Public Shame, Private Pain

Nathaniel Hawthorne, an insightful author of his time, focused his writings on sin and hypocrisy. Born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804, he was the great-great-grandson of John Hathorne who served as judge in the Salem Witch Trials of the seventeenth century. His father died of yellow fever when he was 4 years old, leaving his mother to care for Nathaniel and his two sisters. Because of his mother’s grief at the loss of his father, Hawthorne ensued a sadness that followed him throughout his life (Diorio). At age 9, Hawthorne injured his foot, causing him to become bed ridden for almost three years. During that time, he grew into an avid reader (Meltzer). He was home-schooled until he attended Bowdoin College, and years upon graduating took the job as the editor of a Boston-based magazine. At Bowdoin College, Nathaniel Hawthorne was introduced to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Franklin Pierce (Diorio). Hawthorne spent much time writing The Scarlet Letter partly based on what he observed from his job at the Boston Custom’s House (Morey). Once Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody, they moved to Concord, Maine where Hawthorne befriended the Transcendentalists, writers including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Amos Bronson Alcott (Morey). He had three children with Sophia: Una, Julian and Rose. The President of the United States, Franklin Pierce, named Hawthorne as Consul to Liverpool, England where he served for four years. During the Civil War, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s good friend Thoreau died which caused Hawthorne to loss his will to write and live (Diorio). While on a trip New Hampshire with a former president, Franklin Pierce, Hawthorne was weakened by an illness and depressed (Meltzer). He died on that trip in...

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...ld; never lie. No matter what way society thinks one should live, people should live their lives straying away from sin and admitting to their wrongs, and keeping in good terms with their community, not trying to cause another ill-will.

Works Cited

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Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. 1850. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2003.

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Meltzer, Milton. Nathaniel Hawthorne: A Biography. Minneapolis: Twenty-First

Century Books, 2007. Print.

Morey, Eileen, ed. Readings on The Scarlet Letter. San Diego: Greenhaven Press,

1998. Print.

Stade, Nancy. "What Is a Reasonable Response to Hester Prynne's Crime?"

Introduction. The Scarlet Letter. By Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: Barnes

& Noble, 2003. xiii-xxxv. Print.