The element of objectivity in Nathaniel Hawthorne's romances

Abstract

This thesis has for its purpose the vindication of Nathaniel Hawthorne's claim that his fiction was objective. It is not immediately evident that Hawthorne had taken pains to define, even for himself, the term objective. From such statements as he made in reference to it he seems to confuse objectivity with universality, as the following quotation will show: It is this involuntary reserve, I suppose, that has given the objectivity to my writings; and when people think I am pouring out myself in a tale or an essay, I am merely telling what is common to human nature, not what is peculiar to myself.