American Author:

Nathaniel Hawthorne1804-1864

Biography• Born in 1804

• Salem, Massachusetts

• Father died at sea in 1808

• Grew up with his widowed mother

• Attended Bowdoin College 1821-25

• Classmates with Henry W. Longfellow (American poet) and Franklin Pierce (14th President)

• Returned to Salem in 1828

• Led a solitary existence

• Published Fanshawe, his first novel anonymously and at his own expense; it was a failure

• Published Twice-Told Tales in 1837, a collection of short stories which established him as a successful author

• Joined the Utopian community, Brook Farm in 1841

• Stayed less than one year• Was not suited to the

Transcendental philosophy and lifestyle

Biography

Married Sophia Amelia Peabody in 1842

“Nothing like our story was ever written or ever will be…”

N. Hawthorne

Landed a political appointment in 1839 as a Custom House official

Became Salem Custom House Surveyor in 1846

The Scarlet Letter

Begins writing his most famous novel in 1849

Biography 1850-1853• Published The Scarlet Letter and

The House of Seven Gables (which he considered to be his best novel)

• Is appointed as the U. S. Consul to Liverpool, England

• Traveled through

France and Italy

from 1858-1860• Returned to Concord; his health began to fail• Traveled to the White Mountains with Franklin

Pierce in 1864, and died in his sleep while away from his home and family

http://www.visitwhitemountains.com/htmdocs/postcard.htm

HAWTHORNE’SWRITING STYLE “Revealing the truth of the human heart…”

Hawthorne’s Theory of Writing

A romance is “ …the meeting ground of the actual and the imaginary … a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairyland, where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbue itself with the nature of the other. Ghosts might enter here without affrighting us.”

Characteristics of a Romance• Written on serious subjects which

reveal the “truth of the human heart”

• Chooses isolated settings

• Mixes real people with fictitious characters

• Mixes reality with fantasy

• Controls atmosphere by contrasting light with shade

Nathaniel Hawthorne

•America’s First Novelist•Anticipates themes and tones of the modern American novel

•Is a symbolist•Strongest element is characterization

•Themes ground in Puritan theology

Types of Conflict•Individual vs. Society•Passion vs. Conscience•Individual vs. Self•Individual vs. Individual

Hawthorne’s Favorite Themes

• Sin• Hypocrisy• Isolation• Past• Science• Alienation• Initiation• Inherited Guilt

•Pride•Influence of the past on the present•Nature of women•Power of passion•Role of the artist•Discovery of evil

http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap3/hawthorne.html#themes

Additional Themes• Humanity’s potential for cruelty

• The macabre

• The dark side of the individual

• Mortality

• Individual vs. society

• Hypocrisy vs. integrityhttp://www.glasgow-ky.com/fye/ms_fye/hawthorne.htm

Devices of the Gothic Novel• Manuscript

• Crime

• Religion

• Foreigners

• Deformity• Nature

• Gloomy castle• Armored knights

•Works of Art•Blood•Ghosts•Magic

http://www.navichat.com

Influences on Hawthorne

• Salem and the Custom House• Puritan family background• “Hanging Judge” John Hathorne of the Witch trials and

persecutor of the Quakers, William• Puritan writers, i.e., Cotton Mather• Nature

The Scarlet Letter…

• Is not a book about adultery or sin.

• Is about the effects of sin.

• Tells more about men’s souls than about their actions.

The Scarlet Letter • Is a psychological novel exploring the ravages

of guilt and remorse.• Concentrates on the effects of sin rather than

on the act itself.• Features four major characters each created

with one outstanding characteristics.• Unites the characters and separates them by

how they are affected differently by the letter.• Examines men’s souls rather than their

actions.

Symbolism …the use of a concrete

object to represent an abstract idea.

Symbols in The Scarlet

Letter include. . .• The scarlet letter “A” represents adultery

• The forest represents darkness & evil

• The scaffold and the prison represent punishment for sin

• The rose bush represents a moral lesson

The Scarlet Letter

“On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A.” Chapter 2

Hawthorne Quotations

What other dungeon is so dark as one's own

heart! What jailer so inexorable as one's self!

No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.

Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect whether he chooses to be so or not. Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hester and Pearl on the Scaffold

The Scarlet Letter