470 Hawthorne and the Problem of New England In going beyond his historical sources to emphasize Puritan severity-"Further penalties,such as branding and the cropping of ears,shall be thought of hereafter"(IX:64),Endicott tells his lieutenant-Hawthorne shows how surplus repression leads to a rechanneling of erotic energies into sadism.In "Main-street"the constable who flogs the bare-breasted Quaker woman dragged through town (at the behest of Major Hawthorne)has "a smile upon his lips.He loves his business"(XI:70);and in The Scarlet Letter the Puritan women who chide Hester in the marketplace are punitive in proportion to their ugliness and inferably their sexual frustration.The paradox of repression in "Merry Mount"is that while the curtailment of natural instincts "provides the soil for the growth of what is later called man's soul,"as Nietzsche argues in The Genealogy of Morals,it also generates a"sublimated cruelty resulting from the cooping up of his animal nature"(225).A simple act like Endicott's cropping of Edgar's "love-lock and long glossy curls"(IX:66)is a token of the fury turned against beauty and pleasure,the fury becoming the substitute pleasure. To suggest that Hawthorne understood these things is not to say that he escaped their hold..“Man,”Nietzsche remarked,“has looked for so long with an evil eye upon his natural inclinations that they have finally become inseparable from 'bad conscience'" (228).n“Merry Mount,.”“bad conscience'”-Hawthorne's residual distrust of pleasure and the senses even as he is power- fully drawn toward them-shows itself in the animal imagery he adapts from"Comus"to disparage the revels of the community as descents into bestiality.The Merry Mounters are not genuine inno- cents,they are adults corruptly playing at innocence;but since the story includes no pleasures that are not childish (sanctified courtship-to-marital love excepted),Hawthorne's portrayal has the effect of banishing most "natural inclinations"-"the old mirth of Merry England"as well as "the wilder glee of this fresh forest" (IX:57)from the future New England.Q.D.Leavis finds Hawthorne "subtler and wiser than Milton"in recognizing the disaster"that follows from the unmediated clash of "two partial truths or qualified goods"(35),yet Hawthorne may be more Miltonic than Leavis allows.By accepting "the moral gloom of the world"as an incontestable fact (IX:68),Hawthorne goes far towards conflating a historically bequeathed "performance principle"-the Puritan measure of reality as fallen,somber,toil- some,and care-ridden-with "reality"itself.He has not introjected Puritan beliefs as such;rather,he has imbibed "New England"and naturalized its coordinates of experience even as he rejects the theology that shaped them and the social practices and demeanors they produce. This content downloaded from 202.120.14.172 on Fri,10 Nov 2017 17:39:07 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms470 Hawthorne and the Problem of New England In going beyond his historical sources to emphasize Puritan severity?"Further penalties, such as branding and the cropping of ears, shall be thought of hereafter" (IX: 64), Endicott tells his lieutenant?Hawthorne shows how surplus repression leads to a rechanneling of erotic energies into sadism. In "Main-street" the constable who flogs the bare-breasted Quaker woman dragged through town (at the behest of Major Hawthorne) has "a smile upon his lips. He loves his business" (XI: 70); and in The Scarlet Letter the Puritan women who chide Hester in the marketplace are punitive in proportion to their ugliness and inferably their sexual frustration. The paradox of repression in "Merry Mount" is that while the curtailment of natural instincts "provides the soil for the growth of what is later called man's soul, " as Nietzsche argues in The Genealogy of Morals, it also generates a "sublimated cruelty resulting from the cooping up of his animal nature" (225). A simple act like Endicott's cropping of Edgar's "love-lock and long glossy curls" (IX: 66) is a token of the fury turned against beauty and pleasure, the fury becoming the substitute pleasure. To suggest that Hawthorne understood these things is not to say that he escaped their hold. "Man," Nietzsche remarked, "has looked for so long with an evil eye upon his natural inclinations that they have finally become inseparable from 'bad conscience'" (228). In "Merry Mount," "bad conscience"?Hawthorne's residual distrust of pleasure and the senses even as he is power fully drawn toward them?shows itself in the animal imagery he adapts from "Comus" to disparage the revels of the community as descents into bestiality. The Merry Mounters are not genuine inno cents, they are adults corruptly playing at innocence; but since the story includes no pleasures that are not childish (sanctified courtship-to-marital love excepted), Hawthorne's portrayal has the effect of banishing most "natural inclinations"?"the old mirth of Merry England" as well as "the wilder glee of this fresh forest" (IX: 57)?from the future New England. Q. D. Leavis finds Hawthorne "subtler and wiser than Milton" in recognizing the "disaster" that follows from the unmediated clash of "two partial truths or qualified goods" (35), yet Hawthorne may be more Miltonic than Leavis allows. By accepting "the moral gloom of the world" as an incontestable fact (IX: 68), Hawthorne goes far towards conflating a historically bequeathed "performance principle"?the Puritan measure of reality as fallen, somber, toil some, and care-ridden?with "reality" itself. He has not introjected Puritan beliefs as such; rather, he has imbibed "New England" and naturalized its coordinates of experience even as he rejects the theology that shaped them and the social practices and demeanors they produce. This content downloaded from 202.120.14.172 on Fri, 10 Nov 2017 17:39:07 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms