THE APOCALYPSE IN COOPER, HAWTHORNE, AND MELVILLE ------------~----- THE APOCALYPSE IN COOPER, HAWTHORNE, AND MELVILLE A dl.ssertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the satisfaction of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English by Lakshmi Mani JUly 1972 McGill University, Montreal ./ ® La...l{shmi I·:iani 1973 THE APOCALYPSE IN COOPER, HAWTHORNE, AND MELVILLE A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English McGill University, Montreal, 1972 by Lakshmi Mani Abstract The apocalyptic concept of millennium for the elect and catastrophe for those who'transgress has been the shaping principle of the American experience from colonial times. The phenomenal prosperity following the westward expansion and technological progress of the post-revolutionary pEriod generated an ebullient optimism in nineteenth century America, driving the dread of Jehovah's wrath underground, and resulting in a spiritual myopia which troubled the major literary figures of the time, notably James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville. Drawing upon an eschatological tradition that gave form to American history, these authors use the analogue of the Apocalypse to censure the expansive spirit of the times. Cooper draws upon Christian and Indian myths of Apocalypse, while Hawthorne structures his vision upon the Puritan tradition. Melville uses the myths of both Christian and Eastern., particularly Hindu, eschatology, in his wri tings. This lit erary vogue has evolved into a rnajor genre in our own century. ' PREFACE Since earliest times, America has inspired various interpretations of the millennial theme. Even before the discovery of the New World, the European imagination en visioned the virgin continent as an earthly paradise, and subsequent experience appeared to corroborate the dream. To the Puritan colonists who planted New England, the new land pointed the way towards the fulfillment of the biblical prophecies, and the consummation of the work of the Protestant Reformation: the advent of the millennium in which the visible saints of the Puritan church would reign with Christ. They believed that through them, the chosen instruments of God, the Gospel kingdom would materiallze in America, although, these "saints" were ever mindful of the apocalyptlc woes, should they transgresse The Amerlcan Revolution confirmed the separateness of America as weIl as her special destiny. During the Romantic era, millennium came to be interpreted as revolution, a cataclysmic break with a corrupt order and the ushering in -ii- 1 of a better order. The theological interpretation of the m1llenn1um underwent a transformat1on dur1ng the post revolut1onary period, as the result of the phenomenal prosperity brought about by the westward expansion and the 1ndustrial revolut1on, Science, technology and Enlightenment ideas made an impact upon society, soften1ng the apocalypt1c dread of losing heaven through d1sobed1ence of God's commandments, and g1v1ng way to a more comforting, secular concept of a utop1a founded on the fa1th in human perfect1- b1lity. By the beginn1ng of the nineteenth century, the apotheos1s of "progress," the mess1anic concept of "manifest destiny," and by mid-nineteenth century, the ~ranscendentalist notion of the divinity of man drove the seventeenth century fear of Jehovah's wrath underground, and gave ri se to a bunyant mood in the country. The greatest writers of the period, however, notably James Fen!more Cooper, Hawthorne, Melville, viewed the dominance of ebullient optimism an~ with concerne It is my thesis that these three writers draw lThus the Romantics on the other side of the Atlantic viewed the American Revolution as the universal millennium of virtue, reason, and peace. Richard Priee, an English Unitarian preacher, proclaimed in 1785 that the .American Revolution wa.s the MoSt step next to the impor~ant introduction of Christianlty itself, in the fulfillment of the "old prophecles," of an empire in which the "wolf will dwell with the kid." Quoted by M. H. Abrams, "English Romanticisml the Spirit of the Age," Romantic1sm Reconsidered, ed. Northrop Frye, English Institute Essa.ys (New York, 1963), pp. 34-35. -iii- upon the very tradition that shaped the millennial vision of the nation to say "No, in thunderl" to the prevailing optative mood. They use the archetypes and motifs of the Apocalypse to structure their ironie v1sion of contemporary Amer1can exper1ence. A number of studies have 1nvest1gated the use of the millennial pattern in discursive as weIl as 1maginative wr1t1ng in America s1nce colonial times as the preponderant form imposed upon the Amer1can experience. Among these, the most notable are Perry Miller's Effand into the W1lderness, Henry Nash Smith's The Virsin Land, Charles Sanford's ~ Quest for Paradise, David Minter's The Interpreted Design, Leo The Machine in the Garden and R. W. B. Lewis' Y~rx's The American Adam. Miller 1nvestigates the theocratic foundations of colonial New England and the Puritan belief that the plantation activity was in fulfillment of carrying out God's errand into the wilderness •. S.m1th traces the evolution of the myth of the American West as the moving parad1se. Sanford defines the 1ntellectual tradition within which the Edenic image evolved as a dramatic expression of America's "collect1ve exper1ence within a framework of polar oPPositese"2 Minter investigates a genre of prose, ranging from colonial writings to works of fiotion written dur1ng the 2The Quest for Paradise (Urbana, Il11nois, 1961), p. vi. l -iv- n1neteenth and twent1eth centur1es, wh1ch essent1ally reflects the utop1an 1deal. Marx descr1bes and evaluates the pastoral 1deal and 1ts subsequent transformat1on under 1ndustr1a11sm. In The Amer1can Adam, Lew1s analyzes the genes1s of the Adam1c myth as an express10n of the Amer1can 1dent1ty. Wh1le l have been 1nfluenced,by the 1ns1ghts of these scholars, my thes1s also d1ffers from the1r work in i s1gn1f1cant respects. The of my 1nvest1gat1on se~eral foc~s 1s much narrower, and so 1s my scope. My concern 1s only w1th Cooper, Hawthorne, and Melv1lle, 1n a l1terary tradit10n wh1ch, l ma1nta1n, draws upon the analogue of the Apocalypse for mean1ng and forme l must here my 1nterest ac~owledge 1n R. W. B. Lew1s' essay "Days of Wrath and Laughter" 1n h1s Tr1als of the Word, where he draws atte,ntlon to the doomsday theme as a control11ng 1mage 1n several modern genres. Professor Lewis however, d1sm1sses s1m1lar concern of n1neteenth century f1gures 1n a few pages.J Melville 1s cursor1ly treated while Cooper and Hawthorne are not d1scussed at all. My 1nterest 1s 1n these f1gures of the ~hree;major n1neteenth century l1terary trad1t10n, spec1f1cally in the1r , use of the metaphor of the Apocalypse w1th 1ron1c as well as romant1c 1ntent. The 1rony 1s worked out by juxtapos1ng the J"Days of Wrath and Laughter,n Trials of the Word (New Haven & London, 1965), pp. 206-212. -v- dream with the reality. l also see the romantic intent of these authors in their achievement of what M.H. Abrams calls the "Apocalypse of the imagination": the poetic imagination is able to achieve the apocalyptic vision of the new heaven and new earth that has failed to materialize at the level of reality.4 Cooper's romantic vision of the ideal America is portrayed in the Leatherstocking Tales in the myths of the wilderness-Eden and Leatherstocking-Adam. This vision is juxtaposed with, and evolves from the ironie reality of a not-so-Christian white civilization. As Cooper becomes increasingly disillusioned with American democracy, the irony deepens into satire which finds expression in his prophetie warning to his country by way of the final catastrophe in The Crater. The Apocalypse is also the Book of Revelation. It is in this sense that Hawthorne uses the archetypes and motifs of the New England interpretation of St. John's Book of Revelation when exploring the motivations of the human psyche. This exploration also reveals to Hawthorne the sham of many of the pseudo-utopian enterprises of the nineteenth century. 4Abrams points out that the great Romantic poems of Apocalypse were written "not in the mood of revolutionary exaltation but in the later mood of revolutionary disillusion ment or despair." According to Abrams, these poets urge a spiritual and moral revolution that will transform the old order. See Romanticism Reconsidered, pp. 53, 59-60. -'""-'i ! -vi- Underlying this criticism, however. is Hawthorne's humanism which seems to point the way towards a more realistic under standing of the millennium. Revelation becomes the basic theme of the Sketches and Tales that l have included in my investigation, as weIl as The Scarlet Letter and The Blithedale Romance; and The Marble Faun offers Hawthorne's synoptic vision of the human destiny in paradise before and after the Fall. While Cooper and Hawthor.ne remain within the frame work of the tradition of the Christian Apocalypse, Melville draws upon a more eclectic tradition of Christian as weIl as non-Chrilitian:,,:eschà1ttJlogy. My concern is with Melville's use of both Christian and Hindu apocalyptic archetypesand motifs. Like Cooper and Hawthorne, Melville achieves his own vision of salvation. through Ishmael in MobY-Dick, through the authorial voice in "The Bell Tower," and through the narrator in "The Tartarus of Maids." This vision, however, becornes increasingly dark, culminating in the mid'night chaos of The Confidence-Man. Melville and Hawthorne are kindred spirits in.their unds:"standing of the post-lapsarian paradise. They face evil squarely and recognize it as a principle of (' growth, necessary for the maturation of consciousness. Hindu eschatology conceives of evil as adynamie principle in the evolutionary process. Hence, the end is not the End in the Hindu Apocalypse, but only end, and forms a part of ~ a continuous cyclic process in which each di"ine -vii- victory in the periodical dissolution of the uni verse dramatizes a fresh phase in the cosmic struggle between the forces of evil and good. The victory restores the cosmic balance but also carries within it the seed of an ongoing crisis (see Appendix A). It is my thesis that Melville finds in this eschatology a rich possibllity for expresslng his own Manichean conception of evil. My analysis of The Confidence-Man, in this llght is a departure from existing critlcism of the novel. In order to limit and clarlfy the framework of reference in which certain terms about the Apocalypse are used throtighout this dissertation, l have analyzed in Appendix A some of the basic concepts of Judaeo-Christian and of Hindu eschatology. A small section on American Indian myths of eschatology as derived from the accounts of the Rev. John Heckewelder, a source for Cooper, is also included in Appendix B. Melville's innumerable sources for Hindu eschatology in eighteenth and nineteenth century books and journals, have been documented in the chapter on Melville. l owe a deep debt of gratitude to many people for aIl the cooperation and encouragement that l have received in writing this thesis. However, l would like to make special mention of the following people whose criticism and advice have been of immense help to me: Professor Peter BUitenhuis, Professor Hugo Mcpherson, Professor Norman Holmes Pearson who gave me access to his valuable, unpublished