Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864

1. Nathaniel Hawthorne1804-1864

2. Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864 • With the publication of The Scarlet Letter, he became famous as the greatest writer living then in U.S. • and his reputation as a major American author has been on increase ever since.

3. His Life • Born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804. • Descended from the earliest settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. • John Hathorne, one of the judges at the 1692 Salem witch trials. William Hathorne persecuted the Quakers. • Both fascinated and disturbed by his kinship with John Hathorne. • Raised by a widowed mother, attended Bowdoin College in Maine, met two people Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States.

4. Hawthorne also held positions as an editor and as a customs surveyor. • He participated in the utopian experiment at Brook Farm, a commune designed to promote economic self-sufficiency and transcendentalist principles. • He married fellow transcendentalist Sophia Peabody in 1842 and left Brook Farm and moved into the Old Manse.

5. themes His works are deeply concerned with the ethical problems of sin, punishment, and atonement.

6. Hawthorne's exploration of these was related to the sense of guilt he felt about the roles of his ancestors in the 17th-century persecution of Quakers and in the 1692 witchcraft trials of Salem, Massachusetts.

7. Black vision of human nature: • He was obsessed by the Calvinistic concept of the original sin. For him, human beings are evil-natured and sinful • this sin and evil is ever present in human heart and will pass on from one generation to another • One source of evil is overweening intellect because devoid of fellow feeling • He symbolizes moral or spiritual disease by the disease of the body and accordingly when a person commits any sin, it might appear in some form on the body.

8. Notes: • 1. Quakers: The Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers, was founded in England in the 17th century as a Christian religious denomination by people who were dissatisfied with the existing denominations and sects of Christianity.. • 2. Persecution of Quakers: In and around Salem, Massachusetts the Quakers are harassed, beaten, deported, and sometimes even hanged for what they believe.

9. 3. 1692 witchcraft trails: (May – October 1692) American colonial persecutions for witchcraft. • In the town of Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony, several young girls, stimulated by supernatural tales told by a West Indian slave, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused three women of witchcraft. Under pressure, the accused women named others in false confessions. Encouraged by the clergy, a special civil court was convened with three judges to conduct the trials. They resulted in the conviction and hanging of 19 "witches" and the imprisonment of nearly 150 others. As public zeal abated, the trials were stopped and then condemned. The colonial legislature later annulled the convictions.

10. Collections of short stories Works 《故事重述》 • Twice-Told Tales 1837 • Mosses from an Old Manse 1843 • The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales 1852 《古宅青苔》 《雪人和其他重讲一遍的故事》

11. His four major romances or novels written between 1850 and 1860 • The Scarlet Letter《红字》(1850) • The House of the Seven Gables 《七个尖角阁的房子》(1851) • The Blithedale Romance 《福谷传奇》 (1852) • The Marble Faun《玉石雕像》(1860)

12. Much of Hawthorne’s work is set in colonial New England, and many of his short stories have been read as moral allegories influenced by his Puritan background. • The Birth-Mark 《胎记》(1843) • Rappaccini’s Daughter 《拉帕奇尼的女儿》(1844) • My Kinsman, Major Molineux 《我的亲戚莫里诺少校》(1832) • The Minister’s Black Veil 《教长的黑面纱》(1836) • Young Goodman Brown《好小伙子布朗》(1835)

13. style – typical romantic writer a man of literary craftsmanship，extraordinary in revelation of characters’ psychology the use of symbol the use of ambiguity the use of supernatural The symbol serves as a weapon to attack reality. It can be found everywhere in his writing to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty – multiple point of view

14. The House of the Seven Gables • Theme: The wrong-doing of one generation lives into the successive ones. • Colonel Pyncheon • Matthew Maule • “God will give him blood to drink.”

15. Summary • Colonel Pyncheon takes by force the land of Matthew Maule, and condemns him as a wizard. He builds a house on the land while Matthew is sent to the scaffold. Before he dies, he curses the colonel, saying “God will give him blood to drink.” Retribution seems to come. The house seems to be haunted. The scion of the colonel wither and die out and eventually it is the descendant of the persecuted wizard who gets the upper hand. The curse does, in time, materialize. The book concludes on a happy note, and that good triumphs over evil, and love and reconciliation end an enmity, but one feels somehow that the tragic part of the story impresses more.

17. The Scarlet Letter • Plot Summary • Setting time: Middle of the 17th century place: Boston, Massachusetts • Protagonist:Hester Prynne • Narrator: The narrator is an unnamed customhouse surveyor who writes some 200 years after the events he describes took place. He has much in common with Hawthorne but should not be taken as a direct mouthpiece for the author’s opinions.

18. Major characters in The Scarlet Letter heroine husband Arthur Dimmesdale lover Hester Prynne Roger Chillingworth daughter Pearl

20. Symbolism Adultery Adam Alienation Able Angel /Angelic Amour (love)

21. The Symbolic Meaning of the Four Major Characters • Hester -- beauty “The young woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance, …” -- strong will and endurance “I will not speak. It is too deeply branded. Ye cannot take it off. And would that I might endure his agony,as well as mine!” -- kindness

22. The Symbolic Meaning of the Four Major Characters • Arthur Dimmesdale -- Arthur Dimmesdale AD Adultery -- weak and coward • Roger Chillingworth -- “chill” cool -- heartless and merciless -- his misshapen body reflects or symbolizes the evil in his soul, which builds as the novel progresses.

23. The Symbolic Meaning of the Four Major Characters • Pearl -- She is the scarlet letter in another form, the scarlet letter endowed with life; -- She is the symbol of the ardent love; -- She serves as moral in the novel; -- She symbolizes the revolt against Puritanism.

24. Major Themes • Public Guilt vs. Private Guilt • Punishment vs. Forgiveness • Sin and Judgment • Civilization vs. Wilderness • The Town vs. the Woods