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Similes
Style
Explanation and Analysis:
The writing style of “Ethan Brand” is literary and expressive, with Hawthorne packing each paragraph full of figurative language and rich imagery. Take the following passage, for example, which comes as Brand tends to the kiln alone after the other men have left:
He had lost his hold of the magnetic chain of humanity. He was no longer a brother-man, opening the chambers or the dungeons of our common nature by the key of holy sympathy, which gave him a right to share in all its secrets; he was now a cold observer, looking on mankind as the subject of his experiment, and, at length, converting man and woman to be his puppets, and pulling the wires that moved them to such degrees of crime as were demanded for his study.
This passage includes a series of evocative metaphors. First, Hawthorne notes that Brand “lost his hold of the magnetic chain of humanity,” a literary way of noting just how isolated and lonely Brand has become. Next, he describes Brand as no longer “opening the chambers or the dungeons of our common nature by the key of holy sympathy,” a metaphorical way of communicating that Brand had lost his empathy for other people and therefore lost the ability to connect with them. Hawthorne’s use of second person is also a notable stylistic choice here (as he refers to “our common nature”) and is likely his way of pulling readers even more closely into these emotional reflections.
Hawthorne concludes this expressive passage by metaphorically comparing Hawthorne to a puppeteer who has come to view humanity so coldly that he feels comfortable manipulating people into doing whatever he wants (including committing sinful, criminal acts). Hawthorne’s figurative language here (and throughout the story) helps readers to understand just how far Brand has gone in his pursuit of knowledge—he has lost any claim he once had to a compassionate or loving soul.
Related Themes:
