Hawthorne himself was born in Salem, Massachusetts, and set the majority of his works there. He grew up just slightly later than the time period considered the colonial Puritan times. Still, he developed some strong views concerning the Puritan community from reading a lot of literature, and his writings reflect this also by the way they are written, not just by their content. They are very clean and non-promiscuous. He used this style to accommodate his readers. The people reading his literature at the time still had very strict and traditional beliefs. .
Avoiding the grim tone Hawthorne usually involved removing undesirable.
Elements and modifying others. It is interesting to note often contained such.
intense emotions as jealousy, lust, and revenge, Hawthorne never allows these .
to appear. Indeed, he often trivializes the negative drives of characters by .
referring to them as "naughty." The adult passions are also removed by making .
many of the characters much younger In this way Hawthorne was able to avoid .
discussing the sexual themes often found (Stott 280).
So, Hawthorne left out many romantic and sexual elements because it was not appropriate for the time period he lived in due to the lingering Puritanical outlooks.
Whether the plots of his works contain stories of the Puritans, descriptions of witchcraft, or thoughts on Salem, the setting is usually critical to Hawthorne's themes, especially the Puritan aspect. Not only did the era affect the way he wrote; it also affected the content of his works. The Puritans were a big concern in the majority of his writings. Most of the smaller elements he used to convey his themes stem from his use of his opinions and criticism of the Puritans. He was mainly trying to get the point across that he thought the Puritan people were very hypocritical and treated people in ways that were opposite of the way they believed people should act.
The article Were the Puritans Puritanical? was a well written piece of writing about puritan life during the 1600's by: Carl N. Degler. Carl N. Degler reveals his opinion on puritan life throughout the article. He says that puritans are not dull, uninteresting, bigoted, and reserved as many people...
A final example of a romantic writer is Nathaniel Hawthorn. Hawthorn was very different from Emerson and Thoreau in the sense that his ideas and beliefs were almost completely opposite of theirs. ... Heidegger's Experiment" Hawthorn explored what would happen if people were able to go back to their youth and make a better life for themselves. ... (Hawthorn 280). ... From that Hawthorn concluded that people are potentially evil and in his story the friends proved to be by making the same mistakes as they had years before even after being warned not to. ...
In Nathaniel Hawthorn's, "The Scarlet Letter," the main characters undergo tribulations that help highlight the major issues of American identity. ... He rejects his sin and is constrained to what the puritanical society believes to be as orthodox. ... Instead, she is the product of individuality due to her growing up in solitude along with her mother, because of this, she is not tainted by the puritanical ways. ...
Such is the case with the youthful Pearl from the novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorn. ... Before any type of statement can be made on Pearl's intelligence or sensitivity, it is imperative for one to understand these references are an attempt on Hawthorne's part to display to the reader a fragment of Puritanical Society. ... While she is too young to possibly comprehend Puritanical sin and punishment, Pearl can easily understand that the letter is her mother's chastisement and embarrassment. ...
"Mass Hysteria" Mass hysteria can be defined as a condition in which a large group of people exhibits similar physical or emotional symptoms, usually stemming from fear or anger. In order for it to be called mass hysteria, the symptoms must be completely pervasive throughout the whole society. ...
The Young in "Young Goodman Brown" When reading Hawthorn's "Young Goodman Brown", one can note why his main character was ironically nicknamed young good man Brown. " The story is all three: a dream vision, a conventional allegory, and finally an inquiry into the problem of faith that undermines the assumptions upon which the allegory is based."(Bloom, 115) Although Hawthorn tries to confuse the reader with his dreamy allegories, Brown still emerges with one main flaw. ... The short story was written in Hawthorn's early years, which leads one to wonder about his intent. ... It i...
Hawthorn uses symbolism to convey the loss of innocence and the realization that evil exists all around Goodman Brown. The symbolism in his journey away from Faith, his home, and safety and into evil is obviously illustrated in the setting that Hawthorn chooses. Firstly, Hawthorn sets up the time period as the historically significant Salem Massachusetts of the 1690's. ... Hawthorn then uses the setting to symbolize the psychological processes one may go through when contemplating turning to the dark side. ...
Through the writing of her poetry Bradstreet challenges the ideologies of the Puritanical society by being a female yet writing and publishing her own works. ... Clearly tradition was saying one thing, but Bradstreet was indeed stepping out of the norms that were expected of her and challenging the Puritanical ideals. ... This is evident throughout writings of the Puritanical times. ... Tension arises because Bradstreet was pushing against the framework of Puritanical expectations for women. ... It is clear that Bradstreet was exceeding the boundaries set before her by her Puritanica...
