Influences on Nathaniel Hawthorne's
Works
Nathaniel
Hawthorne was a famous author from the early to mid 1800s. He was one
of the leading writers of his time, and some of his books are still
popular today. However, his writings were more on the side of dark
and gloomy. There were multiple events in his life that influenced
his writings.
His
early life played a huge part in providing themes for his books. He
was born and raised in Salem, Massachusetts, which was a Puritan
community. Puritan Salem served as a basis for many of his books. The
Scarlet Letter is a good example
of that set of his books. Nathaniel wrote many other books of that
type. In fact, most of his books are written with that theme.
His
ancestry also affected his writing style. One of his
great-grandfathers, John Hathorne, had been one of the judges during
the Salem witch trials, and Nathaniel felt the guilt from that. The
guilt on his mind shows up as a theme in many of his books, including
The Scarlet Letter and
The Minister's Black Veil.
That guilt was probably a large influence on his using sin as his
topic in numerous writings. Also, a number of his books are written
using symbolism, showing what happens if sin is left undealt with,
whether or not it is kept hidden. The Scarlet Letter
is an extremely good example of this style. The House of
the Seven Gables was another
book that he wrote using symbolism.
One
extremely important lesson from The Scarlet Letter
is that sin will show itself eventually, no matter how hard the
person tries to hide it. The old saying “time will tell” is quite
evident in this story. It is better to confess and take the
punishment than to live knowing that you have sinned and not telling
anyone, waiting until it is found out.
Also,
The Scarlet Letter
shows the struggle with guilt. Anyone hiding sin will struggle with
guilt. No mater how hard that person tries to ignore or get rid of
it, the guilt will stay. The only way to release the burden of sin
and guilt is to confess the sin and repent of it.
In
his later life, he worked at the Salem Custom-House. Near the end of
his time there, while looking through an old storeroom, he found a
scarlet letter “A” in a letter, which was buried deeply in some
piles of old abandoned documents. That piece of cloth was a main
influence on the book that is titled after it, and is one of the main
pieces in the story. He and his family also lived in an old manse for
several years, and the old house inspired him to write the book
Mosses From an Old Manse.
While
serving as U.S. Consul in England, he had the chance to travel around
Europe. He kept journals of his travels, and later published Passages
From Notebooks, telling about
his experiences. During his travels, he stayed in Rome, Italy, for a
year. While there, he was inspired to write The Marble
Faun. Several other themes that
show up in his writings are nature and mankind. These themes were
probably inspired and influenced by seeing the many different
cultures and landscapes while traveling through Europe.
A
final experience that influenced him was living at Brook Farm, a
Transcendentalist community, for about a year. The
Blithedale Romance was a book
that Nathaniel wrote about life there in the community.
In conclusion, the reason that
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote all of the dark and dreary books was
because that was the life he knew. He had lived his whole life that
way, and he did not want other people to also live such a dreary,
dark, miserable life. The symbolism that he uses carries many lessons
that would do this whole world much good if only the people would sit
down and learn them.
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