Nathaniel Hawthorn's Writing

The Scarlet Letter has themes and motifs that last through the ages. It explores themes expanding many more topics than intended by the time of its writing. These times though, very much influenced Nathaniel Hawthorn’s writings. One can analyze in a New Historicist style of literary criticism. The events and traditions of the 1800s influenced Hawthorn’s writing in addition to the circumstances of Hawthorn’s life and setting. Born in 1804, Nathaniel Hawthorn was a resident of Salem Massachusetts. His ancestors were involved in the witch trials causing him to change the spelling of his last name. His environment clearly affected much of his writing. Outer history occurring at the time of the setting of the book influenced several references

These accusations led to the killing of several innocent women and one man. With his family’s involvement in the trails, Hawthorn changed his name. He used this shame for public figures in his book. Dimmesdale demonstrates being a coward and a person not willing to admit the wrongdoing that he had done. Hawthorn lives out his emotions as part his characters. He feels that he has to hide behind his new name as Dimmesdale hides behind his shirt. There are parallels of actions done by Hawthorne and his novel.
Dimmesdale is not Hawthorn’s only likeness. Hawthorn constantly struggled with his family’s history. He tried to rise beyond the misdeeds of his ancestors to create a better name for himself. This is almost exactly a goal of Pearl through the novel. Hawthorn had an ancestor that violated Puritan belief. Pearl had an ancestor, her own mother nonetheless, that violated the laws and moral standards of Puritan belief. To symbolize his own success even though his family tree is flawed, Hawthorn had Pearl succeed greatly over all of the other characters in the

Because of his hatred of the Puritans, the commoners depicted in the novel are stereotypes of Puritan followers. Hawthorn capitalizes on the Puritan people’s hypocrisy especially with the first scaffold scene. All of the citizens attend the public humiliation of Hester. Dimmesdale becomes the epitome of hypocrisy in the book. Ministers of that time supposedly held the greatest moral standards and the ability to speak with God. They, because of this, became the highest paid citizens in the New World. Hawthorn uses the fact of Dimmesdale being held in such high regard and then revealing his misdoings as a way to emphasize the corruption that plagued the pastoral field during the times on the Puritans. Hawthorn’s strive to be a better person than his Puritan great grandfather causes several ironies like the one regarding Dimmesdale. Another irony against Puritanism is the symbolism of the A in the story. The Puritan townsfolk force Herter to don the “a” intending to be a physical manifestation of her adultery. As many critics of the novel note, the “a” eventually changes its meaning several times in the duration of the novel. The final sentence of the novel “On a field, sable, the letter A gules” (Hawthorn 261) provides the notion that even the Puritan citizens eventually understand the “a” as a different more prideful meaning than what they originally comprehend it