Document Type

Thesis - University Access Only

Award Date

2006

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department / School

English

Abstract

Although various critics have recognized that Faulkner had read, studied, and was influenced by Hawthorne, especially in relation to Hawthorne's concerns about good and evil and the violation of the sanctity of the human heart, little attention has been paid to the manner in which Faulkner appropriated and integrated into his works the Calvinistic concept of guilt as filtered through Hawthorne. Faulkner is most often classified as a southern realist and not as a Romanticist, yet he admitted that he was a descendant of Hawthorne, though he did not stipulate in what ways he claimed that descendancy. A close study of selected major texts by Faulkner illustrates that the underlying sense of guilt which many of his characters suffer is rooted in a fundamental and cultural consciousness that extends from New England Calvinism as presented in Hawthorne's selected tales and major novel, The Scarlet Letter. This thesis will explore that line of descendancy, focusing on guilt in three major forms: guilt arising from miscegenation and slavery, betrayal of family loyalty, and incest. Using selected short stories such as "Barn Burning" and "Dry September" and four major novels (As I Lay Dying, Absalom, Absalom!, Go Down, Moses and The Sound and the Fury), I will demonstrate that Faulkner's debt to Hawthorne is significant to understanding the complexity of the guilty feelings Faulkner's characters exhibit. This approach will help to situate Faulkner in a longer tradition of writers focusing on America's cultural sense of guilt rather than simply to relegate him to the role of a regionalist southern writer. I hope to show that Faulkner was indeed a descendant of Hawthorne in regard to his perception of human guilt and that his examination of guilt is not based on his own religious convictions alone but developed also from his exposure to, admiration of, and agreement with Hawthorne. Like Hawthorne, he believed that the world could not be purged of sin but that to survive we must attempt to purge ourselves of guilt. Agreeing with his Calvinistic predecessor, Faulkner thus embraced the belief that the underlying causes of guilt in the American consciousness were not due to inherited sin but rather to identifiable human action and choice.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Faulkner, William, 1897-1962 -- Criticism and interpretation

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864 -- Influence

Guilt in literature

Format

application/pdf

Number of Pages

100

Publisher

South Dakota State University

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