"Legitimate Strokes of Humor" in Hawthorne's Early Picaresque Tales

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's early picaresque tales known collectively as The Teller, wandering storyteller and actor remarks that his theatre audience found to laugh about in accidental comedic moments than in more strokes of that were part of his act (X:420). (1) Most readers of Hawthorne likewise pay little attention to legitimate strokes of in Hawthorne's writing, attending instead to the conspicuous tone of that characterizes much of his writing. Critical studies of Hawthorne's narrative that do exist typically focus his dark rather than the knee-slapping, gut-wrenching, tear-jerking laughter associated with comedy. Hawthorne's dark has been characterized both as wry Calvinist irony and as somewhat cheeky devilish (2) By addressing Hawthorne's exclusively in terms of dark irony, however, such critical discussions obscure the fact that Hawthorne's literary corpus is also informed by light-hearted strain of humor. Although Hawthorne and hilarity are not routinely associated with each other, some Hawthorne biographers have alluded to the genuine that can be found in his work. Hawthorne's son-in-law George Lathrop, for example, urged late nineteenth-century readers to [o]bserve now the vital office of in Hawthorne's that Lathrop claims is operative in Hawthorne's last three romances and elsewhere as a diffusive medium to temper the rays of tragedy (306). Arlin Turner, of Hawthorne's twentieth-century biographers, notes that despite the fact that humor in Hawthorne's work is not often singled out for comment, at least touch of appears on virtually every page [Hawthorne] wrote (118). More recently, twenty-first century biographer Brenda Wineapple alluded to this lighter side of Hawthorne as revealed through his picaresque tales: Spontaneous, light-hearted, and without responsibility, the picaresque rambler meanders through life, nomadic, easy, and liberated from that 'dull race of money-getting drudges' who couldn't begin to comprehend creature like him (80-81). In these early tales, Hawthorne adopts the kind of that often accompanies picaresque compositions, giving voice occasion to buffoonry (X:420). These strokes of in Hawthorne's early picaresque tales counter the darker elements found in his writing, suggesting that comedy as well as plays part in Hawthorne's artistic vision. First beginning to be published in 1834, Hawthorne's Teller tales are his first attempt to create coherent book-length work of fiction. However, titles such as Story Teller No. I, Story Teller No. II, and Passages from Relinquished Work, as well as Hawthorne's correspondence with his publisher indicate date of composition in or about 1831. After The Teller was rejected by publishers, many of the individual tales were published piecemeal in literary magazines and in short story collections where they attracted wide audience of readers. This projected collection gives us view of Hawthorne's developing methods of storytelling and illustrates how functions as storytelling device in Hawthorne's work. In long letter to Hawthorne in March 1837 just as Twice Told Tales was being published, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow mentions his lively recollection of Hawthorne's picaresque tales, praising Hawthorne's account of Travelling Show-man and asserting that one of the most life-like things is that wandering Story-teller. (3) Though fragmented, the various extant Teller tales suggest the vague outline of the original work, and scholars have examined these tales for clues of Hawthorne's early literary development.4 While Nelson Adkins, Alfred Weber, and others have ordered these tales according to their geographic location as the narrator moved from location in New England to another, Nina Baym claims that it is clear from the opening section that the unifying movement of the work was intended to be psychological, following the defiant flight and chastened return of the narrator-protagonist, Oberon (42). …