美国文学 霍桑 NEW 12 Hawthorne

Aesthetics

The Marble Faun; The Scarlet Letter; The House of Seven Gables
Poverty of Materials Interest in history and antiquity Romance
Sources

“there is no shadow, no antiquity, no mystery, no picturesque and gloomy wrong, nor anything but a commonplace prosperity, in broad and simple daylight”

“the genial atmosphere which a literary man requires in order to ripen the best harvest of his mind”
Interest in history and antiquity


“to recall what was valuable in the past” “connect a bygone time with the very Present” “a new territory, somewhere between the real world and fairy-land where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbue itself with the nature of the other”
Romance


Predestined form of American narrative “Poverty of materials” Puritan prudence Treating physical passions obliquely Avoiding violating the human heart Telling the truth and satirizing and yet not offending
The Salem Witchcraft Trials




Time: May-October of 1692 One of the darkest times in American history of religious tolerance Among the last outbreaks of the persecution of accused witches Reasons: an ongoing frontier war, economic conditions, congregational strife, teenage boredom, and personal jealousies
Education


Bowdoin College (1821-1825) Friends: H. W. Longfellow & Franklin Pierce Graduating 18th of 38 students
Career

1825-1827: Salem (reading and writing ) 1839-1840: Boston Customs House 1842: getting married and living at the Old Manse 1846-1849: Salem Customs House Buying “Wayside” 1853-1857: United States Consul at Liverpool 1857-59: Rome and Florence 1860: returning to America 1864: death
The Scarlet Letter

Summary Major Themes Features
Summary



Hester is being led to the scaffold, where she is to be publicly shamed for having committed adultery. Hester is forced to wear the letter A on her gown at all times. She has stitched a large scarlet A onto her dress with gold thread, giving the letter an air of elegance. Hester carries Pearl, her daughter, with her. On the scaffold she is asked to reveal the name of Pearl's father, but she refuses. In the crowd Hester recognizes her husband from Amsterdam, Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth visits Hester after she is returned to the prison. He tells her that he will find out who the man was, and he will read the truth on the man's heart. Chillingworth then forces her to promise never to reveal his true identity as her cuckolded husband. Hester moves into a cottage bordering the woods. She and Pearl live there in relative solitude. Hester earns her money by doing stitchwork for local dignitaries, but she often spends her time helping the poor and sick. Pearl grows up to be wild, even refusing to obey her mother.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

Novelist Short Story Writer Central Figure of American Renaissance
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
Style





Romance fiction Long visual descriptions Formal dialogues (human emotion) Character’s inner struggle Symbolism and allegory Flowing and almost feminine Ambiguity
The House of Seven Gables

“Many writers lay very great stress upon some definite moral purpose, at which they profess to aim their works. Not to be deficient in this particular, the author has provided himself with a moral, --the truth, namely, that the wrong-doing of one generation lives into the successive ones…”
Sophia Peabody

“I am always so dazzled and bewildered with the richness, the depth, the… jewels of beauty in his productions that I am always looking forward to a second reading where I can ponder and muse and fully take in the miraculous wealth of thoughts”
Quakers



One of a religious sect founded by George Fox whose teaching was primarily a preaching of repentance The trembling among the listening crowd caused or confirmed the name of Quakers given to the body Men and women sometimes fell down and lay struggling as if for life —Encyclopedia Britannica
来自百度文库
Life Story Literary Characteristics The Scarlet Letter
Life Story

Childhood Education Career
Childhood



Birth: Salem, Massachusetts; July 4, 1804 Prominent ancestors: colonial magistrate (Quakers) judge (Salem Witchcraft Trial in 1692) father: sea captain dying in 1808 Leading a secluded life
Literary Characteristics


Major Works Black Vision Aesthetics Style
Literary Career





1828: Fanshawe 1832: "My Kinsman, Major Molineux“ 1837: Twice-Told Tales 1846: Mosses from an Old Manse 1850: The Scarlet Letter 1851: The House of the Seven Gables 1852: The Blithedale Romance 1852: The Life of Franklin Pierce 1860: The Marble Faun 1863: Our Old Home
Black Vision


Evil exists in the human heart Everyone possesses some evil secret Everyone seems to cover up his innerost evil Evil seems to be man’s birthmark Sin will eventually get punished Evil educates Overweening intellect—source of evil
Trial of an accused witch in Salem
Examination of Sarah Good by Judges Hathorne and Corwin




What evil spirit have you familiarity with? None. Have you made no contract with the devil? No. Why do you hurt these children? I do not hurt them. I scorn it. Who do you imploy then to do it? I imploy no body. What creature do you imploy then? No creature. I am falsely accused.