Happy Ending: Hawthorne's Philosophy of History and Concern for His Motherland

Abstract

Abstract: In The House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne creates a happy ending, and thus reveals not only the imaginary dimension of his Romance but also his philosophy of history: though histories experienced by people can be devious, tortuous and inscrutable, they will in fact at a higher level provide a benevolent pattern; only by holding fast to the Providence and becoming initiative can human beings contribute to the historical development in a spiral, dialectical way on the basis of gradualism. Moreover, Hawthorne illuminates the realistic dimension of his Romance in The House of the Seven Gables. Confronted with the impending clouds of the Civil War, Hawthorne expresses his concern for his motherland and tries to admonish his contemporaries that only by reaffirming their faith in the Providence and preserving the incarnation of God's will, the American Constitution, can they avoid the Civil War and keep the motherland as a whole.

Key words: Hawthorne, philosophy of history, dialectical development, American Civil War

Fang Wenkai, Liu Yan. Happy Ending: Hawthorne's Philosophy of History and Concern for His Motherland[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2017, 39(2): 101-111.

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