Melville and Hawthorne compared and contrasted

• Main Author: Washburn, Marian Barber
• Language: en_US
• Published: Boston University 2016
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/2144/13927

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University This item was digitized by the Internet Archive. === A comparison of Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne was attempted in order to gain a better understanding of the individual men, to show their relationship to the period in which they lived, and their relation to one another. On surface inspection Melville and Hawthorne appear to be men who contrast greatly, but they were alike in their purpose to expose the shams of civilization. These men attacked hypocrisy each from his own point of view. Melville looked at the broader significance of social evils; Hawthorne observed the evil in the individual. Melville and Havrthorne are two enigmatical personalities each of whom contributed a masterpiece to nineteenth century literature.