The Power of Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Power of Nathaniel Hawthorne

New England in the early 1800's, before the Civil War, was a place teeming with artists, intellectuals, and reformers of every sort. Many of America's great literary geniuses came out of this era; and among the greatest of these was Nathaniel Hawthorne. He was, as Q. D. Leavis put it, "the critic and interpreter of American cultural history and thereby the finder and creator of a literary tradition (Kaul 27)," and, "a sociological novelist in effect, employing a poetic technique which communicates instead of stating his findings (Kaul 28)." In his stories, Hawthorne pointed out many characteristics of American society and of human nature, and brought about a new tradition in American literature.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, amidst much celebration, for it was the Fourth of July, 1804. His father, Nathaniel Hathorne (when Hawthorne began writing he changed the spelling), was a sea captain. His mother was Elizabeth Clarke Manning. He had an older sister, Elizabeth, called Ebie, and a younger named Maria Louisa. In 1808, the year of Louisa's birth, his father died while on a voyage in Surinam. Mrs. Hathorne soon moved her family to the nearby Manning house, where she had grown up and where her family still lived. For the better part of Nathaniel's childhood, the family remained dependent on relatives.

When he was nine years old, Nathaniel severely sprained his foot, and for three years was badly crippled. No longer able to participate in childhood games, he became an avid reader. He spent evenings lying in front of the fireplace reading the classics and playing with the cats, of which he was very fond (Van Doren 10). These years in which he could do little more th...

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... the allegorical vision seems to have been strongly impressed upon the New England literary mind (Kaul 12)." While sometimes Hawthorne's allegory is overdone or apparently unnecessary, it makes his writing what it is. Allegory is Hawthorne's unmistakable signature. He uses it, and other devices such as figures of speech and irony, to bring into his prose the unmeasured poetry that makes it great.

Bibliography

Cohen, B. Bernard, ed. The Recognition of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1969.

Hawthorne, Hildegarde. Romantic Rebel. New York: Appleton-Century, 1932.

Kaul, A. N., ed. Hawthorne: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.

Van Doren, Mark. Nathaniel Hawthorne. New York: The Viking Press, 1966.

Wood, James Playsted. The Unpardonable Sin. New York: Pantheon Books, 1970.