WEIRD MOCKERY: AN ELEMENT OF HAWTHORNE'S STYLE

In Hawthorne's own words, his style is "the style of a man of society." It is cool, with a polite and easy frankness which also has its reserves. He stands far back from his material, and the result is a detachment that makes his meaning hard to penetrate, despite his urbane authorial explanations. His balance and perfection of tone often establish a stimulating tension between his manner and his matter; sometimes the difference is so pronounced, as in "Young Goodman Brown" and "My Kinsman, Major Molineux," that it produces an effect of weird mockery.