Donatello the Faun:Constructing a Dark Other inThe Marble Faun
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Department of English
Abstract
Hawthorne’sFaunstands as a racially and culturally hybrid figure.The
Marble Faunis compared to an Italian artist with the image of Faun, which is
equivalentto Pan God in pagan culture.Hawthorne encodes American construct of
race.On one hand, he representsthewhiteimperialist, who shows cognizance ofthe
power ofthegod of his kind.Atthesame time, however,thehalf-goat status of the
faunmakesthecreature half Other.The faun is the Other,its dark desires
predominant, striving to overcome and choke out and emerge as the Other. This thesis
explores why the novelist compares Donatello with the image of Pan and why he
represents him as a pack of sins, comparable in some ways to post-lapsarian Adam.