Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

1981

Thesis Director

M. Lee Steinmetz

Abstract

"The story of the fall of man!" One can easily tell that The Fall is the main topic in The Marble Faun. Hawthorne, in this romance, is asking whether man's fall in the Garden of Eden was for man's betterment or not. He is also asking if sin is our power of regeneration, for without the sin of Adam and Eve there would have been no need for a savior. This theory is known as the Fortunate Fall of Man.

Hawthorne is suggesting within The Marble Faun that our sin is both original and renewable--it is something that we have no control over. We are victims of the past. Donatello's sinful act is put in such a way that it is impossible to decide whether he is responsible for the murder; it is no common crime, but a re-enactment of the original fall.

The Marble Faun is an analogy of the Bible. Miriam, of course, represents Eve for she is the first to commit a sin in the story as Eve was in the Garden. Donatello is compared to Adam. He was not the first sinner, but lived in innocence until he met the woman who induced him to sin.

It was with the thought of obtaining a higher knowledge that Eve partook of the fruit. It is also knowledge that intrigues the characters in The Marble Faun. They are searching for a specific kind of knowledge, namely--is evil good?

Among other analogies of The Fall is that of guilt. Soon after their fall, Adam and Eve knew they were guilty. Miriam and Donatello tried to cast the feeling behind them but could not. Right after the fall of Adam and Eve came a loss of fellowship with God. Miriam and Donatello experience this loss as well. They no longer pray with ease, and feel that the window of heaven has been closed to them.

Because of Adam and Eve's fall, the whole human race fell with them and all mankind became sinners. Miriam, too, realizes that "an individual wrong-doing melts into the great mass of human crime, and makes us--who dreamed only of our own little sin,--makes us guilty of the whole."

Another effect of The Fall was that all nature became cursed. Within this story we are shown an Arcadia which represents innocence. But because of sin, man can no longer live in Arcadia, and hence we have Rome.

Because of man's sin, death entered into the world. Donatello very painfully finds this out when he is trying to communicate with the animals as in times past. But he fails. The only animal to appear is a lizard which signifies the coming of death.

So what is the cure Hawthorne gives us? He gives three--repentance, love, and the hope of an after-life. But none of these will really work. Donatello only repents to man and not to God. Miriam refuses to repent.

Love is used over and over within Hawthorne's romances. Miriam no longer lives in isolation and thinks only of herself. She falls in love with Donatello. Hilda comes down from her tower to marry Kenyon. But this does not save them either.

The last hope is that of an after-life. But to go to heaven, one needs a Savior, which is lacking throughout the whole story and which is the theme of the Bible from which The Marble Faun is an analogy.

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