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Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne was an American fiction writer best known for his novel The Scarlet Letter . Born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804, he was one of those rare writers who drew critical acclaim during his lifetime.
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Nathaniel Hawthorne • Hawthorne was an American fiction writer best known for his novel The Scarlet Letter. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804, he was one of those rare writers who drew critical acclaim during his lifetime. • Today, readers still appreciate Hawthorne’s work for its storytelling qualities and for the moral and theological questions it raises.
Puritanism • Throughout his lifetime, Hawthorne felt guilt over certain actions of his ancestors. Critics view his literary preoccupation with Puritanism as an outgrowth of these roots. • The first Hawthorne to immigrate to Massachusetts from England was William, a magistrate who once ordered the public whipping of a Quaker woman. Shortly thereafter, William’s son, John, served as a judge in the Salem witch trials of 1692. Hawthorne’s own father was a ship’s captain who died when Hawthorne was only four years old. • Hawthorne filled much of his work themes exploring the evil actions of humans and the idea of original sin.
Puritan vs Transcendental • Puritanism: humans are sinners who are unwilling and unable to meet the demands of a righteous God apart from God's gracious initiative. Humankind is utterly dependent upon God for salvation. • Transcendentalism: reaction against Puritanism; human wholeness and happiness require the interrelationship of the mind, heart, spirit, will and imagination, and accommodation though not indulgence of bodily needs
Nathaniel in the middle… • How does Hawthorne accept and reject particular beliefs? • Some of Hawthorne’s dominant themes: • Self-trust vs. accommodation to authority • Conventional vs. unconventional gender roles • Obsessiveness vs. open-mindedness • Hypocrisy vs. candor
More of Hawthorne themes: • Presumed guilt or innocence • Nurturance and destructiveness • The penalties of isolation • Crimes against the human heart • Patriarchal power • Belief in fate or free will • Progress vs. nostalgia • Truths available during dream and reverie • The impossibility of earthly perfection
Author and Narrator • The narrator is distinct from the author. Understanding the differences, subtle or pronounced, between an author and the narrator s/he creates is essential to understanding a work of fiction. • How does the narrator function in “Young Goodman Brown”? • How does Hawthorne present the narrator? • How does Hawthorne’s choice of pov impact the story?
Allegory • Allegory is a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative, are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself. The underlying meaning has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy. • Thus an allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. • Examples: Fairie Queen by Spenser; Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan; Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Archetypes? • Dark forest • danger, obscurity, confusion, and the unknown or with evil, sin, and death • Situations • Quest • Loss of innocence • Colors • Red—love, sacrifice, hate, evil, anger, violent passion, sin, blood, disorder • White—purity, innocence, death, terror, supernatural, blinding truth
