The article entitled “Wakefield’s Second Journey” written by Roberta F. Weldon argues that Nathaniel Hawthorne writes the character of Howard Wakefield and his “second journey” to explain that this journey is “necessary to achieve the final reconciliation with oneself before the fullness of age and death” (Weldon 69). Weldon explains in further detail Hawthorne’s usage…
PASSAGE 1 Certain it is, that, some fifteen or twenty years after the settlement of the town, the wooden jail was already marked with weather-stains and other indications of age, which gave a yet darker aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy front. The rust on the ponderous iron-work of its oaken door looked more antique…
“The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the story of a couple who are torn apart by a physical flaw on Georgiana, the wife’s cheek. The main character, Aylmer, works desperately in his laboratory in hopes of finding a cure. His plan goes awry when the potion ends his wife’s life. The reader can see the…
In the Scarlet Letter, uses many devices to enhance the quality of the novel’s plot and story line. One of these devices is the creative use of physiognomy to better establish the depiction and conflict within each of the characters. Hawthorne’s use of physiognomy serves to create a physical image that also illustrates a character’s…
Most criticism and reflection of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Young Goodman Brown centers on a good versus evil theme. Critics also debate interpretations of the main character’s consciousness; is Brown awake or dreaming. What is certain is that he lives and dies in pain because his belief in his righteousness isolates him from his community. It is…
Like many writers of his time, Hawthorne emphasized man’s inner reality, and those thoughts and feelings which are not immediately apparent. As he explored this internal nature, he not only found the source of dignity and virtue, but also certain elements of darkness and violence. In The Minister’s Black Veil, these elements are treated as…
“The Minister’s Black Veil”, a literary masterpiece written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was a divergent parable for the period it was written. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote as an anti-transcendentalist in the transcendentalist period; as a result, his view’s in writings were mostly pessimistic considering his family’s sinfulness. Hawthorne’s grandfather was a judge in the Salem witch trials;…
“The House of the Seven Gables” is a romantic novel set in a grand and rustic, old house with seven gables in New England town. The story opens with its history, beginning in the 1690’s, when witch-hunting was rampant. Afterwards, it revolves around the course of one summer in the 1850’s. At his housewarming party,…
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about the trials and tribulations of Hester Prynne, a woman living in colonial Boston. Found guilty of adultery, Hester’s punishment is to wear a visible symbol of her sin: the scarlet letter “A.” Through the book, the reader comes to know Hester, the adulteress; Dimmesdale, the holy man…
Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book The Scarlet Letter, Hester’s attitudes toward her adultery are ambivalent. This ambivalence is shown by breaking the book into three different parts. In each part her attitudes change significantly. Hester starts by seeing her act as a sin that she is sorry for committing. She changes and no longer feels sorry…
“Young Goodman Brown”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story that is thick with allegory. “Young Goodman Brown” is a moral story that is told through the perversion of a religious leader. In “Young Goodman Brown”, Goodman Brown is a Puritan minister who lets his excessive pride in himself interferes with his relations with the community…