The Biblical Context of "Ethan Brand"

Abstract

'T HAS BEEN WELL KNOWN, since Bliss Perry's early essay identifying situations and passages in Ethan Brand with notebook entries Hawthorne made during a trip to North Adams in I838, that many important source materials for the tale were drawn from direct observation of experience.' One commentator has noted that Ethan Brand is unique in the Hawthorne canon in its every character and episode being traceable to a concrete source.2 But the tale, although it contains a considerable amount of local-color material, is more than an evocation of New England setting and character.3 In effect, it is as close to romance, myth, and legend as to local color. The primary source of the romantic, mythical, and legendary elements refracted through Ethan Brand was the Bible. On the surface the chief biblical allusion is to the concept of the Unpardonable Sin, but examination of the texture of the tale reveals a complex web of additional allusions, the most significant of which are related to the story of Cain and the legendry which grew to envelope conceptions of his character. Discussion of the tale in the context of the biblical material its language and plot reflect