What Does The Great Carbuncle Mean

The Great Carbuncle In The Great Carbuncle, Nathaniel Hawthorne creates a story that is unique. Hawthorne used a simple story of an adventure to show a flaw in society. A flaw that was expressed through the character’s goals and selfish ambitions.
In this short story, the author created eight characters; each with their own meaning in the story. The first one introduced was named, The Seeker. He was a sixty year old man, who spent his entire life relentlessly searching for the brilliant gem. Hawthorne wanted to exhibit the type of person that spends their entire life desiring happiness through earthly possessions but never achieving it. Another character in the story was a chemist, who desired the Great Carbuncle to create more of them to
This character was used to give an example of how some people want to give everyone something priceless, like it is their right to have it. When in reality, if an object is common, it no longer holds its original worth. Master Ichabod Pigsnort, the third character introduced, was a merchant who was so caught up in the value of the gem, focused only on the money from the priceless gem. The author was using this character to show greed and the corruption of riches in the lives of mankind by evincing the character as a man who would walk around naked in a room full of rare coins. The fourth character introduced was The Cynic. He was a miserable man, with a constant sneer, that spent his time on the adventure believing the magnificent gem did not exist and considered the hopes of the other characters completely vain. Hawthorne used the Cynic to show the reality of how an attitude of a situation controls the outcome; also the fact that when someone has decided upon some miserable action there is nothing on earth to change their mind. The Poet, a character that searched for the mysterious gem for an inspiration although he mistakenly thought a piece of ice was the gem and received all the inspiration necessary for a great poem. A