It’s funny to me that the first similarity I thought between Moby Dick, and The Blithdale Romance was the character’s continual noted ability to see people’s souls. Of course in Moby Dick my example with Ishmael determining Queegueg’s character to be good despite his outward harsh appearance; and in The Blithdale Romance, Coverdale determining the character and the soul of Priscilla and Zenobia.
This was a curious similarity to me, because it is feeling more and more like a characteristic I will find in American Novels of the 19th century: this continual reference to reading someone’s soul. I can’t think of a 20th or 21st century novel that I’ve read that decided to reference to one’s soul as an accurate descriptor of someone’s character. In this case I think it might have more to do with the change in society. My thought is that maybe while we still believe in the possibility of knowing ones’ soul to be good or bad, there are so many other factors we don’t trust the intuition of soul reading anymore. Maybe in the 19th century it was just accepted that the soul was transparent through ones’ body.
Have we as people reached a point where the barest of intuition cannot be trusted? And whether or not we believe ones’ soul to be good or bad doesn’t influence our opinion because people have changed so much? Because society demands of us not a simple good or bad souls, but beyond your instinctual being, demands corruption and camouflage of real person (hair dying, make-up, social norms, trendy clothes)-- there by making the soul a faulty determinant.
But lets be clear, these are merely extreme speculations on reasons why literature characteristics might have changed. I still believe once I know someone I can feel their soul. However, there are many who have become so false in their reality and there is nothing real that I could read through to their soul.
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| Can you see their soul, or are they just über attractive people posing for a picture? |
I find your question very intriguing, especially since it discusses how society and its expectations have changed since the 19th century. Maybe people are taught to hide their true self because of the pressures of society to conform, thus the person your are seeing is merely a shell. Also, I enjoyed the inclusion of your picture, which really helps bring a visualization to your argument.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting observation. Especially in Blithedale there was a lot of seeing other people and making snap decisions about them (called intuition by Hawthorne) and people's true selves not being seen by others. You also see these assumptions being made in Moby Dick, so it makes me wonder if it was in vogue back then for people to judge other's characters upon first sight.
ReplyDeleteI agree--it is an interesting question.
ReplyDelete