Life Outside of Life in Hawthorne’s Wakefield Essay

Life Outside of Life in Hawthorne’s Wakefield nbsp; Efficacy lies at the heart of human desires for immortality. Characters throughout literature and art are depicted as wanting to step aside and see what their world would be like without their individual contributions. The literary classic A Christmas Carol and the more recent, but ageless, film It’s Wonderful Life both use outside influences (three ghosts and Clarence the Angel, respectively) to demonstrate Scrooge’s and George Bailey’s significance to the lives of others. Differently, however, is the desire of Mr. Wakefield, himself, to actually step outside and beyond the boundaries of his existence to see his own significance in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story Wakefield.†¦show more content†¦Can a change of clothes, or residence, of name, shatter the fragile, brittle, and inform personality that we have so carefully constructed? Is this created personality so delicate and vulnerable that it needs constantly to be supported by others? Are we really only a part of a magnetic chain that will close us out the minute we miss a step and therefore lose our place in the procession of life? (Donohue 154) Donohue addresses Wakefield’s ability to pick up where he left of twenty years prior to his departure, or rather salvage what infinitesimal identity he had (157). She concludes her critique with more questions regarding the influence on Wakefield’s experience upon the good Mrs. Wakefield; these questions, as they remain unanswered, serve only as loose ends and pose a threat of indecision on an otherwise well-written, clearly thought-out analysis. Obviously, Mrs. Wakefield founded a new identity on a mere joke; however, after twenty years she is in jeopardy of not only losing her new self concept as a widow, but also her identity completely as a result of her sudden dislocation (157). Thus, it is in this manner that she has taken her husband’s place as truly the outcast of the universe (157). Angela Kelsey, in her article Mrs. Wakefield’s Gaze: Femininity and Dominance in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Wakefield, approaches Hawthorne harshly by attacking the narrator as having a genderShow MoreRelatedWakefield1468 Words   |  6 Pagesissues that Nathaniel Hawthorne deals with in the story of Mr. Wakefield. The very idea that a man could possibly do such a thing makes the audience want to understand his intentions. It is hard for a modern audience to make sense of such a story because television shows and movies have made today’s society focus so much on easily apparent themes or morals. Hawthorne used this story to examine society’s motivations. In his short story â€Å"Wakefield,† it is necessary that Hawthorne uses the narrator as a tool