Category: Nathaniel Hawthorne

Hawthrone begins The Scarlet Letter with a long introductory essay that generally functions as a prologue, but more specifically, achieves four significant objectives: outlines autobiographical information about the author, describes the conflict between artistic impulse and the commercial environment, define the romance novel and adds an imaginative literary device, the romantic pretense of having discovered the manuscript of The Scarlet Letter in the custom-house.

The connection between Hawthrone’s introductory essay and his novel has frequently puzzled readers, and several critics believe that it so detracts from the artistic unity of the volume that it should be omitted. Hawthrone himself states that his “true reason” for including the sketch was that it explained the source of the “most prolix among the tales that make up my volume”. Furthermore, the essay serves as a means of introducing the reader to a subject of some antiquity: from the Salem of the 19th century, he is gradually taken back to the Boston of the 17th century. The need for such a device is emphasized in Hawthrone’s regret that he was unable to write a novel about contemporary life. There are many thematic connections between the two pieces as well as similarities in point of view. The principal reason for this resemblance is probably that they were both written at approximately the same time and therefore reflect the events that affected Hawthrone’s life in the latter part of 1849. Critics like Sam S Baskett calls for the contrast between the decay of the somnolent society of 19th century Salem and the iron vigour and strength of the sterner society of 17th-century Boston. He points out that the new society is characterized by shallow commercialism and petty politics as opposed to the characteristically religious and moral concerns which ordered the life of Puritan New England. Much of the unity of effect Hawthrone was able to achieve in The Scarlet Letter is due to the aloofness towards his subject, whereas “The Custom House” sketch reveals the difficulty he has in taking an impersonal attitude towards his immediate circumstances. The major themes of isolation, guilt, decadence and the sinister power that one person or institution can exercise over another, all appear in this short piece.

The parallel analysis of this short introduction shows that the narrator identifies himself with Hester. Both of them are little understood for their ways and feel alienated. Familiar with the journeys to Hell of Homer, Virgil, and Dante, Hawthrone has many classical parallels which create his hellish descent. More important than these conventions of the journey, is the ethical necessity for the traveller to learn who and what he is and what life is. In Hawthrone’s case as in Dante’s, the traveller is an artist, who like, Aeneas and Odysseus, goes through the underworld and emerges rejuvenated and inspired, the possessor of profound knowledge and insight. Hawthrone pauses on the threshold of what will be his underworld to describe the town of Salem as the vestibule opening into Hell, “dead level of site and sentiment” casts a “spell” on him, and Hwathrone feels that Providence and a clear sense of destiny have drawn him to Salem. In this once “wild and forest-bordered” city of errors, Hawthrone like Dante will lose his way. Hawthrone begins his sojourn in the Custom-House on a “fine morning” such as Dante and Aeneas began their infernal experience. Hawthrone’s Custom-House is also a frigid place where the inhabitants have denied the bonds of community with the human world; the chill of isolation has immobilized the old men into inactivity and living dead. Like the gluttons, the residents of the House are far more concerned with “their morning’s breakfast” than any other memory of their former lives. When Hawthrone first goes to the House, he seemed to search for moderation and harmony in his life, but crossing the threshold into the community of the dead, he becomes thoroughly disorganized and off-balance.

Edward Wagenknecht’s remarks that after deploring the “casualness” of tone which makes the introduction “hopelessly out of harmony” with the romance proper, Wagenknecht flatly concludes that The Custom House has no real connection with the main story. Austin Warren, in his “Introduction” to the Rinehart edition of The Scarlet Letter, explains that “There is not the slightest reason for crediting this discovery”, because Hawthrone has in 1837, already made use of the idea of Hester’s punishment in “Endicott and the Red Cross”. Warner insists, that “The Scarlet Letter is a romance, not a chronicle”. The mood of romance is set in the “House” and it is not simply by the famous moonlight passage, but throughout the preface and perhaps especially in the paragraphs that include the mention of those curiously circumstantial measurements of the scarlet letter.

The “Custom-House” is a penetrating commentary on the theme of survival- survival of the human spirit benumbed by bureaucracy. Hawthrone’s central target, the patriarch of this little squad of officials, is “a certain permanent Inspector” who has indeed survived as an animal. Hoeltje suggests that “If the characterization of the permanent Inspector…approaches naturalism painful to some modern readers as it was to Hawthrone’s Whig enemies, that characterization id more than balanced by the portrait of the old Collector, General Miller..”

Hawthrone’s careful management of narrative tone and his use of a carefully controlled narrative voice as an aspect of general narrative technique deserve to be studied in the romances that followed the “Letter”, and indeed in the tales and sketches that preceded it. Again, viewed as a symbolic journey through darkness to aesthetic enlightenment for Hawthrone, “The Custom House” is an appropriate introduction to the romance, which deals specifically with another journey through the dark sins of the human heart to salvations or lacks it. As Hester is allowed to reconcile with God, Hawthrone is “saved” by being dismissed from the Custom House. Both of them made this discovery in isolation when they were thrown on their resources and no longer dependent on either the strong Republic or the Puritan church.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, originally born as William Hawthorne (changed his name after college) was born on July 4, 1804, in Salem Massachusetts. From a very early age, he was rooted in American Literature and went from Porchester to England and then to Salem. He was the first speaker in the house of delegates. Hawthorne was the eldest grandson of one of the original judges in the Salem Witch Trials. The Hawthorne family was said to be cursed, his father died of yellow fever at sea and left Williams’s mother widowed. The young William Hawthorne moved in with a family friend, the Mannings. The Manning family was very loving and nurtured to the young child’s needs, they were also said to be rich in literature in their family library, and from a young age, he was influenced by great writers such as Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott. He worked as a family stagecoach and his aunt and uncle offered to send him to college, Bowdoin College in Main, specifically. Hawthorne bounced around the idea of being a writer and he even asked his mom “what do you [mom] think of becoming an author.” During his years living in almost complete solitude, he learned to write tales. His original works were usually published anonymously. He met the love of his life, Sophia Peabody, who helped him come out of solitude and they ended up getting married in 1842.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Ellery Channing, though he looked up to these writers he did not impersonate their philosophical ways of life. He was also influenced by his grandfather, Judge John Hawthorne who was a merchant and a politician in the Salem Witch Trials. During the trials, Sarah Good, a woman accused of witchcraft placed a curse on the Hawthorne family and all those who had any part in her death. Puritans believe that all people are evil and that good deeds will not get you into heaven, they also believe that if a person in a community commits a crime everyone is then punished, by God for the crime. Puritans also do not believe is pleasure or anything intricate in detail so throughout the stories it is seen that the holes in his story are very bland in style.

Philosophical ideas can be seen in Hawthorne’s stories such as guilt and hypocrisy. The characters in the stories often deal with internal guilt and the problem of good vs evil. Many believe that Hawthorne’s reoccurring themes of good vs evil can be linked to his own internal affairs. He felt as if his new ideas and new ways of thinking were wrong because of the time period in which he grew up. He felt as if he struggled so much and his characters struggled with the same thing he would make peace with himself because he could determine the fate of his characters in the stories.

Hawthorne’s internal affairs led him to express his true emotions and problems through his works. His new ideas made him feel guilty because he came up with new things that no other person did. This problem disconnected him from his surroundings and made him feel more isolated than he already did. The depth of his writing spoke to many different people on many different levels. He wrote in such a way that each person reading his story could feel a connection in some way or another.

With Nathaniel Hawthorne’s many stories he is known for his recurring styles, themes, and strong main ideas. One main theme that he is most known for is the effects of sin on society. Growing up with a grandfather that was a judge in the Salem witch trials he felt a lot of pressure to act and portray himself as the perfect puritan person. As he felt like he was his own person and did not want to conform to the normal ways of life he spent much time alone, he felt as if he was the only person who could understand him. A sin during the Puritan times could be as simple as saying something that could be taken as anything against God, as Hawthorne was his own person he felt as if his ideas could be seen as a sin. Sin can also be seen as a state more than an act, in The Scarlett Letter a character’s pregnancy is publically shown and broadcasted as she is to wear a scarlet letter to show her adultery, the sin is seen as the letter the character is forced to wear.

Evert Augustus Duyckinck is an American publisher who is also a big fan of Hawthorne’s work. He described The Scarlett Letter as a ‘psychological romance…a study of character in which the human heart is anatomized, carefully, elaborately, and with striking poetic and dramatic power.’ (Duyckinck). Duyckinck also stated that he appreciated Hawthorne’s style of writing and how it seemed to show so much effort but be so natural at the same time. Edwin Percy Whipple was another fan of Hawthorne’s story, The Scarlett Letter, he said it was ‘deep in thought and… condensed in style.’ (Whipple). Both Whipple and Duyckinck felt as if the story was influenced by some sort of French writing “[It] utterly determined the whole philosophy on which the rest of the French novel, by seeing further and deeper into the essence both of conventional and moral laws.” (Whipple). George Sand was a French novelist and issues that were apparent in his stories were also in Hawthorne’s story.

There was a fair share of reviewers of Hawthorne’s stories who were against the French ways of life and its literature. Early reviewers of the novel were anxious in reading the story due to the idea that the novel would spread French ideas over the seas. Henry James’ interpretation of The Scarlett Letter was that it was in fact, not a story but rather a piece of art, he felt as if it was “the finest piece of imaginative writing yet put forth in the country.” ( James). Another critic said the story was so in and so intense that it can be taken in several different ways. The story can be interpreted in several different ways depending on the treaders mood and how they were feeling. For example, someone who felt excluded from society would relate to the main character, Hester, who was also excluded from society, but someone who felt as if they didn’t care what others thought could relate to Pearl, Hester’s daughter, who was more of a nonconformist and did what she wanted.

George William Curtis took the story as more of a big picture, he felt as if the story was more of an image waiting to be interpreted by the readers. It is believed that the reason for the mellow and low stories is because at the time Hawthorne wasn’t getting the credit he thought he deserved which sent him into a pit of depression which led him to write the dark stories because he was upset.

The structure of The Scarlett Letter is very uniform and very precise which the critics believe is a product of the time period due to the high puritan influence on Hawthorne’s life. The Puritans believed that everything should be plain and uniform and Hawthorne’s story very much shows uniformity.

With Nathaniel Hawthorne’s time period and family ancestry, he was greatly influenced by Puritan values and that is mostly seen through his most popular novel, The Scarlett Letter. The Puritans believed that their entire life was to be spent pleasing God and not worrying about one’s themselves. We can see that through the characters in the story’s own words, “Heaven would show mercy,’ rejoined Hester, hadst thou but the strength to take advantage of it” (Hawthorne 228). God, in heaven, will punish all of those delinquent people who dong follow God’s law of simplicity and adultery exactly as he has said it should be followed through.

Glorifying God is the utmost most important goal of a good puritan citizen, and it can be seen through this quote. ‘A writer of storybooks! What kind of business in life,—what mode of glorifying God, or being serviceable to mankind in his day and generation may that be? Why the degenerate fellow might as well have been a fiddler!’ Such are the compliments bandied between my great-grandsires and me, across the gulf of time! And yet, let them scorn me as they will, strong traits of their nature have intertwined themselves with mine.’ (Hawthorne 4).

People’s inherent personality traits come from their core values. Within these values exists an innate duality of both light and dark characteristics; this coincides with the ideas of Dark Romanticism, which aim to normalize the darker desires of people’s minds. Hawthorne’s ‘Young Goodman Brown’ embodies Dark Romantic ideals like innate evil and sin, which reveal how human nature is more complex than it seems and has a conflicted, inherent dark side.

Characteristics of Dark Romanticism, such as elements of sin and the power of one’s desires, are displayed through Goodman Brown’s exploration and self-awareness of his own evil encounters. As Goodman Brown ventures into the forest in the middle of the night, he “vanishes into the deepening gloom”. This description creates a deeper fear of the forest and shows the role it plays for Brown’s acceptance of his previously rejected evilness. Goodman Brown is “conscious of the guilty purpose that had brought him” on this exploration, and throughout it becomes aware of his complex, innate desires that were also previously repressed. This is all made possible by the darker elements of the forest which create a safe place where Brown’s hesitations can be released. The forest’s darkness is representative of Dark Romantic beliefs that foster Brown’s journey to freedom and expression of his kept needs. Once he outwardly admits his “faith is gone,” he fully embraces the sin that taints him. In doing so, Brown becomes a supporter of Dark Romantic ideals of how evil and selfishness are at the core of every human being’s existence.

Goodman Brown also encounters the Dark Romantic ideals of corruption as his descent into the forest shines a light on his ancestor’s complexity and evilness. After Brown’s journey, he comes to understand impure tendencies aren’t grown but are rather inherent. After looking at his wife, Faith, he fully understands and wonders “what polluted wretches would the next glance show”, implying the impurity within others. He has fully accepted evil as the norm of all human nature, coming to an understanding that even his family and his ancestors have not been “a race of honest men and good Christians”. Once the devil reveals these hidden traits of his family, Brown becomes immersed in the fact that his perception of family is false and their experimentation with their complexity is true. His now corrupted viewpoint reveals his certainty that “there is no good on earth”, meaning he has lost faith in his wife and family. Various aspects of the nature of sin and human inevitability to be evil all correlate to Dark Romantics ideals and further prove Goodman Brown’s realization of his family’s complexity and evilness.

Vital concepts of Dark Romanticism are prevalent in Goodman Brown’s journey with innate sin and ultimately play a deeper role in exploring the complex evil within people. Dark Romanticism is a vital theme showing how prone people are to sin, but also proves how standard it is. Considering it’s a basic part of all people, lack of acknowledgment only furthers its misunderstanding and the dismissal of complexity, rejecting how prevalent it is in all life.