Kate Rogers

May, 2007

Ambiguity and

Conflicts in the

Works of

Nathaniel

Hawthorne

Puritan or

Rebel?

This book is a thesis in satisfaction of requirements for the

degree of Master of Arts in Teaching with concentration in

Secondary Education: English conferred upon the author by

Union Graduate College, Schenectady, NY in May, 2007.

Original document admitted to the thesis collection of the

Schaffer Library, Union College, May, 2007. Call No: Thesis UO992 R724p 2007

© 2007 Catherine Ashworth Rogers

All rights reserved

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Table of Contents

Abstract .......................................................................................... 4

The Puritan Legacy ........................................................................ 6

Early Puritan History ................................................................ 13

Puritan Beliefs ......................................................................... 15

The Second Generation .......................................................... 18

The Salem Witch Trials ........................................................... 23

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Inheritor of the Puritan Legacy ................. 28

An Emerging American Literary Tradition ............................... 35

The Transcendentalist Movement ........................................... 38

Impacts of Transcendentalism ................................................ 40

Puritan or Rebel? .................................................................... 43

The Custom House ...................................................................... 45

“The Haunted Mind” ..................................................................... 50

“The Maypole of Merry Mount” .................................................... 54

“The Minister’s Black Veil” ........................................................... 62

“Alice Doane’s Appeal” ................................................................ 68

“Young Goodman Brown” ............................................................ 76

The Scarlet Letter ........................................................................ 84

Works Cited ................................................................................. 92

Works Consulted ......................................................................... 95

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Abstract

Throughout his literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne can be

seen to both embrace and reject his Puritan heritage. His work

reveals that he has clearly internalized many of the beliefs and

values espoused by the Puritans. However, by those standards,

he is an unworthy sinner, a state that he earnestly attempts to

reject. He accepts Puritan judgments while rebelling against its

conclusions. He is a rebel guilt-ridden by his own rebellion.

Hawthorne‟s writing can be seen as a struggle to accept

his “sinful” status. He wants the promise of salvation, but

can‟t achieve it by his own internalized Puritan standards. By

those standards, he sees himself as sin-stained. Hints about

the nature of his secret sin may be discerned through a critical

reading of his stories and The Scarlet Letter. Scholarship

might never reveal the ultimate truths about what secret sins

plagued Hawthorne‟s guilty heart, but much of his writing can

be seen as a rebellion against his internalized ancestral Puritan

values.

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Puritan or Rebel?

Ambiguity and Conflicts in the Works of Nathaniel

Hawthorne

The Puritans left a legacy that has become deeply

embedded in American culture. Their early goals and values

have become defining traits that continue to shape the evolving

concepts of American identity. Far from being an

anachronistic part of our nation's ancient history, the coming of

the Puritans was perhaps the most defining event in the

ongoing evolution of an American national sense of self. Their

driving sense of purpose, serious demeanor, unshakable faith,

famous work ethic and commitment to their cause became a

standard against which future generations of Americans

measured themselves.

As a direct descendant of these Puritan forebears,

Nathaniel Hawthorne inherited the weight of their legacy. At a

defining period of the forming of an American literature, he

simultaneously embraced and rejected Puritan beliefs and

values. This ambiguity serves as the foundation for

Hawthorne‟s psyche, and is critical to understanding his work.

As a “founding father” of American literature, Hawthorne‟s

ambiguity also contributed to the formation of a similar

ambiguity in the American psyche.

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The Puritan Legacy

The early Puritans were critical of the first glimmerings

of American identity. Nonetheless, our national history begins

with their arrival. They were a committed group of

intellectuals and religious activists who were determined to

prove the superiority of their beliefs to the entire world. They

weren‟t running to these shores out of fear or desperation.

Rather, they deliberately set out on a mission to create a

society based on ecclesiastical law (Kazin 7). In a very real

sense, one strand of early national identity was founded by

these early Puritan missionaries. Although the Pilgrims were

also important early founders, they were forced by

circumstances to come here. Their story of religious

persecution remains the inspirational progenitor of our national

determination to preserve the freedom of religion. However,

the Puritans were not escaping religious persecution as much

as they were on a mission to prove the superiority of their

interpretation of Christianity. It is this mission which has left

an enduring imprint on the American psyche.

The Puritans‟ original mission to create an ideal society

became an important piece of our national legacy. Beginning

as a belief that New England would form an ideal societal

order depicted as a „City on a Hill‟ that would show the world

the way to be, the seed of this idea blossomed into the concept

of Manifest Destiny. In fact, the policy of Manifest Destiny

propelled the nation into an unparalleled era of expansion. The

idea that this nation had a responsibility to spread its ideals

around the world, and that such a goal is sanctioned by God,

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continues to be heard from national political leaders even

today.

Our current social and political systems are also an

outgrowth of the early structures that were successfully built

by the Puritan leaders. The Puritans conceived of a community

of the "elect," God's chosen people, who would work

cooperatively to govern themselves according to God's law, as

interpreted from the Bible. They came here believing that they

were fulfilling a holy covenant with God. Only such a divinely

inspired mission would take them away from their homes to

travel halfway around the world to a wilderness they believed

was inherently evil. The temptations of Satan were quite real

to them, especially in an uncivilized pagan wilderness, but

these obstacles were overcome by their determination to

uphold their end of their covenant with God. This single-

focused determination played a critical role in their survival

during the early years of hardship, and their diligent work ethic

led to their eventual prosperity. Their sense of mission never

left them, and became the birthright given to their children. In

many ways, America was shaped by the Puritans‟ early

mission.

The influence of the Puritans can be clearly seen in the

arena of politics. From George Washington to George W.

Bush, American leaders have drawn upon the conviction that

Americans are motivated by a divine mission from God. In

spite of the ideal of religious freedom imprinted on the

American psyche by the Pilgrims, it is the Puritans‟ sense of

divine covenant and establishment of a political body based on

God's will that has been used by politicians ever since.

Regardless of the constitutional mandate of the separation of

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church and state, these two domains have been intimately

intertwined in American national rhetoric since the very

earliest days of colonial America.

The cultural impact of the early Puritans is so pervasive

that authors are continually returning to this colonial identity to

reinterpret what it means to be an American. As a nation and a

people, we define ourselves in comparison to our forebears.

The past serves as a shaping influence for our national

dialogue. As the fabric of society is woven of the interactions

between our hopes, values, and actions, so each American

author weaves a thread into the tapestry of American literature,

crafted on the loom of the Puritans‟ mission to create a

paradise on earth.

We can see this most clearly through the writings of

Nathaniel Hawthorne. Many of his stories and novels can be

seen as a personal exploration as he struggles to resolve a

conflict between Puritan ideals and his own personal reality.

Hawthorne continually defined himself in comparison to his

ancestors. His ancestral lineage was prestigious in some

regards, but deeply shameful in others. As Hawthorne reached

back to the Puritan legacy, he did so with mixed emotions of

homage and shame. For this reason, Hawthorne‟s work serves

as an excellent example to demonstrate the impact the Puritan

legacy had on this young, developing author as he struggled to

define a uniquely American identity.

The Puritan legacy is not one dimensional, but is in

conflict with another dynamic aspect of American identity: that

of the independent rebel. As described in “The Declaration of

Independence,” Americans typically feel that they are entitled

to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Although the

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genesis of this ideal formed in the cradle of democracy, this

secular ideal runs contrary to Puritan core values and has led to

a contradictory split in American identity. Although Puritan

values have had a pervasive influence on the development of

American identity, their influence has also led to the formation

of an identity that is contradictory in many ways to the original

Puritan ideals. The Puritan worldview is dependent on the

notion that they are a people chosen by God to fulfill His

mission. Seeking God's will and finding the means to

implement it was the highest purpose of the early Puritan. This

idea runs directly contrary to the cherished American notion of

self-willed independent action. Individual freedom was not a

notion embraced by the Puritans. Social conformity was

explicitly expected, and obedience to the common good was

valued over personal independence. Submission of the

individual will to God‟s will was expected from the devout.

As people have found throughout time, religious adherence is

often at odds with the pursuit of individual goals.

Since the American ideal of personal freedom runs

contrary to the Puritan ideal of social conformity, the conflict

sets up a dynamic tension in the country‟s sense of identifying

an American national character. In many ways, Hawthorne

embodied this tension. He struggled to conform to the

expectations of his family and community while

simultaneously striving to break free from such restraints. His

was a life of unresolved, internal conflict.

A large component of the American identity is the

larger-than-life hero who tests himself against the dangers of

the wilderness. “The wilderness” is an idea that has served as

a defining concept in the formation of an American identity.

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To the Puritans, it represents the ultimate unknown, a territory

of godless dangers, the domain of Satan. It is the realm where

true individualism is tested against the American expansionist

drive. Therefore, to confront the wilderness requires courage,

strength, and a kind of spiritual purity able to withstand the

vicissitudes of an inherently corrupt environment. An

individual goes into the wilderness to define him or herself,

often in defiance of limiting cultural expectations. Since the

wilderness is a place of unknown dangers, Americans tend to

admire those who seek to challenge these unfamiliar

boundaries. From Lewis & Clark's famous exploration of the

early American frontier to Neil Armstrong's first steps on the

moon, Americans lionize the heroes who challenge unknown

frontiers by exploring the wildest, most uncivilized wilderness.

This hero rebels against limits, and expresses the value

of individuality. However, the Puritans were all about self-

imposed limitations and the value of community effort. The

success of the Puritans lay in their ability to form close

communal bonds, a notion that runs contrary to the ideal of

American individualism. The explorer defies authority and

seeks to rise above societal expectations. These ideals of

independence and rebellion against authority run contrary to

the core Puritan ideal of obedience to God. Whereas the

Puritans feared the wilderness as the domain of Satan, the

explorer embraces the challenges of the wilderness as he

pushes to find out what new ideas lie beyond the boundaries of

civilization. Where the explorer revels in his ability for

independent action, the Puritans valued obedience to authority.

While the Puritans devoutly believed that an individual's

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salvation lay solely in God's hands, the explorer embodies the

very American notion of the "self-made man."

We can still see vestiges of Puritan values expressed in

our heroes, though. We profess our ideals through the heroes

we uphold. Through Superman, an icon of American

independence, we see that Americans profess to believe in

"truth, justice, and the American Way." These are values

echoed in the Puritan past in Puritan rhetoric. Puritans were

particularly devoted to ideals of truth and honesty, devoting

endless hours to scouring their souls and scorning any

deception found. They were also adamant supporters of

justice, as long as it was based on God's law as revealed in the

Bible. Their early system of self-governance created the

foundation for our democratic form of government. Although

the Puritans had no way of knowing that their experiment in

forming a “city on a hill” would eventually result in a new

nation called “America,” they certainly had an abiding interest

in establishing their own “way” of doing things. The early

influences of the Puritans are revealed through such icons of

American identity.

The contradictory impulses embodied in Puritan values,

however, have become an important part of the American

psyche, leading to a rich field of exploration for American

writers. Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the first American

authors to grapple with this contradiction directly. As

Americans have continued to struggle with defining a sense of

purpose in the world, it is the authors of American literature

like Hawthorne who have served to give shape to an evolving

duality of American identity. Early American writers had a

dynamic role in shaping American identity, since as a new

12

nation, the national sense of self was still very fluid and

evolving. As the decades passed and the body of original

American work grew, younger writers had their own newly-

emerging canon of uniquely American viewpoints to draw

upon, to explore, and to expand.

Through his personal explorations and conflicts,

Nathaniel Hawthorne directly contributed to the creation of a

uniquely American literary canon. The Puritan legacy became

a canvas upon which he and other writers could explore the

contradictory nature of national identity. Hawthorne‟s works

of literature serve as both a reflection of the past as well as a

commentary on the present. Throughout the centuries, whether

a writer affirmed or rejected the values granted by the Puritan

founding fathers, their influence has been extensive in

American literature.

Nathaniel Hawthorne is famous for directly drawing on

his Puritan heritage as a backdrop for The Scarlet Letter as

well as many of his short stories. In these works, Hawthorne

rejects his personal family connection to his Puritan forebears

while seeming to embrace the concurrent stifling influence of

their Puritan values. He explores the underpinnings of the

Puritan ideal in his own particular ways and according to his

own sets of beliefs. He often focuses on topics related to

American identity by exploring ideas that relate to this identity

split offered by Puritan values in opposition to independent

self-will. As a shaper of American identity, Nathaniel

Hawthorne expanded the discussion of Puritan and American

values in many ways.

Puritan or rebel? These two contrary sets of

characteristics have defined the American identity: the values

13

of the Puritans, and the simultaneous rejection of those values.

This inherent contradiction has proven to be a rich field for the

cultivation of unique voices in American literature. This

dichotomy helped to define Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman,

Melville and Dickinson as well, all contemporaries of

Hawthorne who also contributed to the new American

literature. By examining the personal and social context

surrounding Nathaniel Hawthorne and his works, we can see

how the Puritans influenced one important writer instrumental

in establishing an American national character.

Early Puritan History

In order to better understand what motivated Nathaniel

Hawthorne, we have to examine the historical context he

steeped himself in. He was an avid student of history, and

immersed himself in the subject of early colonial history. He

regularly and deliberately drew upon this history as the basis

for his tales and a sound understanding of this background is

necessary to understand Hawthorne‟s works.

The Puritans, central players in Hawthorne‟s works, did

not choose this name for themselves. The term "Puritan" was

first applied in the 16th century as a descriptor of a type of

religious belief, rather than the name of the religion itself. It

became a derogatory label used by those who didn‟t share the

Puritans‟ strict religious views. The Puritans considered

themselves to be Calvinists. They were members of the

Protestant Reformation movement advanced in part by John

Calvin in the 16th century. As part of the Reformation, the

Puritans believed that the form of Christianity practiced in

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Roman Catholicism was irreparably corrupt. They felt that the

rituals and practices of the Church had become disconnected

from the “pure” teachings of the Bible, and that Church

bureaucracy had become too entwined with political intrigue.

Throughout Europe, various protestant reformers sought to

strip the church of its secular power and reestablish religious

authority found in the Bible. Their attempts to "purify" the

church and bring it closer to what they believe God intended

led to their gaining the name of Puritans.

The Protestant movement in England did manage to

succeed in taking political power out of the hands of the

Catholic church and placing religious institutions directly in

the hands of the British government. However, this left many

of the objectionable religious structures and hierarchies intact,

which became a target for religious reformers like the Puritans.

Puritans believed that the church had become altogether too

secular and political, and had strayed significantly from

biblical doctrine. The Puritans of England aimed to change all

that, and began agitating for political reform. However, with

the establishment of settlements in the new world, another

option for reform became available.

In 1630, a Puritan leader named John Winthrop led a

group of approximately 400 co-religionists to establish a

colony in the new world. While on board their flagship

"Arbella", he delivered his now-famous speech "A Model of

Christian Charity," where he outlined the hopes and dreams of

this group of settlers. In this stirring sermon, Winthrop laid out

the foundations for the mission that would continue to inspire

an American sense of purpose for centuries onward. He

decreed that their community shall be as a "city upon a hill"

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(Kennedy 32-33). As a city on a hill is clearly visible and

stands out against the horizon, outlined for all to see even from

great distances, so Winthrop envisioned the Massachusetts Bay

Colony that his group intended to establish. This piece of vivid

imagery has endured through the ensuing centuries, cutting a

trail throughout American history. This vision of New

England gradually expanded to include all of America as the

ideal city on a hill.

Winthrop intended this community of "God's Elect" to

serve as an example of righteousness and moral purity in the

world. His sermon outlined the mission to create a civil and

ecclesiastical government based on God's law. It was a very

deliberate effort to create the kind of pure Christian society that

the Puritans were unable to accomplish in England. These

Puritan missionaries hoped that by establishing a brand new

society, they could start from scratch and build it with

deliberate intention by a group of people completely

committed to the cause. Calvinist hopes for a new society

based on God's law rested with the success of the

Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Puritans had something to

prove to the world, and they were very aware that the eyes of

the world were upon them.

Puritan Beliefs

Many features of their belief system distinguished the

Puritans from other fundamentalist Christians. One such

feature was the concept of the "elect," which arose from their

belief in predestination. According to Calvinist doctrine,

humanity is born tainted by sin, and most people are destined

16

for hell. This doctrine had no mechanism for absolution or the

forgiveness of sin. Simply put, sinners were damned, and

nothing could be done by human agency to change that. This

belief created an incredible effort toward sinless perfection – a

standard attainable by only a select few. They believed that

only these few would be saved from damnation, but according

to predestination. No efforts on behalf of humans could

compel or create this salvation. Salvation was solely in the

hands of God – a freely given gift – who was the sole decider

about who was to be saved and who was not (Campbell

“Puritanism in New England”). Adherence to religious

practices could reveal who God‟s elect were, but one could not

be saved simply by religious obedience. Damnation was an

irrefutable fact for the majority according to Puritan doctrine.

Members of the Church devoted themselves to God's

laws hoping for direct proof of His blessing – a personal

experience of salvation. Only those who experienced a direct,

personal revelation of God's grace were considered eligible for

full Church membership. These experiences were then

submitted to the Church leadership in the form of "Conversion

Narratives" which documented the revelation of Divine grace.

Only upon close examination by Church Elders was a new

member admitted into the congregation (Campbell “Forms of

Puritan Rhetoric”). This many-layered structure helped to

insure that all members of the Church had a profound and

personal commitment to God.

Thenceforth, Church members were expected to act in

accordance with their state of grace. It was believed that those

who had been saved by God would act accordingly, a process

known as "sanctification." However, it was also recognized

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that Satan especially prized the souls of those who had been

elected by God for salvation, and were therefore especially

susceptible to "back-sliding." Thus, church members were

expected to devote a considerable amount of time to active

soul-searching in an attempt to root out all taint of sin that

might lead to their loss of grace. The ultimate status of their

souls was therefore always a bit ambiguous, and great effort

was expended insuring that God remained close in thought and

deed.

Puritans were not reticent about expressions of their

faith, but they generally scorned frivolity. For them, frivolity

might be defined as anything that distracted a person from the

serious business of living according to God‟s strict will.

Music, dancing, and revelry of all sorts were scorned as

unnecessary and even sinful. Clothing was notoriously drab in

color and unadorned, because it was considered vain to take

pride in a person‟s appearance. They were not an outwardly

exuberant people but valued self-control and emotional

restraint, even among their children, who were expected to be

obedient, hard-working, and silent.

Jeremiads and other Puritan sermons served an

important role in early Puritan worship. They often lamented

the precarious nature of salvation, and warned of the

consequence of not living according to biblical law (Campbell

“Forms of Puritan Rhetoric”). Such regular reminders of the

wages of sin helped maintain adherence to the strict social

order. These exhortations reminded the congregation of the

grave and bitter aftermath of ignoring God's will, and served to

sharpen the community‟s efforts to be obedient to God's will.

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A cohesive sense of purpose was critically important to

the success of the Massachusetts Bay colony. The Puritans had

to create their settlement from the ground up, and the early

years were extremely difficult. Death moved freely through

the community in the forms of disease, starvation, and Indian

attacks. Strong social cohesion helped the Puritans to survive

and eventually thrive in the hostile new world they found

themselves in.

The Puritans were well educated intellectuals who were

personally and directly committed to their mission of creating a

society based on God's will. This intensely focused

commitment led to the kind of tight social bonds that were so

necessary to the success of the colony. Their shared mission

led to a closely woven social fabric that supported the colonists

through their difficult early years. Their strong social

solidarity and their clearly focused sense that they were "one

people" on a mission became the foundation for creating a

national identity.

The Second Generation

As the Massachusetts Bay Colony continued to grow,

its political influence in the emerging colonial culture also

grew. The period between approximately 1650 through the

end of the century saw enormous growth in terms of population

and the colonial economy. As an emblem of this growth,

Harvard College was established in Cambridge, Massachusetts

in 1650, just twenty years after the foundation of the

Massachusetts Bay Colony. Not only does this show what

kind of value the Puritans placed on education, but it also

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reveals a community stable and well-established enough to be

able to support such an institution.

The midway point of the seventeenth century found

England and its American colonies in an unstable political

situation. The English Civil War was coming to a close,

deposing the monarchy and leaving the forces of the Puritan

Oliver Cromwell in control. The Protectorate of Cromwell did

not establish stability that the loss of the monarchy had created,

leading to an extended period of political uncertainty in

Europe. The English monarchy was eventually restored two

decades later in 1660 with the abdication of Cromwell‟s son.

With much of Europe distracted by such tumultuous events, the

Massachusetts Bay Colony found that it was difficult to serve

as their intended “city on a hill” if nobody was watching.

Just as the Puritans in England were having difficulty

achieving long-term success, so were the Puritans in New

England. Although the Massachusetts Bay Colony was

internally governed through the authority of a royal charter

which insulated them somewhat from the political instability

abroad, it was a very unsettled time for the colonists as they

tried to establish a Puritan model of government. The

community was governed by Magistrates who established laws

based on strict biblical interpretation. Laws were enforced via

community policing; Members of the community were

expected to report on possible transgressions by their

neighbors, and even minor lapses were met with strict

punishment. Punishment for violations were typically public

affairs that deliberately employed humiliation to enforce norms

of behavior. Examples include public whippings, locking

offenders in stocks or the pillory, and the branding or wearing

20

of an emblem of the crime, such as “T” for “thief” or “A” for

“Adulterer.” This strict system of justice helped to insure

conformity of social behavior reinforcing strong community

bonds.

However, the first blush of their initial energy and

enthusiasm seemed to wane once the settlement became better

established. Although the early years of Puritan settlement

were dedicated to the establishment of mutually dependent

communities that would help to insure survival, as these

communities became better established, survival became more

assured and the bonds that held the communities together

began to weaken. The need for such rigid social norms were

less apparent to the second generation of colonists. The

children of the original settlers found themselves one step

removed from the original mission that compelled their fathers

to cross an ocean.

As the original settlers raised children in the new world,

these children presented a dilemma. What happens to a

community based on a covenant with God if the children, the

inheritors of the community, do not share in the covenant?

This question was centrally important to the Puritans‟ original

mission to establish a community based on God's laws. If their

children were not also "elected" by God to be among the

chosen, who then will lead the community when the elders are

gone? This question threatened to undermine the long-term

political and social stability of the fledgling colony, and

introduced a key component in the formation of a unique

American identity. The children of Puritans had a choice: the

pursuit of their parents‟ original dream of being a “city on a

21

hill” and serving as an example of moral purity for the world,

or the forging of a new independent identity.

A solution was found in a religious compromise called

the "Halfway Covenant," whereby children of fully-accepted

church members could be admitted into the church with partial

rights on the presumption that they would eventually become

one of God's chosen elect. According to Robert McCaughey, a

history professor at Columbia University, the Halfway

Covenant would "Allow the children of “Visible Saints”

(admitted church members) who have not had a religious

experience assuring them salvation to be halfway members of

the church." These children were given full voting rights in

town, which led to both an increase in church membership and

a decline in what membership meant. The second generation

was still expected to seek God's grace, but they could enjoy the

rights of membership without the established protocols that

confirmed God‟s salvation.

Although this compromise was necessary for the

political continuity of the community, it also served to dilute

the concentration of the membership who were completely

committed to the original mission of the founding fathers. The

jeremiads of the period were filled with dire warnings of the

doom that would befall them if they didn‟t cleave to God and

the church. In the mid to late 1700s, a famous minister and

orator of the time, Increase Mather, delivered jeremiads with

titles like “The Day of Trouble is Near,” “A Discourse

Concerning the Danger of Apostasy,” and “A Renewal of

Covenant the Great Duty Incumbent on Decaying and

Distressed Churches.” Titles such as these suggest that the

22

elect had a great unease about the direction and success of their

ongoing mission.

The second generation had plenty of concerns of their

own. They inherited the strong and enduring sense of mission

from their parents, yet they were one generation removed from

the passion that inspired the start of this great enterprise. They

inherited a promise to God, without the promise of salvation.

The second generation of Puritans became preoccupied with

their own role in shaping history and fulfilling God's mission

to create an ideal society. The sermons of the time reveal a

deep disquiet among religious leaders, as they questioned their

role and their progress toward fulfilling God's promise (Miller,

P. 2). In 1670, the Reverend Samual Danforth gave an election

sermon titled "A Brief Recognition of New England's Errand

into the Wilderness" where he explicitly outlines for the second

generation this Puritan mission "into the wilderness" to

establish a community of the elect. Reverend Danforth and his

peers of the day seemed to think that the mission was in danger

of failing. By 1677, the very influential Reverend Mather was

delivering his most strongly worded jeremiads questioning the

faith of the church membership. At the very least, it seems

clear that these religious leaders were concerned that the

success of their ongoing mission might be in doubt. With the

overthrow of Cromwell's Protectorate and the restoration of the

monarchy in England, it seemed that England was preoccupied

with its own concerns, and was no longer paying attention to

the grand experiment in Christian living that was the goal of

the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The mission was in danger of

failure; What good is it being a "city upon a hill" if nobody is

looking toward its shining promise?

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The Salem Witch Trials

In one of early America‟s most evident episodes of

mass hysteria, an atmosphere of uncertainty and doubt created

a toxic environment perfectly suited to the formation of a tragic

episode in the country‟s formation. It is commonly thought that

the strict social structure of the Puritans helped create the kind

of milieu where accusations of witchcraft could lead to

innocent deaths. Rather than provide a safety net to insure the

survival of the community, the tightly woven social fabric of

the Puritans served to trap them under the weight of their own

internal politics. Ultimately, this tragic event affected

Hawthorne as well many generations later.

The tragedy unfolded in the village of Salem, a farming

community several miles removed from the nearby Town of

Salem, of which it was a part. The Massachusetts Bay Colony

had been established for over sixty years, long enough for

basic survival issues to have been solved, and long enough to

diminish the sense of community solidarity that having a

shared Puritan mission created in the earlier years. The year

1692 was a difficult one for the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

The French and Indian war was ongoing, disrupting peace and

progress in the region. The witchcraft accusations revealed

hidden stressors within the community that ripped apart the

fabric of social cohesion. Whereas before the tight-knit social

structure of the Puritans helped them to survive, the petty

jealousies and disputes that form in such tight-knit

communities served as fuel for the hysteria.

24

Witchcraft and Satan were very much a reality for the

Puritans. They saw the world as a battleground between God

and the Devil, fighting for individual souls. Puritans believed

that Satan recruited witches to work for him, and they believed

that disease, natural catastrophes, and other misfortunes were

all signs of the Devil‟s work. Since they believed that God‟s

intentions could be read in natural phenomena, they were apt to

see natural events as signs of God‟s or the Devil‟s work.

According to local Salem historian Robert Cahill, the

winter of 1691-92 was a particularly long, bitter, and snowy

one. For the residents of Salem Village four miles away from

the shops and activities in town, it effectively shut in the

hundred or so families for four months. Recreation was

limited to fireside tales, Bible study, and stories of the Indian

and French massacres. Although the villagers presumably still

worked hard at what chores they could, the winter weather kept

them bored with inactivity (Cahill 13). This must have been

particularly difficult for the children, who were expected to

work hard at an early age and discouraged from idleness and

play. These repressive Puritan strictures helped to create an

atmosphere that allowed the drama to unfold.

The Puritan faith itself forms a key backdrop to the

events that led to the Salem witch trials, for the situation began

in the parish house of the Reverend Samuel Parris. A strict

Puritan, he had recently been appointed as minister to Salem

Village after the previous pastor, Reverend George Burroughs,

left following a dispute with a prominent member of the

community, Ann Putnam (Cahill 16). Among Reverend Parris‟

household was a servant whom he had bought as a slave in the

West Indies. Tituba was very much an outsider to the Puritans.

25

She was not very interested in the Bible because she was a

practitioner of her native Caribbean religion called Vodoun,

also known as voodoo, a syncretic blend of Roman

Catholicism and native African religious practices. These

practices included spirit possession, spells and charms, and

fortune-telling, all of which were considered crimes of

witchcraft to the Puritans.

Tituba had the primary responsibility of caring for the

needs of Reverend Parris‟ daughter Elizabeth and her cousin,

Abigail Williams. In the evenings, the girls and their friends

would gather around the kitchen fire and listen to the exotic

tales of Tituba. She reportedly read their palms, and talked

openly of forbidden topics like magic (Cahill 13).

Before long, the girls began experiencing strange fits

that seemed inexplicable at first glance. They would weep and

groan, then fall to the floor in convulsive fits. Reverend Parris

sought medical help from the village physician who, finding no

other physical cause for their symptoms, pronounced that the

girls had been “bewitched” (D‟Amario). Once the specter of

witchcraft was raised, it sped like wildfire through the isolated

farming community. Soon, other girls were exhibiting similar

symptoms, and it didn‟t take them long to name Tituba and two

other women as their tormentors. Like Tituba, the other two

women also had characteristics that made them outsiders in the

tight-knit community. Sarah Good was homeless and was

described as a pipe-smoking beggar, while Sarah Osborn was

an elderly cripple.

These three women were immediately arrested and

questioned. Tituba easily confessed that she was a witch, and

by the criteria of the Puritans, she likely was. But Sarah Good

26

and Sarah Osborn were shocked by the sudden accusation, and

denied the charges vigorously. They were the first to fall

victim to false accusations, but they were by no means the last.

By the time the trials were halted over a year later, 168 people

had been accused of witchcraft, and 23 people had lost their

lives. Approximately fourteen years later one of the prime

accusers, Ann Putnam, recanted her accusations and publicly

apologized for her role in sending innocent people to their

deaths (Cahill 21).

This tragic episode was a defining event in the shaping

of an American identity. The strict morality created an

atmosphere where any aberrant behavior was seen as the work

of the Devil. The social tensions led to people accusing their

neighbors of serious crimes to satisfy petty jealousies and

private vendettas. The first targets were those who had

characteristics that caused them to stand out of the crowd in a

community where individuality was not encouraged.

In spite of the Puritans‟ efforts to serve as the “visible

saints” of the church and live according to God‟s law, they

proved vulnerable to the worst expressions of human nature.

Those who lost their lives were victims of a rigid intolerance

that was supported by righteous certainty of belief. The

Puritans blindly accepted the “spectral evidence” of the

accusing children because it so neatly fit into what they were

already predisposed to believe. Their utter belief in the Devil

and his supposed works created a screen of plausibility for the

hysterical claims of mischievous children. This episode of the

colonial period still serves as warning to the dangerous power

exerted by judgmental extremism of all sorts, and it is a chapter

27

of history that personally haunted Nathaniel Hawthorne, a

resident of Salem, Massachusetts.

28

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Inheritor of the

Puritan Legacy

Nathaniel Hawthorne became a quintessential figure

among nineteenth century American writers. He achieved

great literary acclaim in his lifetime, and his works continue to

have an enduring impact on modern students of American

literature. No discussion of literature's contribution to the

formation of a unique American voice and identity would be

complete without an examination of Nathaniel Hawthorne and

his contributions to the intellectual wealth of the emerging

nation.

Few authors have a greater claim to represent the voice

and spirit of the American people. Even his date of birth,

Independence Day in 1804, seems to foreshadow the pivotal

role he played in the shaping of a national identity. Born in

Salem, Massachusetts, his family had not strayed from where

they planted their earliest roots. Five generations of Hathornes

preceded Nathaniel in the New World. He was born into one

of the "First Families," tracing his direct lineage to the very

first settlers of the land. Born and raised in the very location of

that first prominent settlement, Salem, Nathaniel Hawthorne

had the weight of personal and national history always upon

him.

For Nathaniel Hawthorne, it seems clear that the

Puritan settlement period was not distant history, but a current

and personal family tale that suffused nearly all that he wrote.

It takes no cleverness of critics or imagination of biographers

to say that Nathaniel Hawthorne was preoccupied with his

29

Puritan ancestors. Hawthorne himself provides that link when

he said, "The figure of that first ancestor, invested by family

tradition with a dim and dusky grandeur, was present to my

boyish imagination, as far back as I can remember. It still

haunts me, and induces a sort of home-feeling with the past"

(Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 10). He had a complex love-

hate relationship with his Puritan ancestors, and continually

explored his ongoing relationship with them through his

writing.

Hawthorne‟s family tree‟s earliest roots were planted at

the infancy of the New World. His first New World ancestor

was William Hathorne (1607 - 1681) who sailed with John

Winthrop aboard the Arbella. As such, William was one of the

early Puritans dedicated to Winthrop's vision of a "city on a

hill." He truly embodied the ideal of a founding father,

becoming both a military and political leader. He became a

deputy of the General Court of Boston, held the rank of major

in campaigns against the Native Americans, as well as

presiding as magistrate and judge in the settlement (Miller,

E.H. 20).

William Hathorne sentenced law breakers according to

the often brutal punishments of English justice: ears were cut

off, holes were bored in women's tongues with red-hot irons,

and prisoners were starved. Hathorne was said to pursue

wickedness "like a bloodhound." It is reported that on one

occasion, he ordered a burglar's ear be cut off and had him

branded with the letter B on his forehead. On another

occasion, William Hathorne is responsible for the punishment

of a Quaker woman. She was stripped to the waist, tied to the

back of a cart, and pulled through town where she was given

30

thirty lashes before being driven into the forest (Miller, E.H.

21). His performance as a judge brought him acclaim, but this

"grave, bearded, sable-cloaked, and steeple-crowned

progenitor" was viewed by his great-great grandson, Nathaniel,

as cruel and tyrannical (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 10).

William Hathorne's son, John, followed in his father's

footsteps. Like his father, he was a deputy to the General

Court in Boston, served as a Colonel in the militia, and most

infamously, served as a magistrate during the Salem Witch

Trials of 1692, continuing his father's tradition of court-

sanctioned cruelty (Miller, E.H. 22). Although many of those

involved in the witchcraft trials later publicly recanted or

repented their roles in the tragedy, John Hathorne never did

(Stade xviii). He embodied the notion of the stern, unforgiving

Puritan elder.

In his writing, Nathaniel Hawthorne seemed to be

trying to reach back across the span of years and measure

himself against his ancestors‟ achievements. In the

autobiographical "Custom-House" sketch which precedes The

Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne refers to these family members as

"those stern and black-browed Puritans" but doubts whether his

success as a writer would win their stern approval. He refers to

himself as an "idler" in their eyes, and imagines that they

would find his chosen work "worthless, if not positively

disgraceful." Although he recognized that his profession

would have made him less of a man in the eyes of his

forebears, he acknowledges his abiding connection with them

when he says, "And yet, let them scorn me as they will, strong

traits of their nature have intertwined themselves with mine"

(Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 11).

31

Nathaniel Hawthorne demonstrated his conflicted

connection to his forbears when he changed the spelling of his

name a year after graduating from college. When Horace

Conolly, a resident of Salem, remarked to Hawthorne that he

didn't look like the Salem Hathornes, Nathaniel reportedly

responded, "I'm glad to hear you say that, for I don't wish to

look like any Hathorne." When Conolly speculated that

perhaps this was the reason for the changed spelling of his

surname, Hawthorne didn't correct him (Wineapple 63).

Scholars generally assume that Hawthorne changed his name

in an attempt to distance himself from the unrepentant cruelties

of his forebears. He implies this reasoning when he said, "I,

the present writer, as their representative, hereby take shame

upon myself for their sakes, and pray that any curse incurred

by them… may be now and henceforth removed" (Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter 10). Although five generations separated

Nathaniel Hawthorne from the family patriarch, he still clearly

felt the connection of blood.

According to Hawthorne scholar Brenda Wineapple,

Nathaniel had a lifelong habit of genealogical and historical

research into Salem and its inhabitants. He reportedly read old

documents, public records, travel books, biographies, poetry,

as well as “great gobs of history” (Wineapple 61). His

mother's side of the family, the Mannings, were also a family

of enduring lineage in the community, but without the

ancestors of such wide renown as the Hathornes. The

Manning patriarch, Richard Manning, was a blacksmith by

trade, who eventually established a stagecoach between Salem

and Boston (Miller, E.H. 28). It was a prosperous profession,

if not a prestigious one. By the time Nathaniel's father, also

32

named Nathaniel, married Betsy Manning, the Manning family

had become relatively prosperous in Salem, owning properties

and businesses in town (Wineapple 18).

In contrast to the grand achievements of the first

Hathorne forebears, the grandsons of William and John

Hathorne became sailors of little renown. According to

Nathaniel Hawthorne, the succeeding generations of Hathornes

"subsisted… in respectability; never, so far as I have known,

disgraced by a single unworthy member; but seldom or never,

on the other hand, after the first two generations, performing

any memorable deed, or so much as putting forward a claim to

public notice" (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 11). By this, we

see the Hathorne line as a family renowned in its founding, but

unremarkable in its lineage. Hawthorne's father, Nathaniel

Hathorne Sr., was a captain who made a meager living at sea,

and died when his son Nathaniel was only four, leaving his

mother in debt. Left without a father, Hawthorne was left with

the cold comfort of his family legacy.

After the death of her husband, Betsy Manning

Hathorne and her children were taken in by her family, the

Mannings, to live (Martin 17). Nathaniel Hawthorne was

raised in the Manning household, and it was his uncle, Robert

Manning, who ultimately undertook the care and management

of his nephew (Miller, E.H. 29). Uncle Robert gave

Nathaniel a job as a bookkeeper when he was a teenager, but

Nathaniel didn't seem to appreciate this opportunity. In a letter

to his mother, Nathaniel proclaimed, "No man can be a Poet

and a Bookkeeper at the same time" (Martin 17). In spite of

this close connection to his mother's side of the family,

Nathaniel Hawthorne underplayed his connection with them,

33

and focused his imagination on his Hathorne relatives.

Although the Mannings provided his direct, material support

during his upbringing, it was his Hathorne patrimony that

inspired an abiding interest in Nathaniel. According to

Wineapple, "if he didn't much like his father's side of the

family - reputedly he told a friend he wanted no connection to

them - he begrudgingly admired their self-regarding vanity, so

different from the secular strivings of blacksmiths and

bookkeepers" (Wineapple 60).

According to Hawthorne biographer Edwin Haviland

Miller, “Hawthorne had almost nothing to say about the

Mannings in letters or other writings.” In spite of the fact that

the Mannings took him in as a fatherless child, sheltered and

supported him, his mother and siblings, Hawthorne seems to

completely ignore his mother‟s side of the family in the large

body of work he left behind. Considering how utterly

absorbed Hawthorne was in his personal ancestral history, this

seems a bit unusual. But as Miller said, “Silence, however, can

also speak” (Miller, E.H. 29-30). For someone who is so

interested in family history, why might Hawthorne be silent

about the Mannings?

One possible answer might lie in the Manning history.

Like the Hathorne‟s participation in the Salem Witch Trials,

the Mannings also had a shameful episode in their past.

Theirs, however, bears the unbearable weight of an

unbreakable cultural taboo: incest. According to E.H. Miller,

some time in the late 17th

century, the time period of particular

interest to Hawthorne, two Manning sisters were accused of

having “carnal relations” with their brother, Captain Nicholas

Manning. According to court records, they were forced to sit

34

“in the meeting house with a paper upon each of their heads,

written in Capital Letters, „This is for whorish carriage with

my naturall Brother‟” (Miller, E.H. 35). With all of Nathaniel

Hawthorne‟s well known interest in familial and local history,

he would most certainly have known about this ancient scandal

in his family‟s past. The fact that his written record remains

silent in regard to the Manning side of his family leaves open

the doorway to speculation. Hawthorne seems willing to

confront the shame of his Hathorne ancestors, and even take it

upon himself in an effort to expiate it. Why is he silent about

the other half of his heritage?

Several scholars have suggested that perhaps

Hawthorne‟s silence on the subject reflects a secret guilt and

shame of his own. His upbringing within the Manning

household caused him to form close relationships with his

siblings, particularly his older sister Elizabeth, affectionately

known as Ebe. E.H. Miller indicates that "Hawthorne‟s ties to

his sisters were close, perhaps too close for the emotional well-

being of all concerned” (Miller, E.H. 33). Hawthorne scholars

have been unable to find any hard evidence that an incestuous

relationship existed, however, some scholars have suggested

that The Scarlet Letter and some of his other stories hint

toward this conclusion (Stade xviii). Herman Melville, a friend

of Hawthorne‟s, once said that he knew of Hawthorne‟s

“secret.” A number of commentators have suspected that this

“secret” could be an incestuous relationship between

Hawthorne and Ebe. This theory could help to understand

many of Hawthorne‟s tales. Guilt and secret sin are certainly

dominant themes through much of Hawthorne‟s writing,

35

although there is no certain proof that the intensity of these

depictions was based on any actual incestuous events.

His filial connections and abiding personal interest in

his ancestral past emerged frequently in the writings of

Nathaniel Hawthorne. His own sister, Ebe, identified "the

Puritan instinct that was in him" (Wineapple 61). Without

question, Nathaniel Hawthorne, by both accident of birth and

driving personal interest, linked himself to the Puritan standard

by both affirming and rejecting it. As such, Hawthorne

embodies the conflicted notion of an emerging American

identity. He simultaneously embraces and rejects his Puritan

heritage, and plays out his irreconcilable emotions in the arena

of his literature.

An Emerging American Literary Tradition

When Hawthorne completed The Scarlet Letter in

1850, he had already established himself as a writer (Martin

15). His career can be traced back to his teen years, when he

began sharing occasional pieces of poetry with his beloved

sister, Ebe. As early as thirteen years old, Nathaniel

Hawthorne was writing poetry (Wineapple 31). An injury to

his foot kept him house-bound for two years, where he was

tutored by Joseph Worcester, who later became a famous

lexicographer. It was during this period of relative inactivity

that young Nathaniel developed his love for literature

(Wineapple 27). According to Wineapple, young Nathaniel

was "a voracious reader… [consuming] Walter Scott, Ann

Radcliffe, the Arabian Nights, Tobias Smollett, William

Godwin, Rousseau's La Nouvelle Heloise, the poet James

36

Greenland, Samuel Johnson, James Hogg, Oliver Goldsmith,

Byron, Southey, Burns, and Henry Fielding, his taste running

to Gothicism, poetry, and social comment" (Wineapple 40).

With these literary influences shaping him, he was sent

to Bowdoin college in Maine in 1821 (Martin 11). While

there, he befriended a group of intellectuals who would have a

lingering influence on his life. One of his professors was

Thomas C. Upham, who published a collection of poems in

1819 in which he called for a national literature (Wineapple

63-64). This would have been a call that Nathaniel Hawthorne

was well suited to hear and respond to. His family history tied

him to this new nation. It's not surprising that Hawthorne

would actively seek to become a national voice. His college

years provided a rich environment for him to develop his craft.

In addition to receiving a very formal Calvinist education, he

was also surrounded by the brightest young intellectuals of his

age. While at Bowdoin, he formed lifelong friendships with

people who would become famous in their own rights,

including future U.S. President Franklin Pierce and writer

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Stade ix).

He self-published his first novel in 1828, just three

years after graduating from Bowdoin College. Titled

Fanshawe: A Tale, it did not achieve the acclaim he sought,

and he later attempted to destroy all existing copies.

According to Wineapple, Fanshawe reportedly "mortified"

him. "Not three years after its publication, Hawthorne wanted

to expunge it from his past" (Wineapple 78). Hawthorne was

reportedly his own worst critic, and rarely expressed public

satisfaction with his work. By his own accounts, he routinely

37

and readily burned old manuscripts or works that he felt were

flawed.

Nonetheless, Hawthorne's reputation grew slowly but

surely. There was not a clearly defined market for American

literature at that point, and lacking copyright laws to protect

intellectual property, both writers and publishers took financial

risks in presenting original work to the public. In spite of his

self-judged failure of Fanshawe, he persevered in his pursuit of

a literary career. He sent a few of his short stories to a

publisher, Samuel Griswold Goodrich. Goodrich recalled

Hawthorne as "unsettled as to his views; he had tried his hand

in literature, and considered himself to have met with a fatal

rebuff from the reading world" (Wineapple 74). In spite of

Hawthorne's personal sense of discouragement as a writer, his

persistence paid off. His earliest stories, "Provincial Tales" and

"Seven Tales of My Native Land," were published

anonymously in 1830, beginning a long and eventful career

(Stade ix).

That Hawthorne initially began his publishing career

anonymously speaks to his conflicted desire to both assert

himself into the public arena, as well as his contrary desire to

remain private. On the one hand, he seemed to wish to revive

the honor of his patrimony, and yet his "Puritan instinct"

seemed to keep him from fully asserting his right to pursue

such a career. Wineapple concludes that "if Goodrich was able

to capitalize on Hawthorne's obscurity, Hawthorne acceded to

the arrangement, as if afraid of the recognition he desperately

sought" (Wineapple 77).

38

The Transcendentalist Movement

In 1936, Ralph Waldo Emerson published his ground-

breaking essay "Nature," ushering in the transcendentalist

movement (Stade x). According to Dr. Donna Campbell, a

professor at Washington State University, "American

transcendentalism was an important movement in philosophy

and literature that flourished during the early to middle years of

the nineteenth century (about 1836-1860). It began as a reform

movement in the Unitarian church, extending the views of

William Ellery Channing on an indwelling God and the

significance of intuitive thought. For the transcendentalists,

the soul of each individual is identical with the soul of the

world and contains what the world contains" (Campbell

"American Transcendentalism").

In 1941, George Ripley, a Unitarian Minister and

proponent of transcendentalism founded Brook Farm, a

cooperative living community in West Roxbury, Massachusetts

(Stade x). The goal was to create a utopian community much

like the early Puritans had hoped to achieve. According to

Hawthorne scholar Edwin Haviland Miller, the Brook Farm

founders were “pilgrims.” He describes the goals of the

community as follows: “They planned a return to a simple

agrarian life and to simple Christian principles, on the

assumption that an agricultural society and plain religious

virtues could be summoned at will. Imbued with nineteenth-

century, and particularly American, faith in the wonders of

education, they expected to inculcate among youth their ideals

and their dissatisfaction with a money-oriented, industrialized

society” (Miller, E.H. 187). Brook Farm was built on the

ideals of individuality and personal spirituality that was

39

initially inspired by Emerson. As Ripley explained to

Emerson, “Thought would preside over the operations of

labor… We should have industry without drudgery, and true

equality without vulgarity.” According to Wineapple, “The

Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education, as the

community would formally be called, eschewed rank, status,

privilege, and formal attire. It welcomed everyone, farmers,

mechanics, writers, and preachers… and whose children…

could be educated in the community school” (Wineapple 144).

Although always a man of modest means, Hawthorne

invested in Brook Farm, and moved there in 1841. Shortly

after his arrival, he wrote to his sister, Louisa, that “he was

transformed into a complete farmer.” According to Terence

Martin, Hawthorne biographer, he had “loaded manure carts,

planted potatoes and peas, and milked cows.” Hawthorne

continued, “The whole fraternity [of the farm] eat together; and

such a delectable way of life has never been seen on earth since

the days of the early Christians” (Martin 29). This quote is

perhaps revealing of Hawthorne‟s attitudes toward the

Puritans – he apparently saw something about them and their

way of life as “delectable.” Romantic idealism, however, soon

gave way to sweaty disenchantment and he left Brook Farm

after only seven months.

Although he stayed at Brook Farm for less than a year,

his participation in such an idealistic enterprise helped to both

shape and reveal his core values. Hawthorne is described as a

private and often secretive author, but his participation in

Brook Farm shows that he tended toward idealism and saw

hope for cooperative achievement toward a lofty goal.

According to Wineapple, “the whole idea [of Brook Farm] had

40

the ring of… democracy, embracing the essential equality of

all humanity. Such had been Hawthorne‟s politics since

college” (Wineapple 147). By lending his name and financial

support to such a venture, he helped reinforce the legitimacy of

the group‟s goals and purposes, thus furthering the influence of

the transcendentalist movement. Following his return to

Salem, he married Sophia Peabody in 1842 and moved into the

Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, the house where

Emerson had written Nature just a few years prior (Martin 29).

By the time The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850,

Hawthorne had won a place for himself in the emerging field

of American literature. Herman Melville, on his way to

becoming a great American writer in his own right, publicly

praised Hawthorne, and wrote laudatory reviews that sang

Hawthorne‟s praises. Melville strongly asserted that

Hawthorne augured greatness for American literature. The

public also enjoyed his stories and novels. Many of his short

stories reveal his growth as a writer, returning again and again

to the Puritan/Rebel dichotomy that runs throughout his works.

The Scarlet Letter represents Hawthorne as a mature writer,

steady-handed in his command of the craft. Many of the

themes that he wrote about in earlier works return in this work

showcased in compelling prose to an eager audience.

Impacts of Transcendentalism

The transcendentalist movement directly challenged

many aspects of Puritan beliefs, and Hawthorne was a direct

contributor to that movement. It is perhaps significant that

Ralph Waldo Emerson, who launched the movement in

41

America with his essay “Nature,” like Hawthorne, had a

lineage in the New World equally as lengthy and prestigious as

Hawthorne‟s. Emerson‟s first ancestor in the colonies was an

immigrant named Thomas Emerson who settled in Ipswich,

Massachusetts as early as 1640 (Ralph Waldo Emerson

Society). He became the progenitor of a family filled with a

long line of ministers and learned men. In fact, in the

Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Paul

More describes Emerson‟s family as follows: “… many other

ministerial ancestors‟ stories abound which show how deeply

implanted in this stock was the pride of rebellion against

traditional forms and institutions, united with a determination

to force all mankind to worship God in the spirit.” In this

regard, Emerson and Hawthorne had a lot in common. Both

were New England gentlemen who had lost their fathers early

in life, and had to struggle with their ancestral heritage in order

to define their own individual sense of identity. It‟s little

wonder that Hawthorne and Emerson became friends.

Emerson first chose to follow in the family profession,

and his early calling was as a Unitarian minister. However, he

eventually left the ministry to pursue a career in writing and

public speaking (Lewis). It is from this tumultuous religious

background that “Nature” was produced. The major thesis of

“Nature” was, in Emerson‟s words, that we should now “enjoy

an original relation to the universe,” and not become dependent

on holy books, creeds, and dogmas (Reuben “Ralph Waldo

Emerson”). In this light, it‟s easy to see how the

transcendentalist movement was both a response to and a

reaction against the prevailing puritanical values of the time.

42

Although Emerson began the transcendentalist

movement, other writers contributed to the movement as well.

Henry David Thoreau was also an influential participant in the

movement, producing such famous works as Walden, a

masterwork that details his two year experiment of living close

to nature at Walden Pond (Reuben “Henry David Thoreau”).

For a time, Emerson and Thoreau even lived with one another.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a neighbor and a friend to both men.

Hawthorne said of Thoreau, “[He] is a keen and delicate

observer of nature… and Nature, in return for his love, seems

to adopt him as her special child, and shows him secrets which

few others are allowed to witness” (Miller, E.H. 216).

According to the ideals of transcendentalism, rigid

dogma was replaced by personal revelation. Strict social

conformity was replaced by harmonious social cooperation.

An unforgiving and judgmental God was replaced by

immanent, indwelling divinity displayed throughout all of

creation. In order to embrace the ideals of transcendentalism,

Puritan values needed to be examined and explored.

For Hawthorne, this movement seemed to serve to

deepen his internal conflicts and moral ambiguities. While

strict Puritan values were part of a heritage he valued, his

involvement in transcendentalism directly defied many of

those core beliefs. Like his experience at Brook Farm, these

alternative values initially seemed attractive, but ultimately

Hawthorne couldn‟t entirely embrace them.

43

Puritan or Rebel?

For Nathaniel Hawthorne, the answer to this question is

elusive and ambiguous. Throughout his literature, he both

embraces and rejects his Puritan heritage. Through this

struggle however, it can be seen that he has clearly internalized

many of the beliefs and values espoused by the Puritans. And

yet, by those same standards, he is an unworthy sinner, a state

that he earnestly attempts to reject. He accepts its judgment

while rebelling against its conclusions. He is a rebel guilt-

ridden by his rebellion.

Salvation appears to be out of reach for Hawthorne, and

his writing can be seen as a struggle to accept his sinful status.

He wants the promise of Heaven, but can‟t have it by his own

internalized Puritan standards. By those standards, he sees

himself as sin-stained. Hints to the nature of his secret sin

might be discerned through his stories. Scholarship might

never reveal the truth about what secret sins plagued his guilty

heart, but much of Hawthorne‟s writing center on these

themes.

Since the Puritan view of predestination offers no

method of washing away sin, Hawthorne inevitably sees

himself as doomed to hell. This unpalatable view forces him to

reject key Puritan values, placing him in the Rebel category.

However, the more he rebels against the strict Puritan mores,

the more he confirms his own damned status. Hawthorne

cannot reconcile these opposed positions. He both accepts and

rejects his sinful rebel status, leading to a life of unresolved

ambiguity.

These intertwined themes of sin, shame, rebellion, and

guilt are woven throughout Hawthorne‟s work. He‟s a sinner

44

and doesn‟t want to be, but apparently can‟t help it. He wants

a salvation he apparently feels is out of reach. He compares

himself continually to his Puritan ancestors; He knows that he

doesn‟t measure up to his Hathorne forebears, and yet doesn‟t

want to. By his works, we can see Nathaniel Hawthorne as an

unwilling rebel as he seeks a path through the dark and

perilous wilderness of moral ambiguity, seeking an elusive

salvation that he fears is forever out of his reach.

45

The Custom House

At the height of his literary career, Nathaniel

Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter, a work of literature that

received critical acclaim at the time, and continues to be read

and enjoyed by succeeding generations. If Hawthorne spent his

life in a conflicted relationship with his Puritan forebears, it is

in The Scarlet Letter where that relationship can be explicated.

According to Arlin Turner, former professor emeritus

of American Literature at Duke University, “in The Scarlet

Letter, Hawthorne turned back to the age of his first American

ancestor for a historical background against which to display a

tragic drama of guilt – revealed and concealed, real and

imagined – and its effects on those touched by the guilt… The

substance of the book is moral, religious, theological; the

characters confront questions endemic to the Puritan

community at Boston in the middle of the seventeenth century.

This substance is not at issue; it is given and is accepted by the

author and by his characters. What is at issue includes

primarily the psychological effects produced in the characters

by the background and the situation as given” (Turner).

From the very beginning of its composition, it seems as

though Hawthorne intended The Scarlet Letter to be an

exploration of Puritan values. He begins the novel with a

sketch called “The Custom House,” which at first glance might

seem only tangentially related to the rest of the novel.

However, the autobiographical nature of the Custom House

sketch explains a lot about Hawthorne and what motivated him

during this formative period of American literature.

46

At the first mention of the town of Salem,

Massachusetts, he claims it as his native place. However, his

relationship with his home town is not an agreeable one for

Hawthorne. He says, “And yet, though invariably happiest

elsewhere, there is within me a feeling for old Salem, which…

I must be content to call affection.” He attributes this feeling

to the “deep and aged roots which my family has struck into

the soil” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 9). It is from this

position of an insider then that he prepares to tell the story that

is set in this town in its first years after its establishment. That

Hawthorne feels a connection to his hometown is clear. He has

been steeped in its history since childhood. It is upon those

foundations that he builds his story.

While his description of life in the Custom House

where he worked for three years before losing his post in a

political change of power is meant to be satirical, it also serves

to reveal the lingering influence of his puritanical heritage.

Hawthorne‟s attitudes towards women seem tainted with the

spectre of witchcraft, a view that is sustained as a subtle

undercurrent throughout the novel. When describing the

interior of the Custom House, he says, “It is easy to

conclude… that this is a sanctuary into which womankind,

with her tools of magic, the broom and mop, has very

infrequent access” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 8). For

Hawthorne at least, womankind and magic are linked. Shortly

thereafter, he continues the witchcraft allusion by stating the

“besom of reform has swept him out of office” (Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter 9). A besom is a rough broom, a standard

implement of witchcraft according to the Puritan superstitions

of the seventeenth century when the novel takes place.

47

Intended or not, he is suggesting that perhaps it was a touch of

black magic that contributed to his loss of position as Surveyor

of the Custom House.

As though witchcraft and his Puritan forebears were

closely related in his mind, Hawthorne returns to the subject of

his ancestry. He speaks of his first ancestor, William

Hathorne, as one “who came so early, with his Bible and his

sword, and trode the unworn street with a stately port, and

made so large a figure, as a man of war and peace… he had all

the Puritanic traits, both good and evil.” This contradictory

description aptly describes the conflicted feelings about him

that Hawthorne apparently struggled to come to terms with.

He can neither wholly embrace nor condemn the Puritan values

of his ancestors.

He describes William Hathorne as “a bitter persecutor;

as witness the Quakers, who have remembered him in their

histories, and relate an incident of his hard severity toward a

woman of their sect, which will last longer, it is to be feared,

than any record of his better deeds, although these were many”

(Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 10). Hawthorne reportedly told

this story of the Quaker woman, Ann Coleman, who was

flogged and driven into the forest, many times, including the

historical atrocity in a short story titled “Main Street”

(Wineapple 199). These were the types of events from his

personal family history that haunted him. Through these

anecdotes, we can see Hawthorne struggling to come to terms

with his heritage. His commentary in the Custom House

sketch shows that he has grudging and conflicted admiration

for a man whose actions he simultaneously admires and rejects.

48

After raising the spectre of his first ancestor,

Hawthorne brings his reader swiftly to his next, John Hathorne,

renowned for his cruel persecution of people accused of

witchcraft in Salem and the surrounding towns. He writes,

“His son, too, inherited the persecuting spirit, and made

himself so conspicuous in the martyrdom of the witches, that

their blood may fairly be said to have left a stain upon him”

(Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 10). It‟s clear by this that

Hawthorne rejects the actions of this famous relative.

Although the modern Hawthorne still retains an almost

instinctive puritanical suspicion against women, he clearly

disapproves of the persecution suffered at the hands of his

ancestor. “I know not whether these ancestors of mine

bethought themselves to repent, and ask pardon of Heaven for

their cruelties; or whether they are now groaning under the

heavy consequences of them, in another state of being.” It is

curious that Hawthorne does not make a direct reference to

hell, the natural location of damnation to a Calvinist. He refers

to hell without naming it as such. In this curious phrasing, we

perhaps see a glimpse of the transcendentalist in him, obliquely

rejecting the religious dogma of his forebears.

Nonetheless, Puritan Salem continues to wrap

Hawthorne in its magical charms. In spite of his conflicted

feelings about his forebears and the place of his birth, “It is no

matter that the place is joyless for him… the spell survives, and

just as powerfully as if the natal spot were an earthly paradise.”

Hawthorne continues to be focused on the place of his family

inheritance, with all of the conflicted feelings unresolved. He

can‟t seem to help himself. For Hawthorne, it is “as if Salem

were for me the inevitable centre [sic] of the universe”

49

(Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 12). The Scarlet Letter, set in

Salem, is the perfect stage for Hawthorne to explore issues that

are both old history and personally relevant.

50

“The Haunted Mind”

For someone who feels the need to apologize for the

“autobiographical impulse,” Hawthorne‟s “Custom House”

introduction to The Scarlet Letter is only one of many places

where he inserts himself directly into a narrative. In many

ways, all of his stories can be seen as a personal struggle of a

man who is attempting to come to terms with unresolved

conflicts and moral ambiguities. Nowhere is this seen more

clearly and directly than in the brief sketch titled “The Haunted

Mind.” This sketch is told entirely as a first person narrative.

If it is not meant to be autobiographical, Hawthorne gives no

hint to contradict it. In this sketch, he speaks of waking up in

the middle of the night, and the strange thoughts that come to

him at such a time. In this quiet hour “with the mind‟s eye half

shut,” he is able to look at things that could not otherwise be

faced in the harsh light of day. In this context, Hawthorne

tentatively begins to explore a major theme that runs through

much of his work: secret sin and the guilt that accrues to it.

He says that “in the depths of every heart there is a

tomb and a dungeon, though the light, the music, and revelry

above may cause us to forget their existence, and the buried

ones, or prisoners whom they hide.” What lies hidden,

entombed and imprisoned, in Hawthorne‟s heart? He asserts

that it is at this dark hour that “these dark receptacles are flung

wide open,” and “A funeral train comes gliding by your bed, in

which Passion and Feeling assume bodily shape.” Is the

passion and feeling that burn within Hawthorne‟s “dark

receptacle” his sister, Ebe? This seems likely, for in this

51

procession, the first vision that arises to greet him is also his

“earliest Sorrow, a pale young mourner, wearing a sister‟s

likeness to first love, sadly beautiful, with a hallowed

sweetness in her melancholy features, and grace in the flow of

her sable robe.”

Replacing the vision of his sister in his mind‟s eye is

another woman of “ruined loveliness.” He describes her as

“faded and defaced.” He describes this vision by saying, “She

was your fondest Hope, but a delusive one; so call her

Disappointment now.” Could this refer to his wife, Sophia?

This disappointment in love certainly describes a common

experience of many married people. Although Hawthorne

occasionally described Sophia as his “savior,” what was she

supposed to be saving him from? Is it possible that Nathaniel

married her in the hope that she would save him from the

guilty longings of his haunted mind? If “Disappointment”

refers to his wife, we might conclude that she was unsuccessful

in helping Hawthorne‟s “earliest sorrow.”

Next, Hawthorne‟s haunted mind returns to his Puritan

ancestors. “A sterner form succeeds, with a brow of wrinkles,

a look and gesture of iron authority; there is no name for him

unless it be Fatality, an emblem of the evil influence that rules

your fortunes; a demon to whom you subjected yourself by

some error at the outset of life, and were bound his slave

forever, by once obeying him.” This brief passage sums up a

wealth of conflicted emotions that Hawthorne bore to his

Hathorne forebears. This stern presence looms over him and

seemingly damns him at birth by the virtue of his heritage.

And if there were any lingering doubt as to the impact that

Puritan heritage had on Hawthorne, he completes his

52

description of this third vision by exclaiming, “See! Those

fiendish lineaments graven on the darkness, the writhed lip of

scorn, the mockery of that living eye, the pointed finger,

touching the sore place in your heart!” Hawthorne seems to

feel the perpetual judgment of these stern, unforgiving

ancestors. They point their accusing fingers at a sore place in

Hawthorne‟s heart.

Is this sore place the “secret” that Melville claimed to

know? It seems clear that Hawthorne is describing some secret

guilt that would be scorned and reviled by his Puritan

ancestors. Hawthorne concludes his reverie of this grim visage

by saying “Do you remember any act of enormous folly, at

which you would blush, even in the remotest cavern of the

earth? Then recognize your Shame.” Did Hawthorne commit

an act of “enormous folly?” His shame and guilt are

abundantly clear, and it seems at least possible that his secret

sin focuses on the first thing on his mind, “wearing a sister‟s

likeness to first love.”

Observing these night-induced visions, he begs for the

“wretched band” to pass him by. He declaims that while

awake, he is riotously miserable, but that worse still would be

if he were surrounded by an even “fiercer tribe,” being “the

devils of a guilty heart, that holds hell within itself.” He is

tortured by demons of guilt. His imagination further develops

this horror, “What if the fiend should come in woman‟s

garments, with a pale beauty amid sin and desolation, and lie

down by your side?” What dwells in Hawthorne‟s

imagination? Is he referring to the same “pale young mourner”

who wears a sister‟s likeness? Could Hawthorne really be

alluding to a nighttime fantasy of lying beside his sister? He

53

concludes this line of thought by saying, “Sufficient without

such guilt is this nightmare of the soul; this heavy, heavy

sinking of the spirits; this wintry gloom about the heart; this

indistinct horror of the mind.” Hawthorne is describing a

haunted mind, indeed. By the end of this sketch, Hawthorne

comes to no conclusions or resolutions about the thoughts that

haunt him. His thoughts continue to tumble about until sleep

claims him once again. Whether or not we may conclude that

Hawthorne‟s “secret” relates to an incestuous yearning toward

his sister, by this sketch we can at least catch a glimpse of his

inmost thoughts to find the origins of the themes of guilt,

shame, and secret sin that are woven throughout his writing.

54

“The Maypole of Merry Mount”

In “The Maypole of Merry Mount,” Hawthorne reaches

into his reservoir of local history to construct an allegory that

contrasts the harsh beliefs and values of the Puritans with the

more socially liberal values of other settlers to the new world.

Hawthorne introduces this story by saying, “In the slight sketch

here attempted, the facts, recorded on the grave pages of our

New England annalists, have wrought themselves, almost

spontaneously, into a sort of allegory” (Hawthorne Complete

Short Stories 40). Almost spontaneously. Hawthorne,

thoroughly familiar with local histories, altered several

historical details in order to better craft a story that paints a

stark dichotomy between Puritan and Rebel.

The sketch relates an early conflict between the

founders of Mount Wollaston, also known as Merry Mount,

and the Puritan founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Although Hawthorne leaves the bones of the historical event

intact, he simplifies, alters, or suppresses details in order to

highlight the oppositions these groups represent. Yet

Hawthorne‟s point of view is not simplified; it seems

conflicted in the retelling. He appears to be simultaneously

sympathetic and critical to both sides of the conflict. This

attitude underscores many of the ambiguities that pervade all

of Hawthorne‟s work. “The Maypole of Merry Mount” is

thereby a good example of Hawthorne‟s ongoing internal

conflicts as he tries to reconcile himself to his Puritan

ancestors.

55

According to the explanatory notes in Brian Harding‟s

1987 edition of Young Goodman Brown and Other Tales,

Mount Wollaston was originally a trading post established in

1623. In 1625, the leadership of the post was taken up by

Thomas Morton, who renamed it Merry Mount and “turned the

settlement into a morally dissolute community” (354). The

inhabitants of Merry Mount were not members of the Puritan

congregation, and by all accounts, followed the customs and

community folk traditions brought with them from England.

These traditions included a community Maypole which was

elaborately decorated as the centerpiece of celebrations, and

around which the settlement would drink, dance, and make

merry. These community celebrations flew in the face of the

dour restraint imposed by the Puritans, and the two

communities were bound to clash. The ensuing conflict is

recreated in “The Maypole of Merry Mount.”

The story opens joyfully. “Bright were the days at

Merry Mount, when the Maypole was the banner staff of that

gay colony!” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 40)

Hawthorne immediately establishes an upbeat mood of the

happiness of a bygone era. He then expresses the great hope

that the Maypole represented in the new world; “They who

reared it, should their banner be triumphant, were to pour

sunshine over New England‟s rugged hills, and scatter flower

seeds throughout the soil” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories

40). In this opening passage, Hawthorne is trying to present

the community of Merry Mount as a stark contrast and

alternative history to the Puritans. Should their community at

Merry Mount be successful, rough New England would be

covered in sunshine and blooms. Merry Mount is held out as a

56

bright and beautiful hope of what might have been. To make

the stakes in this conflict perfectly clear, Hawthorne then

asserts, “Jollity and gloom were contending for an empire”

(Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 40). Later in the story he

again proclaims, “The future complexion of New England was

involved in this important quarrel” (Hawthorne Complete

Short Stories 44). This is the same stage on which Hawthorne

attempts to explore his own conflicts and ambiguities.

It is Midsummer Eve, and the Maypole is “gayly

decked” with a silken banner of rainbow hues. Green boughs,

garlands of flowers and a wreath of roses bedeck the pole

(Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 40). Members of the

community gather around wearing fanciful costumes and

masks, including “an English priest, canonically dressed, yet

decked with flowers, in heathen fashion” (Hawthorne

Complete Short Stories 41). By this, Hawthorne is describing

an Anglican minister, reviled by the Puritans for their “popery”

and fancy garb. For a priest to be further adorned with flowers

would seem excessively sinful to the Puritan onlookers espying

the scene around the Maypole from the surrounding forest.

At first, Hawthorne seems sympathetic to the

inhabitants of Merry Mount. “In their train were minstrels,…

wandering players,… mummers, rope-dancers, and mounte-

banks.” They are genially described as a “giddy tribe [of]

mirth-makers” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 43). As

Hawthorne reveals in the “Custom House” sketch, he would fit

right in. He is keenly aware that his chosen profession is

disgraceful in the eyes of his Puritan forebears. Describing his

profession from the Puritan perspective as a “writer of story-

books,” Hawthorne would likely relate to and sympathize with

57

these settlers (Hawthorne Scarlet Letter 11). In describing the

professions of the settlers at Merry Mount, Hawthorne is

definitely placing himself in league with the “Maypole

worshippers.” To emphasize this connection, he initially

describes the inhabitants of Merry Mount in favorable terms,

calling them a “gay colony… [with] lightsome hearts,” and

“people of the Golden Age” (Hawthorne Complete Short

Stories 40). The revelers are dressed in outlandish costumes

and elaborate masks, ranging from wild beasts to foolscap-

festooned jesters wearing bells. Like the youthful Hawthorne

professed to be, the inhabitants of Merry Mount are “sworn

triflers of a lifetime” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 43).

Within this ring of revelers encircling the Maypole

appeared “the two airiest forms that had ever trodden on any

more solid footing than a purple and golden cloud”

(Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 41). They were the Lord

and Lady of the May, and the community was gathered around

them to witness and celebrate their marriage. The priest sums

up the community event when he proclaims, “Up with your

nimble spirits, ye morris-dancers, green men, and glee

maidens, bears and wolves, and horned gentlemen! Come; a

chorus now, rich with the old mirth of Merry England, and the

wilder glee of this fresh forest; and then a dance, to show the

youthful pair what life is made of, and how airily they should

go through it!” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 41) The

community of Merry Mount is gathered for a festive

celebration of great joy, indeed!

However, into this celebration of youth and love,

Hawthorne inserts the warning knell of puritanical damnation.

To the secretly watching Puritans, the revelers were seen as

58

“devils and ruined souls.” All is not well with the watching

Puritans, either. Hawthorne first describes these grim voyeurs

as “superstitious… dismal wretches… grim [and] burdened.”

They are the “hostile party.” The contrast painted by

Hawthorne between the “gay colony” and the Puritans is stark.

With the stage thus set, Hawthorne has the Puritans

rush from the forest to break up the celebration. With the

inebriated revelers unable to defend themselves, they are

quickly overcome by the stern and unforgiving Puritans. At

this point, Hawthorne‟s descriptions of the two groups begin to

shift. The inhabitants of Merry Mount are now described less

favorably as “gay sinners,” signaling a shift toward the Puritan

perspective. Hawthorne‟s favorable description of the Merry

Mounters deteriorates rapily. Soon, they are, “Sworn triflers of

a lifetime, they would not venture among the sober truths of

life not even to be truly blest” (Hawthorne Complete Short

Stories 43). Hawthorne‟s conflicted attitude begins to be

revealed. Although he relates to these “triflers,” he feels that

they are incapable of the “sober truths” that lead to salvation.

We can also see this shift of perspective in how the

Puritans are described. They become “grizzly saints,” moving

toward a more favorable description than heretofore offered.

The leader of the Puritans is then described more favorably as

well; “So stern was the energy of his aspect, that the whole

man, visage, frame and soul, seemed wrought of iron, gifted

with life and thought, yet all of one substance with his

headpiece and breastplate” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories

44). If strength and power are to be admired, then Hawthorne

clearly has at least grudging admiration for the Puritans.

59

Hawthorne alters historical fact slightly to place John

Endicott, a well-known Puritan leader, at the scene of these

events. Hawthorne likely did this to emphasize the allegorical

nature of this historical event. Hawthorne didn‟t want just any

Puritan to chop down the venerated Maypole; he chose a figure

who could represent all the authority possessed by the Puritans

of that area. Hawthorne‟s Endicott strides forth into the center

of the revelry and harangues the priest and the crowd for their

sinful behavior. With his sword, he “assaulted the hallowed

Maypole” and chopped it down. The allegorical nature of this

act is underscored by the words Hawthorne next has Endicott

proclaim, “There lies the only Maypole in New England! The

thought is strong within me that, by its fall, is shadowed forth

the fate of light and idle mirth makers, amongst us and our

posterity. Amen, saith John Endicott.” In Hawthorne‟s

allegory, “this important quarrel” is settled. The Puritans have

won. The bright promise offered by the settlement of Merry

Mount was ruthlessly overrun by their Puritan neighbors.

Hawthorne, through Endicott, proclaims that the fate of “idle

mirth-makers” is set for future posterity. This is a judgement

that Hawthorne identifies for himself as an “idle” poet.

By this dynamic conflict, we can see the allegorical

point Hawthorne is trying to make. Early in the history of the

settlement of this country, there were two possible courses to

take: the Puritan mission of creating a “city on a hill,” to

conquer the evil dwelling within the wilderness, to be the

shining example of strict religious purity espoused by Calvinist

doctrine; or to set up a dwelling place within the wilderness, to

embrace revelry and celebration as the rightful heritage of

60

English tradition and custom. Was this to be the land of the

Puritans, or the land of the free?

As Endicott says, “woe to the wretch that troubleth our

religion!” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 45) Woe

indeed. The wedding guests and revelers, now finally

described as “bestial pagans,” were ordered tied to pine trees

and whipped. The Priest was arrested and ordered to appear

before the Puritan‟s General Court, and the Lord and Lady of

May were singled out for special attention. They were stripped

of their wedding garb and forcibly absorbed into the Puritan

community. There, after a lifetime of “supporting each other

along the difficult path which it was their lot to tread… they

went heavenward.” By conforming to the Puritan standard, the

Lord and Lady of May were able to successfully join the

Puritan community, but it was a difficult path stripped of all of

their previous joy. As Hawthorne concludes, “As the moral

gloom of the world overpowers all systematic gayety, even so

was their home of wild mirth made desolate amid the sad

forest.” The price of their happiness was high. In the end, they

had each other and their love, but their marriage was

enwreathed in puritanical gloom rather than the roses of merry

joy.

These themes run throughout Hawthorne‟s life. He

yearns toward a life and a profession that would be harshly

judged by his own internalized family standards. He wishes

for an ideal society which he simultaneously scorns as being a

“wild philosophy of pleasure… [the] latest daydream”

(Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 43). He glorifies the

traditions of revelry displayed in Merry Mount, while

portraying the Puritans who destroyed this settlement with a

61

sympathetic touch for their strength of character. It seems as

though Hawthorne yearns for the hope of salvation offered by

the Puritans, even while remaining doubtful that he can achieve

their standard, or even wants to attain it.

62

“The Minister’s Black Veil”

In seeking to understand the conflicted motivations of

Nathaniel Hawthorne, it‟s important to recall an important

tenet of the Puritan faith he was raised to honor. The Calvinist

belief in predestination meant that there was no absolution or

forgiveness for sin. While good deeds might not buy a

person‟s way into heaven, sinful behavior was a sure sign that

a person was destined for hell. Sin, shame, and guilt all arise

naturally from this belief and are recurring themes in

Hawthorne‟s work. Hawthorne alludes to his “guilty heart” in

“The Haunted Mind.” But nowhere is the theme of secret sin

and a guilty heart so clearly seen than in “The Minister‟s Black

Veil.”

Hawthorne subtitles this story, “A Parable” in order to

clearly indicate to his reader that he seeks to tell another

allegorical tale which will reveal some sort of moral truth. Just

as in “The Maypole of Merry Mount,” Hawthorne attempts to

attach a certain degree of historical authenticity to the tale in

order to anchor the parable to reality, it seems important to

Hawthorne that his characters and situations are believable,

and aren‟t dismissed by the reader as unsustainable fantasy.

Perhaps Hawthorne is likewise struggling with a secret sin

similar to the main character of this parable, making this

conflict very personal and real to him.

Before he even begins his tale, Hawthorne refers his

reader to a footnote that informs us that there was “another

clergyman in New England, Mr. Joseph Moody [who] made

himself remarkable by the same eccentricity that is here related

63

of the Reverend Mr. Hooper. In his case, however, the symbol

has a different import. In early life he had accidentally killed a

beloved friend and from that day till the hour of his own death,

he hid his face from men.” This footnote introduces the story

perfectly. By it, we are led to understand that this story centers

around a minister, the Reverend Mr. Hooper, who hides his

face from men, but his reasons for doing so are not

immediately explained nor understood. By this footnote,

Hawthorne also indicates the veil‟s status as a symbol. The

reason for the veil becomes the focus of the parable that

follows.

On an otherwise normal Sunday morning, the “good

Parson Hooper” appears at the meeting-house wearing a black

veil that entirely conceals his face. Offering no comments nor

explanation for its sudden presence, in fact, acting entirely as if

this were perfectly normal, Mr. Hooper ascends to his pulpit to

deliver his weekly sermon. The subject of the sermon “had

reference to secret sin, and those sad mysteries which we hide

from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our

own consciousness, even forgetting that the Omniscient can

detect them” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 33). By this,

Hawthorne directly establishes the symbolism of the veil – it

represents the secret sins we seek to hide from the public

world. But Hawthorne also shows the futility inherent in

attempting to hide sin – the belief in an omniscient deity can

only mean that there is no hiding from “the devils of a guilty

heart” (Hawthorne “The Haunted Mind”).

The sight of his veiled visage disturbs the parishioners,

who struggle to understand this strange behavior in their

otherwise exemplary preacher. They avoid his company after

64

the service. The gloom cast over the Parson by the veil isolates

him from his parishioners. He becomes something of a scandal

among the villagers, who speculate that perhaps he‟s gone

insane. “Something must surely be amiss with Mr. Hooper‟s

intellects,” diagnoses the physician of the village (Hawthorne

Complete Short Stories 33). His wife declares that “I would

not be alone with him for the world. I wonder he is not afraid

to be alone with himself!” Answers her husband, “Men

sometimes are so.” This exchange alludes back to the “The

Haunted Mind,” where Hawthorne wrestles with the visions

and thoughts that haunt him in the still of the night. Through

that, we might conclude that Hawthorne is also afraid to be

alone with himself. Is Hawthorne exploring aspects of himself

through the guise of the Reverend Mr. Hooper? It seems at

least a plausible speculation.

There is evidence that the veil is fraught with

significance for Mr. Hooper. He is heavily burdened by

whatever has caused him to take the veil. The mere sight of it

is enough to make Hooper react strongly. “At that instant,

catching a glimpse of his figure in the looking-glass, the black

veil involved his own spirit in the horror with which it

overwhelmed all others. His frame shuddered, his lips grew

white, he spilt the untasted wine upon the carpet, and rushed

forth into the darkness” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories

35). Clearly, the veil isn‟t merely an empty symbolic gesture

on behalf of a clergyman, but a deeply personal issue of urgent

emotional import.

Both the Parson and his parishioners labor under the

burden of the sin represented by the black veil. Whereas the

community was never before at a loss to offer advice to their

65

minister, in this situation, they were all miserably reluctant to

confront their Parson and ask him directly about his reasons for

taking the veil. In the context of the parable that Hawthorne is

attempting to paint, this reluctance is entirely understandable,

for most people are notoriously reluctant to confront the guilt

and shame that emerge from within their deepest hearts. The

fact that Reverend Hooper would choose to make his status as

a sinner public and apparent would be a confounding dilemma

to most people unaccustomed to facing the desires that lead to

sin. To them, the veil was a “symbol of a fearful secret

between him and them” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories

35).

The only person who does not initially cringe from the

black veil is Mr. Hooper‟s betrothed. She apparently sees

nothing terrible in it, and asks him directly to tell her why he

put it on. She sees his sin for what it is and does not condemn

him for it. Notably, Hawthorne gives this kindly protagonist

his sister‟s name, Elizabeth. Could Hawthorne be making a

direct reference to his own secret sinful yearnings? Does he

hope for a similar understanding from her?

When Elizabeth begs Hooper to reveal his reason for

taking the veil, Hooper indicates that he has taken a vow to

wear the veil that conceals both his face and his reason for

doing so. He responds to her plea for answers by saying,

“Elizabeth, I will, so far as my vow may suffer me. Know,

then, this veil is a type and a symbol, and I am bound to wear it

ever, both in light and darkness, in solitude and before the gaze

of multitudes, and as with strangers, so with my familiar

friends. No mortal eye will see it withdrawn. This dismal

shade must separate me from the world: even you, Elizabeth,

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can never come behind it!” Could it be that if Elizabeth were

to see what hides behind the veil, she would see a truth that

“wears a sister‟s likeness to first love?” (Hawthorne “The

Haunted Mind”)

Although he was a fairly young man when the story

opens, the Reverend Hooper is an old man when the story

finally closes. He spent the rest of his life veiled, never

revealing the full nature of the secret that caused him to put it

on. And yet, in spite of the consternation caused by the veil,

Hooper continued to find success in his vocation. “Among all

of its bad influences, the black veil had the one desirable

effect, of making its wearer a very efficient clergyman. By the

aid of his mysterious emblem… he became a man of awful

power over souls that were in agony for sin” (Hawthorne

Complete Short Stories 37). By this, we can see another more

hopeful theme that recurs often in Hawthorne‟s work: the good

that can arise from even a sinful life. The Lord and Lady of

the May both eventually managed to attain heaven, in spite of

their “sinful” start to life. Likewise, good Parson Hooper

managed to become a revered minister in spite of the obvious

signs of a guilty and sinful soul. “In this manner Mr. Hooper

spent a long life, irreproachable in outward act, yet shrouded in

dismal suspicions; kind and loving, though unloved, and dimly

feared; a man apart from men, shunned in their health and joy,

but ever summoned to their aid in mortal anguish” (Hawthorne

Complete Short Stories 38). Calvinist doctrine offers no hope

that good deeds can mitigate the damning effects of sin, but the

transcendentalist in Hawthorne possibly felt otherwise.

Perhaps Hawthorne likewise sought some form of imperfect

absolution through living a good life.

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On his deathbed, Reverend Hooper was attended by his

beloved Elizabeth, “whose calm affection had endured thus

long in secrecy, in solitude, amid the chill of age, and would

not perish.” Alas! Is this the long, fateful stretch of years that

Hawthorne foresees for himself and his beloved Ebe? Just like

“The Haunted Mind,” Hawthorne again mentions the “the

saddest of prisons, his own heart” (Hawthorne Complete Short

Stories 38). Drawing parallels between Hooper and

Hawthorne, the reader is forced to consider what secretly lurks

in the prison of Hawthorne‟s heart.

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“Alice Doane’s Appeal”

The answer to Hawthorne‟s secret might be found in

“Alice Doane‟s Appeal,” another story in which the

“autobiographical impulse” seems to get the better of Nathaniel

Hawthorne. The fictional story of Alice Doane is embedded

within an outer, autobiographical story. By this method,

Hawthorne directly inserts himself into the narrative, yet by

creating characters to perform the actions of the fictional story

line, he also separates himself from the substance of the story

at the same time. This story exemplifies his conflicted

relationship with his puritanical Hathorne forebears in many

ways, and reveals some of the consequences of living contrary

to an internalized set of Puritan values and standards.

The story begins as a first person narrative. Hawthorne

describes going for a walk with two young ladies on a pleasant

afternoon in June. Rejecting all other destinations in his native

town of Salem, he decides to lead them to Gallows Hill, the

site of the execution of the “martyrs” accused of witchcraft

during the Witch Trials of 1692. For Hawthorne, not only is

Gallows Hill a central feature of this story, but also of his own

life. He says, “I have often courted the historic influence of the

spot” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 557). For someone

with such a direct lineage to those tragic events, it‟s easy to see

why Hawthorne would continue to be drawn to this location.

His conflicted feelings about his ancestors remain a sore spot

that he returns to again and again, just like Gallows Hill.

When describing Gallows Hill, he says, “a physical

curse may be said to have blasted the spot, where guilt and

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frenzy consummated the most execrable scene that our history

blushes to record. For this was the field where superstition

won her darkest triumph; the high place where our fathers set

up their shame, to the mournful gaze of generations far

remote” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 557). Hawthorne

is harshly critical of the outcome of those events, and the

people responsible for the tragedy. Representing that remote

generation, Hawthorne‟s scorn for the actions of his ancestor,

Judge Hathorne, is clear. The curse that blasted Gallows hill

has echoes to the curse Hawthorne lays claim to in the

“Custom House” sketch when he, “the present writer, as their

representative, hereby take shame upon myself for their sakes,

and pray that any curse incurred by them… may be now and

henceforth removed” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 10). By

this we can see that Hawthorne sees the behavior of his Puritan

forebears as cursed, and that he bears the weight of that curse.

Once upon Gallows Hill, Hawthorne attempts to

connect his light-hearted companions to “all the melancholy

associations of the scene,” but only partially succeeds. Here

we can see the same stark dichotomy that was represented in

“The Maypole of Merry Mount.” Hawthorne‟s companions

are described as having the “gayety of girlish spirits… mirth

[which] brightened the gloom into a sunny shower of feeling,

and a rainbow in the mind” (Hawthorne Complete Short

Stories 557). The imagery used to describe the inhabitants of

Merry Mount and Hawthorne‟s female companions are similar.

Their mirth is in direct conflict with the setting, which evokes

the extremes of the stern, unforgiving Puritans. This

ambiguous, conflicted mood is cultivated by Hawthorne.

“With now a merry word and next a sad one, we trod among

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the tangled weeds, and almost hoped that our feet would sink

into the hollow of a witch‟s grave” (Hawthorne Complete

Short Stories 557).

Into this foreboding atmosphere of ambiguous light and

shadow, Hawthorne asks his companions to indulge him as he

reads them one of his stories. He had brought a manuscript

with him on this walk, an indication that he intended to share

this tale with them and that his choice of destination was not as

random as he had previously indicated. The very existence of

the manuscript reveals Hawthorne‟s youthful rebellion against

the judgement of his Puritan ancestors. Continuing in his

autobiographical mode, he said that the manuscript‟s existence

was something of an accident, since he burned a “great heap”

of his other stories. “They had fed the flames; thoughts meant

to delight the world and endure for ages had perished in a

moment, and stirred not a single heart but mine” (Hawthorne

Complete Short Stories 558). The burning of manuscripts can

be seen as both a gesture of frustration and intolerance from a

writer with very high self-imposed standards, as well as an

instinctive gesture of self-loathing brought on by the

conservative values imposed by his Puritan heritage.

According to Wineapple, “He was a man of high standards,

rigorous and stern, and like the protagonists in his stories who

torch the tales that no one reads, Hawthorne didn‟t separate

anger from anguish, vengeance from self-punishment, when he

felt he had failed” (Wineapple 58). Throughout Hawthorne‟s

career, he was continually striving for personal excellence and

public approval, perhaps in the hope that, like Parson Hooper,

his good works might counteract his secret sin.

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Hawthorne‟s explanation of the manuscript‟s survival

is revealing. He said that he wrote the story years prior, when

“my pen, now sluggish and perhaps feeble, because I have not

much to hope or fear, was driven by stronger external motives,

and a more passionate impulse within, then I am fated to feel

again” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 558). At the point

when Hawthorne writes this story, he apparently feels that he

no longer has much to hope or fear, a sign that a lingering

belief in predestination is influencing his locus of control and

sense of empowerment. It also reveals that he once had a more

passionate inner impulse. Not coincidentally, a passionate

inner impulse drives the story contained in the manuscript.

Hawthorne then begins to relate to his companions a

dark tale of murder and significantly, incest. He tells the story

of a brother and sister, Leonard and Alice Doane who, through

the death of their parents in childhood, became unnaturally

close. Leonard is characterized “by a diseased imagination and

morbid feelings.” Alice is described as “beautiful and

virtuous, and instilling something of her own excellence into

the wild heart of her brother, but not enough to cure the deep

taint of his nature” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 559).

The autobiographical nature of this story immediately lends

weight to the assumption that Hawthorne is inserting himself

into this narrative as well. He might easily be describing

himself as he describes the brother, Leonard.

Leonard describes his close relationship with his sister,

Alice. “The young man spoke of the closeness of the tie which

united him and Alice, the consecrated fervor of their affection

from childhood upwards, their sense of lonely sufficiency to

each other” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 559). Without

72

altering a detail, this could certainly describe Nathaniel

Hawthorne‟s relationship with his sister, Elizabeth.

When Alice begins to take interest in a stranger named

Walter Brome, Leonard became enraged with jealousy.

Wrestling with his overwhelming feelings, Leonard finally

found a rationale to explain why Alice could come to love

someone other than himself. “For he (Brome) was my very

counterpart!… There was a resemblance from which I shrunk

with sickness, and loathing, and horror, as if my own features

had come and stared upon me in a solitary place” (Hawthorne

Complete Short Stories 559). Leonard looked upon Walter

Brome and found himself, and what he saw of himself filled

him with self-loathing. “Here was a man whom Alice might

love with all the strength of sisterly affection, added to that

impure passion which alone engrosses all the heart.” Alas for

Leonard! All of his sister‟s love that should have come to him

was now directed at another.

Leonard‟s insane hatred of Walter Brome was mutual.

“The similarity of their dispositions made them like joint

possessors of an individual nature, which could not become

wholly the property of one, unless by the extinction of the

other” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 560). When Walter

taunted Leonard with “indubitable proofs of the shame of

Alice,” Leonard murdered Walter Brome in a fit of rage. Only

upon the death of Brome did Leonard see the family

resemblance, and begin to suspect that he had just killed his

twin brother.

Just like Hawthorne, Leonard‟s feelings are enormously

conflicted. “Tortured by the idea of his sister‟s guilt, yet

sometimes yielding to a conviction of her purity; stung with

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remorse for the death of Walter Brome, and shuddering with a

deeper sense of some unutterable crime,” Leonard sought the

assistance of a mysterious wizard (Hawthorne Complete Short

Stories 560). The wizard directed the brother and sister to the

graveyard where their newly discovered and recently murdered

brother lay buried. By some unexplained supernatural

mechanism, each grave in the cemetery “had given up its

inhabitants,” filling the graveyard with spirits (Hawthorne

Complete Short Stories 561). From the gray ancestors and

earliest defenders of the “infant colony,” to the recently

departed, spirits of all the departed rose and crowded the

tombstones. However, these weren‟t truly the ghosts of the

honored dead. “None but souls accursed were there, and fiends

counterfeiting the likeness of departed saints.” The Puritans

didn‟t believe that the souls of the dead could return to haunt

the living. Hawthorne apparently shares this belief. There

were only two possible destinations for a departed soul, either

sinner or saint. Accordingly, all the phantasms that appear to

Leonard and Alice are either cursed souls or fiends.

This “company of devils and condemned souls” had

come to gloat over the wicked crime that had been committed,

“as foul a one as ever was imagined in their dreadful abode.”

Hawthorne then swiftly condenses the plot to explain how the

evil wizard had caused Walter Brome “to tempt his unknown

sister to guilt and shame,” only to later die at the hand of his

unknown twin brother (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories

562). As though Hawthorne is eager to dispense with this

portion of the tale, he eschews the ornate descriptive details he

typically favors and summarizes the end of the story abruptly.

“The story concluded with the Appeal of Alice to the spectre of

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Walter Brome; his reply, absolving her from every stain; and

the trembling awe with which ghost and devil fled, as from the

sinless presence of an angel” (Hawthorne Complete Short

Stories 562). This last bit of plot is surprising, for Hawthorne

seems to accept the possibility that a fiend or accursed soul has

the power to absolve sin. The title of the story indicates how

important this appeal for absolution is to Hawthorne.

According to Hawthorne‟s internalized beliefs and values,

there would have been no point in this appeal. Yet the

possibility of absolution is so appealing to Hawthorne that he

chooses to believe in its power, even though granted by a fallen

spirit. Alice is once again restored to sinless purity in the eyes

of Leonard, and even the ghosts and devils flee from her with

awe.

Hawthorne quickly rushes the reader past this piece of

the narrative, quickly resuming his autobiographical recounting

of his day on Gallows Hill. His manuscript now read, he

returns his listeners to the horrors visited upon the accused

witches at Gallows Hill. His vivid imagination summons each

one of the accused, in fear and dignity, as they ascend the hill

to their deaths.

With this grim reality thus established, Hawthorne

concludes his sketch by stating his desire for some sort of

monument to commemorate these tragic events, one that would

recall “the errors of an earlier race, and not to be cast down,

while the human heart has one infirmity that may result in

crime” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 564). To which

crime is Hawthorne now alluding? The crimes that were the

focus of Gallows Hill, or the crime of incest recently told upon

it? There can be many parallels drawn between Nathaniel

75

Hawthorne and the characters within “Alice Doane‟s Appeal.”

In the context of his other works, it‟s not difficult to imagine

that Hawthorne bears a similar burden of guilt within his heart.

76

“Young Goodman Brown”

Nathaniel Hawthorne‟s ambiguous and conflicted

relationship with his puritanical past can also be clearly seen in

the well known story “Young Goodman Brown.” In this tale,

the title character is as conflicted and confused as Hawthorne

himself appears so often to be. Goodman Brown initially sets

off into the wilderness with the intent of joining the devil, but

along the way he has second thoughts. After witnessing a

devilish gathering attended by most of his neighbors, both the

low-born as well as the powerful, Brown becomes

disillusioned about the nature of sin and the possibility of

salvation. Through the character of Young Goodman Brown,

we can see Hawthorne the author likewise struggling with

these same issues.

When Brown first leaves his home to set off on his

errand into the wilderness, his young wife, symbolically named

“Faith,” begs him not to go. Hawthorne‟s penchant for

allegory and parable lead the reader to conclude that Browne‟s

wife is intended to represent just what her name implies: faith,

and its role in saving a person from damnation. Yet, with the

pink ribbons she wears, a forbidden sign of frivolity to

Puritans, we can see that this is a faith already tainted by the

suggestion of sin. When Brown ignores Faith‟s pleas to stay

home, we can see that faith has little power to overcome a

person determined to sin.

And yet, Brown hopes to return to Faith when his

errand of wickedness is done. He optimistically thinks, “after

this one night I‟ll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven”

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(Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 247). He sees her ribbons

as the adornments of an angel, and sets his hopes of salvation

in her uncertain hands. In spite of his “excellent resolve for the

future,” Browne goes forth and hastens on to his “present evil

purpose.” He has a clear sense of what evil is, and yet he

knowingly chooses to pursue it.

Browne enters the wilderness, an ambiguous and

ominous domain. Those who enter rarely return unchanged.

To the Puritans of the time, the wilderness was the ultimate

unknown. It was the realm of the Devil, filled with

unimaginable fears and sinful temptations. The wilderness was

dangerous, a realm to be avoided or civilized, but not a place

entered without grave concern. It was the ultimate symbol of

dark mystery and evil. And yet, for all of its negative

connotations, the wilderness is also the frontier of freedom and

independence. Entering the wilderness requires great courage

and strength. It is the realm of explorers and adventurers, the

place where heroes are formed. Venturing forth into the

wilderness is a process of self-definition. It tests personal

boundaries, challenges beliefs, and explores limits. In this dual

context of temptation and freedom, the wilderness can be seen

as a vast realm of ambiguity and conflicted tensions. By

testing himself against the dangers of the wilderness, Goodman

Brown might find his way toward truth.

So what truths are explored through this morality tale?

Naturally, Hawthorne‟s writing arises from his own

internalized beliefs, and the conflicts and ambiguities that

those beliefs generate. Young Goodman Brown, like

Hawthorne, is a man tempted by sin. He is torn between

embracing and rejecting wickedness. Though he futilely

78

resists, all of his cherished beliefs about sin and salvation are

stripped away to reveal the essential sinfulness of humanity.

A core Puritan belief is the assumed status of

damnation for most souls. This is the central truth so harshly

revealed to Goodman Brown. In writing this story, it reveals

an author who operates on this assumed premise. It is this

unforgiving Puritan view about damnation that is learned by

Brown on his errand into the wilderness.

When Brown ventures into the forest and meets with

the Devil, an apparent deal made in advance, Brown at first

tries to resist the errand that has brought him this far. Calling

the Devil his “friend,” he then proclaims, “it is my purpose

now to return whence I came. I have scruples touching the

matter thou wot‟st of” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories

248). Brown‟s conflicted nature is clear. As powerfully as he

is drawn into the wilderness, his faith creates a tension within

him that causes him to continually doubt his chosen course. As

soon as he confronts the reason for his journey, he begins to

resist.

Brown judges himself and his intentions harshly when

thinking of his family lineage brings second thoughts. That

young Goodman Brown is intended to be an autobiographical

character of Hawthorne can be seen in Brown‟s attempt to

reverse course and leave his errand unfulfilled. “My father

never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father

before him. We have been a race of honest men and good

Christians since the days of the martyrs; and I shall be the first

of the name of Brown that ever took this path.” Hawthorne

seems to be making a direct reference to his own ancestors,

who of course share a likewise history. But to confirm the

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symbolic link between Hawthorne and Brown, the devil

confirms the details that prove the point. He replies to Brown,

“I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a

one among the Puritans; and that‟s no trifle to say. I helped

your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker

woman so smartly through the streets of Salem; and it was I

that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own

hearth, to set fire to an Indian village, in King Philip‟s war”

(Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 248-9). These are clear

references to William Hathorne, the patriarch and founding

father of Hawthorne‟s own family line. Local histories reveal

that it was William who punished the Quaker woman with a

public lashing in the streets of Salem, and he and his son were

also leaders in campaigns against the local native inhabitants.

Given Hawthorne‟s conflicted attitudes toward his stern,

unforgiving patriarchs, it isn‟t surprising that he would

fictionally place his ancestors firmly in league with the Devil.

This devilish confirmation is the beginning of Brown‟s

disillusionment, and yet he clings to the illusion of himself and

the respectability of his family. “We are a people of prayer,

and good works to boot, and abide no such wickedness”

(Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 249).

Without the myth of a saintly lineage to sustain him,

Brown is further disillusioned when the devil henceforth

informs Brown that he has many followers among the church

and civil leadership, up to and including the governor, and

Brown‟s own local minister. To further prove how widespread

is the Devil‟s influence, a number of prominent people begin to

appear on the forest path, all hastening toward the secret

meeting in the wilderness. The first is Goody Cloyse who

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taught Brown “his catechism in youth, and was still his moral

and spiritual adviser” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories

249). Brown is aghast as he observes her from the shelter of

the forest. If his spiritual advisor is in league with the Devil, to

whom can Brown turn for guidance?

This confrontation with disillusionment prompts Brown

to have a crisis of faith. He stops his journey into the forest

and refuses to go any further. “Not another step will I budge

on this errand. What if a wretched old woman do choose to go

to the devil when I thought she was going to heaven: is that

any reason why I should quit my dear Faith and go after her?”

(Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 250)

Brown‟s decision to go no further brings him some

relief. He was “applauding himself greatly, and thinking with

how clear a conscience he should meet the minister in his

morning walk, nor shrink from the eye of good old Deacon

Gookin.” Just as Brown is congratulating himself for resisting

the devil, he witnesses more travelers in the forest, and they

were none other than the minister and deacon. This revelation

deals a severe blow to Brown, who was then “overburdened

with the heavy sickness of his heart” (Hawthorne Complete

Short Stories 251). If even his own minister is in league with

the Devil, what then is his hope for salvation? If even the most

Godly among them were corrupt, how could he hope to do

better? He now had cause to doubt heaven itself. Truly, the

very foundations of his faith were shaken. And yet, he still

struggles against this crushing despair. “With heaven above

and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil!”

(Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 251)

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With all the weight of predictable doom, his illusions

about his dear wife Faith are next stripped from him.

Gathering above the forest, a dark cloud swept toward him.

From within the cloud, Brown could indistinctly hear the

voices of the towns-people, “men and women, both pious and

ungodly.” And then, most horrifying of all, Brown catches the

sound of his new young wife‟s voice, “uttering lamentations,

yet with an uncertain sorrow, and entreating for some favor,

which, perhaps, it would grieve her to obtain; and all the

unseen multitude, both saints and sinners, seemed to encourage

her onward” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 252).

Brown‟s core beliefs are assaulted by the consequences

of these revelations. Just like his wife‟s “uncertain sorrow,”

there is an enormous amount of conflicted ambiguity to these

new insights. If everyone, sinner and saint alike, participates

in wickedness, then what happens to the distinctions between

sinner and saint? What if salvation is a meaningless goal? If

faith itself is corrupt, how shall we then define and weigh sin?

If everyone is stained by damnable sin, is heaven even a goal

worth striving for? In anguish, Brown calls out, “My Faith is

gone! There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come,

devil; for to thee is this world given.” Brown capitulates and

yields to the inevitable.

He arrives at a clearing in the woods where the devil

has called his gathering. Once there, all of Brown‟s worst

fears are confirmed when he sees the faces of the powerful and

pious in attendance. When a figure resembling “some grave

divine of the New England churches” stands at a pulpit and

exhorts the crowd to “Bring forth the converts!” Brown

willingly steps forward. He has accepted his sinful nature. As

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he approaches the congregation, he feels a “loathful

brotherhood” with them “by the sympathy of all that was

wicked in his heart.” The dark figure welcomes Brown “to the

communion of your race. Ye have found thus young your

nature and your destiny” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories

254). Brown has learned that his nature is sinful and his

destiny is damnation, and realizes that this is true even for

those who masquerade as pious saints.

The final blow to his former beliefs befalls him when

Faith steps forth and they behold one another before the unholy

altar. The devil makes their positions perfectly clear. “There

ye stand, depending upon one another‟s hearts, ye had still

hoped that virtue were not all a dream. Now are ye

undeceived. Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your

only happiness. Welcome again, my children, to the

communion of your race” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories

254). In one final, desperate attempt to salvage something of

his faith, Brown urges his wife to “look up to heaven, and

resist the wicked one.”

But with that last act of resistance, the scene changes

abruptly. Goodman Brown finds himself standing alone in the

dark forest, with no evidence of the gathering in sight. Was it

a dream? Did he imagine it? What is the truth?

The next day, young Goodman Brown walks down the

street of Salem village and sees once again the faces that he

had last seen in the firelight of the forest. He sees the minister,

who offers Brown a blessing as he passes. The deacon could

be overheard in prayer, and Goody Cloyse was seen teaching

the catechism to a little girl. Brown is disillusioned and

insecure. He sees his young wife, Faith, still wearing her pink

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ribbons, burst into joy at the sight of him. But Brown is too

conflicted to respond to her with his previous delight. He

“looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without

a greeting” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 255). Truly,

Brown has returned from his errand into the wilderness a

changed man.

The changes run deep, and seem to mirror the man

Nathaniel Hawthorne became. The story concludes by

observing, “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if

not a desperate man did he become from the night of that

fearful dream” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 255). By

all accounts, this would be an equally good description of

Hawthorne himself. He was known to be a stern and

melancholy man who went to great lengths to preserve his

privacy. Perhaps he, too, was motivated by irrefutable

knowledge of his own damnation, creating a desperate and

irresolvable conflict within him.

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The Scarlet Letter

The themes of secret sin, guilt, and unholy love are

again featured in The Scarlet Letter. Yet again, Hawthorne can

be seen struggling with the consequences of sin. By setting his

novel in Salem during the early Puritan years, Hawthorne was

drawing on the local history he was so thoroughly familiar

with. The Scarlet Letter can be seen as a refinement and

development of themes that recur in many of his stories.

“The Custom House” sketch that introduces the novel is

replete with seemingly unrelated autobiographical information.

However, when seen through the lens of an author examining

his personal puritanical history, the “Custom House” material

provides the perfect backdrop to what follows. The Custom

House, a real location in Boston where Hawthorne once

worked, is the bridge between Hawthorne‟s present reality and

his conflicted relationship with the past. It represents the

liminal state between sleeping and waking that he alluded to in

“The Haunted Mind” and explored in so many of his short

stories. Like in “Alice Doane‟s Appeal,” the autobiographical

nature of the narration also bridges Hawthorne‟s outer reality

with the inner realms explored in his fiction.

In order to establish the semblance of credibility to the

tale that he spins, Hawthorne identifies the Custom House as

the inspiration for the story of Hester Prynne. Hawthorne

imagines finding a packet of old papers supposedly composed

by a former Custom House Surveyor, one Jonathan Pue. These

papers record the “sufferings of this singular woman.”

Enwrapped in these papers was found the tattered remains of a

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highly embroidered letter „A.‟ As Hawthorne explains to his

readers, “My eyes fastened themselves upon the old scarlet

letter, and would not be turned aside” (Hawthorne The Scarlet

Letter 28). Although this account is itself fiction, by including

this information in an admittedly autobiographical piece,

Hawthorne attempts to assert its authenticity. For Hawthorne,

at least, there is something very real about the story he relates.

Just as the Custom House sketch forms a threshold

between the outer and inner realms, the story contained within

The Scarlet Letter also begins with a clear reference to

thresholds and boundaries. Outside a prison door, “rooted

almost at the threshold,” grows a wild rose bush, symbol of the

freedom and the “fragile beauty” that awaits beyond the

confines of the prison. The transcendentalist influence is seen

in the description of the rose that blooms “in token that the

deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to [prisoners]”

(Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 41). The Puritans‟ might not

tolerate transgressions, but to Hawthorne, solace might be

found through the more forgiving Nature.

Hester Prynne stands outside this prison door with a

baby in her arms, the proof of an adulterous liaison.

Condemned by the village Puritan authorities, Hester is made

to stand upon the scaffold in the village square, subject to

public ridicule and shame. Hawthorne does not make it clear

whether Hester is to by scorned or sympathized with. On the

one hand, Hester is reminiscent of “Divine Maternity – that

sacred image of sinless motherhood” (Hawthorne The Scarlet

Letter 48), and yet, this image is marred with the “taint of

deepest sin.”

86

To help contradict the image of Hester as the Madonna,

Hawthorne has Hester hurt her baby without realizing it. “She

pressed her infant to her bosom, with so convulsive a force that

the poor babe uttered another cry of pain. But the mother did

not seem to hear it” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 52). By

this early example we see that Hester is capable of causing

harm, even if it is unintentional. These conflicted views of

Hester continue throughout the novel, as it appears that

Hawthorne both admires her willingness to defy the religious

standards of the time, while simultaneously rejecting her

participation in sin.

But if Hawthorne does not wish his readers to entirely

embrace Hester, he does not intend her to be totally

unsympathetic, either. Hester responds to her public shaming

and ostracism from village life by fatalistically accepting her

status. She could choose to move to another place and have a

fresh start free from the condemning eyes of the public, but she

moves with her daughter Pearl to a cottage at the threshold of

the wilderness. Just as she lives on the outer edges of the

village, so she likewise operates in the limited boundaries

allowed to her by the residents, and earns her way through her

creative and elaborate needlework. She uses her skill with the

needle to create an elaborate design of the red letter „A‟ she is

sentenced to wear as a sign of her shame. Thus the badge of

her shame also transforms into a symbol of her skill and pride.

She spends the rest of her life in Salem village quietly

performing good deeds without drawing attention to herself.

These ambiguities leave the reader with mixed emotions about

such a complex character. Despite her “sin,” there is

87

something admirable in Hester‟s willingness to live with the

consequences of her actions.

Hester‟s sin is clear, and her daughter Pearl is the daily

proof. By the Puritan standards of the time, Hester‟s status

among the damned would have been equally certain. Once,

when Pearl asked Hester about the scarlet letter that her mother

wears, Hester responds that it is the mark of the devil

(Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 154). Although Hester clearly

rebelled against the strict rules of puritanical society, she did

not reject the implications of their judgments. Like Goodman

Brown eventually did, Hester accepts the inevitability of her

fate as a sinner.

The Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester‟s lover and

the father of her child, however, does not accept the

consequences of his sin as easily. He hides his role in Hester‟s

unfortunate circumstances, and attempts to live with the guilt

of his secret sin which festers within him. According to

Puritan doctrine, there is no forgiveness of sin, just

confirmation of damnation. Therefore, there is nothing to be

gained from public confession nor from private torment.

Dimmesdale‟s life as a minister would be over were he to

confess. He would share Hester‟s shame, and they would both

still go to hell. His awareness that confession was a losing

proposition kept him silent. Since there is no absolution for his

sin, he chose to hide it as best he can. Unfortunately, the moral

consequences of his hypocrisy eventually become his downfall.

After many years of attempting to keep up the pretense of

purity, Dimmesdale is described as “conscience-stricken”

when he finally meets with Hester once again in the forest.

88

“The judgment of God is on me, it is too mighty for me to

struggle with!” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 163).

Hester suggests a solution that Hawthorne must surely

have yearned for himself; a path through the wilderness that

leads to freedom. “Doth the universe lie within the compass of

yonder town, which only a little time ago was but a leaf-strewn

desert, as lonely as this around us? Whither leads yonder

forest-track? Backward to the settlement, thou sayest! Yes;

but onward, too! Deeper it goes, and deeper, into the

wilderness… There thou art free!” (Hawthorne The Scarlet

Letter 163) For Dimmesdale, like Hawthorne, freedom might

be found in escaping the narrow moral confinement of

puritanical Salem. A clear path through the wilderness of

ambiguities and conflicted desires might set him free.

This possibility of freeing himself from the strict moral

doom of his Puritan beliefs is more than Dimmesdale can bear.

He agrees to run away with Hester and Pearl. “Tempted by a

dream of happiness, he had yielded himself with deliberate

choice, as he had never done before, to what he knew was

deadly sin” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 182). Morally

corrupted by years of harboring sin within the secret chambers

of his heart, yielding himself to it was more than he could

withstand. “The infectious poison of that sin had been thus

rapidly diffused throughout his moral system. It had stupefied

all blessed impulses, and awakened into vivid life the whole

brotherhood of bad ones” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 182).

Like good Parson Hooper, Dimmesdale became finely attuned

to sin, because of the secret sin he was so intimately acquainted

with.

89

He was now awakened to the full scope of his sinful

nature, and it changed him. Like young Goodman Brown,

Dimmesdale returned from his visit to the wilderness a

changed man. “Another man had returned out of the forest; a

wiser one; with a knowledge of hidden mysteries which the

simplicity of the former never could have reached. A bitter

kind of knowledge that!” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 183)

It is this knowledge that gives him the courage to proclaim his

guilt at the end of the novel. Feeling the end of his life upon

him, Dimmesdale calls for Hester and Pearl to join him upon

the scaffold to confess the sin and guilt that lies within his

heart. While taking his share of shame upon himself, he

reminds the crowd that all the while they scorned Hester,

Dimmesdale had passed among them unnoticed. Dimmesdale

reveals the same knowledge that Parson Hooper and Goodman

Brown learned; sin lives in the secret hearts of all men.

Like Hawthorne‟s other autobiographical protagonists,

Dimmesdale does not yield himself willingly to sin. He spends

his life rejecting the wicked impulses within him, and struggles

with the inevitable spiritual consequences of those impulses.

Although guilty of sin, he never surrenders himself to the devil,

and like Brown, resists further participation in sin. In fact,

Dimmesdale‟s dying words are dedicated to the glorification of

God. “Praised be his name! His will be done! Farewell!”

(Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 210) Perhaps these noble moral

goals are what Hawthorne also wishes for himself.

Through examination of the common themes that

weave through much of Hawthorne‟s work, a portrait of a

spiritually conflicted individual emerges. Hawthorne seems to

be a man who was struggling with a heart burdened with the

90

guilt of secret sin. His repeated allusions to his sister Elizabeth

provide a tempting hint at what Hawthorne‟s secret might have

been. Whether he imagined or committed incest, however, as

the inheritor of the full weight of a full-blooded Puritan

heritage, he also inherited all of the stern values and fatalistic

gloom of his patrimony. For a Puritan, the status of salvation

was always ambiguous. Hawthorne‟s secret sin stripped away

that ambiguity, confirming his damnation. By committing

himself to art, a frivolous act inspired by the devil, he chose,

like Dimmesdale and Hester, to follow a shameful path.

Unlike Hester, Hawthorne could not seem to

fatalistically accept this conclusion or the potentially

redemptive power of his art. He continued to struggle with

themes of sin and salvation throughout his life and writing

career. While outwardly rejecting the Puritan perspective, in

his most private self, he enacted it. This internal tension

created an unresolvable conflict for Hawthorne. He couldn‟t

absolve himself and hope for heaven, and he couldn‟t escape

his shameful awareness of sin. Just like he found it difficult to

separate himself from his birthplace of Salem, he also found it

difficult to separate himself from the internalized values and

beliefs that imprisoned him within his guilty heart. He spent

his life rebelling against the Puritan values that were his

birthright, yet he couldn‟t escape such an essential part of his

identity. Nathaniel Hawthorne‟s literary career traces his path

through the perilous and unknown wilderness of moral

ambiguity. His journey also helped to define American

literature at a time when Americans were still attempting to

define themselves. His concerns resonated with the common

91

moral issues of his day, and his struggle to reconcile his past

with the present still resonates today.

Was Hawthorne a Puritan or a rebel? Did he ever

answer that question for himself? The answer perhaps lies

deeper within the wilderness. There, thou art free!

92

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