Nathaniel Hawthorne 18041864

1
Nathaniel Hawthorne ( 1804-1864 )

• Hawthornes works are the fruit of the Puritan
  consciousness of the New England, putting his
  heavy burden of the sense of sin into the
  creation of literature. He bloomed and sprouted
  from the granite of New England.
• 
  ---- Henry James

2
Puritans and the New World
3
Puritans and their religious life
4
Priest and his people
5
He bloomed and sprouted from the granite of
New England.
With Adams Fall, We sinned all.
6
Puritans then and now
7
Hawthornes Life

• 1.When 4 years old, his father died in the East
  Indies, leaving behind him 3 children (
  Nathaniel4, Elizabeth6, and Louisa 2)
• 2. At 9, he hurt his foot and became crippled and
  retiring
• 3. Haunted by the fatal social and moral
  isolation loss of his father, lameness, sense of
  the past, humiliating dependence on relatives,
  retired and neurotic way of life of his mother,
  and the indifference of the villagers and his
  relatives
• 4.Ashamed and proud of his ancestors ( witch
  hunts of 1693 )

8
Mother and Son
9
Witch hunt
10
Nathaniel Hawthorne Father of the American A
11
The Scarlet Letter

• The red letter A has become an archetype for
  American people, a pride ( Feminism), and a shame
  ( religious prejudice and oppression) and a
  social dilemma ( men---Chillingworth and
  Dimmstale, and womenHester and Pearl ).

12
Greek Myth Leda and Swan
13
Leda and Swan
14
Who is the father of the child?
15
How do we interpret The Scarlet Letter today?
16
The young woman was tall, with a figure of
perfect elegance, on a large scale. She had dark
and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off
the sunshine with a gleam, and a face which,
besides being beautiful from regularity of
feature and richness of complexion, had the
impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and
deep black eyes. She was lady-like, too, after
the manner of the feminine gentility of those
days characterized by a certain state and
dignity, rather than by the delicate evanescent,
and indescribable grace, which is now recognized
as its indication.

From The Scarlet Letter
17
What does Pearl mean to them and to us?
18
Who-is-who in the relationship between God and
man Zeus --------Leda--------Helen God
--------Mary--------Christ DimmstaleHester------
Pearl ?---Hawthornes mother---?