III.3.Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864)

Focus of Study Life Experience Literary Career Point of View Writing Style Major works Significance

Life Experience Hawthorne was born in Salem,

Massachusetts in 1804, in an old Puritan family.

Notorious Ancestors 1.1630,magistrate known for

persecution of Quakers. 2.1692, judge in the Salem

witchcraft trials. All his life, haunted by his sense

of sin and evil in life. "I have locked myself in a dungeon

and I can't find the key to get out."

Literary Career 1837, 1842 Twice-Told Tales《重述的故事》 1842, married Sophia Peabody. 1846-49, port-surveyor at Salem; friends

with Herman Melville. 1850 The Scarlet Letter 《红字》 1851 The House of the Seven Gables《七角楼

房》 1853-57, appointed American Consul in

Liverpool by President Pierce. 1860 The Marble Faun《玉石雕像》 1864, died in Plymouth.

Major works The House of the Seven Gables based on the legend of a curse

pronounced on Hawthorne's own family by a woman, who was condemned to death during the Salem witchcraft trials.

an appalling version of Hawthorne belief that “the wrong-doing of one generation lives into the successive ones,” and that evil will come out of evil though it may take many generations to happen.

THE BLITHEDALE ROMANCE (1852), set in a utopian New England community, examines the flaws inherent in practical utopianism.

ROMANCE: a form of prose fiction dealing with idealized events remote from everyday life.

Chapter 1 A prison was built by the settlers of a colony to protect against the perpetrators of their Utopian society. The entrance to the prison was a heavy oaken door with iron bindings. It was rusted and worn with age. In front of the uninviting door, there was a grassy patch with uninviting weeds. However, in this disturbing atmosphere, there was a rose bush. It stood on one side of the door offering some relief from the troubles one might face upon entering the prison, or perhaps it would welcome a prisoner as they returned to society. It may have been placed there by Anne Hutchinson, the sainted. In whatever way it was brought about, nevertheless giving hope in the

midst of peril. The wild rose bush stands in front of the prison door emanating reassurance.

The platform on which Hester

Prynne was forced to stand.

Chapter 2 Many men and women waited outside the prison and in the market place for the committed, Hester Prynne, to make her appearance. They judged her. Some said the punishment wasn’t harsh enough. When the prison door opened and she came forth, they saw the fancy *A* on her chest. They were impressed with its craftsmanship, however some were jealous. Hester walked through the market place to a platform. She had to stand and face the people. Even the Governor and several of his counselors, a judge, a general, and the minister of the town were present. Although, they stood or sat in the balcony of the meeting house. Hester envisioned other places and times to ease her pain, but this was reality!

the balcony where Dimmesdale,

Wilson and the others stood.

Chapter 3 As Hester stood on the scaffold, she noticed a figure on the outskirts of the crowd, and she recognized him. The figure was a white man dressed in Indian clothes. He asked who the person on the scaffold was and what she had done. He quickly learned the condition of the situation. Soon Hester was addressed by John Wilson who stood on the balcony above her. Eventually he had the Reverend Dimmesdale try to persuade her to confess the name of her fellow sinner. After Dimmesdale gave a lengthy and almost pleading speech of the benefits of announcing the name, Hester declared she would never reveal it. She was then escorted back to the prison to serve the remainder of her sentence.

Hester Prynne, the ghost, between her needle and her child she survives.

Governor Bellingham’s mansion stands out in the midst of the Puritan

society.

Pearl puts her head in the hand of Dimmesdale.

Could Chillingworth, the physician, be the cause of Dimmesdale’s trouble?

The weeds on the grave are indicative of an untold secret.

When Dimmesdale stayed awake late at night and looked in the mirror, he saw convoluted images.

Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl are together on the scaffold while Chillingworth stands to the side.

Hester goes to homes to help the people but only

during the night.

Hester meets with Chillingworth while he’s gathering herbs to talk about Dimmesdale.

Pearl spends time floating snails, playing with foam, throwing pebbles at birds, and dressing in seaweed.

The elusive sunlight grants the path the pleasure of being graced by its alluring presence.

The meeting place of Hester and Dimmesdale is depicted above.

The discarded scarlet letter lands in a bush, falling short of the river.

Pearl points an accusing finger at Hester’s bosom while she stands on the other side of the brook.

Hester and Dimmesdale decided to leave on a ship from the Spanish Main.

Dimmesdale finally acquires acceptance from Pearl through a kiss.

The Scarlet Letter A classic portrayal of Puritan America. tells of the passionate, forbidden love affair linking

a sensitive, religious young man, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and the sensuous, beautiful townsperson, Hester Prynne.

Set in Boston around 1650 during early Puritan colonization, the novel highlights the Calvinistic obsession with morality, sexual repression, guilt and confession, and spiritual salvation.

Plot & Symbols

Thematic Analysis Hawthorne predominantly concerned with the moral,

emotional and psychological effect of sin on the people in general and those complicated in it in particular.

1. For Hester, it is a hymn on the moral growth of the woman when sinned against.

2. For Dimmesdale, he undergoes the tragic experience of physical and spiritual disintegration, but gets spiritual salvation by his dying confession.

3. For Chillingworth, he represents Hawthorne’s cold intellectual devoid of warm human feelings, “deeply sinned”.

4. For Pearl, an illustration of the concept of natural man, Hawthorne emphasizes man as a natural being prior to his identity as a moral duplication.

Point of View

1.Hawthorne always writes about man in society, rather than simply about man in nature.

2. Hawthorne's fiction shows a belief in the fundamental ambiguity of earthly phenomena.

3. Hawthorne does not share Emerson and Thoreau's transcendental belief in the sanctity of the individual.

His question is whether man's free will is fully justified in human society.

Hawthorne goes inwardly to tackle the dark recesses of the human soul.

Writing Style Hawthorne’s tales are

almost always allegories with morals attached.

A. Hawthorne wrote romance because he thought it the predestined form of American narrative.

B. Hawthorne used symbols and setting to reveal the psychology of the characters.

C. He wrote stories with narrative interest, ease in transition, coherence, and complexity.

D. His style is soft, flowing, and almost feminine. His touch is light, but his observation is somber.

E. He used ambiguity to keep the reader in a world of uncertainty. Important questions are never fully resolved.

To create ambiguity, the author often employed the technique of multiple views.

Allegory is a story in verse or prose with double meaning: a primary meaning or surface meaning; and a secondary or deep meaning.

Significance Hawthorne was a master of psychological

insight.

1. Hawthorne is significant as a romantic writer.

2. He is significant for his themes: the consequences of pride, selfishness, and secret guilt; the conflict between lighthearted and somber attitudes toward life; alienation and solitude; nature and natural impulses; and unconscious fantasy and dream.

The moral growth of the individual comes through, or as a result of, sin and suffering.

For Hawthorne, the journey from innocence to maturity requires a confrontation with evil.

The dark side of human character attracted him profoundly as he was haunted by his sense of sin and evil in life.

1. Discuss the relationship between the scarlet letter and Hester’s identity. Why does she repeatedly refuse to stop wearing the letter? What is the difference between the identity she creates for herself and the identity society assigns to her?

2. In what ways could The Scarlet Letter be read as a commentary on the era of American history it describes? How does Hawthorne’s portrayal of Europe enter into this commentary? Could the book also be seen as embodying some of the aspects it attributes to the nation in which it was written?

1. Discuss the relationship between the scarlet letter and Hester’s identity. Why does she repeatedly refuse to stop wearing the letter? What is the difference between the identity she creates for herself and the identity society assigns to her?

2. In what ways could The Scarlet Letter be read as a commentary on the era of American history it describes? How does Hawthorne’s portrayal of Europe enter into this commentary? Could the book also be seen as embodying some of the aspects it attributes to the nation in which it was written?

Essay Questions

Reference Bloom, Harold, ed. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet

Letter. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1996. Johnson, Claudia D. Understanding The Scarlet Letter:

A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1995.

Kesterson, David B., ed. Critical Essays on Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1988.

Matthiessen, F. O. American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1941.

Thickston, Margaret. Fictions of the Feminine: Puritan Doctrine and the Representation of Women. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1988.