COMPARING DOCTOROW’S WAKEFIELD TO HAWTHORNE’S WAKEFIELD (SPOILER ALERT). I posted here, here and here on Doctorow’s “Wakefield”, which is a retelling of Hawthorne’s “Wakefield.” I have been curious about other reactions to Doctorow’s story. I have just discovered using Google that there are a number of blogs which have interesting comments on the Doctorow story. I want to pass some comments on in the next couple days. Let me begin with our friend Carroll Stenson, who e-mailed me as follows:
“No time now to really give you all my thoughts but I did want to say that, for me, Hawthorne’s is the better story – and I have three reasons: 1 – Doctorow gives us too much!!! We get to know his Wakefield so well that it’s easy to make judgments about him – whereas, Hawthorne’s Wakefield remains an enigma. 2 – Doctorow sends Wakefield back home strictly out of jealousy – a lame reason for returning. With Hawthorne’s guy we never really know why he went back. The onus is on us, the readers, to use our own imagination. 3 – and most important!!! Doctorow makes the mistake of giving Wakefield children. The reader can get past what he did to his wife (she’s a grown-up, she’ll get through it blah blah) but the children, oh so different. With Hawthorne’s guy we’re never really sure if he has children or not. Had I never read Hawthorne’s “Wakefield” I’m sure I’d have been very impressed with Doctorow’s story – very innovative, very interesting, very thought-provoking.
Carroll Stenson’s comment is absolutely spot on. I would like to add a 4th comment, though, and that is that the modern setting of Doctorow’s story also takes away some of the magic for me. Hawthorne’s setting, though not in past history for him, takes on the magic of myth or fairy tale for me (for us?) because of the historical distancing.