大团圆:霍桑的历史哲学与现实关怀

Happy Ending:Hawthorne's Philosophy of History and Concern for His Motherland

霍桑在《带七个尖角阁的房子》中通过书写大团圆结局,不仅表达了其罗曼司的想象维度,并据此提出了他的历史哲学:表面上迂回曲折的历史会在上帝的指引下呈现出一个更高层次的连贯秩序和幸福美满的发展模式,只有回归对上帝的信仰并成为能动的历史主体,人类才能推动历史在渐进的基础上实现螺旋式的辩证发展;而且表达了其罗曼司的现实维度:在内战阴云的笼罩下,南方和北方只有回归体现上帝意志的美国宪法,才能避免可能出现的国家分裂和民族危机。

In The House of the Seven Gables, Hawthorne creates a happy ending, and thus reveals not only the imaginary dimension of his Romance but also his philosophy of history： though histories experienced by people can be devious, tortuous and inscrutable, they will in fact at a higher level provide a benevolent pattern; only by holding fast to the Providence and becoming initiative can human beings contribute to the historical development in a spiral, dialectical way on the basis of gradualism. Moreover, Hawthorne illuminates the realistic dimension of his Romance in The House of the Seven Gables. Confronted with the impending clouds of the Civil War, Hawthorne expresses his concern for his motherland and tries to admonish his contemporaries that only by reaffirming their faith in the Providence and preserving the incarnation of God＇s will, the American Constitution, can they avoid the Civil War and keep the motherland as a whole.