Nathaniel Hawthorne A Brief Biography - 1277 Words

On July 4, 1804, an author by the name of Nathaniel Hawthorne was born (Meltzer). As Hawthorne grew, he began to develop a view of himself as â€Å"the obscurest man in American letters.† Through the use of popular themes such as isolation, guilt, and earthly imperfection, Hawthorne was able to involve much of his life and ancestral past in his work to answer his own political and religious wonders (â€Å"Nathaniel†). Hawthorne successfully â€Å"confronts reality rather than evading it† in many of his stories (Clendenning). Due to yellow fever, Hawthorne’s father passed away at an early age. Because of this incident, his mother went into a deep depression and rarely showed Hawthorne the love and affection a young boy hungers for, thus affecting†¦show more content†¦Again, Hawthorne was seen using his ancestral past as an influence for his writings. Religiously, Hawthorne suffered. The reader obviously noticed this in â€Å"The Ministerâ⠂¬â„¢s Black Veil.† Hawthorne wrote, â€Å"As he prayed, the veil lay heavily† (Arvin 12). This quote showed the reader that a weight needed to be lifted off Hawthorne’s shoulders. Hawthorne wrote about his struggles with his faith by using the tone word â€Å"heavily† to show that Hawthorne may have felt like his prayers were pointless because he was so low in his Puritan faith. The summary of â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† made it obvious that the minister had a secret. The minister could possibly represent Hawthorne himself. Hawthorne wrote, â€Å"The subject had reference to secret sin and those sad mysteries which we hide from our nearest and dearest, and would fain conceal from our own consciousness, even forgetting that the Omniscient can detect them† (Arvin 13). Heading back towards the theme of guilt and isolation, Hawthorne was possibly hiding something while isolated in his writing room. Hawthorne may have felt guil ty for whatever it was he was hiding because he knows â€Å"the Omniscient† still knows what he had done no matter how hard he tried to hide it. Religion is not the only area Hawthorne suffered in. There was much anxiety in his marriage. Because Hawthorne enjoyed writing about his life, this anxiety was visible in â€Å"Rappaccini’sShow MoreRelatedA Brief Biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne856 Words   |  3 PagesNathaniel Hawthorne once said, â€Å"I do not want to be a doctor and live by men’s diseases, nor minister to live by their sins, nor a lawyer and live by men’s quarrels. So, I don’t see that there is anything left for me but to be an author† (Nathaniel). This statement describes Hawthorne’s personality and life in a way that no other quote could. Nathaniel Hawthorne was an Anti-Transcendentalist writer meaning that he had a negative view of all humans. The Anti-Transcendentalist movement was a pessimisticRead More Hawthorn es Young Goodman Brown – Poverty in the Tale and in the Life of the Author1565 Words   |  7 Pagesof the Author  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚   Henry Seidel Canby in â€Å"A Skeptic Incompatible with His Time and His Past† mentions of Hawthorne that â€Å"human failures and their causes were more interesting to him than prophecies of success, one might truly say than success itself. †¦He was not, I think, really interested in escape, except in moods of financial discouragement. . . . (57). Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† embodies traits of the modest lifestyle which the author had to subject himself to becauseRead More Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown – Poverty in the Tale and Author’s Life1650 Words   |  7 Pagesâ€Å"Twice-Told Tales: A Blend of Stories† makes reference to the widely-known poverty of the aspiring writer,Nathaniel Hawthorne: â€Å"True enough, Hawthorne planned more than once to write groups of tales and sketches somehow linked into a whole; but he could not get a publisher for them. When he did get a publisher in 1837, it had to b e through the help of the hack-editor, Samuel Goodrich. . . .† (107) Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† includes traits of the modest lifestyle which the author was forcedRead More Poverty Within and Without Young Goodman Brown1420 Words   |  6 Pagessimplicity within the Nathaniel Hawthorne short story, â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† might be an expression or reflection of the utter poverty within the life of Hawthorne? It is the purpose of this essay to clarify this issue.    Hawthorne’s impoverishment probably begain with the untimely death of his father, and continuedfor most of his llife. Gloria C. Erlich in â€Å"The Divided Artist and His Uncles† states that â€Å"Robert Manning made the esential decisions in the lives of the Hawthorne children and isRead MoreNathaniel Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown1063 Words   |  5 PagesIt seems necessary to write down some lines about the author. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. Because of the involvement of his ancestor in the Salem witch trials , Nathaniel later added a w to make his name Hawthorne in order to hide this relation. He entered Bowdoin College in 1821, and graduated in 1825. Hawthorne published his first work, Fanshawe, in 1828. He published several short stories after that which he collected in 1837 as Twice-Told Tales. His masterpieceRead More The Theme in The Minister’s Black Veil Essay2601 Words   |  11 Pagesinterplay between the guilt of the individual, Reverend Mr. Hooper, and society’s guilt, underlies all of   Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† from beginning to end. In fact, the parson’s final words emphasize this fact: â€Å"I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!    But is guilt the main theme? Clarice Swisher in â€Å"Nathaniel Hawthorne: a Biography† states: †When Hawthorne called his stories ‘romances,’ he meant that they belong within the romantic movement that . . . Read More Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown – A Psychological Short Story2837 Words   |  12 Pagesâ€Å"Young Goodman Brown† – a Psychological Story      Ã‚  Ã‚   Let us discuss the psychological aspect of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing as evidenced in his tale â€Å"Young Goodman Brown.†    Peter Conn in â€Å"Finding a Voice in an New Nation† explains Hawthorne’s mix of psychology and theology. His chosen terrain lay between the realms of theology and psychology, and allegory provided the means of his explorations. . . . Concerned with individuals as specimens or types, he endowed his characters withRead More The Minister’s Black Veil– External, Internal Conflict Essay2734 Words   |  11 Pages      Ã‚   Based on the evaluations of literary critics, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil,† contains both an external and an internal conflict, about equally treated in the tale. It is the intent of this essay to explore both types of conflict as presented in the story.    R. W. B. Lewis in â€Å"The Return into Rime: Hawthorne† implies internal and external conflict in his statement: â€Å"Finally, it was Hawthorne who saw in American experience the re-creation of the storyRead More Stylistic Features in Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown Essay3839 Words   |  16 Pageslack of consistence between the scorn that our younger critics shower upon Hawthorne’s moral creations and their respect for his style. They admit a dignity in the expression that they will not allow to the thing expressed† (62). The style found in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"Young Goodman Brown† has not only a â€Å"dignity in the expression† as stated above, but also many other interesting aspects, discussed in the following essay.    Canby continues:    Hawthorne’style has a mellow beauty; itRead More The Minister’s Black Veil - Characterization Essay2609 Words   |  11 Pagesâ€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil† - Characterization  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚        Ã‚  Ã‚   This essay will demonstrate the types of characters present in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s â€Å"The Minister’s Black Veil,† whether static or dynamic, whether flat or round, and whether portrayed through showing or telling.    R. W. B. Lewis in â€Å"The Return into Rime: Hawthorne† states: â€Å"†¦ there is always more to the world in which Hawthorne’s characters move than any one of them can see at a glance† (77). This is especially true with