Hester Prynne is considered to be both one of the first heroines and feminist icons in American Literature. This is despite Nathaniel Hawthorne, born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, being labelled as a misogynist, threatened by the growing feminist movement. How Hawthorne portrays...
Introduction The author of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a fervent anti-transcendentalist who opposes the naïve ideology of the transcendentalists in which they believe that people are always pure and good. Hypocrisy is a dominant theme throughout the novel, as almost all of the...
“The Puritans were members of a religious reform movement known as Puritanism that arose within the Church of England in the late 16th century. They believed the Church of England was too similar to the Roman Catholic Church and should eliminate ceremonies and practices not...
In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne Prynne redefines herself despite being shunned by the Puritan community. Although she has sinned, she does not dwell in the past. She grows stronger as a person from the cruelty of the townspeople and the shame...
In the Scarlet Letter, there are many elements of transcendental beliefs and values present because of Nathaniel Hawthrone, the author of the Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne affected the structure of transcendentalism through his experience on the Brook Farm. He has also been involved in the belief...
Introduction Throughout the late 18th century and 19th century, Romanticism was a highly popular literary style adopted by many novelists. Nature, a prominent element of Romanticism, is used in these authors’ writings not just for descriptions and images, but also to emphasize major ideas. One...
Gothic literature uses gender to discuss social norms and explore stereotypes while commenting on whether gender stereotypes should be upheld or disrupted in society. In this essay, I will compare two female characters and two male characters in Gothic texts to establish how gender stereotypes...
In The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Hester Prynne, an unhappily married seamstress, and Arthur Dimmesdale, the local Puritan clergyman, to prove that a community that forcefully suppresses the natural desires of an individual is dangerous, both to the individual and to the community....
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us,” stated Oliver Wendell Holmes. This eventually proves to be especially true for Hester Prynne, the main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne, a fair...
Written in 1849 and published in 1850, the novel The Scarlet Letter by American Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 – 1864), delves deeply into the concept of sin, the awareness of guilt, and the effects that religious fanaticism can have on human communities and individuals. The intention...
The Romantic Era: an undeniably significant milestone in the transition from British-American literature to American literature. The Romantic Era broke out of the confinements of the previous Enlightenment period to use more symbolism, natural elements, and emotion. For example, in describing the scientific concept of...
There were times in American history where logic and facts were far more important than just silly emotions. However, after the writing form of Romanticism began in the early 19th century during the Industrial Revolution, a great emphasis was put on emotions including but not...
Introduction Throughout time, punishment has been a defining consequence for people who do not abide by the law. For instance, Rosa Parks, a civil rights activist, refused to move from her seat for a white man. Back then, the law required Black people to sit...
Hawthorne wrote his incredible, psychological novel, The Scarlet Letter, not only in the literal sense, but also symbolically to thoroughly ingrain his strong ideas into the minds of his readers. Hawthorne uses sunshine, the forest, roses, the scarlet letter and Pearl to portray deeper thoughts....
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne writes the consequences of one sinful act in a Puritan community. This sinful act involves three main characters, Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingsworth. As The Scarlet Letter progresses, each character copes with his or her sin differently, and therefore...
“The author should be in his work like God is in the universe present everywhere and visible nowhere” – Gustave Flaubert. Many fictional authors like to present their ideas and views through their writings. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is an example of a...
Love and hate require intimacy and heart-knowledge. Both emotions leave the individual subservient to the emotion and become compulsory for survival. If an emotion develops into a discernible obsession, it may eventually abandon the zealous lover or no less zealous hater disheartened and dejected once...
In the seventeenth century, genuine scientific breakthroughs were ideals of the future. The reality was alchemy, an extremely basic science in which procedures were practically guesswork. It is this sense of the unknown that induces both fear and questions of morality in Hawthorne’s science fiction....
Nathanial Hawthorne successfully exposed the puritanical lifestyle in its’ entirety within his celebrated novel, The Scarlet Letter. He was born during the 19th century, but set his story in the 17th century, revealing his keen knowledge on the subject of puritanism. His desire to examine...
Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbols and characters to portray the struggle between aristocratic and democratic ideas in his novel, The House of the Seven Gables. The democratic ideas which develop throughout the novel prevail against the aristocratic greed, injustice, and pride. Hawthorne begins his novel with...
Why does Hawthorne give Hester Prynne the name Hester? Hawthorne himself, as is well known, changed his family name from Hathorne, to distance himself from those Puritan ancestors whose achievements and excesses haunted his fiction. The Scarlet Letter tells of Roger Prynne’s reinvention of himself...
The concept of individualism has been on the rise across several Western societies. Several studies have been carried out on individualism, all pointing towards the fact that the rising incidence of individualism is a global trend. Arguably, it has been noted that the increase in...
One of the major themes in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” is the idea of the public self as distinguished from the private self. This leitmotif encompasses much more than the idea of an individual versus society; it also contains the themes of hidden thoughts...
Happiness is an ideal emotion that everyone wants to experience and will go to desperate measures to achieve. If one wants to explore the facets of how important happiness is for people to achieve, they will have to put themselves in the shoes of the...
“Don’t judge a book by its cover.” Everyone knows this hackneyed quote, but people still judge others based on outer appearance. By doing so, these people ignore the possible inner greatness of those they so quickly set aside. The character Hester Prynne from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s...
The author of my book is Nathaniel Hawthorne. He was born in Salem, Massachusetts. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, followed by his other famous book, “The House of Seven Gables” which was published in 1851. Something that is common between the two books...
Some authors experiment with various styles and techniques throughout their literary career, with distinct differences between various works. This is not true in the case of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne displays striking similarities in style and content in his works. Such similarities can be displayed between...
Failing to recognize the truth in humanity leaves Young Goodman Brown in a sad, skeptical, as well as disparate end in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story with a similar title. On the outward, the story appears to be a reflection and an arraignment of the hypocrisy of...
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne accepts that she has sinned and realizes that she must pay the price for her crime. In doing so she becomes overwhelmed with courage and conviction and assumes a redemption that is denied to most of...
Hawthorne’s science fiction short stories, such as ‘The Birthmark’ and ‘Rappaccini’s Daughter,’ are set in the seventeenth century. His novels, however, The House of the Seven Gables and The Blithedale Romance, are set in the nineteenth century, his own era. The progression of science from...
“Oh, for the years I have not lived, but only dreamed of living.”
Date
July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864
Activity
Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short-story writer who was a master of the allegorical and symbolic tale.
Works
“Doctor Heidegger’s Experiment”, “Fanshawe”, “Mosses from an Old Manse”, “My Kinsman, Major Molineux”, “The Blithedale Romance”, “The Celestial Railroad”, “The House of the Seven Gables”, “The Marble Faun”, “The Scarlet Letter”, “Twice-Told Tales”, “Young Goodman Brown”.
Themes
Much of Hawthorne's work belongs to the sub-genre of Dark Romanticism, distinguished by an emphasis on human fallibility that gives rise to lapses in judgement that allow even good men and women to drift toward sin and self-destruction.
Style
Nathaniel Hawthorne is regarded as one of the greatest fiction writers in American literature. He was a skillful craftsman with an architectonic sense of form, as displayed in the tightly woven structure of his works, and a master of prose style, which he used to clearly reveal his characters’ psychological and moral depths.
Quotes
“A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.”
“Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.”
“To do nothing is the way to be nothing.”
