Excerpt from Student Companion to Nathaniel Hawthorne by Melissa McFarland Pennell
Excerpt from Student Companion to Nathaniel Hawthorne by Melissa McFarland
Pennell (courtesy of Greenwood
Press).
Melissa McFarland Pennell hints here that the alienation Owen Warland experiences in "The Artist of the Beautiful" is a product of his pursuit of an artistic ideal.
"While he [Owen Warland] longs for Annie's company and support, his lack of attachment and obligation to others frees him to pursue his artistic ideal. Hawthorne expresses the difficulty in finding the balance between Owen's artistic isolation and the companionship that demands the sacrifice of his ideals" (56).
