Title: Nathaniel Hawthorne18041864 Image Courtesy Library of Congress
1Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864)Image Courtesy
Library of Congress
2Key Dates Hawthorne in Context
- Consider the classic American works published in
a five-year period with the United States
seventy-five years old - 1850 Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter
- Emersons Representative Men
- 1851 Melvilles Moby-Dick
- 1852 Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin
-
- 1854 Thoreaus Walden
- 1855 Whitmans Leaves of Grass
3Key Facts about Hawthorne
- Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, on
July 4, 1804, into a family that had long been in
the area One ancestor had come over in 1630 and
another presided over the Salem witch trials. - In 1825, he graduated from Bowdoin College, where
he became friends with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
and Franklin Pierce (later to become the 14th
president of the United States). - After graduation, he spent the next twelve years
in his mothers Salem home developing his
literary skills. He called this period his
twelve dark years in an effort to create a
legend of a gloomy, solitary existence. - In truth, he visited friends and frequented local
taverns he took summer tours taking advantage of
an uncles stage-line business and he found
himself interested in long, sensational murder
trials.
4Key Facts about Hawthorne
- Hawthorne, however, did develop a fascination for
introspection, morbidity, and the dark side of
existence. Thus, those years were more
psychologically than socially dark. - In 1837, Hawthorne published Twice-Told Tales, a
collection of short stories that he had published
in magazines. Sales were slight. - Beginning in 1839 and until 1849, he worked at
the Boston Custom House through political
connections. - In 1841, he spent seven months at Brook Farm, the
Transcendentalist utopian community. - 1842, he married Sophia Peabody and they settled
in Old Manse, the home of Emersons ancestors and
Emerson himself when he wrote Nature in 1836.
5Key Facts about Hawthorne
- With sales of his writings still meager, he
returned to Salem and took a job as a surveyor in
the Custom House in 1846. That same year, he
issued a collection of short stories, Mosses from
an Old Manse. When the Democrats were defeated in
the 1849 election, Hawthorne lost his position in
the Custom House. He began work on The Scarlet
Letter. - Published in 1850, The Scarlet Letter was an
immediate success, bringing Hawthorne fame and
profit. - Now at the height of his powers, Hawthorne
published major works, The House of the Seven
Gables (1851) and The Blithedale Romance (1852).
6Key Facts about Hawthorne
- In 1852, Hawthorne wrote The Life of Franklin
Pierce. When Pierce, his college friend became
U.S. president, he rewarded Hawthorne by making
him consul at Liverpool (1853-1857). The
appointment gave Hawthorne a chance to tour
England and Europe. In 1860, Hawthorne published
the allegorical novel The Marble Faun, inspired
by a year in Italy. - Hawthorne returned home in 1860. His last years
were marked by anxiety over financial worries and
the Civil War. - Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864 while on a walking
tour.
7Key Issues Hawthorne and the Puritans
- Hawthornes best work was inspired by the
Puritans. Consider The Scarlet Letter, Young
Goodman Brown, The Ministers Black Veil, The
Maypole of Merry Mount, and Ethan Brand. - The Puritans gave Hawthorne artistic material
from which he could speculate about the psyche
and the effects of the past on the present. - Hawthorne presents the Puritans as dour, gloomy,
narrow-minded, and dismal wretches (ATIL, p.
1336). - For Hawthorne, the Puritan ethos represented a
censorship of the imagination. - Hawthornes portrait of the Puritans is harsh and
not completely accurate. The Puritans did try to
enjoy life they liked colorful clothes they
took pride in well-kept homes and they liked to
take a drink, although they despised the drunkard.
8Key Issues The Subconscious Mind
- Hawthorne is concerned with internal struggles
and dilemmas, and what lies beneath the conscious
mind. - Internal forces often pull his characters in two
directions. - While Emerson calls on individuals to trust
thyself and listen to their inner voice,
Hawthorne seems to respond with a question which
inner voice do I listen to? - In My Kinsman, Major Molineux, Robin Molineux
seems to be looking for his uncles residence
and he is. But is he subconsciously trying to
subvert this intention? What does Hawthorne
mean, for instance, by Robins instinctive
antipathy to authority (ATIL, p. 1303)? - Consider Wakefield who leaves his wife on a
whim-wham (p. 1321) remember Emersons whim
in Self-Reliance (p. 936). Wakefields motives
seem inscrutable.
9Key Issues The Journey Within the Loss of
Innocence
- Unconsciously, Hawthornes characters frequently
wander into unfamiliar territories, sometimes
representative of inner explorations, as in the
allegorical Young Goodman Brown, whose journey
into the heart of the solitary woods can be
read as a journey into his own heart. - Consider Goodman Browns inner investigation.
How does it result in a loss of innocence? - Frequently in Hawthorne, the loss of innocence or
an awareness of a sin-ridden world has
devastating results. Consider Ethan Brand and
Goodman Brown. Why is Robin Molineux more
fortunate? - Characters are often confused by their new-found
knowledge. Can Rappaccinis Daughter be
interpreted with this in mind?
10Key Issues Sin
- Hawthorne is interested in the psychological
aspects of sin, not the act of sinning or the sin
itself. He focuses on the effects of the sin on
the sinners and on those close to the sinners. - Hawthorne investigates the effects of inherited
sin, hidden sin, and the consequences of exposing
sin. - Many Hawthorne characters are obsessed with sin.
Consider Ethan Brand, Goodman Brown, Reverend
Hooper, John Endicott, and others. - In Rappaccinis Daughter, Beatrice suffers for
the sins of her father. - The Scarlet Letter is a novel about sin.
Consider the effects of the sin on Hester and
Pearl consider Dimmesdales struggle with hidden
sin, and the corruption of Chillingworth as he
pries into the heart of another in an attempt to
expose sin.
11Key Issues Sin
- In Hawthorne and his Mosses, Melville writes of
Hawthorne - Certain it is, however, that this great power of
blackness in him derives its force from its
appeals to that Calvinistic sense of Innate
Depravity and Original Sin, from whose
visitations, in some shape or other, no deeply
thinking mind is always wholly free.
12Key Issues Isolation Withdrawal
- Many of Hawthornes characters live in isolation,
frequently self-imposed. - Hawthornes characters seem afraid of revealing
themselves to one another. - Many characters in Hawthornes fiction avoid
marriage or intimacy Goodman Brown after his
loss of innocence, Rev. Hooper, Ethan Brand, and
Aylmer in The Birthmark. - His characters replace intimacy with other
external concerns.
13Key Issues The Search for Knowledge Perfection
- When Hawthornes characters strive for perfection
of any sort, the results are devastating for them
and their families. - Intellectual pride operates throughout
Hawthornes fiction Rappaccinis Daughter,
The Birthmark, Young Goodman Brown, The
Ministers Black Veil, and The Scarlet Letter. - Consider Ethan Brand, in which the protagonist
explains the unpardonable sin and its
consequences.
14Key Issues Ambiguities
- Hawthornes fiction is complex. He is
intentionally ambiguous as he captures the
complexity of existence. - The interplay of light-dark imagery in several
works ( Young Goodman Brown, Ethan Brand, My
Kinsman, Major Molineux in ATIL 11/e, shorter
ed.) suggests not only an awareness of polarities
but also the realization that polarities cannot
always be reconciled. (This is also true of The
Scarlet Letter, not included in the volume.) - Very rarely are Hawthornes characters completely
good or admirable, or completely evil. - Hawthornes allegories and parables rarely lend
themselves to neat interpretations. Consider
Young Goodman Brown, The Ministers Black
Veil. (This is also true of his complex novel,
The Marble Faun.)
15Key Issues Ambiguities
- The world and morality are ambiguous in
Hawthornes fiction, and yet as the laughter
indicates at the end of several stories
(Birthmark, Molineux), Hawthorne seems to be
comfortable with ambiguity in a way that Melville
was not. Hawthorne wrote of his friend He can
neither believe nor be comfortable in his
unbelief (Journal, November 20, 1856). - Hawthorne seems to demonstrate what John Keats
called negative capability that is when man
is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries,
doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact
reason (Keats, letter, December 1817).
16Key Issues Intrusive Narrators Humor
- Intrusive Narrators
- Even in an era that welcomed intrusive narrators,
Hawthornes are among the most surprisingly
intrusive. Consider the comments on laughter in
Ethan Brand, for example (ATIL, p. 689). - Humor
- From time to time, Hawthorne can be humorous.
- He can be self-deprecating. Consider The
Custom-House and his journals (not in this
volume). - He can be ironically humorous. Consider the many
references to Robin Molineux as shrewd. - In their lack of compassion, his characters can
demonstrate perhaps a dark sense of humor
Aminadabs inappropriate laughter in The
Birthmark, Bartrams comment at the end of
Ethan Brand, and the Man in the Moons comment
at the end of Molineux.
17Key Issues Young Goodman Brown
- Hawthorne wrote Young Goodman Brown in 1835.
It has become an American classic and, in many
ways, is Hawthornes representative short story. - In Goodman Brown Hawthorne explores his
dominant themes, themes that would later find
full force in The Scarlet Letter. - Consider Puritanism in Goodman Brown
- Goodman Brown appears to be a potential leader of
his Puritan community. Consider why he goes into
the woods? Could he have been asked to
investigate some kind of evil doings? - Is Brown, like many of Hawthornes Puritans,
preoccupied with the goodness and evil in others
and himself? Does he seem morbidly
introspective? Is he humorless and joyless?
18Key Issues Young Goodman Brown
- The Subconscious Mind and the Journey Within
- Consider the internal forces operating on Brown,
which might include doubts about his own goodness
and purity. Brown, newly married, is in a
transitional state in his life. - Consider the story as an allegory. Could the
forest be Browns own heart and soul? Note how
in the heart of the dark wilderness Brown was
the chief horror of the scene (p. 645) or the
reference to the heart of the solitary woods
(p. 646). - Consider the sudden appearance of his companion
who bears a considerable resemblance to Brown
(p. 642). Could he represent a part of Brown
himself? The part Brown tries to resist but must
yield to in his investigation? -
19Key Issues Young Goodman Brown
- The Journey Within, the Loss of Innocence,
Isolation and Withdrawal - Consider the following The fiend in his own
shape is less hideous than when he rages in the
breast of man (p. 646 ). - Browns companion tells him that all must
penetrate, in every bosom, the deep mystery of
sin (p. 648). Brown then realizes all that was
wicked in his own heart and that evil is the
nature of mankind (p. 648). - Browns discovery, or self-discovery, leads him
to lose his innocent Faith, as he shrank from
the bosom of his wife (p. 649), withdrew from
his community, and sank into a solitary and
lifelong melancholy.
20Key Issues Young Goodman Brown
- Sin and Perfection
- Do Brown and the Puritans seem obsessed with sin
in the story? Do they have an implicit belief
that near perfection is possible? - Ambiguities
- Light and dark images and shadows suggest
distortion, uncertainty, and a lack of clarity.
Consider the following - The dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest
trees concealed maybe Indians or maybe the devil
(p. 641). - At the time of the journey it was deep dusk and
much could only be nearly discerned (p. 642).
21Key Issues Young Goodman Brown
- Consider the field, with red light and a fire
blazing, hemmed in by the dark wall, where
the congregation alternately shone forth, then
disappeared in a shadow, and again grew out of
the darkness (p. 646). - The four blazing pines obscurely discovered
shapes and visages of horror on the smoke
wreaths (p. 647). - Consider the lurid light and the questions
about the basin hollowed in the rock (p. 648). - In addition, sounds are unclear, indistinct (p.
645). - Ultimately, the story poses a question had Brown
fallen asleep and dreamed his vision or did he
witness an actual witch-meeting?
22Readings
- The American Tradition in Literature 11/e
- Read the heading and selections for Nathaniel
Hawthorne (pp. 626-97) - Ariel American
- Visit Ariel American and explore the resources on
Hawthorne, including an electronic version of
Young Goodman Brown with hyperlinked notes and
a video clip of a dramatization of this classic
tale.
23Writing Topics
- Compare Hawthornes and Poes use of Gothic
settings and imagery, dreams and hypnagogic
states (the state between sleep and wakefulness).
- Consider the hypnagogic state of Goodman Brown
(pp. 640-49) with that of the narrator of The
Raven (pp. 574-77). How because of this state
do their surroundings take on different meanings?
- Consider the importance of setting to The
Birthmark (particularly the laboratory) (pp.
657-68) with that of Ligeia (pp. 581-91). - Consider the Gothic overtones and the quests of
the protagonists of The Ministers Black Veil
(pp. 649-57) and Ethan Brand (pp. 686-97) with
that of The Fall of the House of Usher (pp.
597-604)