Essay
Through ever changing characterizations of Zenobia, Hawthorne Communicates the narrator's mixed, but ultimately resentful and envious attitude towards Zenobia. Revealing a discrepency between who the narrator really is, and who the narrator aspired to be.
The narrator in Hawthorn's novel begins with clashing feeling of awe and disgust towards Zenobia. This is a character who has been accustomed to a simple communal rural life. To suddenly see a room with "exceedingly rich" (L. 7) furniture, "white radien[t]" (L. 6) lamps, and even "a chandelier hung down in the center" (L. 3), the narrator was no doubt impressed by the room Zenobia was in. This impression is immediately followed by contempt, however. The narrator calls the room both a "fantasy" (L. 11) and a "costly self indulgence" (L. 12). For a narrator who lives a down-to-earth rural lifestyle, to call something a "fantasy" (L. 11) implies that the narrator doesn't believe the room, and by extension Zenobia, will amount to anything substantial. Indeed, the narrator implies that he sees the room as not only insubstantial, but wasteful as well by referring to the room as a "costly self-indulgence". (L. 12)
At the same time, however, the narrator reveals deeply buried envy, as he acknowledges that in this room, he struggles to "perceive... [themself] a positive effort" (LL. 20-21) In an attempt to reconcile his envy of Zenobia with his contempt towards her, the narrator tries to justify why he does not have the same wealth Zenobia exhibits by trying to characterize Zenobia as "incapable of pure and perfect taste" (L. 29) and, by extension, being incredibly superficial.
The narrator soon afterwards, however, acknowledges that they are unsure of how accurately they characterized Zenobia. Acknowledging that in the end, "[they] hardly know whether [they] then beheld Zenobia in her truest attitude" (LL. 35-36)
Why then, does the narrator characterize Zenobia so maliciously when they know that they don't really know who Zenobia truly was as a person? It is because the narrator resents Zenobia's ability to be able to learn from and critique her past. While the narrator merely reflects on how their time on Blithedale farm as a dream, Zenobia offers a "qualified approval and criticism" (L. 57) of the farm which she had previously lived in. It was this very action, which the narrator qualified as "self-complacent [and] condescending" (LL.56-57), which causes the narrator to resent Zenobia.
Zenobia represents all of the sophistication that the narrator never had. From her aristocratic room to her philosophical evaluation of Blithedale farm. Even as the narrator tries to copy Zenobia by also leaving the farm, he fails to match up to her equal level of sophistication. Unlike Zenobia, the narrator cannot present themselves with rich ornaments. Unlike Zenobia, the narrator cannot treat their time at Blithedale farm with an elegant qualified critique. Instead, the narrator can only treat their time at Blithedale with barely concealed scorn, saying that "now... [they] can look at [Blithedale farm] from a distance, it requires all my real regard for [the founder of the farm] to prevent me from laughing." (LL.75-79)
It is ironic that though the speaker called Zenobia's evaluation of Blithedale "condescending" when the speaker themself notes they can barely not laugh at the farm.
Reflection
The task assigned to me was to, I quote verbatim, "[i]n a well-written essay, analyze how Hawthorne portrays the narrator's attitude towards Zenobia through the use of literary techniques". In essence, I was asked to write a prose essay analyzing a passage of text from a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
For my essay for this prompt, I'd give myself a 5. Compared to the poetry essay from this year and the analysis AP Comp essays I wrote last year, I'd say I found the prose prompt easier to write. Though my analysis could still use some work, I'd say my essay at least had a "plausible reading of how the Hawthorne protray's the narrator's attitude towards Zenobia" which is one of the criteria for a 5 essay. On the other hand though, my essay ended abruptly and was unevenly developed. (Compare the 2nd paragraph to the 4th paragraph for example) In addition, though I drew the conclusion that the narrator was also leaving Blithedale farm, I failed to provide evidence to support my interpretation which would likely lower my score more.
In a way, the prose essay is basically a more free-form and lengthier version of the poetry essay. Like the poetry essay, there's a piece of text where we have to analysis how the speaker/narrator communicates something. The prose essay, however, has far more text than the poetry essay and the aforementioned text is not specifically bound to a certain poetic form unlike the poetry essay. The prose essay's saving grace, however, is that with more text, we're also given far more context to work from compared to the poetry essay.
All in all, for my first attempt at writing a prose essay, I'd say I did far better than I did for the poetry essay. That being said, I need to become better at writing concisely. In hindsight, a good portion of my second paragraph could be rewritten or cut in a fashion that prevents me from actually losing any content. By looking at my old essays and rewriting them so they have less words but still mean the same, I can slowly build this skill of writing concisely.
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