Synaptic

Writing Objective: Write a 4-6 page original analytical paper on the works of one of the authors in this unit of the course.

---

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The May-Pole of Merry Mount” is an allegorical account of the struggle for moral control in Puritan New England. Indeed, Hawthorne writes “Jollity and gloom were contending for an empire” (Norton Anthology, p. 533). The story centers around the jubilant “pagan worshippers” of Merry Mount. Theirs is a village of light-hearted joy and a year-round sense of the “mirthful spirit” of May. But finally, Hawthorne opts for the stem Puritan life of obligation and community.

The story is governed more by theme than by plot. In fact, the only “action” in the tale is the wedding of the Lord and Lady of the May. The bride and groom, described as “the two airiest forms that had ever trodden on any more solid footing than a purple and golden cloud” (p. 535), are clothed in glittering garb and bathed in flowers underneath the towering May-Pole. A wreath of roses (which is to become their crown of thorns) is placed over their heads.

At the pronouncement of their vows, the wildly dressed townspeople break into music and dance. The wedding, though “more serious than most affairs of Merry Mount” (p. 535), is cause for great celebration among everyone-except the bride and groom. Even though it is “high treason to be sad at Merry Mount” (p. 534), both (especially Edith) are aware of some “mystery” surrounding them.

The mystery Is that they are no longer part of the paganistic life of ease. Their union, in the eyes of the Puritans, makes them obligated to join the “responsible” community. Their former pleasures at Merry Mount now seem “vague and insubstantial,” and they are aware of “inevitable change” (p. 536). To love Is to be responsible and to give oneself to another. Therefore, they must now give themselves to others in the community.

Frivolity must die so that accountability may be born. They have “subjected themselves to earth’s doom of care, and sorrow, and troubled joy” (p. 536). These two, who should be the happiest of the group, seem to be punished for their excessive love and joy. Peter Palfrey says, “Methlnks their dignity will not be fitted with less than a double share of stripes” (p. 539).

The Puritans come as the great equalizers to assure that no two are more fortunate than anyone else. Those who experience the heights of human emotion can (and should, say the Puritans) likewise experience the depths. Endicott says, “Youth, ye stand in an evil case, thou and thy maiden wife. Make ready presently; for I am minded that ye shall both have a token to remember your wedding-day” (p. 539).

The bride and groom are no longer allowed to be part of the flighty world of Merry Mount The word “Merry” implies fleeting bliss, rather than lasting satisfaction. Hawthorne explains that in the past, when “the old world and Its inhabitants became mutually weary of each other” the descendants of the Merry Mount revelers perverted Thought” and “Wisdom” and instead “imagined a wild philosophy of pleasure” (p. 536).

They then came to Merry Mount to live festive, giddy, and somewhat shallow lives. The young ones told themselves they were happy and the elders followed the “false shadow” of the “counterfeit… happiness” (p. 536) because it was at least more enjoyable than the stoic Puritan life. Hawthorne is critical of these “sworn triflers of a lifetime (who) would not venture among the sober truths of life, not even to be truly blest” (p. 536). Better to live a life grounded in harsh reality, struggling side-by-side with others, than to escape into meaningless merriment Community, to Hawthorne, is more than people joining together in frivolity; it must be productive.

Hawthorne does not pass judgment solely on the people of Merry Mount For although he may find their “veneration for the May-Pole” slightly askew, he also feels the Puritans have gone to the other extreme. He bluntly calls them “most dismal wretches” and “grim Puritans” (p. 537). They have traded old English joy for New England severity.

These Puritanical bearers of the “Light” actually bring darkness with their “victory” over the May-Pole pagans. Hawthorne sees the future of New England determined by “these grisly saints [who) establish their jurisdiction over the gay sinners, [whose] spirits darken all the clime, and make it a land of clouded visages, of hard toil, of sermon and psalm, forever” (p. 538). The Puritans may be “on the right track” religiously, but they treat others too harshly.

May-Pole worship Is similar to Baal worship in the Bible (footnote 7, p. 538). The Puritans seem to say, “You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and followed the [May-Pole]” (I Kings 18:18) and “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if [the May-Pole] is God, follow him” (I Kings 18:21). One must note that the Hebrew word for “waver” is the same word for “dance.” The people of Merry Mount have been engaging in a wild and futile dance to find meaning.

The Puritans echo the Bible once again when they take everyone into captivity: “Seize the prophets of [the May-Pole]. Don’t let anyone get away” (I Kings 18:40). Yet the punishment they intend to inflict seems just as evil as the “wrong-doings” of the people of Merry Mount Everyone is to be given “stripes” as a token of justice. “Further penalties, such as branding and cropping of ears, shall be thought of hereafter” (p. 539). They are not very welcoming when insisting that everyone join the community.

However, the bride and groom are taken “more gently” (p. 540) than the others because their love, made more pure and beautiful in the face of adversity, softens the heart of the iron minister. He sees great possibilities for them both, once they leave the May-Pole behind. So he cuts it down.

The “death” of the May-Pole alludes to another tree on a “Mount”—the cross. The death of one thing always seems to bring the life of something else. The old light-hearted life is put away in exchange for a realistic, albeit somber, life of piety. The Puritans are no more perfect than the people of Merry Mount (their complete lack of joy, lightning-fast judgment and strong sense of violent vengeance attest to that), but perhaps, one could say, they are trying. Hawthorne again uses Puritans, whom he both admires and rebukes, to show that all humans have a mixture of divine and evil within.