Hawthorne S Wilderness Nature And Puritanism In Hawthorne S The Scarlet Letter And Young Goodman Brown

Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of America's most noted and highly praised writers, and a key figure in US literature. Although, he struggled to become an acknowledged author for most parts of his life, his work "stands in the limelight of the American literary consciousness" (Graham 5). For he is a direct descendant of Massachusetts Bay colonists in the Puritan era of the 17th and 18th century, New England served as a lifelong preoccupation for Hawthorne, and inspired many of his best-known stories. Hence, in order to understand the author and his work, it is crucial to apprehend the historical background from which his stories arose. The awareness of the Puritan legacy in Hawthorne's time, and their Calvinist beliefs which contributed to the establishment of American identity, serve as a basis for fathoming the intention behind Hawthorne's writings. His forefathers' concept of wilderness became an important part of their religious life, and in many of Hawthorne's tales, nature can be perceived as an active agent for the plot and the moral message. Therefore, it is indispensable to consider the development behind the Puritan perception, as well as the prevailing opinion on nature during the writer's lifetime. After the historical background has been depicted, the author himself is focused. His ambiguous character and non-persistent lifestyle are the source of many themes which can be retrieved from his works. Thus, understanding the man behind the stories is necessary in order to analyze the tales themselves. Seclusion, nature, and Puritanism are constantly recurring topics in the author's life and work. To become familiar with Hawthorne's relation to nature, his ancestors, and religion, it is essential to understand the vast amount of symbols his stories. His stories will be brought into focus, and will be analyzed on the basis of the historical and biographical facts, and further, his particular style and purpose will be taken into consideration.The second part of t

This encyclopedia introduces readers to American poetry, fiction and nonfiction with a focus on the environment (broadly defined as humanity’s natural surroundings), from the discovery of America through the present. The work includes biographical and literary entries on material from early explorers and colonists such as Columbus, Bartolomé de Las Casas and Thomas Harriot; Native American creation myths; canonical 18th- and 19th-century works of Jefferson, Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Hawthorne, Twain, Dickinson and others; to more recent figures such as Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Norman Mailer, Stanley Cavell, Rachel Carson, Jon Krakauer and Al Gore. It is meant to provide a synoptic appreciation of how the very concept of the environment has changed over the past five centuries, offering both a general introduction to the topic and a valuable resource for high school and university courses focused on environmental issues.

While travelling into the forest on an errand, Young Goodman Brown and his wife happen upon a Sabbath for witches where they are offered as new converts, prompting Brown to question his faith and trust in his spouse. Set in Puritan Salem, Massachusetts, “Young Goodman Brown” reflects author Nathaniel Hawthorne’s perspective on this dark period of American history. Hawthorne was widely known for his common use of seventeenth-century Salem as a setting for his stories, which allegorically criticize Puritan values as contradictory. Although Hawthorne himself felt the story was not memorable, esteemed authors like Herman Melville, Henry James, Edgar Allan Poe, and even Stephen King have praised it as one of his best works. HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.

Examination Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Marburg, language: English, abstract: Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of America's most noted and highly praised writers, and a key figure of US literature. His works have contributed to the national identity and can be found in almost any curriculum of North American Literature Studies worldwide. Being a direct descendant of Massachusetts Bay colonists, the Puritan era of 17th and 18th century New England served as a lifelong preoccupation for Hawthorne and inspired many of his best-known stories. Hence, in order to understand the author and his works, it is crucial to apprehend the historical background from which they arose. Awareness of both the Puritan legacy in Hawthorne's time and their Calvinist beliefs, which contributed to the establishment of American identity, serves as a basis for fathoming the intention behind Hawthorne's writings. His forefathers' concept of wilderness was an important part of their religious life, and in many of Hawthorne's tales, nature can be perceived as an active agent for both plot and moral message. Therefore, it is indispensable to consider the development behind the Puritan perception as well as the prevailing opinion on nature during the writer's lifetime. Seclusion, nature, and Puritanism are constantly recurring topics in both the author's life and works, wherefore particular attention is paid to these. To be familiar with Hawthorne's relation to nature, his ancestors, and religion in general is essential in order to understand the vast amount of symbols that can be found in his stories. The second part of this paper analyzes two of the author's most eminent and esteemed works according to the use of nature symbolism and the underlying moral intention. By depicting various images within "Young Goodman Brown" and The Scarlet Letter, the author examines to which extent they correspond to historical facts and Hawthorne's e

The Scarlet Letter, among Hawthorne's larger works, has been generally rated as his characteristic best.

A friend and associate of the Transcendentalists in Concord, Nathaniel Hawthorne has rarely been taken seriously as a writer interested in the natural world. This book seeks to redress this omission by elucidating the sense of environmentality that emanates from Hawthorne’s romances and other writings. Hawthorne’s sense of kinship with the natural world runs deep in his work, particularly when his fiction is examined alongside his voluminous notebooks. Rethinking Nathaniel Hawthorne and Nature also contributes to the growing scholarly work aiming to illuminate Hawthorne as a writer deeply engaged in the issues of his day, particularly involving the environment, rather than an author simply interested in reinterpreting colonial history. Today’s readers stand to gain a rich new understanding of Hawthorne by reassessing Hawthorne’s attitude toward the natural world.

Volume IV of America's Indomitable Character contains information on: A synopsis of Volume III. Philosophical and intellectual streams of thought as they came from Old Europe and connected with the intellectual developments of the New America. Transcendentalism and Dark Romanticism. A presentation regarding Nature, human nature, society, the social contract in the following authors: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, (Sarah) Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Theodore Parker, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson. How the development of a national literature contributed to the development of an American character identity. Identities and affinities between the American authors and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The Reiseweg of Rousseau's spirit to America. A conclusive summary of all four volumes. How the Democrat Party after the Civil War and up to Barack Hussein Obama has been exceedingly active in making sure that the values expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution for the United States of America were not applied to all Americans - from the Democrat Party affiliated Ku Klux Klan, through the communist takeover of the Democrat Party, to the defeat of racism in the second half of the twentieth century and the re-emergence of racism with the racist class division polemics of Barack Hussein Obama in the twenty-first century. How the Democrat Party has dumbed-down American citizens. How Barack Hussein Obama, the putative president of the United States of America, has hollowed out the substance and laws that were once the backbone of America's character identity; from symbolical insults, through the expansion of social programs and the weakening of national defense, to the destruction of America's religious identity and the erosion of the middle class. This is Barack Hussein Obama's active destruction of American character identity.

In the puritanical Boston of the 17th Century, a woman gives birth after committing adultery. That woman, Hester Prynne, choses to create a new life for herself in the face of adversity rather than succumb to what is expected of her. She will not name the father. Her decision opens up the tension between religious life and the true grace of God, and between personal guilt, religious sin and legal guilt. The novel is prefaced by a "real" account of the author finding notes on a case similar to Hestor's in a Custom House, from which he fashioned the story. The preface is to be read as fictional.