Nathaniel Hawthorne, an American writer was the child of Elizabeth Clarke Manning and Nathaniel Hawthorne. He was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. He is a descendent of a long line of Puritan ancestors which of one is his great-grandfather John Hathorne who was a judge in the Salem witch trials. He was not proud of his family’s background and in order to disassociate himself with them he added a “w” to his last name to make it Hawthorne. Hawthorne’s father was a ship Captain in the U.S. Navy and died of yellow fever when Hawthorne was four-years-old. After his father died his mother became overly protective of him and that left him to be shy and bookish. Later on that is what molded his career as a writer. In 1821 Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College and graduated four years later - He chose a school that was close to his mom and sisters. After graduation he turned his passion of writing and published his first novel Fanshawe. This novel was unsuccessful, but it did not discourage Hawthorne. A few years later he wrote a few short stories and “Young Goodman Brown” was one of the famous ones. After realizing he could not make a living as a writer (because of the financial needs) he decided to enter the work force. In 1839 he obtained a job with Boston Custom House, but was dismissed three years later. By 1842 his writings began to _______________ and he was able to maintain a suitable income. Only then did he marry Sofia Peabody and moved to The Manse in Concord, Massachusetts which was the center of the Transcendental movement. In 1845 Hawthorne returned to Salem and devoted himself to his most famous novel, The Scarlett Letter. He described this novel as a “hell-firing story.” It was published in 1850 and was an... ... middle of paper ... ...ment. The townspeople of Boston stopped communicating with him because of the simple black veil that shielded his face. '"I don't like it,'' muttered an old woman,' as she hobbled into the meeting-house. ’He has changed himself into something awful, only by hiding his face.' The evidence of a veil concealing his face frightened the people of this small Puritan town. Elizabeth, his fiancée demanded, "Lift the veil but once, and look me in the face." She established the fact that she and the other people are definitely afraid of the unknown. The veil teaches individuals to have courage and to abstain from arrogance. The people of the town were very arrogant in their mind set. They all contradicted to their principle beliefs; therefore, they were hypocrites of their own nature. The minister tried to reflect everyone's flaws by using the black veil as an object.
In the short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”, fear of the unknown is used by the main character, Mr. Hooper, to draw attention to what he believed was a necessary in order to achieve salvation. He believed people should be honest and forward with God, and should avoid wearing a “veil” to hide their true faces when speaking with God. He wore the veil to symbolize the indirectness most people use to cover themselves when speaking to God. Hooper refused to remove his veil, saying he would cast aside his veil once everyone else did, Unfortunately, Hooper never explained why he choose to wear his veil, which led to an uproar of confusion in the community. The community members looked for a simple explanation for his actions. For instance, some believed he had relations with a young girl who recently died, and he was in mourning, or committed a sin so severe he refused to show his face. The community began to avoid Hooper and fear the Reverend they once respected, just because of his one unexplained action. The community began to fear him in such a way that he losses almost all the respect he held within the community, and dies without his betrothed by his side. Even upon his deathbed he refuses to share, with the community, why he chose to wear his veil. Hawthorne reveals in this short story how people crave an explanation for the abnormal, and when they fail to find a satisfactory answer, they will reject and fear the
Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4, 1804 (Magill 1; Campbell 1; “Nathaniel Hawthorne”; Eldred 1). He was born into the sixth generation of his Salem family, and was a descendant of a long line of New England Puritans, which contributed in his interest in the Puritan way of life. The family was originally known as the “Hathornes”, but Nathaniel added the “w” to his name so it would become “Hawthorne”. The Hawthornes had been involved in religious persecution with their first American ancestor, William. Another ancestor, John Hathorne, was one of the three judges at the seventeenth-century Salem witchcraft trials. Hawthorne’s father was a sea captain, and when he was four years old (1808), his father died on a voyage in Surinam, Dutch Guinea (Campbell 1). Hawthorne was left alone with his mother and two sisters. He spent his early years in Salem and in Maine, during which he showed an interest in his father’s nautical adventures and read his logbooks often, even after his death (Magill 1). His maternal relatives recognized his literary talent at such a you...
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in the year 1804 in the heart of Salem, Massachusetts, where to Salem witch trials were conducted. Hawthorne was born in an unforgiving time period, where life revolved around religion and family. Hawthorne’s father died of Yellow Fever in the year 1808. Nathaniel grew up fatherless, which had a lasting effect on who he later became to be. Education at the time was centered on reading and writing, with a heavy religious influence. “The education of the next generation was important to further "purify" the church and perfect social living” (Kizer). However, since his father passed away, there was no other man to instill the Puritan beliefs into young Nathaniel. Hawthorne later on was able to see the culture through a different lens than the people surrounding him, which made him slightly opposed to the Puritan way of life. He became intellectually rebellious; not thinking in the same way that his peers or family was.
Mr. Hooper in “The Minister’s Black Veil” puts on a veil to symbolize “those sad mysteries which we hid[e] from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness, even forgetting that the Omniscient can detect them” (Hawthorne 310). From the moment the townsfolk see the black veil they become very frightened and intimidated by Mr. Hooper, the citizens felt that “the black veil seemed to hang down before his heart” (Hawthorne 308). People became very frightened even the “most innocent girl, and the man of hardened breast” (Hawthorne 312) Mr. Hooper puts this crape on as a “symbol of a fearful secret between him and them” and because of this society chastises him and makes him out to be a...
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, the descendent of a long line of Puritan ancestors, including John Hathorne, a presiding magistrate in the Salem witch trials. After his father was lost at sea when he was only four, his mother became overly protective and pushed him toward more isolated pursuits. Hawthorne's childhood left him overly shy and bookish, and molded his life as a writer. Hawthorne is one of the most modern of writers who rounds off the puritan cycle in American writing
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804. After his graduation from Bowdoin College in Maine, he quickly became a well-known author of literary tales concerning early American life. Between 1825 and 1850, he developed his talent by writing short fiction, and he gained international fame for his fictional novel The Scarlet Letter in 1850 (Clendenning 118). Rufus Wilmot Griswold stated,The frivolous costume and brisk action of the story of fashionable life are easily depicted by the practised sketcher, but a work like "The Scarlet Letter" comes slowly upon the canvas, where passions are commingled and overlaid with the masterly elaboration with which the grandest effects are produced in pictorial composition and coloring. (Griswold 352)Throughout the novel, Hawthorne reveals character through the use of imagery and metaphor.
BIOGRAM The man Nathaniel Hawthorne, an author of the nineteenth century, was born in 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts. It was there that he lived a poverty-stricken childhood without the financial support of a father, because he had passed away in 1808. Hawthorne was raised strictly Puritan, his great-grandfather had even been one of the judges in the Puritan witchcraft trials during the 1600s. This and Hawthorne’s destitute upbringing advanced his understanding of human nature and distress felt by social, religious, and economic inequities.
Nathaniel Hawthorne met his demise on May 19, 1864 in Plymouth, New Hampshire after rebuffing to seek medical attention (Reynolds). The origin of Hawthorne’s imagination could have been when he developed a love for reading and writing. Hawthorne then used his imagination to produce his works.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts. His father, also Nathaniel, was a sea captain and descendent of John Hawthorne, one of the judges in the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692. He died when the young Nathaniel was four year old. Hawthorne grew up in seclusion with his widowed mother Elizabeth - and for the rest of her life they relied on each other for emotional solace. Later he wrote to his friend Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: "I have locked myself in a dungeon and I can't find the key to get out." Hawthorne was educated at the Bowdoin College in Maine (1821-24). In the school among his friends were Longfellow and Franklin Pierce, who became the 14th president of the U.S.
...face, the veil of pretension, appearances, lies, and self-deception. The unconscious desires and guilt are suppressed and cornered away in one's conscious. In short, Mr. Hooper mirrors the true nature of humans around him. Only when the true nature of life and the freedom of truth is observed can the veil be lifted.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”, the reader is introduced to Parson Hooper, the reverend of a small Puritan village. One Sunday morning, Hooper arrived to mass with a black veil over his impassive face. The townspeople began to feel uneasy due to their minister’s unusual behavior. When Parson appeared, “Few could refrain from twisting their heads towards the door; many stood upright….” (Monteiro 2). Throughout the story Hooper does not take off the black veil and the townspeople, including Reverend Clark from a nearby village, treat him as if he were contagious disease. A veil typically is used to represent sorrow, but in this story it is used to represent hidden sins. No one exactly knows why he
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. He was born with the last name Hathorne but he added the w to his last name when he started writing (Clendenning 114). His father died when he was four years old and the family went to live with his uncle in Salem. In 1825, he graduated from Bowdoin College. By this time, he had already completed his first work, Fanshawe. Hawthorne wanted to become a fictional writer but he only had been a good writer of compositions. He spent years in his uncle’s house writing, reading and trying to get published. He wrote many tales. Some of these were published in magazines or annuals. Since he didn’t make a lot of money for this, he had to find other work to support himself. He spent time working at the Boston Custom House and he was a member of the Brook Farm community in Boston (Waggoner 6-7).
Let us briefly review the life of the author up to and including his brief acceptance of Transcendentalism. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, to a family that had been prominent in the area since colonial times. A rich lore of family and local history provided much of the material for Hawthorne's works. When Nathaniel was four, his father died on a voyage in Surinam, Dutch Guinea, but maternal relatives recognized his literary talent and financed his education at Bowdoin College. Among his classmates were many of the important literary and political figures of the day: writer Horatio Bridge, future Senator Jonathan Ciley, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and future President Franklin Pierce. These prominent friends supplied Hawthorne with government employment in the lean times, allowing him time to bloom as an author.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. He was the only son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Clark Hathorne and he had two sisters. Nathaniel’s father was a sea captain who died of yellow fever at sea in 1808. With the death of his father, his family was left with poor financial support so they moved in with his wealthy uncles. He was left immobile for several months due to a leg injury and that is where he gained his love for reading and writing. His uncles sent him to Bowdoin College from 1821-1825 where he met and became friends with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and future 1853 president Franklin Pierce. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s life was full of Puritan legacy. An ancestor, William Hathorne, came to America from England
In the short story, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the Mr. Hooper’s black veil and the words that can describe between him and the veil. Hawthorne demonstrates how a black veil can describe as many words. Through the story, Hawthorne introduces the reader to Mr. Hooper, a parson in Milford meeting-house and a gentlemanly person, who wears a black veil. Therefore, Mr. Hooper rejects from his finance and his people, because they ask him to move the veil, but he does not want to do it. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Mr. Hooper’s black veil symbolizes sins, darkness, and secrecy in order to determine sins that he cannot tell to anyone, darkness around his face and neighbors, and secrecy about the black veil.