How Moby-Dick or, The Whale drew on The Scarlet Letter
A documented line of influence: Herman Melville demonstrably engaged Nathaniel Hawthorne’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1850
The Age of the NovelThe influenced
Moby-Dick or, The Whale
Herman Melville · 1851
The Age of the NovelRelevance
8/10
On Moby-Dick or, The Whale’s page
- Moby-Dick exists in its final, towering form because Melville met Hawthorne in 1850, mid-composition — scholars credit that friendship with transforming a whaling adventure into this
- Melville's awe is on the record: the dedication "in token of my admiration for his genius," the essay "Hawthorne and His Mosses," the letter about "germinous seeds" dropped into his soul
- Read The Scarlet Letter and you meet the dark, allegory-loving imagination that gave Melville permission to write big — the genius he was reaching toward
On The Scarlet Letter’s page
- Melville met Hawthorne in August 1850, mid-composition, and the encounter changed everything — the seafaring tale he was writing became Moby-Dick
- He poured out his admiration in the rapturous essay "Hawthorne and His Mosses" and a letter thanking Hawthorne for dropping "germinous seeds" into his soul
- Then he made it permanent: Moby-Dick is dedicated to Hawthorne "in token of my admiration for his genius"