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How history influences American literature
Puritans/salem witch trials
Puritans/salem witch trials
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Nathaniel Hawthorne The 19th century had many great achievements happen within its 100-year time period. From the building of the Erie Canal, to the steel plow being invented. From the invention of the telegraph, to Thomas Edison creating the first light bulb. While all of these inventions have stood the test of time, one has lasted just as long; the inspiring tales a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804. His name by birth was Nathaniel Hawthorne. He added the w to his name when he began to sign his stories. ("Nathaniel Hawthorne" American Writers II) One of Hawthorne’s ancestors was actually a judge in the Salem witch trials. The guilt and shame Hawthorne felt of his ancestors were included in some of his stories. (McGraw Hill, pg.67) Hawthorne’s father was a sea captain. He died of fever when Hawthorne was only four. Shortly after his father’s death, his mother was forced to move her three children into her parent’s home and then into her brother’s home in Maine. Hawthorne’s childhood was not particularly abnormal, as many famous authors have claimed to have. Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College and graduated after four years. After graduation, he returned to Salem. Contrary to his family’s expectations, Hawthorne did not begin to read law or enter business, rather he moved into his mother’s house to turn himself into a writer. Hawthorne wrote his mother, "I do not want to be a doctor and live by men’s diseases, nor a minister to live by their sins, nor a lawyer and live by their quarrels. So, I don’t see that there is anything left for me but to be an author." (" American Writers II, pg. 227) For the next twelve years Hawthorne lived in his mother’s house. He Seldemly went out except late at night, or when going to another city. " I had read endlessly all sorts of good and good for nothing books, and in dearth of other employment, had early begun to scribble sketches and stories, most of which I burned." Reflected Hawthorne. (McGraw Hill, pg.68) Hawthorne’s first novel, Fanshawe, was published anonymously in 1828 at his own expense. Because of a lack of sales, Hawthorne recalled every copy he could find of the book and destroyed them. When a local printer delayed publishing his Seven Tales of My Native Land, Hawthorne withdrew the manuscript and burned it " in a mood half-savage, half-despairing.
Nathaniel Hawthorne the author of The Scarlet Letter uses the literary device of chiaroscuro to effectively develop his characters. Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804 to a prominent family. His father passed away on a voyage when he was four years old. His relatives recognized his talent, and they helped pay his way to Bowdoin College. Hawthorne and his classmates became the most prominent people in America at that time. He had many strong ties with important people from attending Bowdoin, such as: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Franklin Pierce. In 1828, his first novel, Fanshawe was anonymously published at his own expense. In 1842, he befriended Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Bronson Alcott, and married Sophia Peabody, an active member of the Transcendentalist movement. In 1846, he was appointed surveyor of the Port of Salem where he worked for the next three years, being unable to earn a living as a writer. He wrote The Scarlet Letter in 1850, showing the Puritans as hypocrites fixated on sin. This romance was an immediate success, even though it received many criticisms for its risqué topic. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne effectively uses chiaroscuro to develop the personalities of Hester Prynne, Pearl, and Arthur Dimmesdale.
Throughout our history, we have repeatedly tried to exploit the environment (i.e. nature) in order to perfect our lives. We not only manipulated the materialistic and economic aspect of our world, but we have also struggled to use the moral and the spiritual in making progress within ourselves. Instead of relying on ourselves to accomplish this purpose, we have unfortunately sought help from society's traditional institutions. These institutions, in turn, have tired to manipulate us for their own good, resulting in more harm than help. During the nineteenth century, authors such as Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne recognized this and have tried to stop it through their writings. To this end, they have adopted Ralph Waldo Emerson's view that people choose to deny the power of reason, or their own mind. He believed that until people choose to see the "light" of reason, they will remain morally dead. With the achievement of reason, external institutions will remain useless and they will understand that the spirit they so vehemently desired is indeed within them and will without a doubt eliminate their moral darkness. Therefore, Emerson affirmed that the only eternal law is that of experience and that "the one thing in the world of value is the active soul-the soul, free, sovereign, active." This essay will discuss how these authors (Melville, Hawthorne, and Dickinson) composed writings that mimicked Emerson's view of life to accentuate individualism against subjugation.
Waggoner, Hyatt H. “Nathaniel Hawthorne.” In Six American Novelists of the Nineteenth Century, edited by Richard Foster. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1968.
The novel “The Scarlet Letter” was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850 and is probably the book for which he is most famous. He was a prolific writer and wrote many short stories, a few collections, and several novels during his writing career. Nathaniel Hawthorne was injured as a child and became an avid reader and decided that he wanted to be a writer. Though he was a lackluster college student, after graduation he returned to his hometown of Salem, Massachusetts and began his writing career in earnest. Not only did Nathaniel Hawthorne have one of his ancestors who had been one of the three judges involved in the Salem witch trials (of which he was not too proud, but it probably helped his career because it was depicted in his writings), but also he had many influential friends to include President Franklin Pierce, Henry David Thoreau (Author), and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Poet), Herman Melville (Author) and he had actually rented the “Old Manse” mentioned in “The Scarlet Letter” from Ralph Waldo Emerson (Essayist). The “Scarlet Letter” is a work of non-fiction, but the preface is loosely based on Hawthorne’s actual life due to the fact that he actually did work at the Customs House in Salem and did lose his job there, which gave
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...
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, the Puritan community banned all forms of sin. Sin was looked upon as evil, being connected to the devil and his dark ways. Hester Prynne, the main character of the story, was shunned by the rest of the Puritan world after committing the sin of adultery. She lived in a world where it was not accepted. She was isolated from the world around her, having little hope. Throughout the novel, symbols such as the character of the kind woman, the wild rose bush outside of the prison doors and the character of Pearl, Hester Prynne's illegitimate child, are used to show that even in a world full of sin and darkness, there is always hope.
In the scarlet letter the core of the story line revolves around a movement known as the Puritan. The Puritan movement began when King Henry declared England's independence from the Church of Rome and he appointed himself head of the new Church of England. King Henry did this because he wanted to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon in order to marry Anne Boleyn. By appointing himself head of the Church of England he was able to grant himself his own divorce that the pope would not give him. At first there was little difference between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic but later with the spread of Protestant reformers such as John Calvin the church began to change. Some people thought the church of England retained too many of the superstitious practises of the Roman Catholic Church. They wanted simpler truths and less structured forms of worship like the earlier Christians, because they wanted to purify the Church of England, they got the name of Puritans. John Geree describes the puritans as "one, that honoured God above all, and under God gave every one his due"!
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an extraordinary writer, who used real life experiences in every one of his stories. However, growing up in a Puritan society during a reformation gave Hawthorne a distorted view on God’s character. Hawthorne was intelligent, but by no means a people person, which created a pathway for him to become an author. There were a few key points in his life growing in a religion zealous society that lead him to abandon his faith. Hence, the short story of “Young Goodman Brown” representing that humans are cynical and evil, and the dangers of losing your faith in God.
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’s ancestral connection to the Salem Witch Trials influenced his writing style. His ancestor was one of the judges that sentenced innocent women to death. This idea, of his ancestors sentencing innocent women to death, struck a deep meaning with Hawthorne and made him change from Hathorne to Hawthorne so he could distance himself from that event in history. The whole controversy over the witch trials deeply affected Hawthorne and is evident in his short stories. For example, in “The Minister’s Black Veil”, "But the strangest part of the affair is the effect of this vagary, even on a sober-minded man like myself. The black veil, though it covers only our pastor's face, throws its influence over his whole person, and makes him ghostlike from head to foot. Do you not feel it so?" (“The Minister’s Black Veil”). The black veil signified Hawthorne’s own skeleton in the closet; his connection to the witch trials that caused him so much trouble. Like the black veil the witch trials was only one small part of his ancestors life, but it threw influence over t...
Nathaniel Hawthorne is a well known 19th century author. One reason he is well known is his view towards Puritanism. Hawthorne would often criticize Puritanism in his short stories and novels. Two short stories that show Hawthorne’s view of Puritanism are “Young Goodman Brown” and “The ministers black veil”.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804. Descended from a staunch Puritan family, Hawthorne?s father was a presiding judge over the Salem Witch Trials. Hawthorne?s father died when he was young and he spent much time alone during his childhood. He had an introspective nature and was an avid reader. He began to write while he was in college and following graduation, returned to Salem where he entered a twelve-year literary apprenticeship. His first collection of short stories, Twice-Told tales, was published in 1837. Soon afterwards, he joined for a short period an experimental utopian community outside of Boston called Brook Farm in 1841. In 1842, Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody and they moved to Concord, Massachusetts. There Hawthorne wrote many pieces including his next collection of stores in 1846 called ?Mosses from an Old Manse.? From 1846 to 1849, Hawthorne worked in a Salem customhouse. Following his dismissal was a two-year period of intense productivity after which he wrote very little fiction, although he did keep notebooks. Hawthorne died in 1864 following several years of inability to complete any of this writings. Much of Hawthorne's work is set in colonial New England and many of his short stories have been read as moral allegories influenced by his Puritan ancestry. He believed that the misfortunes of his immediate family were the result of d...
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.
It seems necessary to write down some lines about the author. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. Because of the involvement of his ancestor in the Salem witch trials , Nathaniel later added a "w" to make his name "Hawthorne" in order to hide this relation. He entered Bowdoin College in 1821, and graduated in 1825. Hawthorne published his first work, Fanshawe, in 1828. He published several short stories after that which he collected in 1837 as Twice-Told Tales. His masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter, was published in 1850. A political appointment took Hawthorne and family to Europe before their return to The Wayside in 1860. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864.
The "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" An eccentric aging physician, Dr. Heidegger, calls his old. friends and contemporaries to test his waters of the "fountain of youth." . As the doctor himself sits by to enjoy the show, each of his. four aged friends eagerly quaffs more and more of the magic potion.