About Nathaniel Hawthorne: `Alice Doanes Appeal`:A work on truth and fiction

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Stuttgart (Institut für Anglistik: Amerikanistik), course: Critical Analysis: Prose, language: English, abstract: To analyse this response is Hawthornes intention in the story; so it seems only natural that he integrated the readers reaction into his tale. Or, to say it more precisely, he put the second story around the first and gave it a chronological order. Alice Doanes Appeal is the test (or proof) which way of telling is best to evoke the desired effects in the audience. Hawthorne uses firstly a fantastic story, describes the reaction of the girls and then sketches a real event. At the end there is the realization that no man can ever create such horrible stories as history has produced. To evoke real, deep and lasting emotions in the audience, a writer must choose his topic from history and reality. To comprehend Hawthornes intention, the modus operandi and his conclusion, this interpretation will be composed in a similar order to the short story itself: