Nathaniel Hawthorne was a great writer of the nineteenth century. To this day, his works continue to be widely read and highly regarded. He was a great writer and wrote about themes that are timeless and could be understood by people in his time as well as today (Diorio 134-135). His use of literary devices such as symbolism, irony, fantasy and illusion made his works very entertaining and powerful. He was said to be a “literary genius” (Diorio 134).
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).
In 1842, he married Sophia Peabody and moved to Old Manse in Concord Massachusetts. After several years, due to financial difficulties, they moved back to Salem. It was here that Hawthorne began to write one of his greatest novels, The Scarlet Letter. This was a turning point for Hawthorne and made him famous. After this, he was financially stable and was able to focus totally on his writing (Waggoner 7-8). Hawthorne died on May 18, 1964 ...
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Millington, Richard H. Practicing Romance: Narrative Form and Cultural Engagement in Hawthorne's Fiction. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1992. Print.
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Waggoner, Hyatt Howe. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1962. Print.
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.
“Nathaniel Hawthorne – Biography.” The European Graduate School. The European Graduate School, n.d. Web. 17 Feb. 2014
Waggoner, Hyatt H. “Nathaniel Hawthorne.” In Six American Novelists of the Nineteenth Century, edited by Richard Foster. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1968.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writings have been read for many years, and many of his books have been on the required reading lists in the school curricula. His works convey themes of psychology and human nature through his crafty use of allegory and symbolism. These were essential tools in addressing topics that were too radical to be publicly addressed in the nineteenth century (Magill 1). He used these techniques to criticize some part of society, which is evident in his use of satire in the religious world (Hilton 1). Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writings impacted his contemporary society, despite the fact that his criticism and ideas weren’t widely popular and accepted.
Everyone has experiences that change their lives and influence all that they do. Everyone has that special someone, or something, that impacts their choices and work. Nathaniel Hawthorne definitely had these types of experiences throughout his lifetime. Authors in particular have certain people they look up to when it comes to their writing, and Hawthorne had many different people like this as he was writing all of his novels, including The Scarlet Letter. He also was inspired and influenced like different events he experienced in his years, in good ways and bad.
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.
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
A writer’s style is a combination of thousands of factors that abet a writer to create a unique meaning for each and every word they use; moreover, they invent the relationships and patterns found between these words. Every author has an unique writing style. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s was relative to what he was passionate about. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing style is reflective of his Puritan beliefs as indicated through his personal life and family background; his style is also indicative of the fact that his relationship with his wife was less than ideal; furthermore, these ideas are evident in “The Birthmark”, “The Minister’s Black Veil”, and “Young Goodman Brown”.
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...
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. 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. As a technician, Hawthorne’s style in literature was abundantly allegorical, using the characters and plot to acquire a connection and to show a moral lesson. His definition of romanticism was writing to show truths, which need not relate to history or reality. Human frailty and sorrow were the romantic topics, which Hawthorne focused on most, using them to finesse his characters and setting to exalt good and illustrate the horrors of immorality. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s experiences as a man, incite as a philosopher and skill as a technician can be seen when reading The Scarlet Letter.
“Mr. Hawthorne’s distinctive trait is invention, creation, imagination, originality…”(Poe). This was taken from a review of Hawthorne’s work written by Edgar Allen Poe in the late 1800’s. Nathaniel Hawthorne is a very well known author that had written books and works showing traits just as Poe had said. His stories and books are known worldwide and have been studied for many years. Through Hawthorne’s life, I believe he had developed a vast imagination. From developing an imagination, he had developed works that show his ability to make stories from his mind. Hawthorne used his imagination to develop his fascinating works.
Lathrop, G. P., ed. "Hawthorne, Nathaniel." The Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature. Binghamton, New York: Vail-Ballou, 1962. 439-40. Print.
Nathaniel Hawthorne an American author was born in Salem Massachusetts in 1804. One of his most famous books The Scarlet Letter takes place in puritan Boston in the 17th century. In this story a woman named Hester Prynne, has committed adultery the towns minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. Since she has committed adultery she is forced to wear an “A” on her bosom for the rest of her life as punishment for this sin. Nature is a major theme in this story. In this story nature plays so much of a role it is almost like it is another character in the story. Nature plays a critical role in The Scarlet Letter, it creates a reoccurring theme foreshadows future actions in the story. It also reflects the actions of some characters and the changes in their
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4th, 1804. He grew up with his
Martin, Terence. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Revised Edition. Twayne’s United States Authors Series. G.K. Hall & Company. Massachusetts. 1983.