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Michael Kadish
9/25/95
.5
Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "The Artist of the Beautiful" shows how one man discovers what is meaningful in life when he tries to create his goal of Beauty based on a spiritual Reality. Hawthorne's intricate and tightly woven plot, his development and presentation of characters, and his writing style all work together to form a compelling story with a valuable meaning. Plot and characters are closely intertwined. Although the meaning of life is discovered by the Artist of the Beautiful, the art which offers this knowledge is not revealed until the end of the story. Yet Hawthorne included subtle hints and references to key concepts via his unique style of writing. The story, until the end, often appears to be a fairy tale where the underdog always get his woman and achieves his goals despite hardships along the way. In contrast to the fairy tale, in this story the underdog does succeed in achieving his goal, but this feat is recognized only by him.
In the beginning, two aspects of the personality of Owen Warland, the artist, become known. He appears to appreciate beauty more than his Puritanical peers, and he is in love with his former master's daughter. He hints to us that he has a plan that may be fiendish in order to win his love, Annie. She, however, appears to be interested in the big, strong brute of a man, the blacksmith, Robert Danforth. Owen is furtively and constantly working on an as yet unnamed instrument that we assume must be essential to his master plan.
The people of the town are not angry with Owen, despite his not succeeding as a watchmaker. They do not see him as I assumed they would--as a mad scientist. Instead, they are only mildly bothered by his need for artistic freedom. They become annoyed when he decorates their antique clocks, but do not believe him to be satanic as Puritans do in other Hawthorne stories.
When Robert Danforth, Annie Hovenden, and Peter, her father, visit the watchmaker, they understand he has a secret project. Based on the levels of importance in their own minds, they assume Owen is working on the preliminaries for a Perpetual Motion machine or something else that would make work easier. The capitalization of the letters of critical words and concepts introduced by Hawthorne at this point in the story shows the different values of the two groups. Owen, in his group of one, feels the need for Beauty. Robert, Annie, and Peter, bolted to the earth and to tangible Reality, feel the need for an easier way of life.
When Robert visits Owen's store, he makes fun of Owen's project and comments that he is bigger and stronger than Owen. Owen justifies this saying that because of his size, he is able to make more useful machinery. At this point I assumed Owen was trying to develop a way to create a piece of art that would prove himself better than Robert. Unfortunately, Owen's discussion with Robert so bothers him that when Robert leaves, Owen makes a mistake with a delicate instrument of steel, severely damaging his masterpiece.
Owen falls into a depression as a result of the damage to Beauty. He totally neglects his secret project and instead diligently applies himself to work his customers bring him. In contrast to his previous embellishment of repairs and engraving orders with fancy designs and lettering, now he only forms basic shapes and letters. Whereas we recognize this shows how his spirit for Beauty has been crushed, the townspeople are delighted with the change in him. He shows them that he is a gifted mechanic who can work without artistic exaggeration.
Shortly after Owen's attitude changes, his old boss comes to see him. Peter agrees with the townspeople, approving of Owen's new direct approach to his work. After initially praising Owen, Peter returns to condemnation when he realizes Owen has once again begun work on his project. Peter believes he would be doing Owen a favor by breaking the piece in front of him, but he recognizes how much such an action would hurt his former apprentice. Peter leaves the delicate piece alone but warns Owen not to waste his time working on artistry. Owen's reply, however, is that his main problem was not Beauty and art as Peter had said. Owen states his main problem is Peter, whom he describes as his Evil Spirit, along with the "hard, coarse world." At this point we realize that Owen has no choice but to fight the evil Hawthorne has emphasized through capitalization and to return to his former self in order to finish his masterpiece of Beauty.
In the next scene, Owen's love enters. For a short period here, it appears that the story will quickly be resolved. Hawthorne has laid the groundwork for an easy ending. Owen has nearly completed his dream invention; the woman of his dreams is in his store; and she seems legitimately interested in Owen's project. All of Owen's dreams are smashed, however, when Annie picks up the Beautiful work and prods at it with a needle. He realizes at that point that he can not have his dreams fulfilled by Annie. She will not understand his needs no matter what he does. As the Beauty is shattered, so too does Hawthorne again succeed by actions and capitalization to raise and then to shatter our expectations of the development of the story.
Following this crushing experience, Owen slips into another depression, this one marked by drinking. His genius is awakened by a butterfly fluttering about his head, and Owen returns to work.
To be honest, I expected to see that happen after a fast forward to another important point in Owen's life, eg., his wedding, fatherhood, or even death before this regression occurs. Instead it occurred later in that year without any major rites of passage happening to Owen. Peter then visits his old prot�g� with the intention of sharing what he believes is good news. His daughter Annie is to be wed to Robert Danforth, the blacksmith. This causes Owen to be more depressed than before. During this period, he gains weight and becomes very solemn.
Fortunately, he succumbs to the pull of creating Beauty. Life then only exists for the purpose of completing Beauty.
Eventually, Owen calls on the new couple. They have been married over a year, for by now they have a young toddler. Owen declares that he is now ready to show his masterpiece. All three, Robert, Annie, and Peter, are anxious to see what has been possessing Owen all these years.
Owen shows the magical art of Beauty to Annie. When she opens a small, carved wooden box, a butterfly flutters its wings. It becomes alive and flies about the room. Initially no one knows if the butterfly is Reality or not because of the incredible delicate design and performance of the butterfly. All are awed by the Beauty and precision Owen has created. Then the butterfly lands on the toddler's finger. The baby, amazed, yet unable to appreciate Owen's object of Beauty, crushes the butterfly and reveals the springs and gears that took years to make.
Owen is surprisingly indifferent at this turn of events. This lack of emotion by Owen could be considered to be the moral high point of the story, as opposed to the plot's high point of the long-awaited appearance of the Beauty. Owen indifference shows that he has realized that his spirit of Reality is greater than Beauty.
The importance of Hawthorne's "The Artist of the Beautiful" is the message that Hawthorne leaves to all artists and to all whose spiritual side often demands to translate Reality into Beauty. Your working at art will not bring you respect from others, for they do not see the spirit of Reality that you see. Your art will not satisfy your wishes, for the spirit of Reality is greater than Beauty. Your art will not get you your dream girl, for even when Annie was admiring the butterfly, she was admiring her own creation, her child, more. Your art can demonstrate a message that can change a person's life forever, but often that person is you. In this case, Owen's message was two-fold. To others, he demonstrated the importance of, and the respect that should be given to, art. To himself, Owen demonstrated that the spirit of an artistic Reality can be greater than the finished Beauty itself. Art, as the anthropomorphism of Beauty, still lacks a spirit that resides only in the artist.
This conclusion reached by Nathaniel Hawthorne and the intense way he chose to present it is the reason why this work is valuable. Perhaps the best illustration of this is the story's last sentence, when again capitalization is used to link words. Beautiful is shown to be inherently related to Reality, but not equal to it. Beautiful is only a symbol, which, when visible to all, causes the artist to suffer a sense of loss of the spirit of the artist's Reality.