2. 1804-1864

3. Great-great-grandfather, William Hathorne, ordered the whipping of Anne Coleman and four others in the streets of Salem. Great-grandfather, John Hathorne, the magistrate presiding over the trial of the accused witches of Salem (1692). Hawthorne preoccupied with family history.

4. Born July 4, 1804 in Salem, MA Father died when Hawthorne was four years old Had two sisters: one older, one younger Mother pregnant at time of marriage Went to live with mother’s relatives (wealthy Mannings) Sent to Bowdoin College in Maine

5. Anonymously published short stories and a novel, Fanshawe. Later formally withdrew most of this early work, discounting it as the work of inexperienced youth. Burned most of his works from these years.

6. Editor for The American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge in 1836 Appointed to the Boston Custom House in 1839 Invested in Brook Farm commune Became engaged to Sophia Peabody, married in 1842

7. From influential Salem family Sister Elizabeth Palmer Peabody Educator and suffragette Editor of The Dial Illustrator and painter Occasional invalid Had three children with Hawthorne: Una, Julian, Rose

8. Took many government appointments to earn living Between 1846 and 1849 served as a surveyor of the Salem Custom House. Wrote campaign biography for Franklin Pierce College classmate Pierce appointed Hawthorne as the US Consul to Liverpool, England

9. Lived abroad in England and Italy for a number of years Time away provided material for The Marble Faun Became ill and underwent a loss of literary creativity Died in Plymouth, NH on May 19, 1864 Buried in the Sleepy Hollow cemetery in Concord

10. Not all authors of the period as optimistic as the transcendentalists. Saw the universe as confusing and difficult. Evil and suffering had to be explained, accounted for. Puritan backdrop Life was ultimately mysterious. The Dark Side of Humanity

11. Individualism Society Guilt Alienation Puritan Society in New England Salem Witch Trials Psychology

12. Hawthorne’s work preoccupied with effects of Puritanism in New England, strong sense of inherited guilt Had connections to the Transcendentalists (was friends w/ Emerson and Thoreau), but had a very different philosophy: Instead of asserting freedom, he points out human limitations His fiction: Allegories of the heart Sense of hidden depravity 11 Hawthorne ’ s Characteristics

13. Love for allegory and symbol Dealt with tensions involving: light versus dark; warmth versus cold; faith versus doubt; heart versus mind; internal versus external worlds.

14. Setting Themes Idea Feature Technique  Puritan New England  Evil & sin  “ Black vision ” toward humans  Ambiguity  Symbolism

15. Themes The dreamlike The imaginary The supernatural The American past Techniques Allegorical abstraction Transcendence of material world Operates in intermediate zone of imagination and dreams

16. “[I]t is that blackness in Hawthorne, of which I have spoken, that so fixes and fascinates me” (Herman Melville).

17. Use of allegory A story with both a literal and symbolic meaning Use of symbolism Symbol – a concrete item that represents an abstract idea Also known for: Sense of structure Moral insight Hawthorne’s Style

18. Hawthorne’s idea of romance versus novel Not entirely faithful to reality Does not portray real people, but does remain true to human emotion At times, his allegories are difficult to identify Used the voice of a storyteller to draw readers in and set the stage for his hidden meanings The use of a storyteller also allows readers to consider the “truth” of such tales Hawthorne’s argument was that readers’ imaginations could be manipulated through the mood and images of the text

19. Conventional or “public” symbol: symbols that mean the same thing to most people because they are so much a part of human experience. journey=quest rivers=time and eternity apple/fruit=temptation snake=evil peacock=pride garden=place where you can frolic (i.e. be sexual)

20. Contextual or “private” symbols: meaning generated by the work; different meaning in different context. Pink Ribbons in “Young Goodman Brown”: innocence, girlishness; femininity; pink mixes innocence (white) with sexuality (red) Staff in “YGB”: sin (devil’s staff); uncertainty of purpose (twisted); a journey (walking staff); judge’s pointer (Devil uses it to point at people and judge them) Forest in “YGB”: uncertainty; wilderness; sin; confusion; nature as opposed to civilization; natural law vs. human law: good and bad connotations; compare to Puritan wilderness.

21. Story with second meaning beneath the surface Even though the surface story may have its own interest, the author’s major interest is in the ulterior meaning. Can be defined as an extended metaphor or a series of symbols, but really can be distinguished from both. System of related comparisons, not one comparison drawn out like an extended metaphor Usually a 1:1 correspondence b/t detail and meanings. Differs from symbolism in that it emphasizes the meanings of the images, not the image itself.

22. Romances Short Stories Tales

23. Fanshawe (1828) Mosses from an Old Manse (1846) The Scarlet Letter (1850) The House of the Seven Gables (1851) The Snow-Image (1851) The Blithedale Romance (1852) Life of Franklin Pierce (1852) The Marble Faun (1860)

24. “ Celestial Railroad ” (1843), strong allegorical quality raised the question of the difficulty in dealing with doubt and sin in human life “ The Birthmark ” (1843), “ Rappaccini ’ s Daughter ” Explored the conflict between science and nature

25. Secret guilt, problem, pride, envy, desire for revenge, problem of sin “ The Minister ’ s Black Veil, ” “ Wakefield, ” “ Lady Eleanore ’ s Mantle, ” “ Young Goodman Brown, ” “ Ethan Brand ” The Puritan Past – The Scarlet Letter (1850) – raises the question of whether Hester and her lover Dimmesdale were really sinful

26. Harriet Beecher Stowe on Hawthorne From The Lady Who Does Her Own Work (1864)

27. Allusions in "Rappaccini‘s Daughter" Bible: Garden of Eden Dante‘s Beatrice from The Divine Comedy

28. Garden: perverted Eden, unnatural paradise Dr. Rappaccini ~ God over a re-created Adam and Eve Beatrice ~ the temptress Eve who leads Giovanni to his fall Or, in a different reading: Giovanni: tempts Beatrice/ Eve with the antidote/apple

29. "Hawthorne‘s deliberate evocation of The Divine Comedy and his use of the name Beatrice, which is synonymous in Dante‘s writings with ideal feminine goodness and beauty, serve to foreshadow Beatrice Rappaccini‘s ultimate purity" (Bertan, 260).

30. In a Puritan colony in 17th century New England, Hester Prynne scandalizes the community when she falls pregnant and refuses to name the father. She is forced to wear a scarlet letter A as a permanent reminder of her shame.

31. Hawthorne’s most famous novel Chief Characters: Hester Prynne: symbol of romantic individualism who remains in her heart the master of her free will The Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale: a negative character who can not face his “right for happiness” Roger Chillingworth: a cold intellectual devoid of warm human feelings Pearl: an illustration of the concept of natural human who emphasizes on being a natural being instead of being a moral duplication 30 The Scarlet Letter

32. Scarlet letter the central symbol. Changes meaning for the characters as Hester’s character changes. The A becomes a pathway to redemption

33. Hester Chillingworth Dimmesdale Pearl Sin Evil Adultery Ability Angel Atonement