Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne 
(1804 – 1864) 

•  Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer.
•  Hawthorne published his first work, a novel titled Fanshowe (1828): he later tried to suppress it, feeling it was not equal to the standard of his later work.
•  He published several short stories in various periodicals, which he collected in 1837 as Twice Told Tales, and later in 1842.
• His fiction works are considered part of Romantic Movement and more specifically Dark Romanticism.
•  In 1836, Hawthorne served as editor of the American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge.
•  Hawthorne wrote most of the tales collected in Mosses from an Old Manse. 
• Hawthorne became friends with Herman Melville in 1850, who read his short story collection. Mosses from an Old Manse, and his unsigned review of the collection titled Hawthorne and his Mosses, were printed in “The Literary World”.
•  Melville, who composing Moby-Dick at the time, wrote that these stories revealed a dark side to Hawthorne “Shrouded in Blackness, ten times Black”. (Moby-Dick is dedicated to Hawthorne as Melville said: “In token of my admiration for his genius, this book is inscribed to Nathaniel Hawthorne.”)

Famous Quote of Hawthorne – 

“I have not lived but only dreamed about living.”

The Blithdale Romance (1852): His only work written in first person.

• Hawthorne admitted, he had aged considerably referring to himself as “Winkled with Time and Trouble”.
•  Longfellow wrote a tribute poem to Hawthorne in 1866 called “The Bells of Lynn”.
•  His later writing also reflects his negative view of the Transcendentalist Movement.
• His four major Romances were written between 1850 and 1860:

1. The Scarlet Letter (1850)

2. The House of Seven Gables (1851)

3. The Blithdale Romance (1852)

4. The Marble Faun (1860)

• Hawthorne is regarded as the master of Human Psychology.
•  D. H. Lawrence said about “The Scarlet Letter” – “There could be no more perfect work of the American imagination than Scarlet letter.”

Important Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne 

Fanshaw (Published unanimously in 1828)

Main Characters – Dr. Melmoth, Ellen Langton

The Scarlet Letter (1850) 

•  “The Scarlet Letter: A Romance” is considered to be Magnum Opus of Hawthorne.
• It is set in 17th century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts during the years 1642 to 1649.
•  It tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceived a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity.

Plot: 

•  In June 1642, in the puritan town of Boston, a crowd gathers to witness the punishment of Hester Prynne, a young woman found guilty of adultery.
• She is requested to wear a Scarlet “A” (‘A’ standing for Adulteress) on her dress to shame her. (‘A’ also stands for ‘Able’ as Hester proves to be much an able woman in the last of the novel).
•  She must stand on the scaffold for three hours to be exposed to public humiliation.
• As she reaches the scaffold, many of the women in the crowd are angered by her beauty and quiet dignity.
•  When demanded, Hester refused to tell the father of her child.
• When Hester looks over the crowd, she notices her long-lost husband, who has been presumed lost at sea.When her husband sees Hester’s shame, he asks a man in the crowd about her and is told the story ofher adultery.
•  He angrily exclaims that the child’s father should also be punished, and vow’s to find the man.
•  He chooses a new name, Roger Chillingworth to aid him in his plan.
•  John Wilson and Arthur Dimmesdale (Minister of Hester’s church) ask Hester about her lover butshe refuses.
•  In prison, jailor brings Roger Chillingworth, a physician to calm Hester and her child with his rootsand herbs.
• Chillingworth makes a conversation with Hester about her marriage and her lover but she refusedagain to tell the name of the lover.
•  Chillingworth forces Hester to hide that he is her husband, and warns her that if she reveals, he willdestroy the child’s father.
•  Hester agrees to Chillingworth’s terms.
•  After her release from the prison, Hester settles in a cottage at the edge of a town and earns a meager living with her needlework.
• She lives a quiet, somber life with her daughter Pearl.
•  She is troubled by her daughter’s unusual fascination by Hester’s scarlet ‘A’.
•  When Pearl grows her conduct starts rumours and church member suggests that Pearl be taken away from Hester.
• She meets the Governor Bellingham about Pearl not to be separated from her, and he agrees.
•  Chillingworth suspects that Dimmesdale’s illness is the result of some unconfessed guilt. He suspectsDimmesdale to be Pearl’s father.
•  One evening Chillingworth sees a symbol that represents his shame on minister’s (Dimmesdale’s) palechest.
• Tormented by his guilty conscience, Dimmesdale goes to the Square and admits his guilt but can’t findcourage to do it publically.
• Hester is shocked by Dimmesdale deterioration and decides to obtain a release from her vow ofsilence to her husband.
•  Hester tells Dimmesdale about her husband and his desire of revenge, and convinces him to leaveBoston in secret, to Europe where they can start a new life.
•  Dimmesdale is energized to hear Hester.
•  On Election Day, Dimmesdale gives his most inspired sermons. Then he climbs the scaffold and confesses his sin, and dying in Hester’s arm.
•  Later, most witnesses swear that they saw a stigma in the form of a scarlet ‘A’ upon Dimmesdale’s chest.
•  Chillingworth losing his will for revenge, dies shortly thereafter and leaves Pearl a substantial inheritance.
•  After several years, Hester returns to her cottage and resumes wearing the Scarlet Letter.
•  When she dies, she is buried near the grave of Dimmesdale, and they share a tombstone engraved –“On a field, Sable. The letter A, gules”

The House of Seven Gables (1851)

•  It is a gothic novel. Inspired the horror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft who called it – “New England’s greatest contribution to weird Literature” in his essay “Supernatural Horror in Literature”.
• Poet and critic James Russell Lowell said that it was better than The Scarlet Letter and called “The most valuable contribution to New England History that has been made”.

The Blithdale Romance (1852)

•  In Hawthorne (A book of literary criticism) Henery James called it “the lightest, the brightest, the liveliest” of Hawthorne’s un-humorous fictions.” Blithdale is a Utopian community.
•  Protagonist – Miles Coverdale

Marble Faun or The Romance of Monte Bem (1860)

•  The Dolliver Romance (1863): Remained Unfinished.

Short Story Collections 

1. Twice Told Tales (1837)
2.  Mosses from an Old Manse (1846)
3.  A Wonder book for Girls and Boys (1851)
4. The Snow Image and Other Twice Told Tales (1852)

•  Tanglewood Tale for Boys and Girls (1853 It is a sequel to “A Wonder book for Girls and Boys”                Download Pdf