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Nathaniel Hawthorne. 1804-1864. Influences on Hawthorne. His early childhood in Salem and work in the Salem Custom House. His Puritan family background. He believed in the existence of the devil. He believed in determinism, a theory of predestination. The Puritans.
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Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864
Influences on Hawthorne • His early childhood in Salem and work in the Salem Custom House. • His Puritan family background. • He believed in the existence of the devil. • He believed in determinism, a theory of predestination
The Puritans • Puritanism is the religious reform movement of the 16th and 17th centuries seeking to purify the Church of England • Characterized by earnest, intense moral and religious principles such as the necessary covenant relationship with God, the emphasis on preaching and the Holy Spirit’s dominance over reason as the instrument of salvation • America: a Holy Commonwealth and a covenanted community
The Pilgrims • Settlers of Plymouth, MA, the first permanent colony in New England – 1620 • Members of the English Separatist Church, which was a radical faction of Puritanism
The Salem Witch Trials • May – October 1692: Salem, MA • Constitute a series of investigations and persecutions that caused 19 “witches” to be hanged and many others imprisoned • Period of public hysteria generated by false accusations and coerced confessions
Works • Fanshawe (1828) • Mosses from an Old Manse (1846) • The Scarlet Letter (1850) • The House of Seven Gables (1851) • The Snow-Image (1851) • The Blithedale Romance (1852) • Life of Franklin Pierce (1852) • The Marble Faun (1860)
His Themes in Writing • Moral allegories • The sinful man • Hypocrisy • The Dark side of Human Nature • Religion in Nature
Hawthorne’s contributions • Hawthorne rounds off the puritan cycle in American writing - belief in the existence of an active evil (the devil) and in a sense of determinism (the concept of predestination). • Hawthorne's use of psychological analysis (pre-Freudian) is of interest today. • In themes and style, Hawthorne's writings look ahead to Henry James, William Faulkner, and Robert Penn Warren.
Hawthorne’s Black Vision of Life • haunted by his sense of sin and evil in life. Most of his works deal with evil one way or another. • A. Evil exists in the human heart (“Earthy Holocaust”) • B. Everyone possesses some evil secret (“Young Goodman Brown”) • C. Everyone seems to cover up his innermost evil (“The Minister’s Black Veil”) • D. Evil seems to be man’s birthmark. • E. Evil comes out of evil though, and it may take many generations • F. One source of evil is overweening intellect. (The tension between the head and the heart) Hawthorne’s intellectual characters are usually villains, dreadful because devoid of fellow feelings. • (Chillingworth, Dr. Rappaccini – Hawthorne’s negative attitude toward science is reflected in his writings and characterizations).
The Scarlet Letter • The story of Hester Prynne reveals the moral, emotional, and psychological effect of the sin on the people in general . • Sober, dark mood is well defined from the very beginning of the novel.
The Major Characters • A. Hester Prynne: This book is not a praise of Hester Prynne sinning, but a hymn on the moral growth of the woman when sinned against. • Hester’s life eventually acquires a real significance when she reestablishes a meaningful relationship with her fellowmen. • Symbolic of her moral development is the gradual, imperceptible change which the scarlet letter undergoes in meaning. A – “Adultery” “Able”, “Angel” (“Adamic” the original sin or “America”) • B. Arthur Dimmesdale banishes himself from the society. Deeply concerned with himself, he lives a stranger among his admirers. He undergoes the tragic expericence of physical and spiritual disintergration. • C. Roger Chillingworth, the real villain of the story, embodies pure intellect, who commits “the unpardonable sin” (the violation of heart)
