" This idea is several times urged by Miriam and
Kenyon, but quickly rejected each time; first by Kenyon, and then by
Hilda; so that, while it is suggested, it is also shown to be one which
human nature cannot trust itself to dwell upon. But the real function of
the author is that of a profound religious teacher. The "Romance of
Monte Beni" is, as Miriam plainly says, the story of the fall of man
repeated. It takes us with fearless originality to the source of all
religious problems, affirming,--as one interpreter [Footnote: See an
unsigned article, "The Genius of Hawthorne," in the Atlantic Monthly for
September, 1868.] has said,--"the inherent freedom of man," and
illustrating how he may choose the good or the evil. Donatello is the
ideal of the childlike nature on the threshold of history who has lived
without choosing either, up to the time when his love and defence of
Miriam involve him in crime. Father Antonio, "the spectre of the
catacombs," and Miriam's persecutor, is the outcome of a continual
choice of evil and of utter degradation. These two extremes, more widely
asunder than Prospero and Caliban, Hawthorne has linked together in his
immense grasp of the inmost laws of life, and with a miraculous nicety
of artistic skill. Then comes Donatello's fall, illustrating the genesis
of sin from crime, in accordance with the Biblical story of Cain; and
this precipitates an examination, not only of the result upon Donatello
himself, but of the degree in which others, even the most guiltless, are
involved.
Pages:
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295