Nathaniel Hawthorne

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how Nathaniel Hawthorne was a prolific writer of short stories, novels, and children's books, and how his works cover a variety of different subjects. It looks at how there are several themes that recur in his works and how one of these themes relates to sin and depravity. It shows how it is one of the major themes of his best known work, "The Scarlet Letter", and how the same theme also surfaces in a number of other works, including the short story, "Young Goodman Brown", and the short story, "The Minister's Black Veil." It explores how, in all of these works, Hawthorne communicates a similar view of human nature as it relates to sin and depravity and how he always shows sin and depravity as natural parts of human nature, parts that people must constantly battle.

From the Paper:

"As Hawthorne's best known work, it is fitting that the analysis begins with The Scarlet Letter. As well as being his best known work, The Scarlet Letter, is also a work with sin as the central theme. One source describes it as "an outstanding study of attitudes to sin and guilt, and of human psychology" (Kamm 204). Another source creates the link between the themes of sin and the study of human psychology by stating that the story is really about the character's personal battle between good and evil (Van Doren 10). This view of the story recognizes that the tendency toward sin is part of every person, where sin can also be described as evil. The good side of the person battles to control this desire to sin, but often the battle cannot be won. In the story, this is seen with the characters of Chillingworth, Dimmesdale, and Hester."

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