Nathaniel Hawthorne's Influence On Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne is an American author born during 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. He is best known today for his short-stories and novels, including “The Scarlet Letter”. Hawthorne worked in the Boston Custom House to weigh and measure goods. In his novel, “The Scarlet Letter”, Hawthorne dedicated the first chapter to his experience in the Custom House and described the setting while he was there. Eventually, Hawthorne was fired from the Custom House and in response, he decided to write in order to temporarily ease some of his financial burdens. In his novel, Hawthorne set the story in Boston, Massachusetts Bay colony during the 17th century. His depicted the Puritans as subjects of guilt, sin, and conflict between emotions and intelligence. It has been made clear throughout “The Scarlet Letter” that Hawthorne
His ancestors were judges in the Salem witch trials, and they oversaw the executions of many people. Hawthorne strongly disagreed with his ancestors and was ashamed of their actions. Because of his past, Hawthorne portrays the Puritans as cruel people with strict laws and religious values. While the Puritan community in “The Scarlet Letter” demonstrated nothing but hatred toward Hester and Dimmesdale, Hawthorne attempted to appeal to the reader’s emotional side of the characters using compassion and empathy. It is obvious that Hawthorne did not like the Puritans in his book.
The society developed by the Puritans was firm and suppressive, with little to no room for individualism or creativity. The colony would have likely not survived without the community’s hard work, faith, and perseverance of the religious leaders. The leaders of the colony formed a civilization where rules were clear and well-defined. There were always high anticipated principles of behavior from the Puritans and their