(855) 4-ESSAYS

Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Hawthorne and His Puritans

            In the novel The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne takes a very biased side against the Puritans he writes about. Hawthorne himself was a descendant of Puritan ancestors, and it seems that in many ways he still cannot escape the engulfing guilt of their crimes, as he never truly held their religion; "Hawthorne never felt he belonged to any such community of love and belief." From what I have learned about the Puritans, I believe they were good people, but they went so far off the deep end with their religion that they sacrificed their plain old human kindness and forgiveness. They just didn't understand that there were other things in life than their religion. Hawthorne's presentation of the Puritans throughout the novel The Scarlet Letter is not much different from my own opinion, though he leaves out even the slightest amount of good characteristics that they might possess. .
             The Puritans had many hopes for their new settlement; they had left their homes in England in pursuit of their religious ideas. These Puritans were not dangerous revolutionists but plain citizens of England who sought out their religious Utopia in America. However, Hawthorne's presentation of their idealistic settlement is a harsh contrast to this. The prison and the cemetery are in prominent positions within the settlement as the reader is first introduced with the Puritan community. The emphasis of the prison is used to represent the rigorous enforcement of the laws and the inability to break free of them. The prison door itself also serves as a metaphor for the authority of religion, which will not tolerate deviance. In using the cemetery in context with the prison, it reveals that even the Puritans are only mortal human beings; they too can fail in their religious ways. Hawthorne uses this point to emphasize the fact that the strict Puritan way of life is doomed to failure; human nature can not be confined only suppressed.


Essays Related to Hawthorne and His Puritans

1. Hawthorne's Portrayal Of Puritanical Hypocricy

... the novel, The Scarlet Letter. The Puritans were very influential, and their beliefs even continued after the era was over. Because of Hawthorne's emphasis on the Puritans, and the time period in which he lived in, many of his themes are conveyed by some element of the setting. Hawthorne himself was born in Salem, Massachusetts, and set the majority of his works there. He grew up just slightly ... ideas other than those they actually held. He made them the villains in The Scarlet Letter and created in Hester a somewhat Transcendental heroine (Waggoner 14). So, by portraying Hester Prynn...

  • Word Count: 3188
  • Approx Pages: 13
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Nathaniel Hawthorne - Capturing the Past

... quot;unitary mind with separate but interacting powers regulated by the will during waking times, but not in dreams; and conviction that fulfillment requires living throughout the entire range of our faculties and sensibilities" (Gollin). Hawthorne's forefathers were strict puritans and his writing reflected the way in which people lived during that time. During this time period, the church was highly ... involved with the livelihood of others. People such as Hester Prynne, who committed adultery with Author Dimmesdale in "The Scarlet Letter," were made well known to the public eye. The ...

  • Word Count: 1291
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography

3. Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne

... . Young Goodman Brown departs his wife and heads into the forest, in the dark of night, knowing that he is about to go forth "on his present evil purpose" (pg. 21). Young Goodman Brown knew that there was an evil purpose to his journey but decides to go because he is curious. Hawthorne plays on the view that many Puritans shared during this time ... period, the fear of the wild and unknown. Young Goodman Brown sees "a devilish Indian behind every tree" (pg. 21). Young Goodman Brown venturing into ... he can only see the evil and corruption in everyone around him. Following his journey i...

  • Word Count: 1193
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography

4. Puritans and Sin in the Scarlet Letter

... as a prominent symbol in the novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This novel focuses on the Puritans and how they classify and deal with sin. The puritans are a group of people who arrived in America in the early 1600s and settled in Massachusetts Boston. They are religiously inclined and use religion in all aspects of life including the court system. The bible ... states, "he [that adulteress] destroyeth his own soul"(6.32 Bible). This quote plays an important role in this book because the main characters, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, are adulteress. Using ...

  • Word Count: 1253
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Scarlet Letter: History And Hope

... have ideas as to what the puritans were really like. Most people think they were just an overly serious, narrow minded group of people. In some cases this is true, but over all they weren't. Nathaniel Hawthorne proves this point in his novel "The Scarlet Letter". His characters are dynamic, in the sense that they all share a common and even persecuting faith yet still find ... time to be individuals with out letting go of that faith. The puritans were a group composed largely of yeomen farmers, artisans, country gentlemen ... of Catholic thought in the middle ages was that man was crea...

  • Word Count: 745
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Depravity of Man

... man's flawed humanity developed through the influence of Puritan philosophies on Hawthorne, igniting his Romantic soul with criticism for the Puritan's belief in total depravity and the corruption of humans' wicked nature. In "The Birthmark" and "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne criticizes the Puritans' belief in the depravity of man to convey his notion that people are inherently flawed, so people must accept their ... to Kane Egan, Associate Professor of English at Rocky Mountain College, and Margarita Georgieva, author of The Gothic Child, " 'Hawthorne comes before the public to ...

  • Word Count: 1568
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. Brithmarks and Bioethics

... "race of the clearest Puritan strain" (James 6), Hawthorne is part of the Salem family's sixth generation. His ancestors include Puritan magnates, judges, and seamen, so it is apparent that his family was full of people striving for excellence (Encyclopedia 2 of World Biography). It is obvious that Hawthorne was raised in a very restrictive, repressive, and socially constrictive society of the Puritans who "shunned, insulted, exiled, or tortured to ... the concept behind "The Birthmark" as being a story about the author himself, and an example of what he would do if he were granted a wi...

  • Word Count: 1544
  • Approx Pages: 6

8. The Scarlet Letter Puritanism Vs. Romanticism And Reflection

... . Knowing what only he and Hester know, the secret of theirs eats away at Dimmesdale's weakening and slowly killing him As the Puritans would call Dimmesdale a sinner, the Romantics level him as a human. The Scarlet Letter is wrapped in a deluge of allegorical theories and philosophies. Ranging from Puritanical to Romantic, Nathaniel Hawthorne embodies his ideas to stress his Romantic philosophies through Pearl, Hester, and Dimmesdale throughout the whole ... of the novel. Nathaniel Hawthorne has a sufficient reason for repeatedly ... ...

  • Word Count: 2043
  • Approx Pages: 8

9. Puritanism - Hawthorne's View

... terms, but some are preordained to eternal life, others to eternal damnation. (Institutes of the Christian Religion, 1599)" Because of this belief, Puritans lived their lives our purely and justly in order not to angry God and deserve any just punishment. Hawthorne's views on Puritanism deviate from this a little but are still for the most part accurate in my opinion. In The Minister's Black ... , he distances himself from Faith and starts to distrust her. "And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave, a hoary corpse, followed by Faith, an aged woman, and children and grand-chi...

  • Word Count: 1268
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

Got a writing question? Ask our professional writer!
Submit My Question