Preview

nathanial hawthorne

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
496 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
nathanial hawthorne
Nathanial Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a prominent early American Author who contributed greatly to the evolution of modern American literature. A New England native, Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4, 1804 and died on May 19, 1864 in New Hampshire. An avid seaman, Hawthorne's father died in 1808 when Nathaniel Hawthorne was only a young child. After his father's death, Hawthorne showed a keen interest in his father's worldwide nautical adventures and often read the logbooks his father had compiled from sailing abroad. Hawthorne was a descendant of a long line of New England Puritans, which sparked his interest in the Puritan way of life. After he graduated from Bowdoin College in 1825, Hawthorne returned to his home in Salem were he began to write in semi-seclusion. Hawthorne published his first novel, Fanshawe in 1828. In 1839, Hawthorne was appointed weigher and gauger at the Boston Custom House. He later married Sophia Amelia Peabody in 1842. In the following years, Hawthorne wrote his more famous novels which shaped his own literary style, as well as the genres of the romance novel and short story.
Hawthorne’s writing style
Hawthorne's works belong to romanticism or, more specifically, dark romanticism, cautionary tales that suggest that guilt, sin, and evil are the most inherent natural qualities of humanity. Many of his works are inspired by Puritan New England, combining historical romance loaded with symbolism and deep psychological themes, bordering on surrealism. His depictions of the past are a version of historical fiction used only as a vehicle to express common themes of ancestral sin, guilt and retribution. His later writings also reflect his negative view of the Transcendentalism movement.
Hawthorne explored an interesting human psychology through his exploration of the dark side of human consciousness. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne introduced 'a profound comment on the breakdown of human relationships in the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is one of the most analyzed and most discussed literary works in American literature. Hawthorne's ambiguity and strong use of symbols have made this novel very complex and detailed. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many symbols to give insight into characters and promote his views on society. The scaffold scenes in The Scarlet Letter tell the reader exactly what is to come, and the presence of light in those scenes gives the reader insight into the characters.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Hawthorne successfully portrays the use of extended metaphors, foreshadowing and language throughout the Scarlet Letter to easily grab hold or grasp the reader’s attentive minds.…

    • 412 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne continues to keep me on my toes in these chapters of the The Scarlet Letter. I found multiple themes and symbols that Hawthorne embodied in these chapters- mainly sin and effect, irony, and of course; the scarlet letter.…

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    American Lit Unit 8

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages

    4. What is the principle appeal of Hawthorne's work? It is in the quality of its allegory, always richly ambivalent, providing enigmas which each reader solves in his or her own terms.…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Common throughout religious stories we read today mainly focuses on how the author feels about their faith. However, in Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter it composed a both beautiful and tragic story while still creating a deep impact on the conflicting views of the society and nature in the Puritan society. Hawthorne uses his main characters in this novel to focus on three main rhetorical strategies; symbolism, hypocrisy and maliciousness. While using these strategies Hawthorne is able to create a story of a woman who was condemned and exposed of her sin in the Puritan Society.…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Dark. Light . Bland. Spontaneous. Restricted. Free. Puritanism. Romanticism. Those characteristics are comparing two major beliefs in the nineteenth century: Puritanism and Romanticism. Characteristics such as "dark, bland, restricted" describe the authoritarian principles of Puritanism. In contrast, "light, spontaneous, free" depict the more liberal beliefs of Romanticism. As witnessed in his novel, Hawthorne’s root as a Puritan allowed him to comprehend Puritan's strict teachings and successfully corporate that into his writing. For example, Puritans' oppressive lifestyle prohibits an individual to turn to human intercourse for lust and enforces the fact that God is everything;…

    • 1049 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne promotes the idea of socially on brought guilt through the interactions of characters and Puritan beliefs in The Scarlet Letter. He masterfully depicts a newly settled New England and it's strict religious faith, which is still seen in much of New England today. He uses symbolism, irony and to fully bring out the true potential of his story.…

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne in the novel, the scarlet letter, portrays the level of wickedness that lives within humans. Pyle proves this to his audience by his precise and various strategies. Hawthorns dramatic irony both helps build suspense while foreshadowing how blind the Puritans are towards Chillingsworth true character, he foreshadows the pain and suffering Chillingworth will soon unravel upon dimmesdale; he does this through foreshadow, hyperbole and point of view.…

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Hawthorne first began writing, he had the air of a transcendentalist. But after some time, he began to stray away from the aspect of transcendentalism and soon, his writings even displayed a sort of disdain for the movement. Hawthorne soon found himself immersed in the dark romanticism movement. Dark Romanticism was a new style in literature and Hawthorne was amongst one of the first authors within the growing genre. This style of writing is prominent in his story Young Goodman Brown. Published in 1835, Young Goodman Brown presents the struggle between good and evil and the concept of original sin. The story was one that dealt with how evil could be presented and perceived. The story also displayed Hawthorne's Puritan background and one could infer Hawthorne's disdain for this link. In 1850, Hawthorne published The Scarlet Letter. The story was another way that Hawthorne presented his disdain and criticism of the Puritans and their beliefs. The Scarlet Letter quickly became Hawthorne's most well known literary work and sold a few thousand copies upon being published. People were instantly intrigued with the novel and Hawthorne became a well-known…

    • 702 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    IV. Romance A. Between Phoebe Pyncheon and Clifford V. Conclusion A. Thesis Statement B. Review Nathaniel Hawthorne was born July 4, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts. He was a descendent of early Puritan settlers, which had a great influence on his life and writings. When he graduated from Bowdoin College he published his first novel, anonymously, a gothic romance Fanshawe in 1828. The next ten years Hawthorne collected his stories and published them as Twice Told Tales in 1837. In 1841 he moved into Brook Farm Community which was a transcendentalist group living. Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody in Boston July 9, 1842. After Mosses from an Old Manse in 1846 he couldn 't support himself. In 1850…

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Poe vs HAWTHRONES

    • 1637 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Poe and Hawthorne were two American writers who have defined literature as we know it today. They greatly elevated the standards for short fictional stories (“Poe Defines the ‘Well Made Tale’”), and were the first to speak to the human heart and to convey truths that withstand the test of time (“Hawthorne Introduces the Concept of Romance”). Poe placed the emphasis of story writing on a single effect that he wanted to leave with the reader, and developed his stories around that effect or final emotion (“Poe Defines”). Hawthorne, on the other hand, placed importance on the actual representation of the author’s imagination and conception of the world around himself (“Hawthorne Introduces”). These innovative thoughts and experimentations in language have forever changed what we appreciate in writing. Poe and Hawthorne were vital in the development of American literature today because of their inventive uses of symbolism, theme, language, characterization, and setting to embody the main purposes in their short stories, but we see distinctive differences in the way these are used to set the completely different moods required for romance writing and gothic writing.…

    • 1637 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the world today, themes and symbolisms have played a major role in the development and presentation of past and present novels. These themes and symbolisms within a novel shape the overall story and often work hand in hand to convey its purpose and meaning. One such novel would include The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne; in this story, along with all his others, he has incorporated his three predominant, driving themes: sin, hypocrisy, and corruption. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses the occurrences of the scarlet letter, the scaffold, the Puritans, the prison, and the forest in the story to develop his themes of sin, hypocrisy, and corruption within the Puritan society.…

    • 2612 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne uses romanticism to portray the human soul under extreme pressures. Romanticism emphasizes individuality, imagination to discover truth, and values intuition over reason. Then, Romanticism branches out into Dark Romanticism, which embodies horrific themes, presents that individuals are prone to sin and self-destruction, affected psychologically from sin and guilt. In “The Scarlet Letter”, Nathaniel Hawthorne employs elements of romanticism and symbolism to communicate the idea that sin and guilt has a great impact in the manifestations of humans.…

    • 1124 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne had many obstacles to overcome as a child. Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4, 1804 (American Writers 223). During this time period, Hawthorne witnessed the fall of Salem due to the Embargo Act. It caused the shipbuilding industry to slowly diminish which immensely impacted Hawthorne’s family since his father was a shipbuilder. Suddenly, at the age of four, Hawthorne lost his father forcing his family (now consisting of his mother and siblings) to move in with his uncle. Hawthorne, however, still considered Salem as his hometown because his family was a prominent throughout the society for generations. In fact, one of Hawthorne’s ancestor was held in such high regard that he was seated as one of the judges…

    • 426 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel The Scarlet Letter shows many problems of the human nature that were present at that time and are still present today. There is anger, there is hatred, and there is remorse. Nathaniel Hawthorne shows all three of these problems through his novel. He has Roger Chillingworth show anger when Hester committed adultery, he has Roger say that he hates what he has become, and he has Arthur and Hester show remorse and guilt throughout the entire novel about there misdeeds.…

    • 643 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics