Nathaniel Hawthorne and Puritanism

Paper Summary:

The paper provides an overview of Hawthorne's fiction including the novels "The Scarlet Letter", "The House of the Seven Gables", "Young Goodman Brown", "The Minister's Black Veil", "The Birthmark" and "Rappaccini's Daughter". The paper shows that while religion was being overtaken by a faith in science and material progress, Hawthorne manages to expose this new faith as still under the influence of Puritanism. However, the paper highlights how the tenor of Hawthorne's work is not entirely bleak; there are fantastical elements in his fiction through which Hawthorne seems to be projecting a sense of hope.

From the Paper:

"The stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne are usually termed as Gothic Romances, for they divulge many dark secrets that lie behind the facade of Puritan America. He was writing at a time when Puritan and colonial America was passing away, and the new Republic was forging ahead as a modern industrial nation. Most people believed that the excesses of Puritanism were a thing of the past, and that the faith of the nation was now invested in science, progress and democratic institutions. In this context, the literature of Hawthorne served as a reminder that the past had not really been exorcised, and that there existed dark undercurrents to the glowing march of progress."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Novels: Fanshawe, the Scarlet Letter, the House of Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance, The Marble Fawn. Ed. Millicent Bell. New York: Library of America, 1983.
• Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown and Other Short Stories. Chelmsford, MA: Courier Dover Publications, 1992.
• Luedtke, Luther S. Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Romance of the Orient. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1989.

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• Analytical Essay # 59534 : "Nathaniel Hawthorne"
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