Can we discern a pattern, an implicit analytic shape, to Hawthorne's representation
of women, and to his portrayal of gender relations more largely? I think the
answer is, emphatically, yes . . . and it was brilliantly and lucidly identified,
some years ago, by Nina Baym in her hash-settling essay "Thwarted Nature: Nathaniel
Hawthorne as Feminist." Baym argues that many of the stories we most value and
most often teach compose a sustained analysis of-and a powerful attack upon-male
behavior.
