Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter And The House Of The Seven Gables

Nathaniel Hawthorne, born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts into a strict Puritan family, would grow up to become one of the great writers of nineteenth-century America. He is predominately known for his novels The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, both of which, though published over one hundred and fifty years ago, are still considered to be classics of American literature and are still required readings for many high-school English courses. Hawthorne’s frequent use of dark themes such as sin, guilt, retribution, and even witchcraft, as well as his proficiency in the use of allegory and symbolism are some of the things that make him one of the most iconic authors of the era of American Romanticism. Hawthorne’s work, filled with

His father, a ship’s captain, died of illness at sea when young Hawthorne was only four years old. His mother, a young widow without the means to raise her son and his two older sisters, moved in with her wealthy brothers, Richard and Robert Manning. Hawthorne developed an appetite for reading early in his life, particularly while he was bedridden recovering from a leg injury at a young age. With the financial aid of his uncles he began attending Bowdoin College in Maine. Although an admittedly unenthusiastic student, Hawthorne’s time in college allowed him to forge valuable friendships with people like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and future president, Franklin Pierce. After college Hawthorne lived a secluded life at home for twelve years, reading, studying literature, and developing his own literary voice. He self-published several works during this time which, although they did not provide him with a stable enough income, did help him build his reputation in the world of literature. Around the time that this period of seclusion ended, Hawthorne began to court the young illustrator and painter Sophia Peabody. He spent a few years living in a transcendentalist community where he was introduced to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and although he was not interested in transcendentalism, living there allowed him to accumulate money for his upcoming marriage to

Some of the most prominent ones were his Puritan ancestors, whose legacy Hawthorne is known to have resented. His great-great-great grandfather and great-great grandfather, William Hathorne and John Hathorne, respectively, were both Puritan judges who were known for their harsh punishment. John Hathorne was one of the judges who played a key role in the Salem Witch Trials of the late seventeenth century. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s bitterness toward this event in his family history can be seen in his novel The House of the Seven Gables, a story in which retribution for a similar family act is a key facet of the plot. Wishing to further distance himself from this heritage, Hawthorne began adding the ‘w’ to his name, and, although he moved to and from Salem multiple times in his life, around the year 1850 he moved his family away from the town and its deep-seated Puritan history once and for all, taking them to live instead in Lenox, Massachusetts. Other figures who played a role in Hawthorne’s life were the many writers and artists that he was surrounded with during his time at the Brook Farm community and later at Concord, including Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Ellery Channing. Living in close proximity to these contemporaries gave Hawthorne the opportunity to come into frequent contact with some of the great thinkers of his age, although he did not