INTRODUCTION

TO LITERATURE AND CULTURE I /7

Kiss Attila
Institute of English and American Studies
akiss@lit.u-szeged.hu
544260
 NARRATIVE FICTION
Exercise in interpretation
Nathaniel Hawthorne: “The Artist of the Beautiful”

1. Formal and technical characteristic features

Hawthorne was an important figure of American romanticism,

who actually called his novels romances, and his short stories
tales.
This already preconditions our horizon of expectations, and we
will not be surprised to read something which has to do with
fantasy, vision and subjective world-view.
Where is this text situated on the spectrum of fiction?
 The spectrum of fiction

• REALISM (perception) ROMANCE (vision)

• history fantasy
• (no pure historian) (no pure fantasist)

• Master plots (patterns):

•  
• ROMANTIC SATIRIC

• straightforward: ironic:
• change: *comic rise *satiric rise
• *tragic fall *pathetic fall
• movement *heroic quest *antiheroic quest
• only: (picaresque)
•  
1. Formal and technical characteristic features

We can identify the most important narrative techniques which will have an important role in our
interpretation:
- almost omniscient narrator: it occupies a bird’s eye view external focalization position to the
events, it seems to be equally able to see into open and enclosed spaces and places, it can
move back and forward in time, it can penetrate the mind of the characters and give us an
insight into their thoughts
- however, we very often realize that it gives us subjective opinions and commentaries even if
they are not necessary and not indispensable to the plot: in this respect, we have an intruding
narrator who often seems to be so subjective that we might even suspect that it is an
unreliable narrator
- we treat the information given by the narrator with caution, especially since the story itself is
quite unbelievable upon first reading: it is about a person who, after repeated attempts and
failures, succeeds in creating a mechanical butterfly, a living piece of machinery, and who is not
depressed or sad at all when this miraculous creation of his is destroyed in the end
 2. Worlds
We see the world of Spirit (W1) and the world of Matter (W2) in
opposition in this text, and Owen’s effort to create a mechanical
butterfly can be interpreted as an attempt to interpret between
these two worlds, to unite the two radically opposite principles of
the universe.
Uniting W1 and W2 will be successful in the end, but we are
puzzled to read that the Artist is not tragically destroyed, he is not
badly affected by the destruction of the Butterfly. Our interpretation
has to explain this arbitrary element of the narrative.
 
 3. Relevant attributes and their
connotative meanings
• Owen Warland: a watchmaker, he deals with time, order, and art, he is an artist, he wants to
unite spirit and matter, he wants to put spirit into machinery, he has ethereal power, he
worships beauty
• Peter Hovenden: Warland’s enemy, old, money-minded, materialistic, sagacious, cynical
• Robert Danforth: a blacksmith, works in a smoky, dark, fire-lit blacksmith’s shop, his
attributes are physical strength, material creation, anvil, hammer, fire, coal
• Annie: beautiful, but she does not understand Owen, and cannot help him in his efforts,
accidentally destroys the mechanical butterfly
• Child: he is called “a little monkey” by his father, he unwillingly destroys the mechanical
butterfly, he has the same sagacious look as his grandfather old Peter Hovenden
• Butterfly 1: the mechanical butterfly which symbolizes the union of spirit and matter, the
transcending of material limits
• Butterfly 2: the living butterfly which keeps returning to remind Owen of his task, his
attributes are wings, travelling between worlds, bringing messages
 3. Relevant attributes and their
connotative meanings
When we consider the relevant attributes and their possible extra, connotative meanings, we
rely on the entire inventory of our cultural codes: this is what we call our repertoire. We can
rely on our knowledge of literature, mythology, religion, symbolism: everything that might help
us put the attributes into a wider context. Expanding our vision, we will realize that many of the
attributes appear to have to do with figures of classical mythology or religious symbolism.
Owen Warland carries the attributes of Apollon (Roman Apollo), the Greek god of the arts,
beauty, order, and the city. He wants to achieve something which is the prerogative of God or
the gods, so he is also comparable to Prometheus. Danforth is very similar to Hephaestus
(Roman Vulcan), the god of blacksmiths and material creation, while the butterfly carries the
attributes of Hermes (Roman Mercury), the messenger of the gods with winged sandals and a
winged hat. Peter Hovenden is comparable to the figure of Satan, applying negation, cynical
and sagacious criticism to everything, while the young child also carries a Christian symbolical
attribute, because in Christian iconography (the system of symbolical representations and
meanings) the monkey is the symbol of total ignorance, dark, material existence.
Hephaistus, Apollon, Hermes, the Monkey
 II Second level of meaning

• On the basis of the mythological, symbolical meanings of the relevant attributes we start seeing that the
narrative presents a story in which the characters carry larger, abstract meanings, comparable to
mythological characters and the most ancient values, attitudes and endeavours of humankind. Owen
represents the human aspiration to transcend the limitations of material and human existence. Danforth
stands for material stagnation and power, Peter Hovenden represents negativity and hostility, everything
which erects sceptic barriers to human aspiration, while the child stands for ignorance and the
continuation of the materialistic bloodline. The Hermes-like Butterfly is the messenger between the world
of inspiration and artistic creation (W1) and the human, materialistic world of physical strength (W2).
• The plot unfolds in a way that the narrator keeps focusing our attention on the inner world and mental
processes of the protagonist, Owen Warland. The narrator appears to be external in all aspects of
focalization, but we also realize that he very much sympathizes with Owen, the hero, so in the emotive
aspect of focalization it is not unbiased and impartial, but an internal emotive focalizer: it very often
expresses concern about Owen, and even cries out “Poor, poor and fallen Owen Warland!” This
suggests that the protagonist of the story might carry the philosophical viewpoint of the author, which
indeed makes sense because the narrative appears to put forward a typically romantic philosophical
statement about the importance of imaginative power and artistic creation over the materially minded
human civilization.
• Nevertheless, we are still puzzled by the seemingly nonsensical ending of the plot, so we have to carry
on with our interpretive effort.
 III Third level of meaning
• When we have a closer look at Owen’s artistic endeavour and the structure of the plot, we will realize that it has a lot in
common not only with recurring themes in world literature and mythology in general, but even more with occult, hermetic,
esoteric traditions in Western culture in particular. The plot appears to represent the effort of the artist to transcend material
limitations, to reach enlightenment, to acquire the power of the transcendental. This process often takes the form of a search, a
quest or a process of creation: looking for the most precious thing on earth (The Holy Grail, the Philosopher’s Stone, Aqua
Vitae, the Golden Flower, etc.), or trying to produce gold, the most precious material. This process of creation usually involves
three stages, just like the quest of Owen to reach the union of matter and spirit: he also goes through three stages, restarting the
process of producing the golden butterfly two times. In this respect, this artistic creation is very similar to the tradition of
alchemy in Western esotericism, in which the alchemist strives to produce gold. This reading will also provide an answer to the
seemingly puzzling ending of the plot. We see that Owen’s work unfolds on two levels: he is working on the mechanical,
golden butterfly on the surface, but in the deep structure of the plot in the meantime he is continuously working on something
else. When the butterfly is destroyed in the end, this will have no effect on him, because it turns out that the mechanism was
only an outward symbol of what he has already achieved inside his soul during the process:
• “And as for Owen Warland, he looked placidly at what seemed the ruin of his life’s labor, and which was yet no ruin. He had
caught a far other butterfly than this. When the artist rose high enough to achieve the beautiful, the symbol by which he made it
perceptible to mortal senses became of little value in his eyes while his spirit possessed itself in the enjoyment of the reality.” 
• The mechanical golden butterfly is only needed as a material manifestation, a symbol which will show to the mortal human
beings that the artist is ready, completed his journey, and has achieved the inner, spiritual perfection. This is again very similar
to the aspiration of the artist in the alchemical tradition: when gold is finally produced by the alchemist, he will be no longer
interested in it, because the availability of the gold merely signifies that the much more important thing, the real goal of the
process, the inner spiritual perfection has been achieved.
• As a combination of the heroic quest and the comic rise, this tale by Hawthorne uses the imagery of alchemy to convey a
typically Romantic representation of the destiny and the creative work of the Artist.
 Narrative fiction, third dimension:
levels and voices
The structure of positions in narrative fiction:

author – implied author - narrator – narratee – implied reader – reader

Levels of narrative fiction:

Surface narrative structure: actualizations of patterns, deep structure rules and

schemes
Deep narrative structure: master plots, patterns, deep structure schemes
(E.g., Propp: The Morphology of the Russian Folk Tale)