Nathaniel Hawthorne Puritan Influence Nathaniel Hawthorne drew from his personal and childhood experiences to write his literary works. The event that affected him and showed in his writing was “...the infamous Salem witch trials had taken place more than 100 years earlier, the events still hung over the town and made a lasting impression on the young Hawthorne…("The Scarlet,"History.com). By the event having a impact on him from a young age it affected his writing and helped him in the development of a strong minded main character in his book The Scarlet Letter.
Knowing about the earlier life of Nathaniel Hawthorne will help the reader better understand why Puritanism is the bulk of his literary works. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804 and was the only son of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Clark Hathorne, his father was a sea captain [who] died in 1808 of yellow fever while at sea ("The
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Within The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne developed characters that can be related to. By Hawthorne mentioning his Puritan ancestors in the beginning of his book shows that he studied the topic of puritanism before talking about it. Hester Prynne was a character well developed by Hawthorne who goes through problems that society could possibly go through. In Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter before the novel began critics talked about the book and the characters, and gave a good description to Hester Prynne as a “Creation of someone who loved woman, saw her, as verdi did, as necessary tragic and alone, but emotionally sacred in a diminished world (Hawthorne).” This description of Hester was a excellent when it came to describing her as a bit of a outcast among her peers. As mentioned beforehand Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1804 and but he passed away in 1864 in Plymouth, New