

nor any idea more seductive to a young man than to become the arbiter


53/70

ge 47

4

of a young girl's destiny" (III, 253). Holgrave, however, is able

to resist the temptation, an ability which Hawthorne attributes to

his having "the rare and high quality of reverence for another's

individuality" (III, 253). This quality may also serve to mitigate

somewhat Holgrave's deceit in his long concealment of his identity;

he tells Phoebe, "You should have known sooner (only that I was

afraid of frightening you away)" (III, 375). Thus, if we assume that

Holgrave's fear was as much for Phoobe's sake (and for Clifford and

Hepzibah's) as for his own, the relative purity of his motives and

the absence of harmful consequences make his deceit a trivial sin

indeed.

Finally, Holgrave's ultimate relinquishment of his isolation,

as seen in his joining the surviving Pyncheons at "the elegant

country-seat of the late Judge Pyncheon" (III, 372), suggests that

he has left the estranged ranks of the men of science and joined him-

self in a common bond with humanity.

Owen Warland

Owen Warland of "The Artist of the Beautiful," the last of

Hawthorne's men of science to be treated in this paper, is the least

typical. Warland's "pale face" (II, 504) and his "small and slender


54/70

frame" (II, 523) make him physically a standard man of science, but

his youth contrasts sharply with the age of most of the men of science

previously discussed.

Warland's work is certainly esoteric; but unlike that of most

of Hawthorne's men of science, it does not directly concern human life.

ge 48

4

Rather, Ox^en attempts to "spiritualize machinery, and to combine

with the new species of life and motion thus produced a beauty that

should attain to the ideal which Nature has proposed to herself in

all her creatures" (II, 524).

Warland's devotion to his work suggests the obsessed nature

of the man of science. Hawthorne early tells that Owen "was becoming

more and more absorbed in a secret occupation which drew all his

science and manual dexterity into itself, and likewise gave full

employment to the characteristic tendencies of his genius" (II, 504).

Another indication of Warland's devotion to his work may be found in

Hawthorne's later inclusion of him among those "who set their hearts

upon anything so high, in their own view of it, that life becomes of

importance only as conditional to its accomplishment" (II, 526).

Nevertheless, compared to that of the typical man of science, Warland's

obsession is a rather mild one.

Warland also displays the failures typical of the man of

science; again and again he fails, but ultimately it is "his fortune,

good or ill, to achieve the purpose of his life" (II, 527). He pre-


55/70

sents to Annie, as a belated bridal gift, an artificial butterfly of

such magnificence that, as Hawthorne says, "Nature's ideal butterfly

was realized here in all its perfection" (II, 529); but even in the

perfection of the butterfly there is what first appears to be failure,

* for the butterfly is almost immediately destroyed by Annie's child.

ge 49 \

However, Owen has no real failure here, Hawthorne concludes:

He looked placidly at what seemed the ruin of his life's

labor, and which was yet no ruin. . . .When the artist rose

high enough to achieve the beautiful, the symbol by which he

made it perceptible to mortal senses became of little valuein his eyes while his spirit possessed itself in the enjoy-

ment of the reality (II, 535-536).

46


56/70

ge 50

CHAPTER III

THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY STEREOTYPE OF

THE MAN OF SCIENCE

Having established the existence of a standard man of science

in Hawthorne's works and having defined the parameters of this stereo-

type, we turn now to a discussion of the popular stereotype of the man

of science which existed in Hawthorne's day. Even today, a century

after Hawthorne's death, there exists in that vast body of humanity


57/70


58/70

stereotype is similar to Hawthorne's suggests that the nineteenth-

century stereotype would be even more similar. The following dis-

cussion will demonstrate that the stereotype we have established in

Hawthorne is, in fact, the nineteenth-century stereotype.

An attempt to trace the development of the stereotype of the

man of science up to the nineteenth century i^/ould be beyond the scope

of this paper; neither is it necessary for our purposes to detail the

development of popular prejudice against science. Suffice it to say

that the stereotype we are discussing is grounded in antiquity and

that clearly the most pervasive influence in establishing a distrust

of science in western culture has been Christianity. In the prefa

to his two-volume A History of the Warfare of Science V7ith Theology in

Christendom, Andrew Dickson White describes the furor which resulted

from the attempts in the early 1860's by the founders of Cornell Uni-

versity to establish an institution "in which science, pure and

Richard Harter Fogle, Hawthorne's Fiction: The Light and

the Dark (Rev. ed.; Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964),p7~127.

16

Andrew Dickson I^Jhite, A History of the Warfare of Science

with Theology in Christendom (2 vols.; New York: D. Appleton and

Company, 1926).

ge 52

49

applied, should have an equal place with literature" and which should

be under the control of "no single religious sect.""'"'' White professes

surprise over the furor, but surely he exaggerates. He records the

opposition of the southern states to the Morrill Act, which was twice


59/70

vetoed by President Buchanan before it was signed by Lincoln in 1862,

and suggests that the opposition was based on fundamentalist religious

. ,. 18prejudice. Similar events had been happening for centuries; in a

treatise on Milton, Howard Schultz describes a report that "v7hen the

Savilian chairs were endowed at Oxford in 1619 some of the gentry

19

refused to send their sons there to be smutted with the black art."

It would seem safe to assume that the "naive religious suspicion of

strange and unusual knowledge" and the "slanderous whispers of black

20art" which existed in seventeenth-century England were, if no longer

rampant, at least extant in nineteenth-century America.

The prejudice against science of the nineteenth-century man of

letters is clearly seen in Ashley Thorndike's study of the effects of

science on nineteenth-century literature. He writes:

With their prodigious advance, hox\rever, they [science, inven-

tion, and machinery] have seemed to change from passive oppo-

sition to open hostility. Science has forced its attitude and

17

White, History, pp. vi-viii.

1 o

White, History, p. 413.

"^^Howard Schultz, Milton and Forbidden Knowledge (New York:

Modern Language Association of America, 1955), pp. 43-44.

20

Schultz, Milton, p. 43.

ge 53

50


60/70


61/70

ge 54

51

Yet another reference to the devotion of the man of science

to his work is found in Charles Caldwell's flamboyant autobiography.

Caldwell writes of a Dr. Woodhouse's love of chemistry:

At times, his devotion to it and the labor he sustained in

the cultivation of it, were positively marvellous—not to

say preternatural. . . .During an entire summer. . .he

literally lived in his laboratory, and clung to his exper-

iments with an enthusiasm and persistency which at length

threw him into a paroxysm of mental derangement, marked by

the most extravagant hallucinations and fancies.^6

Caldwell later comments:

So deep is the hallucination in x^hich alchemy first, and

afterwards chemistry, its lineal descendant, have, in raany

cases, involved the minds of their votaries and rendered

them permanently wild and visionary in their action. It

is not, I think, to be doubted that alchemy and chemistry

have deranged a greater number of intellects than all other

branches of science united.27

Finally, Caldwell declares that Woodhouse "even believed, and, on one

occasion, proclaimed, . . .that, by chemical agency alone, he could

oo

produce a human being."

Woodhouse was not alone in his belief. William B. Stein

observes: "In Aylmer's belief that it was possible to discover 'the

secret of creative force' or perfection itself there is the equiv-

alent presumption that marked scientific thought in Hawthorne's29

day." Probably the most important, and certainly the most striking.

9 f\

Charles Caldwell, Autobiography of Charles Caldwell, M.D.

(Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, and Co., 1855), p. 175.

27

Caldwell, Autobiography, p. 176.

28

Caldwell, Autobiography, p. 175.


62/70

29William Bysshe Stein, Hawthorne's Faust: A Study of the Devil

Archetype (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1953), p. 91.

ge 55

52

parallels in nineteenth-century literature with this aspect of Haw-

thorne's stereotype can be found in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Frankenstein might well have been one of Hawthorne's men of science,

and certainly if one must choose a single archetype for all of Haw-

thorne's men of science it would be Frankenstein. He describes his

physical appearance as follows: "My cheek had groxm pale with study,

30and my person had become emaciated with confinement." His work is

esoteric: "Natural philosophy, and particularly chemistry, in the

most comprehensive sense of the term, became nearly my sole occupa-

31tion." Also, his work concerns human life:

One of the phenomena which had particularly attracted my

attention was the structure of the human frame, and, indeed,

any animal endued with life. Whence, I often asked myself,

did the principle of life proceed?32

Frankenstein relates: "I succeeded in discovering the cause and

generation of life; nay, more, I became myself capable of bestowing

33

animation upon lifeless matter"; and he isolates himself in "a sol-

itary chamber, or rather cell, at the top of the house, and separated

from all the other apartments" in an attempt to construct a human

or)

Mary W. Shelley, Frankenstein (London: J. M. Dent and Sons,1963), p. 48.

31 Shelley, Frankenstein, p. 43.


63/70

oo

Shelley, Frankenstein, p. 44.

o o

Shelley, Frankenstein, pp. 45-46.


ge 56

53

being—an endeavor of which he says, "I doubted not that I should

35ultimately succeed." Having once commented that "none but those

who have experienced them can conceive the enticements of science,"^^

Frankenstein later recalls his obsession: "I seemed to have lost all

soul or sensation but for this one pursuit." Frankenstein states

that during the course of the experiment, "I shunned my fellow-

oo

creatures as if I had been guilty of a crime." His isolation be-

comes even more complete when his attempt to create a human being

has resulted instead in the construction of a hideous monster. When

the monster has murdered Frankenstein's younger brother and an inno-

cent maiden has been hanged in its stead, Frankenstein declares, "I

shunned the face of man; . . .solitude was my only consolation—deep,39

dark, deathlike solitude." Finally, Frankenstein is the cause of

his own destruction; he is the creator of the monster which ruins his

life.

The tradition of the Gothic novel, to which Frankenstein

belongs, is rich in scientific and pseudo-scientific lore; Jane


64/70

Lundblad details these and other attributes of the Gothic novel in

35


36


37

Shelley, Frankenstein, p. 48.30


30 «,^


ge 57

54

her Nathaniel Haimiorne and E u r ^ ^ Literary Tradition,^^ but one

need not turn to fiction to find these elements of science. As H.

Bruce Franklin says: "The long line of doctors, chemists, botanists,

mesmerists, physicians, and inventors who parade the wonders of their

skills throughout Hawthorne's fiction rarely strays far from histori-

cally accepted achievements or theories."^•'" Franklin points out that

hypnotism enjoyed a rather more elevated status as a science in mid-

42

nineteenth century and that the daguerreotypy found in The House

of the Seven Gables^ and "The Birthmark" had been in existence only

43since 1835. Thus, in Hawthorne's day, these fields were still

considered esoteric sciences.


65/70

40

Jane Lundblad, Nathaniel Hawthorne and European Literary

Tradition (Upsala: A.-B. Lundequistska Bokhandeln, 1947), pp. 81-150.

41

H. Bruce Franklin, Future Perfect: American Science Fiction

^^ the Nineteenth Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966),

p. 7.42

Documents

Hawthorne's Man of Science