1. Nathaniel Hawthorne
An Introduction

2. Personal Influences on Hawthorne
Early childhood in Salem
Puritan family background - one of his forefathers was Judge Hawthorne, who presided over the Salem witchcraft trials, 1692.
Belief in the existence of the devil and often mystifies the woods.

3. Social / Cultural Influences
Rapid scientific advancements
Roles of women being challenged
Transcendentalism (Brook Farm and friendships – Emerson and Thorough )

4. Other Important writers: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
American Transcendentalism
An important American movement in philosophy and literature from
Other Important writers: Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.
It was a pretest against the state of culture and society/intellectualism at Universities.
The spiritual state transcends the physical one and is only realized through careful intuition

5. Romanticism
A movement of the 18th and 19th centuries that marked a reaction in literature against neoclassicism.
The freeing of the writer from restraints and rules
Liberalism in literature
Valued imagination over reason
Valued the primitive
Love of nature
Interest in the past
Mysticism
Enthusiasm for the wild, irregular, grotesque.
Unrestrained imagination
Interest in human rights
Gothic (dark, magical, brooding.)

6. Hawthorne’s Major Themes
Alienation - a character is in a state of isolation because of self-cause, or societal cause, or a combination of both
Initiation - involves the attempts of an alienated character to get rid of his isolated condition.
Problem of Guilt -a character's sense of guilt forced by the puritanical heritage or by society; also guilt vs. innocence.
Pride - Hawthorne treats pride as evil. He illustrates the following aspects of pride in various characters: physical pride , spiritual pride, and intellectual pride.
Puritan New England - used as a background and setting in many tales.
Allegory - Hawthorne's writing is allegorical, and moralistic.

7. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave