Nathaniel Hawthorne Research Paper

Nathaniel Hawthorne from the time of his birth to the end of his existence was an interesting man and enjoyed reading and writing. Hawthorne is a strong person who never gave up even when he had plenty of reasons to do so. Hawthorne has many ancestors from the Puritan Era (“Nathaniel Hawthorne Biography”). These are William Hawthorne (“Nathaniel Hawthorne Biography”) and his son John Hathorne (Brooks). A few more are the witches who were accused such as John Proctor and Sarah Wilson (Brooks). A really interesting fact is that he had later added a “w” to his name to separate his self from his ancestors of this time in history (“Nathaniel Hawthorne Biography”). Nathaniel Hawthorne came to this earth in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4, 1804

Hawthorne’s inspiration came from his ancestors and his hometown Salem (Brooks). What is interesting is that even in his own time period his writing was considered “Old Fashioned” (Brooks). Due to this many critics titled his writings to be “Pre-Modern” (Brooks). His writing has been said to have rhythms that can be easily measured along with being extremely deliberate and known to have a formal stance (Brooks). His writing was also considered as dark and gloomy; this is because he often spoke of guilt and sin (Brooks). He believed that his family had been cursed because of the persecutions of the Quakers and the accused witches (Brooks). At the beginning of The Scarlet Letter he takes the blame for his ancestor’s mistakes and therefore prays that their family cursed be removed (Brooks). He also states the characteristics of his ancestors that he in turn believed had caused the curse in the first place (Brooks). While Nathaniel was in college he started to miss his mother and sisters so when he graduated he went to visit them for twelve years (“Nathaniel Hawthorne Biography”). What is funny is the fact that in 1828 he wrote a novel Fanshawe which was published, but he disliked the novel and tried to have all copies destroyed (Brooks). After this he still continued to write short stories (Brooks). In his stay he wrote two books in the year 1832 (“Nathaniel Hawthorne Biography”). In the year 1837 he published another book, and met Sophia Peabody who he later married in 1842