Breaking out of Prison
Hawthorne’s view on life is wrong. He says that in the depths of human nature there is an inner world in which every human being is alone. Hawthorne’s background and they way he lived his life gave him this dark view on life. His father and grandfather did things that he did not like and Hawthorne tried to redeem the bad things they did and when he couldn’t he went into seclusion and explored his own heart. Every person is not the same as Hawthorne; I believe that with certain people their heart could be their prison but not the average person.
People are not caged by their heart, their heart shows what kind of person they are. It is similar to Emerson’s “golden possibility,” Hawthorne did not meet his golden possibility and this is why he looks on things so darkly. He doesn’t try to look at the good things in life, he tries to see what is wrong with people and explain why. He only looked at himself though and he did not have much to be happy for and this is why he felt like he was in a prison. Most people if they look inside themselves they are happy and do not dwell on such things like Hawthorne does. A person’s cage is not their heart, their heart is something that lets them be free and go on about a normal day with a happy countenance on their face.
Your own heart could be your worst prison but every human being is not in that prison like Hawthorne was. Hawthorne is right that your heart is the worst prison a person could be in but everyone is that same situation. Hawthorne shouldn’t generalize so much, he was only looking at himself and not the world around him. He was too self-centered in his writings and quotes, he should have looked at other people and saw how they lived. Then he would see a world of bright colors and fun filled life, he could have lived life to the maximum but he chose to look at the dark side of things and keep living inside his prison instead of changing his life.
Deadly and helpful, science is a dual-edged sword. Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the first to emphasize this through his literary works. “Rappaccini's Daughter” and “The Birthmark” are two of his works where he teaches this lesson through the trials of his characters. Focusing on the motif of the “mad scientist”, Hawthorne brings to light the points that people struggle with humanity, learning to love themselves and others, and that science can be more harmful then helpful.
Fifteen years separate Washington Irving’s short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” with Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Young Goodman Brown.” The two share an eerie connection because of the trepidation the two protagonists endure throughout the story. The style of writing between the two is not similar because of the different literary elements they choose to exploit. Irving’s “Sleepy Hollow” chronicles Ichabod Crane’s failed courtship of Katrina Van Tassel as well as his obsession over the legend of the Headless Horseman. Hawthorne’s story follows the spiritual journey of the protagonist, Young Goodman Brown, through the woods of Puritan New England where he looses his religious faith. However, Hawthorne’s work with “Young Goodman Brown” is of higher quality than Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” because Hawthorne succeeds in exploiting symbols, developing characters, and incorporating worthwhile themes.
“Nathaniel Hawthorne – Biography.” The European Graduate School. The European Graduate School, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014
Hawthorne knew that all men are defective. Earth's Holocaust is his most striking statement of the theme, but every story and novel is based on that premise. Those who ignore human imperfection in their planning become, like Aylmer of The Birthmark, destroyers rather than creators. From his knowledge of universal depravity came and not as paradoxically as it may seem a humility and a sense of social solidarity too often lacking in our young critics of society. The society with which he was concerned was a wider society. As we have noted, his people are often ''saved'' through love for one other person. The heart is touched by love, bringing warmth, or ''reality." But the saved one does not then withdraw with his loved one in a society of the elect; he does not join a Brook Farm or a commune. He returns to the larger society, to what Lewis calls "the tribe." He is defective and incomplete-as it is defective and incomplete; he needs it as it needs him. Thus love unites Phoebe and Holgrave, but also serves the larger social purpose of uniting two warring families, displacing hate by love and "cleansing'' a cursed house. Love for Clifford brings Hepzibah out of destructive pride and isolation into intercourse with the world. Hester is saved at the end not by the "consecration of its own" she once thought blessed her union with Dimmesdale, not by escape into ...
"The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude!" (Hawthorne 165). This quote is a perfect example of a punishment that may not be morally just. Throughout the book, The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne utilizes the views of Puritan religion to blur the lines of the re-occurring theme of morality.
what Hawthorne wants us to be concerned with; he wants to show us why it is wrong to try
I think Hawthorne may be implying in these stories that perfection is unattainable and the quest for it may be unrewarding, even fatal. In these and some of Hawthorne's other stories, I believe he is reminding people of the delicate blessings of life. Our pursuit of happiness outside of a connection with other people and our reckless endeavor to supersede the power of the supernatural may result in temporary satisfaction, but is ultimately unfulfilling and even dangerous.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's knowledge of Puritanism and his close relationship with the religion has impacted his views on those in the society. Hawthorne is critical of the Puritans and he thinks that they are hypocrites for having rules and morals that they do not follow. He sees the underlying sin that others may not. Through his many writings he makes known to his readers that everyone is guilty of sin. The Puritan's main goal was to save themselves from the sin in the world, but Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays their morals and society as troublesome through his works, "Young Goodman Brown," "The Minister's Black Veil," and The Scarlet Letter.
Among many morals which press upon us from the poor minister's miserable experience, we put only this into a sentence: Be true! Be true to your dreams! Be true to your dreams! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred! ' ;(Ch.24: 236) Hawthorne expresses the purpose of writing this novel in that short sentence.
Lang, H.J. “How Ambiguous is Hawthorne?” In Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by A.N. Kaul. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
"Nathaniel Hawthorne- Biography." The European Graduate School. The European Graduate School EGS, 1997-2012. Web. 25 November 2013.
Hawthorne was a private individual who fancied solitude with family friends. He was also very devoted to his craft of writing. Hawthorne observed the decay of Puritanism with opposition; believing that is was a man’s responsibility to pursue the highest truth and possessed a strong moral sense. These aspects of Hawthorne’s philosophy are what drove him to write about and even become a part of an experiment in social reform, in a utopian colony at Brook Farm. He believed that the Puritans’ obsession with original sin and their ironhandedness undermined instead of reinforced virtue.
Efficacy lies at the heart of human desires for immortality. Characters throughout literature and art are depicted as wanting to step aside and see what their world would be like without their individual contributions. The literary classic A Christmas Carol and the more recent, but ageless, film It’s Wonderful Life both use outside influences (three ghosts and Clarence the Angel, respectively) to demonstrate Scrooge’s and George Bailey’s significance to the lives of others. Differently, however, is the desire of Mr. Wakefield, himself, to actually step outside and beyond the boundaries of his existence to see his own significance in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story Wakefield. Furthermore, the characters of the two aforementioned works are enlightened through the importance of their actions and their lives. Wakefield is altered through his experience, but has no such consciousness of his transformation.
According to A.N. Kaul in his Introduction to Hawthorne – A Collection of Critical Essays, the themes of isolation and alienation were ones which Hawthorne was “deeply preoccupied with” in his writings (2). Hawthorne’s personal isolation from people from 1825 to 1837 was probably due to his lifelong shyness among people. This reluctance to freely socialize may have been a result of a foot injury: “an injury to his foot at the age of nine reduced his physical activity for almost two years” (Martin 16). Wagenknecht says in Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Man, His Tales and Romances that this accident “reduced him for over two years to a state of invalidism that probably contributed toward developing his taste for reading” (2). Or Nathaniel Hawthorne’s shyness was perhaps due to the death of his father when he was but four years old. Regarding the impact of this death upon Hawthorne, Edmund Fuller and B. Jo Kinnick in “Stories Derived from New England Living,” say:
Overall, the lifestyle changes brought forth by guilt are portrayed through Hawthorne’s use of Biblical allusions. When guilt shadows over an individual’s mind, they often forgot how to differentiate between what they should do and what they’re actually doing. Instead of accepting the guilt and moving on, many express their guilt through actions. When the choice of destroying guilt, or letting it destroy you, comes up, individuals tend to select the option that involves less doing, since they are already ashamed of their deeds.