How Did Nathaniel Hawthorne Influence Society

Everyone has experiences that change their lives and influence all that they do. Everyone has that special someone, or something, that impacts their choices and work. Nathaniel Hawthorne definitely had these types of experiences throughout his lifetime. Authors in particular have certain people they look up to when it comes to their writing, and Hawthorne had many different people like this as he was writing all of his novels, including The Scarlet Letter. He also was inspired and influenced like different events he experienced in his years, in good ways and bad.

Hawthorne spent his college years studying at Maine’s Bowdoin College. While attending, he had class with another famous author, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The two were never very

alike in school. Longfellow always dressed up nicely while Hawthorne dressed carelessly. Longfellow was always a great student and studied hard; Hawthorne was almost the exact opposite. The two writers always battled in school, and it seemed that Hawthorne was jealous of Longfellow’s grades and writing. Hawthorne pushed himself harder and harder, trying to catch up and become better than Longfellow, which improved his writing tremendously. However, despite their differences in college, later on in life they started a very special friendship. "I venture to request your acceptance. We were not, it is true, so well acquainted at college, that I can plead an absolute right to inflict my `twice-told' tediousness on you," this was said by Nathaniel Hawthorne in a letter to Longfellow about the appearance of Hawthorne’s first novel. A critic once said, "Longfellow gave to Hawthorne the same kind of official confirmation that Emerson would later give to Whitman upon the publication of Leaves of Grass." Longfellow’s permission was obviously very important to Hawthorne or he would not have written the letter asking for it.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ancestors played a big role in his writings as well. He came from a family of strict puritans. Also, his great-great grandfather, John Hathorne, was a judge during the Salem Witchcraft Trials. Nathaniel did not agree with the choices his grandfather made, so he decided to add the “W” to his name. He did not want to be in relation with him at all and he figured that adding that simple letter was the only way he could change that. In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, he wanted to show the world that puritans were strict and did not have feelings. In the novel the puritans treated Hester Prynne horribly, and Hawthorne wrote it like that on purpose. He wanted people to realize how awful they were, and he succeeded.
Though people greatly influenced Nathaniel Hawthorne's writings, events did as well.

One main event that triggered him to begin writing The Scarlet Letter was the election of former president, Zachary Taylor. During this time period Hawthorne was in a hole financially. However, through some connections he got a job being the Surveyor of the Port at the Salem custom house. After Taylor’s inauguration, his party members accused Hawthorne of corruption and fraud. Because of this, he was fired from his position in June of 1849. As if being fired was not enough, his mother passed away less than two months later. After these two horrible catastrophes, he shut everything else out and began writing The Scarlet Letter. If he was not fired from his surveyor job, many believe he would not have written this novel, simply because he would not have had the time. Also, if his mother did not pass, it is believed that he would have not had a reason to shut up self out, thus not writing the novel.

Another big influence on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing of his most famous novel, The Scarlet Letter, was money. At the time before he started writing his novel, he had very little money, and his first daughter was recently born. He needed to write in order to support his family. He planned on writing a long short story, however the amount of money he would make from writing a novel was too much to pass

up.
People are influenced each and every day by a magnitude of different people, events, and experiences. Hawthorne in particular was influenced by a few people. His college classmate, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, pushed his jealousy to a point where he put everything he had into becoming a better writer. Also, his puritan ancestors had such an awful impact on him that he used that in his novels to bring awareness to others. President Taylor’s election, his mother’s death, and the lack of money he had at the time are also all huge events that changed and helped his writings. Without these people and experiences, it is hard to imagine whether or not Hawthorne would be as great of an author as he was in his time.