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Chapter Four
 Nathaniel Hawthorne
( 1804 – 1864)
1.Born in Salem,
Massachusetts and
studied at Bowdoin
College.
2.The Scarlet Letter
(1850) brought him
recognition as a major
literary figure.
Literary term
 Romance
 Prose fiction that is
conceived in terms
of the fanciful and
idealistic, rather
than in terms of
observation and
faithful description
of fact. A romance,
on the other hand,
while it must keep
 – has fairly a right to present that
truth under circumstances…of the
writer’s own choosing or
creation…he may so manage his
atmospherical medium as to bring
out or mellow the lights and deepen
and enrich the shadows of the
picture.
Text study: The Scarlet Letter
 Symbolic meaning of:
Adultery
Angel
Able
Admiration
Hawthorne’s significance as a
writer
1. Hawthorne is significant as a
romantic writer.
— He used the New England (Maine,
Vermont, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
Connecticut) regional past as
subject and setting for his stories.
— He showed great concern about
the American past.
He was interested in legends, in the
remote, and in things that were
clouded and obscure because of the
passage of time.
— His story displays a psychological
insight into moral isolation and
human emotion.
— He was the first major novelist to
wed morality to art, to combine high
2. Hawthorne is significant for his
themes.
 the consequences of pride,
selfishness, and secret guilt;
 the conflict between lighthearted
and somber attitudes toward life;
 the impingement of past (esp. the
Puritan past) upon the present;
 the futility of comprehensive social
reforms;
 the impossibility of eradicating sin
from the human heart;
 alienation and solitude;
 nature and natural impulses;
 unconscious fantasy and dream.
3. Hawthorne is significant for his
style.
 - Hawthorne wrote romance
because he thought it the
predestined form of American
narrative.
 - Hawthorne used symbols and
setting to reveal the psychology of
the characters, for example, masks,
veils, shadows, emblems to give
 - Hawthorne wrote stories with
narrative interest, ease in transition,
coherence, and complexity.
 - Hawthorne’s style is soft, flowing,
and almost feminine. His touch is
light, but his observation is somber.
 - Hawthorne used ambiguity to keep
the reader in a world of uncertainty.
Important questions are never fully
Questions to ponder
– From the text, what are the attitudes the
women showed to the punishment of Hester
Prynne?
– What Puritan perceptions are displayed
through people’s attitude?
– Do you agree with Hester’s people that she
should be punished?
– In his description, do you think Hawthorne
shows his sympathy to Hester Prynne? How?
And why?