Introduction to The Scarlet Letter

Biography

Born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, MassachusettsAncestors include Major William Hathorne, a “bitter persecutor of Quakers”, and Justice John Hathorne, the chief interrogator of accused witches during the Salem Witch TrialsNathaniel added the “w” to his surname to distance himself from his Puritan predecessors

BiographyAttended Bowdoin College from 1821 to 1825; befriended classmates Franklin Pierce and Henry Wadsworth LongfellowFell madly in love with Sophia Peabody; engaged in secret in 1838; married in 18421839: became Measurer at the Boston Custom House1840/41: left his post to join with transcendentalists at Brook Farm…

Brook FarmUtopian community, founded by idealists who hoped to combine manual labor with art and philosophyEmerson and Thoreau visited, but never totally bought into the commune

BiographyHawthorne wasn’t a huge fan of work. (Throughout his life, he would complain that menial labor stultified his imagination.)1844, became Surveyor of Boston Custom House1849, ousted from the Custom House; mother dies; pens The Scarlet Letter

1850, TSL published and is an instant success

Biography1852, appointed Consul to Liverpool, England; post was a reward for Hawthorne’s authorship of President Pierce’s campaign biography1857-59, lived in Rome and FlorenceMay 19, 1864: died at Plymouth, New Hampshire. In his last years, Hawthorne was distraught by the threat and the actuality of the Civil War.

Works1828: Fanshawe. Published anonymously and at his own expense. He later burned as many copies as he could find.1830 -37: publishes the stories that would be collected in Twice Told Tales, including “The Minister’s Black Veil” 1846: publishes a second collection of stories, Mosses from an Old Manse; includes “Young Goodman Brown” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter”1850: publishes TSL1851: a prolific year; publishes The House of the Seven Gables and a bunch of other stuff I’m not going to waste slide space on

Buddies!Hawthorne rubbed elbows with some of the most brilliant thinkers and writers of his age, including Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

More Buddies!…like Louisa May Alcott and Franklin Pierce.

Herman Melvillewas especially taken with Hawthorne. He admired the “power of blackness” he discovered in Hawthorne’s writings. He even dedicated Moby Dick to Hawthorne.

A sign o’ the timesWhile Hawthorne’s own era was fraught with instability and crisis, he often looked to an earlier, equally fragile time in American history for his material. It is worth our time to take a look at some of the anxieties facing Puritans, as these anxieties inform TSL.

Colonial MA timeline1620: Mayflower lands at Cape Cod; Mayflower Compact is signed1621: peace treaty signed between Plymouth Pilgrims and Wampanoag Tribe1629: King Charles I dissolves Parliament in England, creating an influx of immigrants to America1630: Boston is established; John Winthrop becomes the first governor of Massachusetts

Colonial MA timeline1634-38: Pequot War1636: Roger Williams founds Rhode Island after he is banished from Massachusetts for calling for, among other things, separation of church and state. Providence soon becomes a refuge for those fleeing religious intolerance. (Oh how I loves the irony!)1636: Harvard College founded.1638: Anne Hutchinson banished for nonconformist religious views (more on her later).

Colonial MA timeline1646: Massachusetts passes a law that makes religious heresy punishable by death1656: Ann Hibbins is tried as a witch and executed. She was reputed to be the sister of governor Richard Bellingham. 1675-76: King Philip’s War. (I’m sure Metacomet really appreciated his nickname.)1692: Mass hysteria grips Salem; 20 are executed for witchcraft

Antinomian CrisisAnne Hutchinson was a major player in the theological crisis which questioned the Calvinist belief that God’s grace alone could lead to salvation. She argued that an individual could take a more active role in his/her spiritual destiny. She was accused of sedition and banished with her family.

The DevilIt was believed that the devil was real and walked among the living, preying on the souls of the faithful.

Reading HawthorneThemes, motifs, anxieties, and whatnot…

Hawthorne doesn’t address a wide range of themes. However, he explores his strong, interrelated themes with complexity and insight.

Hawthorne’s favorite themes

Individual’s complex life and antagonistic relationship with societyDangers of simplistic moral judgmentsEruptions of what is suppressedGuiltMen’s anxieties about women’s sexualityInterpenetration of past and present

Hawthorne’s favorite themes

The dangers of isolation and exileThe importance of self-knowledgeImpossibility of earthly perfectionPerverse secrecyCold intellectuality“The fortunate fall”: lost innocence as the price of mature awareness

“The moral and psychological issues that [Hawthorne] examines through the conflicts his characters experience are often intricate and mysterious. Readers are frequently made to feel that in exploring Hawthorne’s characters they are also encountering some part of themselves.”

Hawthorne’s favorite motifs

Light and darkMasks and veilsShadows and mirrorsThe labyrinthine pathThe moonlight of imaginationThe fire of passionThe cave of the heart

Hawthorne toys with the Old World Gothic romance by replacing the castle on the moors with the American wilderness and the wilderness of the mind.

Interpretations of Hawthorne’s imagery remain deliberately unstable: the scarlet A is a badge of shame transformed into an emblem of triumph.The “structured irresolutions” require readers to become collaborators who examine character and behavior.

Commentary on Hawthorne

“His first novel [TSL], his masterpiece, is an indictment of Puritan America, but also of his own society.”“He wrote about his own society and its antecedents, but it turns out that he also wrote about ours.”“Hawthorne was a shrewd and large-minded writer who read widely and pondered deeply about the human condition and American identity from Puritan times to his own.”

Critics on HawthorneHenry James: great imaginative writing, limited by shallow American culture and too much allegoryEarly 20th c. critics: a dreamer of dreamlike fiction, an heir of Puritan gloomMid-century “new critics”: concentrated on the symbolism and organic unity of his fiction; analyzed recurring character types and themesSemioticians: examine signifiers such as the scarlet letter

Writing in two worldsHawthorne is considered both a “romancer” (probing inner mysteries) and a “realist” (assessing American character and experience).

Romanticism

Celebrated individualismRevered the natural worldFocused on passion and emotionIncorporated mystical elementsStood in opposition to order and rationality in favor of freedom and revolutionExperienced its height in the early to mid-18th c.

Realism

More of a technique as opposed to a literary movementEmploys verisimilitudeReaction against romanticism; instead of trying “transcend” human experience, it attempts to explore it in actualityGoverned by laws, inspired by the scientific methodEmerged from the onset of the civil war

The End!Hootie says hi.