Time Era In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

New Historicism Literary Analysis Essay Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter was influenced heavily by the time era it was written in. To achieve a fuller understanding of the work as a whole it would be best to start by analyzing the time era in which it was written. There are many historical facets that can be explored to help determine some of the underlying meaning in The Scarlet Letter . Many aspects of the time era affected the work and can be seen being used by the author, Nathaniel

Hawthorne. Examples of such events being caused by the time era can be seen in the prologue of the story, the times in which the heroin, Hester, is being persecuted, and the economic standings of Hester and her family.

Within the pages of the Custom

The president of the time was also very much in the support of strong government which Hawthorne echos in the government in his novel The Scarlet Letter. “When such personages could constitute a part of the spectacle without risking the majesty or reverence of rank and office, it was safely to be inferred that the infliction of a legal sentence would have an earnest and effectual meaning.” (Hawthorne, 61) This shows that the government that Hawthorne displayed in the novel is very similar to the government that he faced in his time era. The government of this time era was a major contributing factor to

Hawthorne’s novel.

The effects of the era in which the book was written can also be seen in the scenes that show the characters being persecuted. These are very reminiscent of how the African Americans and slaves of this time were also being persecuted unfairly. Similar to how Hester was viewed as an outcast for lechery the African American culture of the 1850’s were seen as outcasts

“Industrialization and immigration brought poverty of a new kind and on a new scale to American cities in the 1820s, intensifying in the economic crises of the late 1830s and the 1850s.”(Poverty) Showing how Hester was in poverty also showed how most of the United States at that time was extremely poor as well.

In conclusion, the historical events that were occurring when Hawthorne was writing The

Scarlet Letter greatly influenced his writing. With the historical content of the 1850’s in mind we can develop a greater understanding of the work as a whole. Nathaniel Hawthorne was relieved from his position from the custom house and because of this we can tell that it would have been a great influence to the writing of the novel. He also would have seen the subjugation of the

African people of that time and would have been able to use that as inspiration in his work. The economic standings of the era in which it was written could also be seen in the work because both the time it was written and the book had many fiscal