His extensive use of
symbolism and allegory has been severely criticized. It is unfortunate that
he did not learn earlier in life what _The Scarlet Letter_ should have
taught him, that he did not need to rely on these supports. He becomes one
of the great masters when he paints character from the inside with a touch
so vivid and compelling that the symbolism and the allegory vanish like a
dissolving picture and reveal human forms. When he has breathed into them
the creator's breath of life, he walks with them hand in hand in this lost
Eden. He ascends the pillory with Hester Prynne, and writhes with Arthur
Dimmesdale's agony. He plays on the seashore with little Pearl. He shares
Hepzibah Pyncheon's solitude and waits on the customers in the cent shop
with Phoebe. He eats two dromedaries and a gingerbread locomotive with
little Ned Higgins.
Hawthorne did not care much for philosophical systems, and never concerned
himself with the intricacies of transcendentalism. Yet he was affected by
that philosophy, as is shown by his personal isolation and that of his
characters. His intense belief in individuality is also a transcendental
doctrine. He holds that the individual is his own jailer, his own
liberator, the preserver or loser of his own Eden.
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