Hawthorne and Puritans

Paper Summary:

This paper deals with the way that Nathaniel Hawthorne comments critically on the beliefs of his Puritan ancestors. Although the two stories are very different, both of them involve the problem of seeing as a metaphor for Puritan doctrine. The paper provides an explanation of key Puritan characteristics and how these tie in to each of the novels.

From the Paper:

"The Puritan sect deplored the decline of the English church and in their colony they sought, in the words of their first governor John Winthrop, "a City on a hill" that would be an example to the world, showing that "to doe justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God" and to "be knitted together in this work as one man" was the way to salvation (quoted in Morison 73). They believed that humanity had fallen and that individuals could only save themselves through "an extreme form of piety" that depended on "a particularly self-deprecatory and submissive stance" toward God (Conkin 9). This self-critical approach saw every action as a moral choice and every aspect of life was to be guided by its potential impact on the possibility of being saved. Thus the Puritans "wanted every possible act to be considered, rational, and voluntary, and consequently subject to praise or blame," that is, subject to possible censure from the united community or from an authorized voice of the community such as a parent or a minister (Conkin 13)."

More papers on Hawthorne and Puritans:

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• Analytical Essay # 60975 : "Women in the Works of Hawthorne and Poe"
• Essay # 38737 : "Hawthorne and The Puritan Character"

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