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A new reading of "Ethan Brand": the failed quest. (Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Ethan Brand")

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From: Studies in Short Fiction
Date: 19940101
Author:Harris, Mark

There is no evidence in Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story 'Ethan Brand' that the protagonist has committed the Unpardonable Sin. Brand commits suicide because he does not achieve anything uncommon. Given that Brand wanted to be a legend in his hometown, his claims may have been just efforts to awe people. Detailed analysis of the short story reveals how Hawthorne repeatedly uses words such as seem and apparently. These words counter suggestions that the lime kiln or Brand's laughter or his eyes have supernatural associations. Besides, it is the drunken Bertram and the impressionable child ...

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