Re-visioning the "girls" in Hawthorne's A wonder book for girls and boys and Tanglewood tales: a mythic-feminist analysis

In Hawthorne's companion books, A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys and Tanglewood Tales, Hawthorne creatively retells classical Greek myths. While entertaining and imaginative, these stories have received far less critical attention than Hawthorne's literature for adults because some scholars consider them to be less complex—a notion that my thesis challenges. Through a close analysis of each of the mythic female characters in A Wonder Book and Tanglewood Tales, my thesis observes the ways that gender functions in the stories. With characters such as Baucis and Marygold, Hawthorne upholds the venerated "Angel in the House" stereotype, but more often, Hawthorne problematizes the dark/fair lady dichotomy that he is so often accused of perpetuating. From the androgynous flower children of A Wonder Book to the powerful, enigmatic Medea and Circe of Tanglewood Tales, Hawthorne has created increasingly evocative, non-stereotypical representations of femininity.