Nathaniel Hawthorne: Puritan Or Rebel? Ebook By Kate Rogers

Puritan or Rebel? Ambiguity and Conflicts in the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne

Kate Rogers May, 2007

This book is a thesis in satisfaction of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Teaching with concentration in Secondary Education: English conferred upon the author by Union Graduate College, Schenectady, NY in May, 2007.

Original document admitted to the thesis collection of the Schaffer Library, Union College, May, 2007. Call No: Thesis UO992 R724p 2007

© 2007 Catherine Ashworth Rogers All rights reserved

Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................... 4 The Puritan Legacy ........................................................................ 6 Early Puritan History................................................................ 13 Puritan Beliefs ......................................................................... 15 The Second Generation .......................................................... 18 The Salem Witch Trials ........................................................... 23 Nathaniel Hawthorne: Inheritor of the Puritan Legacy ................. 28 An Emerging American Literary Tradition ............................... 35 The Transcendentalist Movement ........................................... 38 Impacts of Transcendentalism ................................................ 40 Puritan or Rebel? .................................................................... 43 The Custom House ...................................................................... 45 “The Haunted Mind” ..................................................................... 50 “The Maypole of Merry Mount” .................................................... 54 “The Minister’s Black Veil” ........................................................... 62 “Alice Doane’s Appeal” ................................................................ 68 “Young Goodman Brown” ............................................................ 76 The Scarlet Letter ........................................................................ 84 Works Cited ................................................................................. 92 Works Consulted ......................................................................... 95

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Abstract Throughout his literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne can be seen to both embrace and reject his Puritan heritage. His work reveals that he has clearly internalized many of the beliefs and values espoused by the Puritans. However, by those standards, he is an unworthy sinner, a state that he earnestly attempts to reject. He accepts Puritan judgments while rebelling against its conclusions. He is a rebel guilt-ridden by his own rebellion. Hawthorne‟s writing can be seen as a struggle to accept his “sinful” status. He wants the promise of salvation, but can‟t achieve it by his own internalized Puritan standards. By those standards, he sees himself as sin-stained. Hints about the nature of his secret sin may be discerned through a critical reading of his stories and The Scarlet Letter. Scholarship might never reveal the ultimate truths about what secret sins plagued Hawthorne‟s guilty heart, but much of his writing can be seen as a rebellion against his internalized ancestral Puritan values.

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Puritan or Rebel? Ambiguity and Conflicts in the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Puritans left a legacy that has become deeply embedded in American culture. Their early goals and values have become defining traits that continue to shape the evolving concepts of American identity. Far from being an anachronistic part of our nation's ancient history, the coming of the Puritans was perhaps the most defining event in the ongoing evolution of an American national sense of self. Their driving sense of purpose, serious demeanor, unshakable faith, famous work ethic and commitment to their cause became a standard against which future generations of Americans measured themselves. As a direct descendant of these Puritan forebears, Nathaniel Hawthorne inherited the weight of their legacy. At a defining period of the forming of an American literature, he simultaneously embraced and rejected Puritan beliefs and values. This ambiguity serves as the foundation for Hawthorne‟s psyche, and is critical to understanding his work. As a “founding father” of American literature, Hawthorne‟s ambiguity also contributed to the formation of a similar ambiguity in the American psyche.

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The Puritan Legacy The early Puritans were critical of the first glimmerings of American identity. Nonetheless, our national history begins with their arrival. They were a committed group of intellectuals and religious activists who were determined to prove the superiority of their beliefs to the entire world. They weren‟t running to these shores out of fear or desperation. Rather, they deliberately set out on a mission to create a society based on ecclesiastical law (Kazin 7). In a very real sense, one strand of early national identity was founded by these early Puritan missionaries. Although the Pilgrims were also important early founders, they were forced by circumstances to come here. Their story of religious persecution remains the inspirational progenitor of our national determination to preserve the freedom of religion. However, the Puritans were not escaping religious persecution as much as they were on a mission to prove the superiority of their interpretation of Christianity. It is this mission which has left an enduring imprint on the American psyche. The Puritans‟ original mission to create an ideal society became an important piece of our national legacy. Beginning as a belief that New England would form an ideal societal order depicted as a „City on a Hill‟ that would show the world the way to be, the seed of this idea blossomed into the concept of Manifest Destiny. In fact, the policy of Manifest Destiny propelled the nation into an unparalleled era of expansion. The idea that this nation had a responsibility to spread its ideals around the world, and that such a goal is sanctioned by God,

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continues to be heard from national political leaders even today. Our current social and political systems are also an outgrowth of the early structures that were successfully built by the Puritan leaders. The Puritans conceived of a community of the "elect," God's chosen people, who would work cooperatively to govern themselves according to God's law, as interpreted from the Bible. They came here believing that they were fulfilling a holy covenant with God. Only such a divinely inspired mission would take them away from their homes to travel halfway around the world to a wilderness they believed was inherently evil. The temptations of Satan were quite real to them, especially in an uncivilized pagan wilderness, but these obstacles were overcome by their determination to uphold their end of their covenant with God. This singlefocused determination played a critical role in their survival during the early years of hardship, and their diligent work ethic led to their eventual prosperity. Their sense of mission never left them, and became the birthright given to their children. In many ways, America was shaped by the Puritans‟ early mission. The influence of the Puritans can be clearly seen in the arena of politics. From George Washington to George W. Bush, American leaders have drawn upon the conviction that Americans are motivated by a divine mission from God. In spite of the ideal of religious freedom imprinted on the American psyche by the Pilgrims, it is the Puritans‟ sense of divine covenant and establishment of a political body based on God's will that has been used by politicians ever since. Regardless of the constitutional mandate of the separation of

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church and state, these two domains have been intimately intertwined in American national rhetoric since the very earliest days of colonial America. The cultural impact of the early Puritans is so pervasive that authors are continually returning to this colonial identity to reinterpret what it means to be an American. As a nation and a people, we define ourselves in comparison to our forebears. The past serves as a shaping influence for our national dialogue. As the fabric of society is woven of the interactions between our hopes, values, and actions, so each American author weaves a thread into the tapestry of American literature, crafted on the loom of the Puritans‟ mission to create a paradise on earth. We can see this most clearly through the writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Many of his stories and novels can be seen as a personal exploration as he struggles to resolve a conflict between Puritan ideals and his own personal reality. Hawthorne continually defined himself in comparison to his ancestors. His ancestral lineage was prestigious in some regards, but deeply shameful in others. As Hawthorne reached back to the Puritan legacy, he did so with mixed emotions of homage and shame. For this reason, Hawthorne‟s work serves as an excellent example to demonstrate the impact the Puritan legacy had on this young, developing author as he struggled to define a uniquely American identity. The Puritan legacy is not one dimensional, but is in conflict with another dynamic aspect of American identity: that of the independent rebel. As described in “The Declaration of Independence,” Americans typically feel that they are entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Although the

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genesis of this ideal formed in the cradle of democracy, this secular ideal runs contrary to Puritan core values and has led to a contradictory split in American identity. Although Puritan values have had a pervasive influence on the development of American identity, their influence has also led to the formation of an identity that is contradictory in many ways to the original Puritan ideals. The Puritan worldview is dependent on the notion that they are a people chosen by God to fulfill His mission. Seeking God's will and finding the means to implement it was the highest purpose of the early Puritan. This idea runs directly contrary to the cherished American notion of self-willed independent action. Individual freedom was not a notion embraced by the Puritans. Social conformity was explicitly expected, and obedience to the common good was valued over personal independence. Submission of the individual will to God‟s will was expected from the devout. As people have found throughout time, religious adherence is often at odds with the pursuit of individual goals. Since the American ideal of personal freedom runs contrary to the Puritan ideal of social conformity, the conflict sets up a dynamic tension in the country‟s sense of identifying an American national character. In many ways, Hawthorne embodied this tension. He struggled to conform to the expectations of his family and community while simultaneously striving to break free from such restraints. His was a life of unresolved, internal conflict. A large component of the American identity is the larger-than-life hero who tests himself against the dangers of the wilderness. “The wilderness” is an idea that has served as a defining concept in the formation of an American identity.

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To the Puritans, it represents the ultimate unknown, a territory of godless dangers, the domain of Satan. It is the realm where true individualism is tested against the American expansionist drive. Therefore, to confront the wilderness requires courage, strength, and a kind of spiritual purity able to withstand the vicissitudes of an inherently corrupt environment. An individual goes into the wilderness to define him or herself, often in defiance of limiting cultural expectations. Since the wilderness is a place of unknown dangers, Americans tend to admire those who seek to challenge these unfamiliar boundaries. From Lewis & Clark's famous exploration of the early American frontier to Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon, Americans lionize the heroes who challenge unknown frontiers by exploring the wildest, most uncivilized wilderness. This hero rebels against limits, and expresses the value of individuality. However, the Puritans were all about selfimposed limitations and the value of community effort. The success of the Puritans lay in their ability to form close communal bonds, a notion that runs contrary to the ideal of American individualism. The explorer defies authority and seeks to rise above societal expectations. These ideals of independence and rebellion against authority run contrary to the core Puritan ideal of obedience to God. Whereas the Puritans feared the wilderness as the domain of Satan, the explorer embraces the challenges of the wilderness as he pushes to find out what new ideas lie beyond the boundaries of civilization. Where the explorer revels in his ability for independent action, the Puritans valued obedience to authority. While the Puritans devoutly believed that an individual's

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salvation lay solely in God's hands, the explorer embodies the very American notion of the "self-made man." We can still see vestiges of Puritan values expressed in our heroes, though. We profess our ideals through the heroes we uphold. Through Superman, an icon of American independence, we see that Americans profess to believe in "truth, justice, and the American Way." These are values echoed in the Puritan past in Puritan rhetoric. Puritans were particularly devoted to ideals of truth and honesty, devoting endless hours to scouring their souls and scorning any deception found. They were also adamant supporters of justice, as long as it was based on God's law as revealed in the Bible. Their early system of self-governance created the foundation for our democratic form of government. Although the Puritans had no way of knowing that their experiment in forming a “city on a hill” would eventually result in a new nation called “America,” they certainly had an abiding interest in establishing their own “way” of doing things. The early influences of the Puritans are revealed through such icons of American identity. The contradictory impulses embodied in Puritan values, however, have become an important part of the American psyche, leading to a rich field of exploration for American writers. Nathaniel Hawthorne was one of the first American authors to grapple with this contradiction directly. As Americans have continued to struggle with defining a sense of purpose in the world, it is the authors of American literature like Hawthorne who have served to give shape to an evolving duality of American identity. Early American writers had a dynamic role in shaping American identity, since as a new

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nation, the national sense of self was still very fluid and evolving. As the decades passed and the body of original American work grew, younger writers had their own newlyemerging canon of uniquely American viewpoints to draw upon, to explore, and to expand. Through his personal explorations and conflicts, Nathaniel Hawthorne directly contributed to the creation of a uniquely American literary canon. The Puritan legacy became a canvas upon which he and other writers could explore the contradictory nature of national identity. Hawthorne‟s works of literature serve as both a reflection of the past as well as a commentary on the present. Throughout the centuries, whether a writer affirmed or rejected the values granted by the Puritan founding fathers, their influence has been extensive in American literature. Nathaniel Hawthorne is famous for directly drawing on his Puritan heritage as a backdrop for The Scarlet Letter as well as many of his short stories. In these works, Hawthorne rejects his personal family connection to his Puritan forebears while seeming to embrace the concurrent stifling influence of their Puritan values. He explores the underpinnings of the Puritan ideal in his own particular ways and according to his own sets of beliefs. He often focuses on topics related to American identity by exploring ideas that relate to this identity split offered by Puritan values in opposition to independent self-will. As a shaper of American identity, Nathaniel Hawthorne expanded the discussion of Puritan and American values in many ways. Puritan or rebel? These two contrary sets of characteristics have defined the American identity: the values

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of the Puritans, and the simultaneous rejection of those values. This inherent contradiction has proven to be a rich field for the cultivation of unique voices in American literature. This dichotomy helped to define Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Melville and Dickinson as well, all contemporaries of Hawthorne who also contributed to the new American literature. By examining the personal and social context surrounding Nathaniel Hawthorne and his works, we can see how the Puritans influenced one important writer instrumental in establishing an American national character.

Early Puritan History In order to better understand what motivated Nathaniel Hawthorne, we have to examine the historical context he steeped himself in. He was an avid student of history, and immersed himself in the subject of early colonial history. He regularly and deliberately drew upon this history as the basis for his tales and a sound understanding of this background is necessary to understand Hawthorne‟s works. The Puritans, central players in Hawthorne‟s works, did not choose this name for themselves. The term "Puritan" was first applied in the 16th century as a descriptor of a type of religious belief, rather than the name of the religion itself. It became a derogatory label used by those who didn‟t share the Puritans‟ strict religious views. The Puritans considered themselves to be Calvinists. They were members of the Protestant Reformation movement advanced in part by John Calvin in the 16th century. As part of the Reformation, the Puritans believed that the form of Christianity practiced in

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Roman Catholicism was irreparably corrupt. They felt that the rituals and practices of the Church had become disconnected from the “pure” teachings of the Bible, and that Church bureaucracy had become too entwined with political intrigue. Throughout Europe, various protestant reformers sought to strip the church of its secular power and reestablish religious authority found in the Bible. Their attempts to "purify" the church and bring it closer to what they believe God intended led to their gaining the name of Puritans. The Protestant movement in England did manage to succeed in taking political power out of the hands of the Catholic church and placing religious institutions directly in the hands of the British government. However, this left many of the objectionable religious structures and hierarchies intact, which became a target for religious reformers like the Puritans. Puritans believed that the church had become altogether too secular and political, and had strayed significantly from biblical doctrine. The Puritans of England aimed to change all that, and began agitating for political reform. However, with the establishment of settlements in the new world, another option for reform became available. In 1630, a Puritan leader named John Winthrop led a group of approximately 400 co-religionists to establish a colony in the new world. While on board their flagship "Arbella", he delivered his now-famous speech "A Model of Christian Charity," where he outlined the hopes and dreams of this group of settlers. In this stirring sermon, Winthrop laid out the foundations for the mission that would continue to inspire an American sense of purpose for centuries onward. He decreed that their community shall be as a "city upon a hill"

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(Kennedy 32-33). As a city on a hill is clearly visible and stands out against the horizon, outlined for all to see even from great distances, so Winthrop envisioned the Massachusetts Bay Colony that his group intended to establish. This piece of vivid imagery has endured through the ensuing centuries, cutting a trail throughout American history. This vision of New England gradually expanded to include all of America as the ideal city on a hill. Winthrop intended this community of "God's Elect" to serve as an example of righteousness and moral purity in the world. His sermon outlined the mission to create a civil and ecclesiastical government based on God's law. It was a very deliberate effort to create the kind of pure Christian society that the Puritans were unable to accomplish in England. These Puritan missionaries hoped that by establishing a brand new society, they could start from scratch and build it with deliberate intention by a group of people completely committed to the cause. Calvinist hopes for a new society based on God's law rested with the success of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Puritans had something to prove to the world, and they were very aware that the eyes of the world were upon them.

Puritan Beliefs Many features of their belief system distinguished the Puritans from other fundamentalist Christians. One such feature was the concept of the "elect," which arose from their belief in predestination. According to Calvinist doctrine, humanity is born tainted by sin, and most people are destined

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for hell. This doctrine had no mechanism for absolution or the forgiveness of sin. Simply put, sinners were damned, and nothing could be done by human agency to change that. This belief created an incredible effort toward sinless perfection – a standard attainable by only a select few. They believed that only these few would be saved from damnation, but according to predestination. No efforts on behalf of humans could compel or create this salvation. Salvation was solely in the hands of God – a freely given gift – who was the sole decider about who was to be saved and who was not (Campbell “Puritanism in New England”). Adherence to religious practices could reveal who God‟s elect were, but one could not be saved simply by religious obedience. Damnation was an irrefutable fact for the majority according to Puritan doctrine. Members of the Church devoted themselves to God's laws hoping for direct proof of His blessing – a personal experience of salvation. Only those who experienced a direct, personal revelation of God's grace were considered eligible for full Church membership. These experiences were then submitted to the Church leadership in the form of "Conversion Narratives" which documented the revelation of Divine grace. Only upon close examination by Church Elders was a new member admitted into the congregation (Campbell “Forms of Puritan Rhetoric”). This many-layered structure helped to insure that all members of the Church had a profound and personal commitment to God. Thenceforth, Church members were expected to act in accordance with their state of grace. It was believed that those who had been saved by God would act accordingly, a process known as "sanctification." However, it was also recognized

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that Satan especially prized the souls of those who had been elected by God for salvation, and were therefore especially susceptible to "back-sliding." Thus, church members were expected to devote a considerable amount of time to active soul-searching in an attempt to root out all taint of sin that might lead to their loss of grace. The ultimate status of their souls was therefore always a bit ambiguous, and great effort was expended insuring that God remained close in thought and deed. Puritans were not reticent about expressions of their faith, but they generally scorned frivolity. For them, frivolity might be defined as anything that distracted a person from the serious business of living according to God‟s strict will. Music, dancing, and revelry of all sorts were scorned as unnecessary and even sinful. Clothing was notoriously drab in color and unadorned, because it was considered vain to take pride in a person‟s appearance. They were not an outwardly exuberant people but valued self-control and emotional restraint, even among their children, who were expected to be obedient, hard-working, and silent. Jeremiads and other Puritan sermons served an important role in early Puritan worship. They often lamented the precarious nature of salvation, and warned of the consequence of not living according to biblical law (Campbell “Forms of Puritan Rhetoric”). Such regular reminders of the wages of sin helped maintain adherence to the strict social order. These exhortations reminded the congregation of the grave and bitter aftermath of ignoring God's will, and served to sharpen the community‟s efforts to be obedient to God's will.

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A cohesive sense of purpose was critically important to the success of the Massachusetts Bay colony. The Puritans had to create their settlement from the ground up, and the early years were extremely difficult. Death moved freely through the community in the forms of disease, starvation, and Indian attacks. Strong social cohesion helped the Puritans to survive and eventually thrive in the hostile new world they found themselves in. The Puritans were well educated intellectuals who were personally and directly committed to their mission of creating a society based on God's will. This intensely focused commitment led to the kind of tight social bonds that were so necessary to the success of the colony. Their shared mission led to a closely woven social fabric that supported the colonists through their difficult early years. Their strong social solidarity and their clearly focused sense that they were "one people" on a mission became the foundation for creating a national identity. The Second Generation As the Massachusetts Bay Colony continued to grow, its political influence in the emerging colonial culture also grew. The period between approximately 1650 through the end of the century saw enormous growth in terms of population and the colonial economy. As an emblem of this growth, Harvard College was established in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1650, just twenty years after the foundation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Not only does this show what kind of value the Puritans placed on education, but it also

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reveals a community stable and well-established enough to be able to support such an institution. The midway point of the seventeenth century found England and its American colonies in an unstable political situation. The English Civil War was coming to a close, deposing the monarchy and leaving the forces of the Puritan Oliver Cromwell in control. The Protectorate of Cromwell did not establish stability that the loss of the monarchy had created, leading to an extended period of political uncertainty in Europe. The English monarchy was eventually restored two decades later in 1660 with the abdication of Cromwell‟s son. With much of Europe distracted by such tumultuous events, the Massachusetts Bay Colony found that it was difficult to serve as their intended “city on a hill” if nobody was watching. Just as the Puritans in England were having difficulty achieving long-term success, so were the Puritans in New England. Although the Massachusetts Bay Colony was internally governed through the authority of a royal charter which insulated them somewhat from the political instability abroad, it was a very unsettled time for the colonists as they tried to establish a Puritan model of government. The community was governed by Magistrates who established laws based on strict biblical interpretation. Laws were enforced via community policing; Members of the community were expected to report on possible transgressions by their neighbors, and even minor lapses were met with strict punishment. Punishment for violations were typically public affairs that deliberately employed humiliation to enforce norms of behavior. Examples include public whippings, locking offenders in stocks or the pillory, and the branding or wearing

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of an emblem of the crime, such as “T” for “thief” or “A” for “Adulterer.” This strict system of justice helped to insure conformity of social behavior reinforcing strong community bonds. However, the first blush of their initial energy and enthusiasm seemed to wane once the settlement became better established. Although the early years of Puritan settlement were dedicated to the establishment of mutually dependent communities that would help to insure survival, as these communities became better established, survival became more assured and the bonds that held the communities together began to weaken. The need for such rigid social norms were less apparent to the second generation of colonists. The children of the original settlers found themselves one step removed from the original mission that compelled their fathers to cross an ocean. As the original settlers raised children in the new world, these children presented a dilemma. What happens to a community based on a covenant with God if the children, the inheritors of the community, do not share in the covenant? This question was centrally important to the Puritans‟ original mission to establish a community based on God's laws. If their children were not also "elected" by God to be among the chosen, who then will lead the community when the elders are gone? This question threatened to undermine the long-term political and social stability of the fledgling colony, and introduced a key component in the formation of a unique American identity. The children of Puritans had a choice: the pursuit of their parents‟ original dream of being a “city on a

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hill” and serving as an example of moral purity for the world, or the forging of a new independent identity. A solution was found in a religious compromise called the "Halfway Covenant," whereby children of fully-accepted church members could be admitted into the church with partial rights on the presumption that they would eventually become one of God's chosen elect. According to Robert McCaughey, a history professor at Columbia University, the Halfway Covenant would "Allow the children of “Visible Saints” (admitted church members) who have not had a religious experience assuring them salvation to be halfway members of the church." These children were given full voting rights in town, which led to both an increase in church membership and a decline in what membership meant. The second generation was still expected to seek God's grace, but they could enjoy the rights of membership without the established protocols that confirmed God‟s salvation. Although this compromise was necessary for the political continuity of the community, it also served to dilute the concentration of the membership who were completely committed to the original mission of the founding fathers. The jeremiads of the period were filled with dire warnings of the doom that would befall them if they didn‟t cleave to God and the church. In the mid to late 1700s, a famous minister and orator of the time, Increase Mather, delivered jeremiads with titles like “The Day of Trouble is Near,” “A Discourse Concerning the Danger of Apostasy,” and “A Renewal of Covenant the Great Duty Incumbent on Decaying and Distressed Churches.” Titles such as these suggest that the

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elect had a great unease about the direction and success of their ongoing mission. The second generation had plenty of concerns of their own. They inherited the strong and enduring sense of mission from their parents, yet they were one generation removed from the passion that inspired the start of this great enterprise. They inherited a promise to God, without the promise of salvation. The second generation of Puritans became preoccupied with their own role in shaping history and fulfilling God's mission to create an ideal society. The sermons of the time reveal a deep disquiet among religious leaders, as they questioned their role and their progress toward fulfilling God's promise (Miller, P. 2). In 1670, the Reverend Samual Danforth gave an election sermon titled "A Brief Recognition of New England's Errand into the Wilderness" where he explicitly outlines for the second generation this Puritan mission "into the wilderness" to establish a community of the elect. Reverend Danforth and his peers of the day seemed to think that the mission was in danger of failing. By 1677, the very influential Reverend Mather was delivering his most strongly worded jeremiads questioning the faith of the church membership. At the very least, it seems clear that these religious leaders were concerned that the success of their ongoing mission might be in doubt. With the overthrow of Cromwell's Protectorate and the restoration of the monarchy in England, it seemed that England was preoccupied with its own concerns, and was no longer paying attention to the grand experiment in Christian living that was the goal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The mission was in danger of failure; What good is it being a "city upon a hill" if nobody is looking toward its shining promise?

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The Salem Witch Trials In one of early America‟s most evident episodes of mass hysteria, an atmosphere of uncertainty and doubt created a toxic environment perfectly suited to the formation of a tragic episode in the country‟s formation. It is commonly thought that the strict social structure of the Puritans helped create the kind of milieu where accusations of witchcraft could lead to innocent deaths. Rather than provide a safety net to insure the survival of the community, the tightly woven social fabric of the Puritans served to trap them under the weight of their own internal politics. Ultimately, this tragic event affected Hawthorne as well many generations later. The tragedy unfolded in the village of Salem, a farming community several miles removed from the nearby Town of Salem, of which it was a part. The Massachusetts Bay Colony had been established for over sixty years, long enough for basic survival issues to have been solved, and long enough to diminish the sense of community solidarity that having a shared Puritan mission created in the earlier years. The year 1692 was a difficult one for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The French and Indian war was ongoing, disrupting peace and progress in the region. The witchcraft accusations revealed hidden stressors within the community that ripped apart the fabric of social cohesion. Whereas before the tight-knit social structure of the Puritans helped them to survive, the petty jealousies and disputes that form in such tight-knit communities served as fuel for the hysteria.

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Witchcraft and Satan were very much a reality for the Puritans. They saw the world as a battleground between God and the Devil, fighting for individual souls. Puritans believed that Satan recruited witches to work for him, and they believed that disease, natural catastrophes, and other misfortunes were all signs of the Devil‟s work. Since they believed that God‟s intentions could be read in natural phenomena, they were apt to see natural events as signs of God‟s or the Devil‟s work. According to local Salem historian Robert Cahill, the winter of 1691-92 was a particularly long, bitter, and snowy one. For the residents of Salem Village four miles away from the shops and activities in town, it effectively shut in the hundred or so families for four months. Recreation was limited to fireside tales, Bible study, and stories of the Indian and French massacres. Although the villagers presumably still worked hard at what chores they could, the winter weather kept them bored with inactivity (Cahill 13). This must have been particularly difficult for the children, who were expected to work hard at an early age and discouraged from idleness and play. These repressive Puritan strictures helped to create an atmosphere that allowed the drama to unfold. The Puritan faith itself forms a key backdrop to the events that led to the Salem witch trials, for the situation began in the parish house of the Reverend Samuel Parris. A strict Puritan, he had recently been appointed as minister to Salem Village after the previous pastor, Reverend George Burroughs, left following a dispute with a prominent member of the community, Ann Putnam (Cahill 16). Among Reverend Parris‟ household was a servant whom he had bought as a slave in the West Indies. Tituba was very much an outsider to the Puritans.

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She was not very interested in the Bible because she was a practitioner of her native Caribbean religion called Vodoun, also known as voodoo, a syncretic blend of Roman Catholicism and native African religious practices. These practices included spirit possession, spells and charms, and fortune-telling, all of which were considered crimes of witchcraft to the Puritans. Tituba had the primary responsibility of caring for the needs of Reverend Parris‟ daughter Elizabeth and her cousin, Abigail Williams. In the evenings, the girls and their friends would gather around the kitchen fire and listen to the exotic tales of Tituba. She reportedly read their palms, and talked openly of forbidden topics like magic (Cahill 13). Before long, the girls began experiencing strange fits that seemed inexplicable at first glance. They would weep and groan, then fall to the floor in convulsive fits. Reverend Parris sought medical help from the village physician who, finding no other physical cause for their symptoms, pronounced that the girls had been “bewitched” (D‟Amario). Once the specter of witchcraft was raised, it sped like wildfire through the isolated farming community. Soon, other girls were exhibiting similar symptoms, and it didn‟t take them long to name Tituba and two other women as their tormentors. Like Tituba, the other two women also had characteristics that made them outsiders in the tight-knit community. Sarah Good was homeless and was described as a pipe-smoking beggar, while Sarah Osborn was an elderly cripple. These three women were immediately arrested and questioned. Tituba easily confessed that she was a witch, and by the criteria of the Puritans, she likely was. But Sarah Good

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and Sarah Osborn were shocked by the sudden accusation, and denied the charges vigorously. They were the first to fall victim to false accusations, but they were by no means the last. By the time the trials were halted over a year later, 168 people had been accused of witchcraft, and 23 people had lost their lives. Approximately fourteen years later one of the prime accusers, Ann Putnam, recanted her accusations and publicly apologized for her role in sending innocent people to their deaths (Cahill 21). This tragic episode was a defining event in the shaping of an American identity. The strict morality created an atmosphere where any aberrant behavior was seen as the work of the Devil. The social tensions led to people accusing their neighbors of serious crimes to satisfy petty jealousies and private vendettas. The first targets were those who had characteristics that caused them to stand out of the crowd in a community where individuality was not encouraged. In spite of the Puritans‟ efforts to serve as the “visible saints” of the church and live according to God‟s law, they proved vulnerable to the worst expressions of human nature. Those who lost their lives were victims of a rigid intolerance that was supported by righteous certainty of belief. The Puritans blindly accepted the “spectral evidence” of the accusing children because it so neatly fit into what they were already predisposed to believe. Their utter belief in the Devil and his supposed works created a screen of plausibility for the hysterical claims of mischievous children. This episode of the colonial period still serves as warning to the dangerous power exerted by judgmental extremism of all sorts, and it is a chapter

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of history that personally haunted Nathaniel Hawthorne, a resident of Salem, Massachusetts.

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Nathaniel Hawthorne: Inheritor of the Puritan Legacy Nathaniel Hawthorne became a quintessential figure among nineteenth century American writers. He achieved great literary acclaim in his lifetime, and his works continue to have an enduring impact on modern students of American literature. No discussion of literature's contribution to the formation of a unique American voice and identity would be complete without an examination of Nathaniel Hawthorne and his contributions to the intellectual wealth of the emerging nation. Few authors have a greater claim to represent the voice and spirit of the American people. Even his date of birth, Independence Day in 1804, seems to foreshadow the pivotal role he played in the shaping of a national identity. Born in Salem, Massachusetts, his family had not strayed from where they planted their earliest roots. Five generations of Hathornes preceded Nathaniel in the New World. He was born into one of the "First Families," tracing his direct lineage to the very first settlers of the land. Born and raised in the very location of that first prominent settlement, Salem, Nathaniel Hawthorne had the weight of personal and national history always upon him. For Nathaniel Hawthorne, it seems clear that the Puritan settlement period was not distant history, but a current and personal family tale that suffused nearly all that he wrote. It takes no cleverness of critics or imagination of biographers to say that Nathaniel Hawthorne was preoccupied with his

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Puritan ancestors. Hawthorne himself provides that link when he said, "The figure of that first ancestor, invested by family tradition with a dim and dusky grandeur, was present to my boyish imagination, as far back as I can remember. It still haunts me, and induces a sort of home-feeling with the past" (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 10). He had a complex lovehate relationship with his Puritan ancestors, and continually explored his ongoing relationship with them through his writing. Hawthorne‟s family tree‟s earliest roots were planted at the infancy of the New World. His first New World ancestor was William Hathorne (1607 - 1681) who sailed with John Winthrop aboard the Arbella. As such, William was one of the early Puritans dedicated to Winthrop's vision of a "city on a hill." He truly embodied the ideal of a founding father, becoming both a military and political leader. He became a deputy of the General Court of Boston, held the rank of major in campaigns against the Native Americans, as well as presiding as magistrate and judge in the settlement (Miller, E.H. 20). William Hathorne sentenced law breakers according to the often brutal punishments of English justice: ears were cut off, holes were bored in women's tongues with red-hot irons, and prisoners were starved. Hathorne was said to pursue wickedness "like a bloodhound." It is reported that on one occasion, he ordered a burglar's ear be cut off and had him branded with the letter B on his forehead. On another occasion, William Hathorne is responsible for the punishment of a Quaker woman. She was stripped to the waist, tied to the back of a cart, and pulled through town where she was given

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thirty lashes before being driven into the forest (Miller, E.H. 21). His performance as a judge brought him acclaim, but this "grave, bearded, sable-cloaked, and steeple-crowned progenitor" was viewed by his great-great grandson, Nathaniel, as cruel and tyrannical (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 10). William Hathorne's son, John, followed in his father's footsteps. Like his father, he was a deputy to the General Court in Boston, served as a Colonel in the militia, and most infamously, served as a magistrate during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, continuing his father's tradition of courtsanctioned cruelty (Miller, E.H. 22). Although many of those involved in the witchcraft trials later publicly recanted or repented their roles in the tragedy, John Hathorne never did (Stade xviii). He embodied the notion of the stern, unforgiving Puritan elder. In his writing, Nathaniel Hawthorne seemed to be trying to reach back across the span of years and measure himself against his ancestors‟ achievements. In the autobiographical "Custom-House" sketch which precedes The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne refers to these family members as "those stern and black-browed Puritans" but doubts whether his success as a writer would win their stern approval. He refers to himself as an "idler" in their eyes, and imagines that they would find his chosen work "worthless, if not positively disgraceful." Although he recognized that his profession would have made him less of a man in the eyes of his forebears, he acknowledges his abiding connection with them when he says, "And yet, let them scorn me as they will, strong traits of their nature have intertwined themselves with mine" (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 11).

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Nathaniel Hawthorne demonstrated his conflicted connection to his forbears when he changed the spelling of his name a year after graduating from college. When Horace Conolly, a resident of Salem, remarked to Hawthorne that he didn't look like the Salem Hathornes, Nathaniel reportedly responded, "I'm glad to hear you say that, for I don't wish to look like any Hathorne." When Conolly speculated that perhaps this was the reason for the changed spelling of his surname, Hawthorne didn't correct him (Wineapple 63). Scholars generally assume that Hawthorne changed his name in an attempt to distance himself from the unrepentant cruelties of his forebears. He implies this reasoning when he said, "I, the present writer, as their representative, hereby take shame upon myself for their sakes, and pray that any curse incurred by them… may be now and henceforth removed" (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 10). Although five generations separated Nathaniel Hawthorne from the family patriarch, he still clearly felt the connection of blood. According to Hawthorne scholar Brenda Wineapple, Nathaniel had a lifelong habit of genealogical and historical research into Salem and its inhabitants. He reportedly read old documents, public records, travel books, biographies, poetry, as well as “great gobs of history” (Wineapple 61). His mother's side of the family, the Mannings, were also a family of enduring lineage in the community, but without the ancestors of such wide renown as the Hathornes. The Manning patriarch, Richard Manning, was a blacksmith by trade, who eventually established a stagecoach between Salem and Boston (Miller, E.H. 28). It was a prosperous profession, if not a prestigious one. By the time Nathaniel's father, also

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named Nathaniel, married Betsy Manning, the Manning family had become relatively prosperous in Salem, owning properties and businesses in town (Wineapple 18). In contrast to the grand achievements of the first Hathorne forebears, the grandsons of William and John Hathorne became sailors of little renown. According to Nathaniel Hawthorne, the succeeding generations of Hathornes "subsisted… in respectability; never, so far as I have known, disgraced by a single unworthy member; but seldom or never, on the other hand, after the first two generations, performing any memorable deed, or so much as putting forward a claim to public notice" (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 11). By this, we see the Hathorne line as a family renowned in its founding, but unremarkable in its lineage. Hawthorne's father, Nathaniel Hathorne Sr., was a captain who made a meager living at sea, and died when his son Nathaniel was only four, leaving his mother in debt. Left without a father, Hawthorne was left with the cold comfort of his family legacy. After the death of her husband, Betsy Manning Hathorne and her children were taken in by her family, the Mannings, to live (Martin 17). Nathaniel Hawthorne was raised in the Manning household, and it was his uncle, Robert Manning, who ultimately undertook the care and management of his nephew (Miller, E.H. 29). Uncle Robert gave Nathaniel a job as a bookkeeper when he was a teenager, but Nathaniel didn't seem to appreciate this opportunity. In a letter to his mother, Nathaniel proclaimed, "No man can be a Poet and a Bookkeeper at the same time" (Martin 17). In spite of this close connection to his mother's side of the family, Nathaniel Hawthorne underplayed his connection with them,

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and focused his imagination on his Hathorne relatives. Although the Mannings provided his direct, material support during his upbringing, it was his Hathorne patrimony that inspired an abiding interest in Nathaniel. According to Wineapple, "if he didn't much like his father's side of the family - reputedly he told a friend he wanted no connection to them - he begrudgingly admired their self-regarding vanity, so different from the secular strivings of blacksmiths and bookkeepers" (Wineapple 60). According to Hawthorne biographer Edwin Haviland Miller, “Hawthorne had almost nothing to say about the Mannings in letters or other writings.” In spite of the fact that the Mannings took him in as a fatherless child, sheltered and supported him, his mother and siblings, Hawthorne seems to completely ignore his mother‟s side of the family in the large body of work he left behind. Considering how utterly absorbed Hawthorne was in his personal ancestral history, this seems a bit unusual. But as Miller said, “Silence, however, can also speak” (Miller, E.H. 29-30). For someone who is so interested in family history, why might Hawthorne be silent about the Mannings? One possible answer might lie in the Manning history. Like the Hathorne‟s participation in the Salem Witch Trials, the Mannings also had a shameful episode in their past. Theirs, however, bears the unbearable weight of an unbreakable cultural taboo: incest. According to E.H. Miller, some time in the late 17th century, the time period of particular interest to Hawthorne, two Manning sisters were accused of having “carnal relations” with their brother, Captain Nicholas Manning. According to court records, they were forced to sit

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“in the meeting house with a paper upon each of their heads, written in Capital Letters, „This is for whorish carriage with my naturall Brother‟” (Miller, E.H. 35). With all of Nathaniel Hawthorne‟s well known interest in familial and local history, he would most certainly have known about this ancient scandal in his family‟s past. The fact that his written record remains silent in regard to the Manning side of his family leaves open the doorway to speculation. Hawthorne seems willing to confront the shame of his Hathorne ancestors, and even take it upon himself in an effort to expiate it. Why is he silent about the other half of his heritage? Several scholars have suggested that perhaps Hawthorne‟s silence on the subject reflects a secret guilt and shame of his own. His upbringing within the Manning household caused him to form close relationships with his siblings, particularly his older sister Elizabeth, affectionately known as Ebe. E.H. Miller indicates that "Hawthorne‟s ties to his sisters were close, perhaps too close for the emotional wellbeing of all concerned” (Miller, E.H. 33). Hawthorne scholars have been unable to find any hard evidence that an incestuous relationship existed, however, some scholars have suggested that The Scarlet Letter and some of his other stories hint toward this conclusion (Stade xviii). Herman Melville, a friend of Hawthorne‟s, once said that he knew of Hawthorne‟s “secret.” A number of commentators have suspected that this “secret” could be an incestuous relationship between Hawthorne and Ebe. This theory could help to understand many of Hawthorne‟s tales. Guilt and secret sin are certainly dominant themes through much of Hawthorne‟s writing,

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although there is no certain proof that the intensity of these depictions was based on any actual incestuous events. His filial connections and abiding personal interest in his ancestral past emerged frequently in the writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne. His own sister, Ebe, identified "the Puritan instinct that was in him" (Wineapple 61). Without question, Nathaniel Hawthorne, by both accident of birth and driving personal interest, linked himself to the Puritan standard by both affirming and rejecting it. As such, Hawthorne embodies the conflicted notion of an emerging American identity. He simultaneously embraces and rejects his Puritan heritage, and plays out his irreconcilable emotions in the arena of his literature.

An Emerging American Literary Tradition When Hawthorne completed The Scarlet Letter in 1850, he had already established himself as a writer (Martin 15). His career can be traced back to his teen years, when he began sharing occasional pieces of poetry with his beloved sister, Ebe. As early as thirteen years old, Nathaniel Hawthorne was writing poetry (Wineapple 31). An injury to his foot kept him house-bound for two years, where he was tutored by Joseph Worcester, who later became a famous lexicographer. It was during this period of relative inactivity that young Nathaniel developed his love for literature (Wineapple 27). According to Wineapple, young Nathaniel was "a voracious reader… [consuming] Walter Scott, Ann Radcliffe, the Arabian Nights, Tobias Smollett, William Godwin, Rousseau's La Nouvelle Heloise, the poet James

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Greenland, Samuel Johnson, James Hogg, Oliver Goldsmith, Byron, Southey, Burns, and Henry Fielding, his taste running to Gothicism, poetry, and social comment" (Wineapple 40). With these literary influences shaping him, he was sent to Bowdoin college in Maine in 1821 (Martin 11). While there, he befriended a group of intellectuals who would have a lingering influence on his life. One of his professors was Thomas C. Upham, who published a collection of poems in 1819 in which he called for a national literature (Wineapple 63-64). This would have been a call that Nathaniel Hawthorne was well suited to hear and respond to. His family history tied him to this new nation. It's not surprising that Hawthorne would actively seek to become a national voice. His college years provided a rich environment for him to develop his craft. In addition to receiving a very formal Calvinist education, he was also surrounded by the brightest young intellectuals of his age. While at Bowdoin, he formed lifelong friendships with people who would become famous in their own rights, including future U.S. President Franklin Pierce and writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Stade ix). He self-published his first novel in 1828, just three years after graduating from Bowdoin College. Titled Fanshawe: A Tale, it did not achieve the acclaim he sought, and he later attempted to destroy all existing copies. According to Wineapple, Fanshawe reportedly "mortified" him. "Not three years after its publication, Hawthorne wanted to expunge it from his past" (Wineapple 78). Hawthorne was reportedly his own worst critic, and rarely expressed public satisfaction with his work. By his own accounts, he routinely

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and readily burned old manuscripts or works that he felt were flawed. Nonetheless, Hawthorne's reputation grew slowly but surely. There was not a clearly defined market for American literature at that point, and lacking copyright laws to protect intellectual property, both writers and publishers took financial risks in presenting original work to the public. In spite of his self-judged failure of Fanshawe, he persevered in his pursuit of a literary career. He sent a few of his short stories to a publisher, Samuel Griswold Goodrich. Goodrich recalled Hawthorne as "unsettled as to his views; he had tried his hand in literature, and considered himself to have met with a fatal rebuff from the reading world" (Wineapple 74). In spite of Hawthorne's personal sense of discouragement as a writer, his persistence paid off. His earliest stories, "Provincial Tales" and "Seven Tales of My Native Land," were published anonymously in 1830, beginning a long and eventful career (Stade ix). That Hawthorne initially began his publishing career anonymously speaks to his conflicted desire to both assert himself into the public arena, as well as his contrary desire to remain private. On the one hand, he seemed to wish to revive the honor of his patrimony, and yet his "Puritan instinct" seemed to keep him from fully asserting his right to pursue such a career. Wineapple concludes that "if Goodrich was able to capitalize on Hawthorne's obscurity, Hawthorne acceded to the arrangement, as if afraid of the recognition he desperately sought" (Wineapple 77).

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The Transcendentalist Movement In 1936, Ralph Waldo Emerson published his groundbreaking essay "Nature," ushering in the transcendentalist movement (Stade x). According to Dr. Donna Campbell, a professor at Washington State University, "American transcendentalism was an important movement in philosophy and literature that flourished during the early to middle years of the nineteenth century (about 1836-1860). It began as a reform movement in the Unitarian church, extending the views of William Ellery Channing on an indwelling God and the significance of intuitive thought. For the transcendentalists, the soul of each individual is identical with the soul of the world and contains what the world contains" (Campbell "American Transcendentalism"). In 1941, George Ripley, a Unitarian Minister and proponent of transcendentalism founded Brook Farm, a cooperative living community in West Roxbury, Massachusetts (Stade x). The goal was to create a utopian community much like the early Puritans had hoped to achieve. According to Hawthorne scholar Edwin Haviland Miller, the Brook Farm founders were “pilgrims.” He describes the goals of the community as follows: “They planned a return to a simple agrarian life and to simple Christian principles, on the assumption that an agricultural society and plain religious virtues could be summoned at will. Imbued with nineteenthcentury, and particularly American, faith in the wonders of education, they expected to inculcate among youth their ideals and their dissatisfaction with a money-oriented, industrialized society” (Miller, E.H. 187). Brook Farm was built on the ideals of individuality and personal spirituality that was

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initially inspired by Emerson. As Ripley explained to Emerson, “Thought would preside over the operations of labor… We should have industry without drudgery, and true equality without vulgarity.” According to Wineapple, “The Brook Farm Institute of Agriculture and Education, as the community would formally be called, eschewed rank, status, privilege, and formal attire. It welcomed everyone, farmers, mechanics, writers, and preachers… and whose children… could be educated in the community school” (Wineapple 144). Although always a man of modest means, Hawthorne invested in Brook Farm, and moved there in 1841. Shortly after his arrival, he wrote to his sister, Louisa, that “he was transformed into a complete farmer.” According to Terence Martin, Hawthorne biographer, he had “loaded manure carts, planted potatoes and peas, and milked cows.” Hawthorne continued, “The whole fraternity [of the farm] eat together; and such a delectable way of life has never been seen on earth since the days of the early Christians” (Martin 29). This quote is perhaps revealing of Hawthorne‟s attitudes toward the Puritans – he apparently saw something about them and their way of life as “delectable.” Romantic idealism, however, soon gave way to sweaty disenchantment and he left Brook Farm after only seven months. Although he stayed at Brook Farm for less than a year, his participation in such an idealistic enterprise helped to both shape and reveal his core values. Hawthorne is described as a private and often secretive author, but his participation in Brook Farm shows that he tended toward idealism and saw hope for cooperative achievement toward a lofty goal. According to Wineapple, “the whole idea [of Brook Farm] had

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the ring of… democracy, embracing the essential equality of all humanity. Such had been Hawthorne‟s politics since college” (Wineapple 147). By lending his name and financial support to such a venture, he helped reinforce the legitimacy of the group‟s goals and purposes, thus furthering the influence of the transcendentalist movement. Following his return to Salem, he married Sophia Peabody in 1842 and moved into the Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, the house where Emerson had written Nature just a few years prior (Martin 29). By the time The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, Hawthorne had won a place for himself in the emerging field of American literature. Herman Melville, on his way to becoming a great American writer in his own right, publicly praised Hawthorne, and wrote laudatory reviews that sang Hawthorne‟s praises. Melville strongly asserted that Hawthorne augured greatness for American literature. The public also enjoyed his stories and novels. Many of his short stories reveal his growth as a writer, returning again and again to the Puritan/Rebel dichotomy that runs throughout his works. The Scarlet Letter represents Hawthorne as a mature writer, steady-handed in his command of the craft. Many of the themes that he wrote about in earlier works return in this work showcased in compelling prose to an eager audience.

Impacts of Transcendentalism The transcendentalist movement directly challenged many aspects of Puritan beliefs, and Hawthorne was a direct contributor to that movement. It is perhaps significant that Ralph Waldo Emerson, who launched the movement in

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America with his essay “Nature,” like Hawthorne, had a lineage in the New World equally as lengthy and prestigious as Hawthorne‟s. Emerson‟s first ancestor in the colonies was an immigrant named Thomas Emerson who settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts as early as 1640 (Ralph Waldo Emerson Society). He became the progenitor of a family filled with a long line of ministers and learned men. In fact, in the Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Paul More describes Emerson‟s family as follows: “… many other ministerial ancestors‟ stories abound which show how deeply implanted in this stock was the pride of rebellion against traditional forms and institutions, united with a determination to force all mankind to worship God in the spirit.” In this regard, Emerson and Hawthorne had a lot in common. Both were New England gentlemen who had lost their fathers early in life, and had to struggle with their ancestral heritage in order to define their own individual sense of identity. It‟s little wonder that Hawthorne and Emerson became friends. Emerson first chose to follow in the family profession, and his early calling was as a Unitarian minister. However, he eventually left the ministry to pursue a career in writing and public speaking (Lewis). It is from this tumultuous religious background that “Nature” was produced. The major thesis of “Nature” was, in Emerson‟s words, that we should now “enjoy an original relation to the universe,” and not become dependent on holy books, creeds, and dogmas (Reuben “Ralph Waldo Emerson”). In this light, it‟s easy to see how the transcendentalist movement was both a response to and a reaction against the prevailing puritanical values of the time.

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Although Emerson began the transcendentalist movement, other writers contributed to the movement as well. Henry David Thoreau was also an influential participant in the movement, producing such famous works as Walden, a masterwork that details his two year experiment of living close to nature at Walden Pond (Reuben “Henry David Thoreau”). For a time, Emerson and Thoreau even lived with one another. Nathaniel Hawthorne was a neighbor and a friend to both men. Hawthorne said of Thoreau, “[He] is a keen and delicate observer of nature… and Nature, in return for his love, seems to adopt him as her special child, and shows him secrets which few others are allowed to witness” (Miller, E.H. 216). According to the ideals of transcendentalism, rigid dogma was replaced by personal revelation. Strict social conformity was replaced by harmonious social cooperation. An unforgiving and judgmental God was replaced by immanent, indwelling divinity displayed throughout all of creation. In order to embrace the ideals of transcendentalism, Puritan values needed to be examined and explored. For Hawthorne, this movement seemed to serve to deepen his internal conflicts and moral ambiguities. While strict Puritan values were part of a heritage he valued, his involvement in transcendentalism directly defied many of those core beliefs. Like his experience at Brook Farm, these alternative values initially seemed attractive, but ultimately Hawthorne couldn‟t entirely embrace them.

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Puritan or Rebel? For Nathaniel Hawthorne, the answer to this question is elusive and ambiguous. Throughout his literature, he both embraces and rejects his Puritan heritage. Through this struggle however, it can be seen that he has clearly internalized many of the beliefs and values espoused by the Puritans. And yet, by those same standards, he is an unworthy sinner, a state that he earnestly attempts to reject. He accepts its judgment while rebelling against its conclusions. He is a rebel guiltridden by his rebellion. Salvation appears to be out of reach for Hawthorne, and his writing can be seen as a struggle to accept his sinful status. He wants the promise of Heaven, but can‟t have it by his own internalized Puritan standards. By those standards, he sees himself as sin-stained. Hints to the nature of his secret sin might be discerned through his stories. Scholarship might never reveal the truth about what secret sins plagued his guilty heart, but much of Hawthorne‟s writing center on these themes. Since the Puritan view of predestination offers no method of washing away sin, Hawthorne inevitably sees himself as doomed to hell. This unpalatable view forces him to reject key Puritan values, placing him in the Rebel category. However, the more he rebels against the strict Puritan mores, the more he confirms his own damned status. Hawthorne cannot reconcile these opposed positions. He both accepts and rejects his sinful rebel status, leading to a life of unresolved ambiguity. These intertwined themes of sin, shame, rebellion, and guilt are woven throughout Hawthorne‟s work. He‟s a sinner

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and doesn‟t want to be, but apparently can‟t help it. He wants a salvation he apparently feels is out of reach. He compares himself continually to his Puritan ancestors; He knows that he doesn‟t measure up to his Hathorne forebears, and yet doesn‟t want to. By his works, we can see Nathaniel Hawthorne as an unwilling rebel as he seeks a path through the dark and perilous wilderness of moral ambiguity, seeking an elusive salvation that he fears is forever out of his reach.

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The Custom House At the height of his literary career, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter, a work of literature that received critical acclaim at the time, and continues to be read and enjoyed by succeeding generations. If Hawthorne spent his life in a conflicted relationship with his Puritan forebears, it is in The Scarlet Letter where that relationship can be explicated. According to Arlin Turner, former professor emeritus of American Literature at Duke University, “in The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne turned back to the age of his first American ancestor for a historical background against which to display a tragic drama of guilt – revealed and concealed, real and imagined – and its effects on those touched by the guilt… The substance of the book is moral, religious, theological; the characters confront questions endemic to the Puritan community at Boston in the middle of the seventeenth century. This substance is not at issue; it is given and is accepted by the author and by his characters. What is at issue includes primarily the psychological effects produced in the characters by the background and the situation as given” (Turner). From the very beginning of its composition, it seems as though Hawthorne intended The Scarlet Letter to be an exploration of Puritan values. He begins the novel with a sketch called “The Custom House,” which at first glance might seem only tangentially related to the rest of the novel. However, the autobiographical nature of the Custom House sketch explains a lot about Hawthorne and what motivated him during this formative period of American literature.

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At the first mention of the town of Salem, Massachusetts, he claims it as his native place. However, his relationship with his home town is not an agreeable one for Hawthorne. He says, “And yet, though invariably happiest elsewhere, there is within me a feeling for old Salem, which… I must be content to call affection.” He attributes this feeling to the “deep and aged roots which my family has struck into the soil” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 9). It is from this position of an insider then that he prepares to tell the story that is set in this town in its first years after its establishment. That Hawthorne feels a connection to his hometown is clear. He has been steeped in its history since childhood. It is upon those foundations that he builds his story. While his description of life in the Custom House where he worked for three years before losing his post in a political change of power is meant to be satirical, it also serves to reveal the lingering influence of his puritanical heritage. Hawthorne‟s attitudes towards women seem tainted with the spectre of witchcraft, a view that is sustained as a subtle undercurrent throughout the novel. When describing the interior of the Custom House, he says, “It is easy to conclude… that this is a sanctuary into which womankind, with her tools of magic, the broom and mop, has very infrequent access” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 8). For Hawthorne at least, womankind and magic are linked. Shortly thereafter, he continues the witchcraft allusion by stating the “besom of reform has swept him out of office” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 9). A besom is a rough broom, a standard implement of witchcraft according to the Puritan superstitions of the seventeenth century when the novel takes place.

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Intended or not, he is suggesting that perhaps it was a touch of black magic that contributed to his loss of position as Surveyor of the Custom House. As though witchcraft and his Puritan forebears were closely related in his mind, Hawthorne returns to the subject of his ancestry. He speaks of his first ancestor, William Hathorne, as one “who came so early, with his Bible and his sword, and trode the unworn street with a stately port, and made so large a figure, as a man of war and peace… he had all the Puritanic traits, both good and evil.” This contradictory description aptly describes the conflicted feelings about him that Hawthorne apparently struggled to come to terms with. He can neither wholly embrace nor condemn the Puritan values of his ancestors. He describes William Hathorne as “a bitter persecutor; as witness the Quakers, who have remembered him in their histories, and relate an incident of his hard severity toward a woman of their sect, which will last longer, it is to be feared, than any record of his better deeds, although these were many” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 10). Hawthorne reportedly told this story of the Quaker woman, Ann Coleman, who was flogged and driven into the forest, many times, including the historical atrocity in a short story titled “Main Street” (Wineapple 199). These were the types of events from his personal family history that haunted him. Through these anecdotes, we can see Hawthorne struggling to come to terms with his heritage. His commentary in the Custom House sketch shows that he has grudging and conflicted admiration for a man whose actions he simultaneously admires and rejects.

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After raising the spectre of his first ancestor, Hawthorne brings his reader swiftly to his next, John Hathorne, renowned for his cruel persecution of people accused of witchcraft in Salem and the surrounding towns. He writes, “His son, too, inherited the persecuting spirit, and made himself so conspicuous in the martyrdom of the witches, that their blood may fairly be said to have left a stain upon him” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 10). It‟s clear by this that Hawthorne rejects the actions of this famous relative. Although the modern Hawthorne still retains an almost instinctive puritanical suspicion against women, he clearly disapproves of the persecution suffered at the hands of his ancestor. “I know not whether these ancestors of mine bethought themselves to repent, and ask pardon of Heaven for their cruelties; or whether they are now groaning under the heavy consequences of them, in another state of being.” It is curious that Hawthorne does not make a direct reference to hell, the natural location of damnation to a Calvinist. He refers to hell without naming it as such. In this curious phrasing, we perhaps see a glimpse of the transcendentalist in him, obliquely rejecting the religious dogma of his forebears. Nonetheless, Puritan Salem continues to wrap Hawthorne in its magical charms. In spite of his conflicted feelings about his forebears and the place of his birth, “It is no matter that the place is joyless for him… the spell survives, and just as powerfully as if the natal spot were an earthly paradise.” Hawthorne continues to be focused on the place of his family inheritance, with all of the conflicted feelings unresolved. He can‟t seem to help himself. For Hawthorne, it is “as if Salem were for me the inevitable centre [sic] of the universe”

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(Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 12). The Scarlet Letter, set in Salem, is the perfect stage for Hawthorne to explore issues that are both old history and personally relevant.

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“The Haunted Mind” For someone who feels the need to apologize for the “autobiographical impulse,” Hawthorne‟s “Custom House” introduction to The Scarlet Letter is only one of many places where he inserts himself directly into a narrative. In many ways, all of his stories can be seen as a personal struggle of a man who is attempting to come to terms with unresolved conflicts and moral ambiguities. Nowhere is this seen more clearly and directly than in the brief sketch titled “The Haunted Mind.” This sketch is told entirely as a first person narrative. If it is not meant to be autobiographical, Hawthorne gives no hint to contradict it. In this sketch, he speaks of waking up in the middle of the night, and the strange thoughts that come to him at such a time. In this quiet hour “with the mind‟s eye half shut,” he is able to look at things that could not otherwise be faced in the harsh light of day. In this context, Hawthorne tentatively begins to explore a major theme that runs through much of his work: secret sin and the guilt that accrues to it. He says that “in the depths of every heart there is a tomb and a dungeon, though the light, the music, and revelry above may cause us to forget their existence, and the buried ones, or prisoners whom they hide.” What lies hidden, entombed and imprisoned, in Hawthorne‟s heart? He asserts that it is at this dark hour that “these dark receptacles are flung wide open,” and “A funeral train comes gliding by your bed, in which Passion and Feeling assume bodily shape.” Is the passion and feeling that burn within Hawthorne‟s “dark receptacle” his sister, Ebe? This seems likely, for in this

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procession, the first vision that arises to greet him is also his “earliest Sorrow, a pale young mourner, wearing a sister‟s likeness to first love, sadly beautiful, with a hallowed sweetness in her melancholy features, and grace in the flow of her sable robe.” Replacing the vision of his sister in his mind‟s eye is another woman of “ruined loveliness.” He describes her as “faded and defaced.” He describes this vision by saying, “She was your fondest Hope, but a delusive one; so call her Disappointment now.” Could this refer to his wife, Sophia? This disappointment in love certainly describes a common experience of many married people. Although Hawthorne occasionally described Sophia as his “savior,” what was she supposed to be saving him from? Is it possible that Nathaniel married her in the hope that she would save him from the guilty longings of his haunted mind? If “Disappointment” refers to his wife, we might conclude that she was unsuccessful in helping Hawthorne‟s “earliest sorrow.” Next, Hawthorne‟s haunted mind returns to his Puritan ancestors. “A sterner form succeeds, with a brow of wrinkles, a look and gesture of iron authority; there is no name for him unless it be Fatality, an emblem of the evil influence that rules your fortunes; a demon to whom you subjected yourself by some error at the outset of life, and were bound his slave forever, by once obeying him.” This brief passage sums up a wealth of conflicted emotions that Hawthorne bore to his Hathorne forebears. This stern presence looms over him and seemingly damns him at birth by the virtue of his heritage. And if there were any lingering doubt as to the impact that Puritan heritage had on Hawthorne, he completes his

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description of this third vision by exclaiming, “See! Those fiendish lineaments graven on the darkness, the writhed lip of scorn, the mockery of that living eye, the pointed finger, touching the sore place in your heart!” Hawthorne seems to feel the perpetual judgment of these stern, unforgiving ancestors. They point their accusing fingers at a sore place in Hawthorne‟s heart. Is this sore place the “secret” that Melville claimed to know? It seems clear that Hawthorne is describing some secret guilt that would be scorned and reviled by his Puritan ancestors. Hawthorne concludes his reverie of this grim visage by saying “Do you remember any act of enormous folly, at which you would blush, even in the remotest cavern of the earth? Then recognize your Shame.” Did Hawthorne commit an act of “enormous folly?” His shame and guilt are abundantly clear, and it seems at least possible that his secret sin focuses on the first thing on his mind, “wearing a sister‟s likeness to first love.” Observing these night-induced visions, he begs for the “wretched band” to pass him by. He declaims that while awake, he is riotously miserable, but that worse still would be if he were surrounded by an even “fiercer tribe,” being “the devils of a guilty heart, that holds hell within itself.” He is tortured by demons of guilt. His imagination further develops this horror, “What if the fiend should come in woman‟s garments, with a pale beauty amid sin and desolation, and lie down by your side?” What dwells in Hawthorne‟s imagination? Is he referring to the same “pale young mourner” who wears a sister‟s likeness? Could Hawthorne really be alluding to a nighttime fantasy of lying beside his sister? He

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concludes this line of thought by saying, “Sufficient without such guilt is this nightmare of the soul; this heavy, heavy sinking of the spirits; this wintry gloom about the heart; this indistinct horror of the mind.” Hawthorne is describing a haunted mind, indeed. By the end of this sketch, Hawthorne comes to no conclusions or resolutions about the thoughts that haunt him. His thoughts continue to tumble about until sleep claims him once again. Whether or not we may conclude that Hawthorne‟s “secret” relates to an incestuous yearning toward his sister, by this sketch we can at least catch a glimpse of his inmost thoughts to find the origins of the themes of guilt, shame, and secret sin that are woven throughout his writing.

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“The Maypole of Merry Mount” In “The Maypole of Merry Mount,” Hawthorne reaches into his reservoir of local history to construct an allegory that contrasts the harsh beliefs and values of the Puritans with the more socially liberal values of other settlers to the new world. Hawthorne introduces this story by saying, “In the slight sketch here attempted, the facts, recorded on the grave pages of our New England annalists, have wrought themselves, almost spontaneously, into a sort of allegory” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 40). Almost spontaneously. Hawthorne, thoroughly familiar with local histories, altered several historical details in order to better craft a story that paints a stark dichotomy between Puritan and Rebel. The sketch relates an early conflict between the founders of Mount Wollaston, also known as Merry Mount, and the Puritan founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Although Hawthorne leaves the bones of the historical event intact, he simplifies, alters, or suppresses details in order to highlight the oppositions these groups represent. Yet Hawthorne‟s point of view is not simplified; it seems conflicted in the retelling. He appears to be simultaneously sympathetic and critical to both sides of the conflict. This attitude underscores many of the ambiguities that pervade all of Hawthorne‟s work. “The Maypole of Merry Mount” is thereby a good example of Hawthorne‟s ongoing internal conflicts as he tries to reconcile himself to his Puritan ancestors.

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According to the explanatory notes in Brian Harding‟s 1987 edition of Young Goodman Brown and Other Tales, Mount Wollaston was originally a trading post established in 1623. In 1625, the leadership of the post was taken up by Thomas Morton, who renamed it Merry Mount and “turned the settlement into a morally dissolute community” (354). The inhabitants of Merry Mount were not members of the Puritan congregation, and by all accounts, followed the customs and community folk traditions brought with them from England. These traditions included a community Maypole which was elaborately decorated as the centerpiece of celebrations, and around which the settlement would drink, dance, and make merry. These community celebrations flew in the face of the dour restraint imposed by the Puritans, and the two communities were bound to clash. The ensuing conflict is recreated in “The Maypole of Merry Mount.” The story opens joyfully. “Bright were the days at Merry Mount, when the Maypole was the banner staff of that gay colony!” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 40) Hawthorne immediately establishes an upbeat mood of the happiness of a bygone era. He then expresses the great hope that the Maypole represented in the new world; “They who reared it, should their banner be triumphant, were to pour sunshine over New England‟s rugged hills, and scatter flower seeds throughout the soil” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 40). In this opening passage, Hawthorne is trying to present the community of Merry Mount as a stark contrast and alternative history to the Puritans. Should their community at Merry Mount be successful, rough New England would be covered in sunshine and blooms. Merry Mount is held out as a

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bright and beautiful hope of what might have been. To make the stakes in this conflict perfectly clear, Hawthorne then asserts, “Jollity and gloom were contending for an empire” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 40). Later in the story he again proclaims, “The future complexion of New England was involved in this important quarrel” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 44). This is the same stage on which Hawthorne attempts to explore his own conflicts and ambiguities. It is Midsummer Eve, and the Maypole is “gayly decked” with a silken banner of rainbow hues. Green boughs, garlands of flowers and a wreath of roses bedeck the pole (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 40). Members of the community gather around wearing fanciful costumes and masks, including “an English priest, canonically dressed, yet decked with flowers, in heathen fashion” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 41). By this, Hawthorne is describing an Anglican minister, reviled by the Puritans for their “popery” and fancy garb. For a priest to be further adorned with flowers would seem excessively sinful to the Puritan onlookers espying the scene around the Maypole from the surrounding forest. At first, Hawthorne seems sympathetic to the inhabitants of Merry Mount. “In their train were minstrels,… wandering players,… mummers, rope-dancers, and mountebanks.” They are genially described as a “giddy tribe [of] mirth-makers” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 43). As Hawthorne reveals in the “Custom House” sketch, he would fit right in. He is keenly aware that his chosen profession is disgraceful in the eyes of his Puritan forebears. Describing his profession from the Puritan perspective as a “writer of storybooks,” Hawthorne would likely relate to and sympathize with

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these settlers (Hawthorne Scarlet Letter 11). In describing the professions of the settlers at Merry Mount, Hawthorne is definitely placing himself in league with the “Maypole worshippers.” To emphasize this connection, he initially describes the inhabitants of Merry Mount in favorable terms, calling them a “gay colony… [with] lightsome hearts,” and “people of the Golden Age” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 40). The revelers are dressed in outlandish costumes and elaborate masks, ranging from wild beasts to foolscapfestooned jesters wearing bells. Like the youthful Hawthorne professed to be, the inhabitants of Merry Mount are “sworn triflers of a lifetime” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 43). Within this ring of revelers encircling the Maypole appeared “the two airiest forms that had ever trodden on any more solid footing than a purple and golden cloud” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 41). They were the Lord and Lady of the May, and the community was gathered around them to witness and celebrate their marriage. The priest sums up the community event when he proclaims, “Up with your nimble spirits, ye morris-dancers, green men, and glee maidens, bears and wolves, and horned gentlemen! Come; a chorus now, rich with the old mirth of Merry England, and the wilder glee of this fresh forest; and then a dance, to show the youthful pair what life is made of, and how airily they should go through it!” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 41) The community of Merry Mount is gathered for a festive celebration of great joy, indeed! However, into this celebration of youth and love, Hawthorne inserts the warning knell of puritanical damnation. To the secretly watching Puritans, the revelers were seen as

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“devils and ruined souls.” All is not well with the watching Puritans, either. Hawthorne first describes these grim voyeurs as “superstitious… dismal wretches… grim [and] burdened.” They are the “hostile party.” The contrast painted by Hawthorne between the “gay colony” and the Puritans is stark. With the stage thus set, Hawthorne has the Puritans rush from the forest to break up the celebration. With the inebriated revelers unable to defend themselves, they are quickly overcome by the stern and unforgiving Puritans. At this point, Hawthorne‟s descriptions of the two groups begin to shift. The inhabitants of Merry Mount are now described less favorably as “gay sinners,” signaling a shift toward the Puritan perspective. Hawthorne‟s favorable description of the Merry Mounters deteriorates rapily. Soon, they are, “Sworn triflers of a lifetime, they would not venture among the sober truths of life not even to be truly blest” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 43). Hawthorne‟s conflicted attitude begins to be revealed. Although he relates to these “triflers,” he feels that they are incapable of the “sober truths” that lead to salvation. We can also see this shift of perspective in how the Puritans are described. They become “grizzly saints,” moving toward a more favorable description than heretofore offered. The leader of the Puritans is then described more favorably as well; “So stern was the energy of his aspect, that the whole man, visage, frame and soul, seemed wrought of iron, gifted with life and thought, yet all of one substance with his headpiece and breastplate” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 44). If strength and power are to be admired, then Hawthorne clearly has at least grudging admiration for the Puritans.

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Hawthorne alters historical fact slightly to place John Endicott, a well-known Puritan leader, at the scene of these events. Hawthorne likely did this to emphasize the allegorical nature of this historical event. Hawthorne didn‟t want just any Puritan to chop down the venerated Maypole; he chose a figure who could represent all the authority possessed by the Puritans of that area. Hawthorne‟s Endicott strides forth into the center of the revelry and harangues the priest and the crowd for their sinful behavior. With his sword, he “assaulted the hallowed Maypole” and chopped it down. The allegorical nature of this act is underscored by the words Hawthorne next has Endicott proclaim, “There lies the only Maypole in New England! The thought is strong within me that, by its fall, is shadowed forth the fate of light and idle mirth makers, amongst us and our posterity. Amen, saith John Endicott.” In Hawthorne‟s allegory, “this important quarrel” is settled. The Puritans have won. The bright promise offered by the settlement of Merry Mount was ruthlessly overrun by their Puritan neighbors. Hawthorne, through Endicott, proclaims that the fate of “idle mirth-makers” is set for future posterity. This is a judgement that Hawthorne identifies for himself as an “idle” poet. By this dynamic conflict, we can see the allegorical point Hawthorne is trying to make. Early in the history of the settlement of this country, there were two possible courses to take: the Puritan mission of creating a “city on a hill,” to conquer the evil dwelling within the wilderness, to be the shining example of strict religious purity espoused by Calvinist doctrine; or to set up a dwelling place within the wilderness, to embrace revelry and celebration as the rightful heritage of

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English tradition and custom. Was this to be the land of the Puritans, or the land of the free? As Endicott says, “woe to the wretch that troubleth our religion!” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 45) Woe indeed. The wedding guests and revelers, now finally described as “bestial pagans,” were ordered tied to pine trees and whipped. The Priest was arrested and ordered to appear before the Puritan‟s General Court, and the Lord and Lady of May were singled out for special attention. They were stripped of their wedding garb and forcibly absorbed into the Puritan community. There, after a lifetime of “supporting each other along the difficult path which it was their lot to tread… they went heavenward.” By conforming to the Puritan standard, the Lord and Lady of May were able to successfully join the Puritan community, but it was a difficult path stripped of all of their previous joy. As Hawthorne concludes, “As the moral gloom of the world overpowers all systematic gayety, even so was their home of wild mirth made desolate amid the sad forest.” The price of their happiness was high. In the end, they had each other and their love, but their marriage was enwreathed in puritanical gloom rather than the roses of merry joy. These themes run throughout Hawthorne‟s life. He yearns toward a life and a profession that would be harshly judged by his own internalized family standards. He wishes for an ideal society which he simultaneously scorns as being a “wild philosophy of pleasure… [the] latest daydream” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 43). He glorifies the traditions of revelry displayed in Merry Mount, while portraying the Puritans who destroyed this settlement with a

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sympathetic touch for their strength of character. It seems as though Hawthorne yearns for the hope of salvation offered by the Puritans, even while remaining doubtful that he can achieve their standard, or even wants to attain it.

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“The Minister’s Black Veil” In seeking to understand the conflicted motivations of Nathaniel Hawthorne, it‟s important to recall an important tenet of the Puritan faith he was raised to honor. The Calvinist belief in predestination meant that there was no absolution or forgiveness for sin. While good deeds might not buy a person‟s way into heaven, sinful behavior was a sure sign that a person was destined for hell. Sin, shame, and guilt all arise naturally from this belief and are recurring themes in Hawthorne‟s work. Hawthorne alludes to his “guilty heart” in “The Haunted Mind.” But nowhere is the theme of secret sin and a guilty heart so clearly seen than in “The Minister‟s Black Veil.” Hawthorne subtitles this story, “A Parable” in order to clearly indicate to his reader that he seeks to tell another allegorical tale which will reveal some sort of moral truth. Just as in “The Maypole of Merry Mount,” Hawthorne attempts to attach a certain degree of historical authenticity to the tale in order to anchor the parable to reality, it seems important to Hawthorne that his characters and situations are believable, and aren‟t dismissed by the reader as unsustainable fantasy. Perhaps Hawthorne is likewise struggling with a secret sin similar to the main character of this parable, making this conflict very personal and real to him. Before he even begins his tale, Hawthorne refers his reader to a footnote that informs us that there was “another clergyman in New England, Mr. Joseph Moody [who] made himself remarkable by the same eccentricity that is here related

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of the Reverend Mr. Hooper. In his case, however, the symbol has a different import. In early life he had accidentally killed a beloved friend and from that day till the hour of his own death, he hid his face from men.” This footnote introduces the story perfectly. By it, we are led to understand that this story centers around a minister, the Reverend Mr. Hooper, who hides his face from men, but his reasons for doing so are not immediately explained nor understood. By this footnote, Hawthorne also indicates the veil‟s status as a symbol. The reason for the veil becomes the focus of the parable that follows. On an otherwise normal Sunday morning, the “good Parson Hooper” appears at the meeting-house wearing a black veil that entirely conceals his face. Offering no comments nor explanation for its sudden presence, in fact, acting entirely as if this were perfectly normal, Mr. Hooper ascends to his pulpit to deliver his weekly sermon. The subject of the sermon “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” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 33). By this, Hawthorne directly establishes the symbolism of the veil – it represents the secret sins we seek to hide from the public world. But Hawthorne also shows the futility inherent in attempting to hide sin – the belief in an omniscient deity can only mean that there is no hiding from “the devils of a guilty heart” (Hawthorne “The Haunted Mind”). The sight of his veiled visage disturbs the parishioners, who struggle to understand this strange behavior in their otherwise exemplary preacher. They avoid his company after

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the service. The gloom cast over the Parson by the veil isolates him from his parishioners. He becomes something of a scandal among the villagers, who speculate that perhaps he‟s gone insane. “Something must surely be amiss with Mr. Hooper‟s intellects,” diagnoses the physician of the village (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 33). His wife declares that “I would not be alone with him for the world. I wonder he is not afraid to be alone with himself!” Answers her husband, “Men sometimes are so.” This exchange alludes back to the “The Haunted Mind,” where Hawthorne wrestles with the visions and thoughts that haunt him in the still of the night. Through that, we might conclude that Hawthorne is also afraid to be alone with himself. Is Hawthorne exploring aspects of himself through the guise of the Reverend Mr. Hooper? It seems at least a plausible speculation. There is evidence that the veil is fraught with significance for Mr. Hooper. He is heavily burdened by whatever has caused him to take the veil. The mere sight of it is enough to make Hooper react strongly. “At that instant, catching a glimpse of his figure in the looking-glass, the black veil involved his own spirit in the horror with which it overwhelmed all others. His frame shuddered, his lips grew white, he spilt the untasted wine upon the carpet, and rushed forth into the darkness” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 35). Clearly, the veil isn‟t merely an empty symbolic gesture on behalf of a clergyman, but a deeply personal issue of urgent emotional import. Both the Parson and his parishioners labor under the burden of the sin represented by the black veil. Whereas the community was never before at a loss to offer advice to their

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minister, in this situation, they were all miserably reluctant to confront their Parson and ask him directly about his reasons for taking the veil. In the context of the parable that Hawthorne is attempting to paint, this reluctance is entirely understandable, for most people are notoriously reluctant to confront the guilt and shame that emerge from within their deepest hearts. The fact that Reverend Hooper would choose to make his status as a sinner public and apparent would be a confounding dilemma to most people unaccustomed to facing the desires that lead to sin. To them, the veil was a “symbol of a fearful secret between him and them” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 35). The only person who does not initially cringe from the black veil is Mr. Hooper‟s betrothed. She apparently sees nothing terrible in it, and asks him directly to tell her why he put it on. She sees his sin for what it is and does not condemn him for it. Notably, Hawthorne gives this kindly protagonist his sister‟s name, Elizabeth. Could Hawthorne be making a direct reference to his own secret sinful yearnings? Does he hope for a similar understanding from her? When Elizabeth begs Hooper to reveal his reason for taking the veil, Hooper indicates that he has taken a vow to wear the veil that conceals both his face and his reason for doing so. He responds to her plea for answers by saying, “Elizabeth, I will, so far as my vow may suffer me. Know, then, this veil is a type and a symbol, and I am bound to wear it ever, both in light and darkness, in solitude and before the gaze of multitudes, and as with strangers, so with my familiar friends. No mortal eye will see it withdrawn. This dismal shade must separate me from the world: even you, Elizabeth,

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can never come behind it!” Could it be that if Elizabeth were to see what hides behind the veil, she would see a truth that “wears a sister‟s likeness to first love?” (Hawthorne “The Haunted Mind”) Although he was a fairly young man when the story opens, the Reverend Hooper is an old man when the story finally closes. He spent the rest of his life veiled, never revealing the full nature of the secret that caused him to put it on. And yet, in spite of the consternation caused by the veil, Hooper continued to find success in his vocation. “Among all of its bad influences, the black veil had the one desirable effect, of making its wearer a very efficient clergyman. By the aid of his mysterious emblem… he became a man of awful power over souls that were in agony for sin” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 37). By this, we can see another more hopeful theme that recurs often in Hawthorne‟s work: the good that can arise from even a sinful life. The Lord and Lady of the May both eventually managed to attain heaven, in spite of their “sinful” start to life. Likewise, good Parson Hooper managed to become a revered minister in spite of the obvious signs of a guilty and sinful soul. “In this manner Mr. Hooper spent a long life, irreproachable in outward act, yet shrouded in dismal suspicions; kind and loving, though unloved, and dimly feared; a man apart from men, shunned in their health and joy, but ever summoned to their aid in mortal anguish” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 38). Calvinist doctrine offers no hope that good deeds can mitigate the damning effects of sin, but the transcendentalist in Hawthorne possibly felt otherwise. Perhaps Hawthorne likewise sought some form of imperfect absolution through living a good life.

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On his deathbed, Reverend Hooper was attended by his beloved Elizabeth, “whose calm affection had endured thus long in secrecy, in solitude, amid the chill of age, and would not perish.” Alas! Is this the long, fateful stretch of years that Hawthorne foresees for himself and his beloved Ebe? Just like “The Haunted Mind,” Hawthorne again mentions the “the saddest of prisons, his own heart” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 38). Drawing parallels between Hooper and Hawthorne, the reader is forced to consider what secretly lurks in the prison of Hawthorne‟s heart.

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“Alice Doane’s Appeal” The answer to Hawthorne‟s secret might be found in “Alice Doane‟s Appeal,” another story in which the “autobiographical impulse” seems to get the better of Nathaniel Hawthorne. The fictional story of Alice Doane is embedded within an outer, autobiographical story. By this method, Hawthorne directly inserts himself into the narrative, yet by creating characters to perform the actions of the fictional story line, he also separates himself from the substance of the story at the same time. This story exemplifies his conflicted relationship with his puritanical Hathorne forebears in many ways, and reveals some of the consequences of living contrary to an internalized set of Puritan values and standards. The story begins as a first person narrative. Hawthorne describes going for a walk with two young ladies on a pleasant afternoon in June. Rejecting all other destinations in his native town of Salem, he decides to lead them to Gallows Hill, the site of the execution of the “martyrs” accused of witchcraft during the Witch Trials of 1692. For Hawthorne, not only is Gallows Hill a central feature of this story, but also of his own life. He says, “I have often courted the historic influence of the spot” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 557). For someone with such a direct lineage to those tragic events, it‟s easy to see why Hawthorne would continue to be drawn to this location. His conflicted feelings about his ancestors remain a sore spot that he returns to again and again, just like Gallows Hill. When describing Gallows Hill, he says, “a physical curse may be said to have blasted the spot, where guilt and

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frenzy consummated the most execrable scene that our history blushes to record. For this was the field where superstition won her darkest triumph; the high place where our fathers set up their shame, to the mournful gaze of generations far remote” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 557). Hawthorne is harshly critical of the outcome of those events, and the people responsible for the tragedy. Representing that remote generation, Hawthorne‟s scorn for the actions of his ancestor, Judge Hathorne, is clear. The curse that blasted Gallows hill has echoes to the curse Hawthorne lays claim to in the “Custom House” sketch when he, “the present writer, as their representative, hereby take shame upon myself for their sakes, and pray that any curse incurred by them… may be now and henceforth removed” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 10). By this we can see that Hawthorne sees the behavior of his Puritan forebears as cursed, and that he bears the weight of that curse. Once upon Gallows Hill, Hawthorne attempts to connect his light-hearted companions to “all the melancholy associations of the scene,” but only partially succeeds. Here we can see the same stark dichotomy that was represented in “The Maypole of Merry Mount.” Hawthorne‟s companions are described as having the “gayety of girlish spirits… mirth [which] brightened the gloom into a sunny shower of feeling, and a rainbow in the mind” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 557). The imagery used to describe the inhabitants of Merry Mount and Hawthorne‟s female companions are similar. Their mirth is in direct conflict with the setting, which evokes the extremes of the stern, unforgiving Puritans. This ambiguous, conflicted mood is cultivated by Hawthorne. “With now a merry word and next a sad one, we trod among

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the tangled weeds, and almost hoped that our feet would sink into the hollow of a witch‟s grave” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 557). Into this foreboding atmosphere of ambiguous light and shadow, Hawthorne asks his companions to indulge him as he reads them one of his stories. He had brought a manuscript with him on this walk, an indication that he intended to share this tale with them and that his choice of destination was not as random as he had previously indicated. The very existence of the manuscript reveals Hawthorne‟s youthful rebellion against the judgement of his Puritan ancestors. Continuing in his autobiographical mode, he said that the manuscript‟s existence was something of an accident, since he burned a “great heap” of his other stories. “They had fed the flames; thoughts meant to delight the world and endure for ages had perished in a moment, and stirred not a single heart but mine” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 558). The burning of manuscripts can be seen as both a gesture of frustration and intolerance from a writer with very high self-imposed standards, as well as an instinctive gesture of self-loathing brought on by the conservative values imposed by his Puritan heritage. According to Wineapple, “He was a man of high standards, rigorous and stern, and like the protagonists in his stories who torch the tales that no one reads, Hawthorne didn‟t separate anger from anguish, vengeance from self-punishment, when he felt he had failed” (Wineapple 58). Throughout Hawthorne‟s career, he was continually striving for personal excellence and public approval, perhaps in the hope that, like Parson Hooper, his good works might counteract his secret sin.

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Hawthorne‟s explanation of the manuscript‟s survival is revealing. He said that he wrote the story years prior, when “my pen, now sluggish and perhaps feeble, because I have not much to hope or fear, was driven by stronger external motives, and a more passionate impulse within, then I am fated to feel again” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 558). At the point when Hawthorne writes this story, he apparently feels that he no longer has much to hope or fear, a sign that a lingering belief in predestination is influencing his locus of control and sense of empowerment. It also reveals that he once had a more passionate inner impulse. Not coincidentally, a passionate inner impulse drives the story contained in the manuscript. Hawthorne then begins to relate to his companions a dark tale of murder and significantly, incest. He tells the story of a brother and sister, Leonard and Alice Doane who, through the death of their parents in childhood, became unnaturally close. Leonard is characterized “by a diseased imagination and morbid feelings.” Alice is described as “beautiful and virtuous, and instilling something of her own excellence into the wild heart of her brother, but not enough to cure the deep taint of his nature” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 559). The autobiographical nature of this story immediately lends weight to the assumption that Hawthorne is inserting himself into this narrative as well. He might easily be describing himself as he describes the brother, Leonard. Leonard describes his close relationship with his sister, Alice. “The young man spoke of the closeness of the tie which united him and Alice, the consecrated fervor of their affection from childhood upwards, their sense of lonely sufficiency to each other” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 559). Without

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altering a detail, this could certainly describe Nathaniel Hawthorne‟s relationship with his sister, Elizabeth. When Alice begins to take interest in a stranger named Walter Brome, Leonard became enraged with jealousy. Wrestling with his overwhelming feelings, Leonard finally found a rationale to explain why Alice could come to love someone other than himself. “For he (Brome) was my very counterpart!… There was a resemblance from which I shrunk with sickness, and loathing, and horror, as if my own features had come and stared upon me in a solitary place” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 559). Leonard looked upon Walter Brome and found himself, and what he saw of himself filled him with self-loathing. “Here was a man whom Alice might love with all the strength of sisterly affection, added to that impure passion which alone engrosses all the heart.” Alas for Leonard! All of his sister‟s love that should have come to him was now directed at another. Leonard‟s insane hatred of Walter Brome was mutual. “The similarity of their dispositions made them like joint possessors of an individual nature, which could not become wholly the property of one, unless by the extinction of the other” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 560). When Walter taunted Leonard with “indubitable proofs of the shame of Alice,” Leonard murdered Walter Brome in a fit of rage. Only upon the death of Brome did Leonard see the family resemblance, and begin to suspect that he had just killed his twin brother. Just like Hawthorne, Leonard‟s feelings are enormously conflicted. “Tortured by the idea of his sister‟s guilt, yet sometimes yielding to a conviction of her purity; stung with

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remorse for the death of Walter Brome, and shuddering with a deeper sense of some unutterable crime,” Leonard sought the assistance of a mysterious wizard (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 560). The wizard directed the brother and sister to the graveyard where their newly discovered and recently murdered brother lay buried. By some unexplained supernatural mechanism, each grave in the cemetery “had given up its inhabitants,” filling the graveyard with spirits (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 561). From the gray ancestors and earliest defenders of the “infant colony,” to the recently departed, spirits of all the departed rose and crowded the tombstones. However, these weren‟t truly the ghosts of the honored dead. “None but souls accursed were there, and fiends counterfeiting the likeness of departed saints.” The Puritans didn‟t believe that the souls of the dead could return to haunt the living. Hawthorne apparently shares this belief. There were only two possible destinations for a departed soul, either sinner or saint. Accordingly, all the phantasms that appear to Leonard and Alice are either cursed souls or fiends. This “company of devils and condemned souls” had come to gloat over the wicked crime that had been committed, “as foul a one as ever was imagined in their dreadful abode.” Hawthorne then swiftly condenses the plot to explain how the evil wizard had caused Walter Brome “to tempt his unknown sister to guilt and shame,” only to later die at the hand of his unknown twin brother (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 562). As though Hawthorne is eager to dispense with this portion of the tale, he eschews the ornate descriptive details he typically favors and summarizes the end of the story abruptly. “The story concluded with the Appeal of Alice to the spectre of

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Walter Brome; his reply, absolving her from every stain; and the trembling awe with which ghost and devil fled, as from the sinless presence of an angel” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 562). This last bit of plot is surprising, for Hawthorne seems to accept the possibility that a fiend or accursed soul has the power to absolve sin. The title of the story indicates how important this appeal for absolution is to Hawthorne. According to Hawthorne‟s internalized beliefs and values, there would have been no point in this appeal. Yet the possibility of absolution is so appealing to Hawthorne that he chooses to believe in its power, even though granted by a fallen spirit. Alice is once again restored to sinless purity in the eyes of Leonard, and even the ghosts and devils flee from her with awe. Hawthorne quickly rushes the reader past this piece of the narrative, quickly resuming his autobiographical recounting of his day on Gallows Hill. His manuscript now read, he returns his listeners to the horrors visited upon the accused witches at Gallows Hill. His vivid imagination summons each one of the accused, in fear and dignity, as they ascend the hill to their deaths. With this grim reality thus established, Hawthorne concludes his sketch by stating his desire for some sort of monument to commemorate these tragic events, one that would recall “the errors of an earlier race, and not to be cast down, while the human heart has one infirmity that may result in crime” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 564). To which crime is Hawthorne now alluding? The crimes that were the focus of Gallows Hill, or the crime of incest recently told upon it? There can be many parallels drawn between Nathaniel

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Hawthorne and the characters within “Alice Doane‟s Appeal.” In the context of his other works, it‟s not difficult to imagine that Hawthorne bears a similar burden of guilt within his heart.

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“Young Goodman Brown” Nathaniel Hawthorne‟s ambiguous and conflicted relationship with his puritanical past can also be clearly seen in the well known story “Young Goodman Brown.” In this tale, the title character is as conflicted and confused as Hawthorne himself appears so often to be. Goodman Brown initially sets off into the wilderness with the intent of joining the devil, but along the way he has second thoughts. After witnessing a devilish gathering attended by most of his neighbors, both the low-born as well as the powerful, Brown becomes disillusioned about the nature of sin and the possibility of salvation. Through the character of Young Goodman Brown, we can see Hawthorne the author likewise struggling with these same issues. When Brown first leaves his home to set off on his errand into the wilderness, his young wife, symbolically named “Faith,” begs him not to go. Hawthorne‟s penchant for allegory and parable lead the reader to conclude that Browne‟s wife is intended to represent just what her name implies: faith, and its role in saving a person from damnation. Yet, with the pink ribbons she wears, a forbidden sign of frivolity to Puritans, we can see that this is a faith already tainted by the suggestion of sin. When Brown ignores Faith‟s pleas to stay home, we can see that faith has little power to overcome a person determined to sin. And yet, Brown hopes to return to Faith when his errand of wickedness is done. He optimistically thinks, “after this one night I‟ll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven”

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(Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 247). He sees her ribbons as the adornments of an angel, and sets his hopes of salvation in her uncertain hands. In spite of his “excellent resolve for the future,” Browne goes forth and hastens on to his “present evil purpose.” He has a clear sense of what evil is, and yet he knowingly chooses to pursue it. Browne enters the wilderness, an ambiguous and ominous domain. Those who enter rarely return unchanged. To the Puritans of the time, the wilderness was the ultimate unknown. It was the realm of the Devil, filled with unimaginable fears and sinful temptations. The wilderness was dangerous, a realm to be avoided or civilized, but not a place entered without grave concern. It was the ultimate symbol of dark mystery and evil. And yet, for all of its negative connotations, the wilderness is also the frontier of freedom and independence. Entering the wilderness requires great courage and strength. It is the realm of explorers and adventurers, the place where heroes are formed. Venturing forth into the wilderness is a process of self-definition. It tests personal boundaries, challenges beliefs, and explores limits. In this dual context of temptation and freedom, the wilderness can be seen as a vast realm of ambiguity and conflicted tensions. By testing himself against the dangers of the wilderness, Goodman Brown might find his way toward truth. So what truths are explored through this morality tale? Naturally, Hawthorne‟s writing arises from his own internalized beliefs, and the conflicts and ambiguities that those beliefs generate. Young Goodman Brown, like Hawthorne, is a man tempted by sin. He is torn between embracing and rejecting wickedness. Though he futilely

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resists, all of his cherished beliefs about sin and salvation are stripped away to reveal the essential sinfulness of humanity. A core Puritan belief is the assumed status of damnation for most souls. This is the central truth so harshly revealed to Goodman Brown. In writing this story, it reveals an author who operates on this assumed premise. It is this unforgiving Puritan view about damnation that is learned by Brown on his errand into the wilderness. When Brown ventures into the forest and meets with the Devil, an apparent deal made in advance, Brown at first tries to resist the errand that has brought him this far. Calling the Devil his “friend,” he then proclaims, “it is my purpose now to return whence I came. I have scruples touching the matter thou wot‟st of” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 248). Brown‟s conflicted nature is clear. As powerfully as he is drawn into the wilderness, his faith creates a tension within him that causes him to continually doubt his chosen course. As soon as he confronts the reason for his journey, he begins to resist. Brown judges himself and his intentions harshly when thinking of his family lineage brings second thoughts. That young Goodman Brown is intended to be an autobiographical character of Hawthorne can be seen in Brown‟s attempt to reverse course and leave his errand unfulfilled. “My father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before him. We have been a race of honest men and good Christians since the days of the martyrs; and I shall be the first of the name of Brown that ever took this path.” Hawthorne seems to be making a direct reference to his own ancestors, who of course share a likewise history. But to confirm the

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symbolic link between Hawthorne and Brown, the devil confirms the details that prove the point. He replies to Brown, “I have been as well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and that‟s no trifle to say. I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem; and it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled at my own hearth, to set fire to an Indian village, in King Philip‟s war” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 248-9). These are clear references to William Hathorne, the patriarch and founding father of Hawthorne‟s own family line. Local histories reveal that it was William who punished the Quaker woman with a public lashing in the streets of Salem, and he and his son were also leaders in campaigns against the local native inhabitants. Given Hawthorne‟s conflicted attitudes toward his stern, unforgiving patriarchs, it isn‟t surprising that he would fictionally place his ancestors firmly in league with the Devil. This devilish confirmation is the beginning of Brown‟s disillusionment, and yet he clings to the illusion of himself and the respectability of his family. “We are a people of prayer, and good works to boot, and abide no such wickedness” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 249). Without the myth of a saintly lineage to sustain him, Brown is further disillusioned when the devil henceforth informs Brown that he has many followers among the church and civil leadership, up to and including the governor, and Brown‟s own local minister. To further prove how widespread is the Devil‟s influence, a number of prominent people begin to appear on the forest path, all hastening toward the secret meeting in the wilderness. The first is Goody Cloyse who

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taught Brown “his catechism in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual adviser” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 249). Brown is aghast as he observes her from the shelter of the forest. If his spiritual advisor is in league with the Devil, to whom can Brown turn for guidance? This confrontation with disillusionment prompts Brown to have a crisis of faith. He stops his journey into the forest and refuses to go any further. “Not another step will I budge on this errand. What if a wretched old woman do choose to go to the devil when I thought she was going to heaven: is that any reason why I should quit my dear Faith and go after her?” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 250) Brown‟s decision to go no further brings him some relief. He was “applauding himself greatly, and thinking with how clear a conscience he should meet the minister in his morning walk, nor shrink from the eye of good old Deacon Gookin.” Just as Brown is congratulating himself for resisting the devil, he witnesses more travelers in the forest, and they were none other than the minister and deacon. This revelation deals a severe blow to Brown, who was then “overburdened with the heavy sickness of his heart” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 251). If even his own minister is in league with the Devil, what then is his hope for salvation? If even the most Godly among them were corrupt, how could he hope to do better? He now had cause to doubt heaven itself. Truly, the very foundations of his faith were shaken. And yet, he still struggles against this crushing despair. “With heaven above and Faith below, I will yet stand firm against the devil!” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 251)

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With all the weight of predictable doom, his illusions about his dear wife Faith are next stripped from him. Gathering above the forest, a dark cloud swept toward him. From within the cloud, Brown could indistinctly hear the voices of the towns-people, “men and women, both pious and ungodly.” And then, most horrifying of all, Brown catches the sound of his new young wife‟s voice, “uttering lamentations, yet with an uncertain sorrow, and entreating for some favor, which, perhaps, it would grieve her to obtain; and all the unseen multitude, both saints and sinners, seemed to encourage her onward” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 252). Brown‟s core beliefs are assaulted by the consequences of these revelations. Just like his wife‟s “uncertain sorrow,” there is an enormous amount of conflicted ambiguity to these new insights. If everyone, sinner and saint alike, participates in wickedness, then what happens to the distinctions between sinner and saint? What if salvation is a meaningless goal? If faith itself is corrupt, how shall we then define and weigh sin? If everyone is stained by damnable sin, is heaven even a goal worth striving for? In anguish, Brown calls out, “My Faith is gone! There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil; for to thee is this world given.” Brown capitulates and yields to the inevitable. He arrives at a clearing in the woods where the devil has called his gathering. Once there, all of Brown‟s worst fears are confirmed when he sees the faces of the powerful and pious in attendance. When a figure resembling “some grave divine of the New England churches” stands at a pulpit and exhorts the crowd to “Bring forth the converts!” Brown willingly steps forward. He has accepted his sinful nature. As

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he approaches the congregation, he feels a “loathful brotherhood” with them “by the sympathy of all that was wicked in his heart.” The dark figure welcomes Brown “to the communion of your race. Ye have found thus young your nature and your destiny” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 254). Brown has learned that his nature is sinful and his destiny is damnation, and realizes that this is true even for those who masquerade as pious saints. The final blow to his former beliefs befalls him when Faith steps forth and they behold one another before the unholy altar. The devil makes their positions perfectly clear. “There ye stand, depending upon one another‟s hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream. Now are ye undeceived. Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome again, my children, to the communion of your race” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 254). In one final, desperate attempt to salvage something of his faith, Brown urges his wife to “look up to heaven, and resist the wicked one.” But with that last act of resistance, the scene changes abruptly. Goodman Brown finds himself standing alone in the dark forest, with no evidence of the gathering in sight. Was it a dream? Did he imagine it? What is the truth? The next day, young Goodman Brown walks down the street of Salem village and sees once again the faces that he had last seen in the firelight of the forest. He sees the minister, who offers Brown a blessing as he passes. The deacon could be overheard in prayer, and Goody Cloyse was seen teaching the catechism to a little girl. Brown is disillusioned and insecure. He sees his young wife, Faith, still wearing her pink

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ribbons, burst into joy at the sight of him. But Brown is too conflicted to respond to her with his previous delight. He “looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 255). Truly, Brown has returned from his errand into the wilderness a changed man. The changes run deep, and seem to mirror the man Nathaniel Hawthorne became. The story concludes by observing, “A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream” (Hawthorne Complete Short Stories 255). By all accounts, this would be an equally good description of Hawthorne himself. He was known to be a stern and melancholy man who went to great lengths to preserve his privacy. Perhaps he, too, was motivated by irrefutable knowledge of his own damnation, creating a desperate and irresolvable conflict within him.

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The Scarlet Letter The themes of secret sin, guilt, and unholy love are again featured in The Scarlet Letter. Yet again, Hawthorne can be seen struggling with the consequences of sin. By setting his novel in Salem during the early Puritan years, Hawthorne was drawing on the local history he was so thoroughly familiar with. The Scarlet Letter can be seen as a refinement and development of themes that recur in many of his stories. “The Custom House” sketch that introduces the novel is replete with seemingly unrelated autobiographical information. However, when seen through the lens of an author examining his personal puritanical history, the “Custom House” material provides the perfect backdrop to what follows. The Custom House, a real location in Boston where Hawthorne once worked, is the bridge between Hawthorne‟s present reality and his conflicted relationship with the past. It represents the liminal state between sleeping and waking that he alluded to in “The Haunted Mind” and explored in so many of his short stories. Like in “Alice Doane‟s Appeal,” the autobiographical nature of the narration also bridges Hawthorne‟s outer reality with the inner realms explored in his fiction. In order to establish the semblance of credibility to the tale that he spins, Hawthorne identifies the Custom House as the inspiration for the story of Hester Prynne. Hawthorne imagines finding a packet of old papers supposedly composed by a former Custom House Surveyor, one Jonathan Pue. These papers record the “sufferings of this singular woman.” Enwrapped in these papers was found the tattered remains of a

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highly embroidered letter „A.‟ As Hawthorne explains to his readers, “My eyes fastened themselves upon the old scarlet letter, and would not be turned aside” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 28). Although this account is itself fiction, by including this information in an admittedly autobiographical piece, Hawthorne attempts to assert its authenticity. For Hawthorne, at least, there is something very real about the story he relates. Just as the Custom House sketch forms a threshold between the outer and inner realms, the story contained within The Scarlet Letter also begins with a clear reference to thresholds and boundaries. Outside a prison door, “rooted almost at the threshold,” grows a wild rose bush, symbol of the freedom and the “fragile beauty” that awaits beyond the confines of the prison. The transcendentalist influence is seen in the description of the rose that blooms “in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to [prisoners]” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 41). The Puritans‟ might not tolerate transgressions, but to Hawthorne, solace might be found through the more forgiving Nature. Hester Prynne stands outside this prison door with a baby in her arms, the proof of an adulterous liaison. Condemned by the village Puritan authorities, Hester is made to stand upon the scaffold in the village square, subject to public ridicule and shame. Hawthorne does not make it clear whether Hester is to by scorned or sympathized with. On the one hand, Hester is reminiscent of “Divine Maternity – that sacred image of sinless motherhood” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 48), and yet, this image is marred with the “taint of deepest sin.”

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To help contradict the image of Hester as the Madonna, Hawthorne has Hester hurt her baby without realizing it. “She pressed her infant to her bosom, with so convulsive a force that the poor babe uttered another cry of pain. But the mother did not seem to hear it” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 52). By this early example we see that Hester is capable of causing harm, even if it is unintentional. These conflicted views of Hester continue throughout the novel, as it appears that Hawthorne both admires her willingness to defy the religious standards of the time, while simultaneously rejecting her participation in sin. But if Hawthorne does not wish his readers to entirely embrace Hester, he does not intend her to be totally unsympathetic, either. Hester responds to her public shaming and ostracism from village life by fatalistically accepting her status. She could choose to move to another place and have a fresh start free from the condemning eyes of the public, but she moves with her daughter Pearl to a cottage at the threshold of the wilderness. Just as she lives on the outer edges of the village, so she likewise operates in the limited boundaries allowed to her by the residents, and earns her way through her creative and elaborate needlework. She uses her skill with the needle to create an elaborate design of the red letter „A‟ she is sentenced to wear as a sign of her shame. Thus the badge of her shame also transforms into a symbol of her skill and pride. She spends the rest of her life in Salem village quietly performing good deeds without drawing attention to herself. These ambiguities leave the reader with mixed emotions about such a complex character. Despite her “sin,” there is

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something admirable in Hester‟s willingness to live with the consequences of her actions. Hester‟s sin is clear, and her daughter Pearl is the daily proof. By the Puritan standards of the time, Hester‟s status among the damned would have been equally certain. Once, when Pearl asked Hester about the scarlet letter that her mother wears, Hester responds that it is the mark of the devil (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 154). Although Hester clearly rebelled against the strict rules of puritanical society, she did not reject the implications of their judgments. Like Goodman Brown eventually did, Hester accepts the inevitability of her fate as a sinner. The Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester‟s lover and the father of her child, however, does not accept the consequences of his sin as easily. He hides his role in Hester‟s unfortunate circumstances, and attempts to live with the guilt of his secret sin which festers within him. According to Puritan doctrine, there is no forgiveness of sin, just confirmation of damnation. Therefore, there is nothing to be gained from public confession nor from private torment. Dimmesdale‟s life as a minister would be over were he to confess. He would share Hester‟s shame, and they would both still go to hell. His awareness that confession was a losing proposition kept him silent. Since there is no absolution for his sin, he chose to hide it as best he can. Unfortunately, the moral consequences of his hypocrisy eventually become his downfall. After many years of attempting to keep up the pretense of purity, Dimmesdale is described as “conscience-stricken” when he finally meets with Hester once again in the forest.

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“The judgment of God is on me, it is too mighty for me to struggle with!” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 163). Hester suggests a solution that Hawthorne must surely have yearned for himself; a path through the wilderness that leads to freedom. “Doth the universe lie within the compass of yonder town, which only a little time ago was but a leaf-strewn desert, as lonely as this around us? Whither leads yonder forest-track? Backward to the settlement, thou sayest! Yes; but onward, too! Deeper it goes, and deeper, into the wilderness… There thou art free!” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 163) For Dimmesdale, like Hawthorne, freedom might be found in escaping the narrow moral confinement of puritanical Salem. A clear path through the wilderness of ambiguities and conflicted desires might set him free. This possibility of freeing himself from the strict moral doom of his Puritan beliefs is more than Dimmesdale can bear. He agrees to run away with Hester and Pearl. “Tempted by a dream of happiness, he had yielded himself with deliberate choice, as he had never done before, to what he knew was deadly sin” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 182). Morally corrupted by years of harboring sin within the secret chambers of his heart, yielding himself to it was more than he could withstand. “The infectious poison of that sin had been thus rapidly diffused throughout his moral system. It had stupefied all blessed impulses, and awakened into vivid life the whole brotherhood of bad ones” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 182). Like good Parson Hooper, Dimmesdale became finely attuned to sin, because of the secret sin he was so intimately acquainted with.

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He was now awakened to the full scope of his sinful nature, and it changed him. Like young Goodman Brown, Dimmesdale returned from his visit to the wilderness a changed man. “Another man had returned out of the forest; a wiser one; with a knowledge of hidden mysteries which the simplicity of the former never could have reached. A bitter kind of knowledge that!” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 183) It is this knowledge that gives him the courage to proclaim his guilt at the end of the novel. Feeling the end of his life upon him, Dimmesdale calls for Hester and Pearl to join him upon the scaffold to confess the sin and guilt that lies within his heart. While taking his share of shame upon himself, he reminds the crowd that all the while they scorned Hester, Dimmesdale had passed among them unnoticed. Dimmesdale reveals the same knowledge that Parson Hooper and Goodman Brown learned; sin lives in the secret hearts of all men. Like Hawthorne‟s other autobiographical protagonists, Dimmesdale does not yield himself willingly to sin. He spends his life rejecting the wicked impulses within him, and struggles with the inevitable spiritual consequences of those impulses. Although guilty of sin, he never surrenders himself to the devil, and like Brown, resists further participation in sin. In fact, Dimmesdale‟s dying words are dedicated to the glorification of God. “Praised be his name! His will be done! Farewell!” (Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter 210) Perhaps these noble moral goals are what Hawthorne also wishes for himself. Through examination of the common themes that weave through much of Hawthorne‟s work, a portrait of a spiritually conflicted individual emerges. Hawthorne seems to be a man who was struggling with a heart burdened with the

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guilt of secret sin. His repeated allusions to his sister Elizabeth provide a tempting hint at what Hawthorne‟s secret might have been. Whether he imagined or committed incest, however, as the inheritor of the full weight of a full-blooded Puritan heritage, he also inherited all of the stern values and fatalistic gloom of his patrimony. For a Puritan, the status of salvation was always ambiguous. Hawthorne‟s secret sin stripped away that ambiguity, confirming his damnation. By committing himself to art, a frivolous act inspired by the devil, he chose, like Dimmesdale and Hester, to follow a shameful path. Unlike Hester, Hawthorne could not seem to fatalistically accept this conclusion or the potentially redemptive power of his art. He continued to struggle with themes of sin and salvation throughout his life and writing career. While outwardly rejecting the Puritan perspective, in his most private self, he enacted it. This internal tension created an unresolvable conflict for Hawthorne. He couldn‟t absolve himself and hope for heaven, and he couldn‟t escape his shameful awareness of sin. Just like he found it difficult to separate himself from his birthplace of Salem, he also found it difficult to separate himself from the internalized values and beliefs that imprisoned him within his guilty heart. He spent his life rebelling against the Puritan values that were his birthright, yet he couldn‟t escape such an essential part of his identity. Nathaniel Hawthorne‟s literary career traces his path through the perilous and unknown wilderness of moral ambiguity. His journey also helped to define American literature at a time when Americans were still attempting to define themselves. His concerns resonated with the common

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moral issues of his day, and his struggle to reconcile his past with the present still resonates today. Was Hawthorne a Puritan or a rebel? Did he ever answer that question for himself? The answer perhaps lies deeper within the wilderness. There, thou art free!

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Works Cited Cahill, Robert Ellis. New England's Witches and Wizards. Peabody, MA: Chandler-Smith Publishing House, Inc., 1983. Campbell, Donna M. "American Transcendentalism." Literary Movements. 06/15/2005. . 20 Feb. 2007 Campbell, Donna M. "Puritanism in New England." Literary Movements. . 27 May 2006. Campbell, Donna M. "Forms of Puritan Rhetoric: The Jeremiad and the Conversion Narrative." Literary Movements. . 21 Feb. 2006. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Haunted Mind.” Project Gutenberg Ebook #9209, edition 10. Release date: Nov. 2005. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Maypole of Merry Mount." The Complete Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1959. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil." The Complete Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1959.

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Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. Young Goodman Brown and Other Tales. Ed. Brian Harding. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Young Goodman Brown." The Crucible and Related Readings. Evanston: McDougal Littell, 1997. Kazin, Alfred. God and the American Writer. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997. Kennedy, Caroline. A Patriot‟s Handbook: Songs, Poems, Stories, and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love. New York: Hyperion, 2003. Lewis, Jone Johnson. "Ralph Waldo Emerson." The Transcendentalists. 1995-2002. . 21 Feb. 2007. Martin, Terence. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1965. Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem is My Dwelling Place. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991. Miller, Perry. Errand into the Wilderness. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1956. Ralph Waldo Emerson Society Collections. "Title List to the Emerson Library of Ralph H. Orth." 2004.

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. 20 Feb. 2007. Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 4: Early Nineteenth Century: American Transcendentalism - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. . 15 July 2006. Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 4: Henry David Thoreau." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. . 13 Jan. 2007. Stade, Nancy. "Introduction and Notes." The Scarlet Letter. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003. Turner, Arlin. Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 1: The American Renaissance in New England. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Joel Myerson, University of South Carolina. The Gale Group, 1978. pp. 80-101. Wineapple, Brenda. Hawthorne. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003.

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Works Consulted Applegate, Debby. The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher. New York: Doubleday Books, 2006. Bradbury, Ray. "The Witch Door. " Playboy. December, 1995. p.92-94+195-196. Bush, Jr., George W. "Inauguration Speech - 2005." . 20 Jan 2005. Campbell, Donna M. "Brief Timeline of American Literature and Events: 1500-1649." . 20 Feb. 2007. Cline, Austin. "God Bless America: The United States of America is Blessed by God; Americans are Chosen by God to Do His Will." . 24 Sept. 2006. Conn, Peter. Literature in America: An Illustrated History. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. "Conversation: Toni Morrison." NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. PBS interview. March 9, 1998. Transcript. . 1 Oct. 2006.

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D'Amario, Alison. "The Salem Witch Trial of 1692." Salem Witch Museum. . 23 Jan. 2007. Delbanco, Andrew. The Puritan Ordeal. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 1989. Eaton, Cathy and Melissa Pennell. "Introduction to Hester and Pearl in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne." Hawthorne in Salem. 4 Sept. 2006. Euchner, Charles C. and William M. Fowler. "Embracing that 'City Upon a Hill'." Boston Globe. 4 Sept. 2002. Finley, Gavin MD. "Puritan History; Past, Present, and Future: From the English Civil War to the settlement of the New World and onwards to the emerging New World Order and the end-time drama." . September 2003. Fraile-Marcos, Ana Maria. "Hybridizing the "City upon a Hill" in Toni Morrison's Paradise." MELUS. Winter, 2003. . 27 Sept. 2006. Hall, Michael G. The Last American Puritan: The Life of Increase Mather. Middletown: Wesleyan University Press, 1988.

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Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment." The Complete Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1959. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "Feathertop: A Moralized Legend." The American Fantasy Tradition. Ed. Brian M. Thomsen. New York: Tor, 2002. Irving, Washington. "Rip Van Winkle." American Folk and Fairy Tales. Ed. Rachel Field. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1929. Jensen, Robert. "Idea that U.S. is God's Chosen is Dangerous." . 2000. Landmarks of Faith: A travelogue of American Spirituality. "Puritan New England". Host: Schuyler Sackett. Odyssey Productions, Ltd. 1998. "Looking Backward: Edward Bellamy." Sparknotes. 2006. October, 2006. . More, Paul. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21). VOLUME XV. Colonial and Revolutionary Literature; Early National Literature, Part I. . 21 Feb. 2007 Morrison, Toni. Paradise. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.

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