Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts. His paternal great-grandfather came to Salem from England in 1630. His grandfather John Hawthorne was a judge who tried and condemned witches during the Salem Witchcraft trials in 1692. Hawthorne's own father, also named Nathaniel, was a captain who was lost at sea and left his mother a grieved recluse. He drew inspiration from his family's Puritan New England roots, which greatly influenced his writing and provided themes for his work, which encompasses guilt, punishment, sin and judgment.
Hawthorne, often portrayed as a recluse, was a well-known public figure in his community. He worked at Boston Custom House and served as Consul at Liverpool.
The Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne became a success with the publication of The Scarlet Letter in 1850. The heroine, Hester Prynne, was forced to wear a scarlet letter upon her breast as a punishment for her infidelity. Her lover, Dimmsdale, fearful of coming forward and sharing her shame, bears his own guilt in secret. The scarlet letter, at first a symbol of loneliness and pain, brings about changes in Hester. It becomes symbolic of the good and almost angelic person she, through years of suffering and soul-seeking, has become. At the time the novel was written, women who committed adultery were looked upon as "fallen women", and were ostracized while their male counterpart received no such punishment. For this reason, The Scarlet Letter did much to spur social change and was important to the development of women's rights.
Hawthorne's Short Stories
Twice Told Tales, published in 1837, contains his short story masterpieces.
In "The Minister's Black Veil", Reverend Hooper dons a black veil which he refuses to take off. The veil is symbolic of his personal sins and the sins of mankind. In it the minister suffers the corrosive effects of guilt, which separates him from humanity and estranges him from his congregation. In the story, Hawthorne footnotes a true incident about another New England clergyman, Mr Joseph Moody of York, Maine, who in his early life "accidentally killed a beloved friend and...hides his face forever." This story is reminiscent of Hawthorne's early experience with his mother's grief at the untimely death of his father.
In the short story "The Birthmark" the husband flings away happiness by trying to correct a flaw in his wife. The small, insignificant birthmark he believes mars her near-perfect beauty and his obsession with perfection caused unnecessary unhappiness. In the end he "failed to find the perfect future in the present."
"Young Goodman Brown" is a strong example of an allegorical tale. In the story, a young man journeys through the woods at night and has visions of his close friends and innocent wife, Faith, dancing with the devil. He returns changed and forever distrustful and disillusioned. He has lost his "faith".
Hawthorne completed many works. His best-known novels include The Scarlet Letter, The Blithedale Romance, and The House of Seven Gables. He also wrote a number of short stories, the most well-known of which are included in Twice-Told Tales.
Later Years
Hawthorne, known as "The conscience of New England", married Sophia Peabody and moved into Emerson's ancestral home "Old Manse" in Concord. There, he mingled with the transcendentalists, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Amos Bronson Alcott. Later he purchased a Concord house called "The Wayside."
Hawthorne was a friend to Longfellow and Franklin Pierce. Hawthorne died in his sleep in Plymouth, New Hampshire, while on a trip with Franklin Pierce. He left three novels unfinished.
Sources:
American Authors 1600-1900 edited by Stanley J. Kunitz
The New Standard Encyclopedia
The American Tradition in Literature, Second Edition
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