Allegory in My Kinsman, Major Molineux
The Complicated and Obscure Allegory in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Story
Mar 21, 2009
It is essential that the reader reflect on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s opening to his short story My Kinsman, Major Molineux. While the story can be read and enjoyed without understanding the purpose of the preface, a deeper understanding and appreciation can be achieved if one comprehends the purpose of the preface.
A Common Mistake
It is easy to assume that Robin represents America. After all, he is young and rash. However, this assumption ignores the preface and its implications for Robin’s experiences. John Russel provides some suggestions that help the reader interpret the story.
A Look at the Preface
The opening line of the story states that the King of England appointed colonial governors. The narrator suggests that the colonials resented the fact that an alien body appointed their leaders. He then lists the unfriendly responses the colonial governors receive from those they are meant to govern: two were imprisoned, two enjoyed brief intervals of peace, one was driven out by firearms, and one was hastened to his grave by constant fighting.
According to John Russel, the “easiest way to see why Robin cannot represent young America in general is to observe that all his antagonists perform this representation. Singly or in groups as they appear…they are a rough-and-ready lot, reeking of self-sufficiency and, though menial or of otherwise questionable breeding, obviously are not to be trifled with where their independence is concerned.” Clearly these people embody the self-sufficient American mind.
The Allegory
Russel then points out how frustrating Robin’s stupidity is for the reader. After several of the angry or cruel rebuttals that Robin receives after asking for his relative, the reader begins to wonder why Robin doesn’t see the correlation between the question and the response.
Robin’s apparent stupidity makes it easier for the reader to adjust to the idea that Robin represents the six governors. However, Robin is a single person and the governors are six.
Russel suggests that the way around this difficulty is by recognizing that Robin asks for his relative six times in six distinct encounters. Once one begins to examine these events it is easy to draw a line between each of Robin’s encounters to the reception of the various governors.
Russel apparently goes back to the original source when he begins to draw the parallels. However, it is not necessary to do so; the parallels can be found within Nathaniel Hawthorne’s text.
Two Were Imprisoned
According to the preface, two of the governors were imprisoned by “a popular insurrection.” The fate of these two governors is represented by Robin’s reception by the first man he accosts and by Robin’s run in with the watchman.
The first man that Robin questions is offended by Robin’s inquiry and replies “if this be the respect you show your betters, you feet shall be brought acquainted with the stocks.” Later when the prostitute tempts Robin, he is threatened by the watchman, who warns him to go home or he will find himself “in the stocks by the peep of day!”
Robin runs the risk of imprisonment just like the two ill-fated governors who were not welcomed by the American colonists.
One Was Frightened Off by Gunfire
Late in the night, Robin desperately accosts a muffled up man. The man responds by telling Robin that if Robin doesn’t release him “I’ll strike you to the earth.” The threat of violence parallel’s the violence that drove the governor away.
One Dies After Listening to Continual Bickering House of Representatives
Russel argues that the bickering representatives are represented by Robin’s meditation of the house with tall pillars that is opposite him as he sets on the church steps waiting for the his kinsman to pass by. .
According to Russel, “the house rock[s] before Robin’s eyes between loyalty (‘‘the tall, bare stems of pines’’ indicate this) and the rights of man (the columns dwindle to human figures). As for the equation between the pines and loyalty, the native-forest symbolism would be enough to warrant it. It is worth adding, though—perhaps we have an insight here to Hawthorne’s working methods—that Hutchinson actually reported one governor’s fight with the house over the cutting of pine trees in Maine, the governor maintaining these were ‘‘his majesty’s’’ trees, ‘‘reserved by the royal charter . . . for the royal navy.’’”
Another possibility is that Robin’s confrontation with the innkeeper represents the bickering in the House. After inquiring after his relative, Robin tells the innkeeper that he will patronize his house in the future when he has money. The innkeeper responds to Robin by reading aloud from a warrant for a bond servant fitting Robin’s description. He tells Robin that he had better leave.
Two Intervals of Peace
The two governors who enjoyed intervals of peace parallel the two times Robin doesn’t anger those he questions. The first time he finds relief is when the prostitute propositions him. The second time is when Robin visits with the gentleman who offers to wait for Major Molineux with him.
Old England and the Tory Government
Russel suggests that when one begins to follow this allegorical interpretation of the story it becomes clear that the Robin is a composite Tory who is sadly displaced in America and who believes in his cause and is therefore unable to see the hand-writing on the wall.
Open-Ended Allegory
John Russel summarizes the rather inconclusive ending to the story by saying “in the logic of the allegory we are not permitted to know whether Robin will stay in the town he says he is weary of, or whether he will make his way back across the water. Both alternatives were taken by those involved who were loyalists during and after the upheavals of our revolutionary times.”
Sources
John Russell. My Kinsman, Major Molineux: Allegory and "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" Short Stories for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 11. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 10 March 2009.
Read more about Nathaniel Hawthorne at Suite101.
 |
