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American Author:

American Author:. Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864. Biography. Born in 1804 Salem, Massachusetts Father died at sea in 1808 Grew up with his widowed mother Attended Bowdoin College 1821-25 Classmates with Henry W. Longfellow (American poet) and Franklin Pierce (14 th President).

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American Author:

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  1. American Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804-1864

  2. Biography • Born in 1804 • Salem, Massachusetts • Father died at sea in 1808 • Grew up with his widowed mother • Attended Bowdoin College 1821-25 • Classmates with Henry W. Longfellow (American poet) and Franklin Pierce (14th President)

  3. Returned to Salem in 1828 • Led a solitary existence • Published Fanshawe, his first novel anonymously and at his own expense; it was a failure • Published Twice-Told Tales in 1837, a collection of short stories which established him as a successful author

  4. Biography • Joined the Utopian community, Brook Farm in 1841 • Stayed less than one year • Was not suited to the Transcendental philosophy and lifestyle

  5. Married Sophia Amelia Peabody in 1842 “Nothing like our story was ever written or ever will be…” N. Hawthorne

  6. Landed a political appointment in 1839 as a Custom House official

  7. Became Salem Custom House Surveyor in 1846

  8. The Scarlet Letter Begins writing his most famous novel in 1849

  9. Biography 1850-1853 • Published The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables (which he considered to be his best novel) • Is appointed as the U. S. Consul to Liverpool, England

  10. Traveled through France and Italy from 1858-1860 • Returned to Concord; his health began to fail • Traveled to the White Mountains with Franklin Pierce in 1864, and died in his sleep while away from his home and family http://www.visitwhitemountains.com/htmdocs/postcard.htm

  11. HAWTHORNE’S WRITING STYLE “Revealing the truth of the human heart…”

  12. Hawthorne’s Theory of Writing A romance is “ …the meeting ground of the actual and the imaginary … a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairyland, where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbue itself with the nature of the other. Ghosts might enter here without affrighting us.”

  13. Characteristics of a Romance • Written on serious subjects which reveal the “truth of the human heart” • Chooses isolated settings • Mixes real people with fictitious characters • Mixes reality with fantasy • Controls atmosphere by contrasting light with shade

  14. America’s First Novelist Anticipates themes and tones of the modern American novel Is a symbolist Strongest element is characterization Themes ground in Puritan theology Nathaniel Hawthorne

  15. Types of Conflict • Individual vs. Society • Passion vs. Conscience • Individual vs. Self • Individual vs. Individual

  16. Hawthorne’s Favorite Themes • Sin • Hypocrisy • Isolation • Past • Science • Alienation • Initiation • Inherited Guilt • Pride • Influence of the past on the present • Nature of women • Power of passion • Role of the artist • Discovery of evil • http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap3/hawthorne.html#themes

  17. Additional Themes • Humanity’s potential for cruelty • The macabre • The dark side of the individual • Mortality • Individual vs. society • Hypocrisy vs. integrity http://www.glasgow-ky.com/fye/ms_fye/hawthorne.htm

  18. Devices of the Gothic Novel • Works of Art • Blood • Ghosts • Magic • Manuscript • Crime • Religion • Foreigners • Deformity • Nature • Gloomy castle • Armored knights http://www.navichat.com

  19. Influences on Hawthorne • Salem and the Custom House • Puritan family background • “Hanging Judge” John Hathorne of the Witch trials and persecutor of the Quakers, William • Puritan writers, i.e., Cotton Mather • Nature

  20. The Scarlet Letter… • Is not a book about adultery or sin. • Is about the effects of sin. • Tells more about men’s souls than about their actions.

  21. The Scarlet Letter • Is a psychological novel exploring the ravages of guilt and remorse. • Concentrates on the effects of sin rather than on the act itself. • Features four major characters each created with one outstanding characteristics. • Unites the characters and separates them by how they are affected differently by the letter. • Examines men’s souls rather than their actions.

  22. Symbolism …the use of a concrete object to represent an abstract idea. Symbols in The Scarlet Letter include. . . • The scarlet letter “A” represents adultery • The forest represents darkness & evil • The scaffold and the prison represent punishment for sin • The rose bush represents a moral lesson

  23. The Scarlet Letter “On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A.” Chapter 2

  24. Hawthorne Quotations What other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart! What jailer so inexorable as one's self! Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.

  25. Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect whether he chooses to be so or not. Nathaniel Hawthorne

  26. Hester and Pearl on the Scaffold

  27. The Scarlet Letter

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