The Scarlett Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the ideology of Puritan society in the novel the Scarlet Letter; however reader also get to witness his characters being an illustration of hypocrisy and victims to their own guilt. In the Scarlet Letter, as in many of Hawthorne’s shorter works, he makes profuse use of the Puritan past: its odd exclusionary belief, its harsh code of ruling, its concern with sex and witchcraft. The Scarlet Letter is a story that is embellished but yet simple. Many readers may view this novel as a soap opera due to the way Hawthorne conveys this Puritan society’s sense of strictness and inability to express true emotion along with the secrecy and how deceiving the characters are being. As the story unfolds the main character Hester Prynne is bounded in marriage at an early age. She engages in an adulterous affair with an unknown member of their small village. Hester soon becomes pregnant and with her husband’s absence the chances of this child belonging to her husband are slim. The towns’ people know that she has committed a sin and imprisons her for her crime.

Nathaniel Hawthorne once said, “I do not want to be a doctor and live by men’s diseases, nor minister to live by their sins, nor a lawyer and live by men’s quarrels. So, I don’t see that there is anything left for me but to be an author” (Nathaniel). This statement describes Hawthorne’s personality and life in a way that no other quote could. Nathaniel Hawthorne was an Anti-Transcendentalist writer meaning that he had a negative view of all humans. The Anti-Transcendentalist movement was a pessimistic branch of Romanticism and it began in mid 1800s and lasted until late 1800s. Nathaniel Hawthorne was influenced greatly by his childhood, which is what caused him to be an anti-transcendentalist, yet in his novel The Scarlet Letter there was a bridge created between anti-transcendentalism and utopian transcendentalism.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of American literature's finest writers; his writing style was very distinct and unusual in some aspects. It is his background that provided this ambiguous and complex approach to writing. Hawthorne's New England heritage has, at times, been said to be the contributing factor in his works. The Puritan view of life itself was considered to be allegorical, their theology rested primarily on the idea of predestination and the separation of the saved and the damned As evident from Hawthorne's writings his intense interest in Puritanical beliefs often carried over to his novels such as, Young Goodman Brown, The Scarlet Letter, and The Minister's Black Veil just to name a few of the more well known pieces of his work.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the most important authors in the history of American literature and the genre of Romanticism or Dark Romanticism, due to his unique style of writing and his focus upon subjects of Puritan religion and the unknown. I consider Hawthorne an important author, due to the fact that he skillfully and accurately based his fictional writings upon happenings of colonial times, was one of the first authors to display unfortunate outcomes for his characters’ immoral choices according to Puritan beliefs, and wrote of things that were considered taboo in his time, such as witchcraft, scientific innovation and experimentation. I strongly believe that Hawthorne’s influence for his writings were his Puritan ancestral background, his fascination with Puritan beliefs, and his interest in what was considered the unknown such as witchcraft and science. According to the Norton Anthology Textbook Vol. B, Nathaniel Hawthorne was “born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804” (370). Hawthorne belonged “to a family whose ancestral roots were tied to Puritan history, with his family being among the first settlers of Massachusetts and having one of his relatives serve as a judge during the Salem witch trials” (370). Hawthorne, as a young boy, “had a particular interest in writings such as John Bunyan’s Puritan allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress, and by his mid-teens he took interest in British novelists such as Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollet, William Godwin, and Sir Walter Scott”

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a writer in the 1800s, an anti-transcendentalist, and the great-nephew of John Hathorne, a judge in the Salem Witch Trials. Hawthorne is obsessed with Puritanism and, due to being obsessed, bases all his writings on Puritan towns. All of his stories take place in New England in the 1600s, before the Salem Witch Trials; The Scarlet Letter is one of these stories. In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of the Wild Rosebush, Hester’s Cabin, and the sunlight and the forest to contribute to the overall theme of imperfection.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a nineteenth century American writer that was born in Massachusetts with a Puritan Heritage. “Born in Massachusetts on the Fourth of July, 1804, he was the descendant of Puritan worthies and the son of a ship’s captain who died at sea in 1808” (Gollin). Allegories are portrayed in his writings to depict a vivid outlook of his moral themes. Many of his works describe the human conscience and how it deals with guilt. Hawthorne’s works describe his contemplation on sin and guilt. He believed it had an effect on one’s social behavior, as well

As a transcendentalist, writing typically comes from a rebellious opinion or point of view, and in this case, given that at this time it was the rise of the era of romantics, their focus was romance. Although Nathaniel Hawthorne was a transcendentalist of this time, he did write pieces with main focuses of dark romance. Hawthorne, unlike other writers of his time, would write about the imperfections and vices that come with romance. One of his most famous works, The Scarlet Letter, is set and influenced by a time in Puritan history called the Salem Witch Trials. He used aspects of his own history to influence his writing as well.

Nathaniel Hawthorne is an author from New England that had an ancestry that included Puritans. Despite his ancestry, he believed that the extremities of the Puritan religion were notably disagreeable. Puritans in the New England colonies lived by a rigorous code of law. These more extreme Protestants believed in a strict moral code, a close interpersonal relationship with God, intimate religious experiences, and an unadulterated life that centered around religion. Mankind was ultimately depraved, and the sole source of salvation was God Himself. Hawthorne used his ancestors’ twisted way of thinking as fuel for his career. Many of Hawthorne’s literary works are manifestations of his belief that

Nathaniel Hawthorne writes a story on the strengths and weaknesses of his Puritan ancestors which inspired him to write The Scarlett Letter. Hawthorne creates the protagonist named Hester Prynne. Hester commits adultery with her secret lover Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and with that came her daughter Pearl. The antagonist, the Puritan society in Boston, finds out about this and decides to brand Hester with something to make it know that she is a sinner. They

As far as I am concerned, the society of the 1850 was very religious; many people of that period were believers. Thus, there were many issues happened that influenced Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing style. In that society, the religions was strict, the people were judgmental. The situation was different, thus people’s mind was also thinking in different ways.

The Scarlet Letter has many characters that go through several changes during the story. For example, the young minister Dimmesdale, who commits the sin of adultery with Hester, greatly changes. He is the character that makes the most progress in the story. Dimmesdale, being a minister, acts as a role model to the townspeople. He is the last person who should commit a crime and lie about it, but in the end, he confesses to the town. The fact that he did confess illustrates his courage and morality.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was born into a family that possessed prominent Puritan ancestors, and the shame he experienced as a result of their actions, as well as his odd fascination with them, had a significant impact on his life and his writings. Though it would be an overstatement to say that Hawthorne's knowledge of the Puritan way of life was his only source of inspiration, this knowledge was certainly influential as it is often reflected in the majority of his work. Born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804, Hawthorne was born in a town whose Puritan past is well-known as a result of the infamous Salem witch trials. Though he was born well after the time of the Puritans, growing up in a town so steeped in Puritan history is likely why

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a tale set around the lives Puritan people, and how a women branded by them learns to live with their hypocrisy. The story strikes many points about Hester’s inner struggles, her relationship with her daughter Pearl, and how to except herself, but one of the greater focuses does not lie within her, but with the Puritans themselves. What I speak of is how Hawthorne criticizes the Puritan people on their hypocrisy. Specifically, by use of the Scarlet Letter. Throughout the book there are many instances were Hawthorne shows the Puritans hypocrisy with the Scarlet Letter, which shows how intense his loathing is for them. May it be Hester’s letter, Dimmesdale’s, or Pearls letter, Hawthorne finds a

Nathaniel Hawthorne Critiques Puritan Society in His Works, Young Goodman Brown and The Scarlet Letter

On July 4, 1804, an author by the name of Nathaniel Hawthorne was born (Meltzer). As Hawthorne grew, he began to develop a view of himself as “the obscurest man in American letters.” Through the use of popular themes such as isolation, guilt, and earthly imperfection, Hawthorne was able to involve much of his life and ancestral past in his work to answer his own political and religious wonders (“Nathaniel”). Hawthorne successfully “confronts reality rather than evading it” in many of his stories (Clendenning).