Nathanial Hawthorne's writings often featured extensive references to Puritanism in the New England region. Hawthorne's ancestors lived during the height of Puritanism in New England and were involved in the Salem witchcraft trials in 1692-1693. His writings often reflect this background, suggesting he feels shame and guilt for the crimes of his ancestors. Analyze Hawthorne's dynamic tone regarding Puritanism in ANY of his works that you have read (short stories, novels, etc.). Use Freudian psychoanalytic techniques to construct your own "spin" of ideas on Hawthorne's intended message. What is Hawthorne trying to say about Puritan society? the human mind? This is a flexible prompt topic and each student should be able to present ample evidence to support his/her opinion (use quotes, personal analysis, etc.). Be sure to provide insightful thoughts and inject new ideas into this blog feed - avoid repetitiveness.
Brennan Pieroni, Jeffrey Ruland, and Natalie Undeland
Nathaniel Hawthorne grew up in Salem, Massachusetts which was previously an extremely religious town where all aspects of the community was based on the Bible. However, Hawthorne did not necessarily agree with the puritanical lifestyle which he criticizes through his works. This is evident in “Young Goodman Brown” through Hawthorne’s critic of the church members during Brown’s dream. Brown dreams that he is going to a witches’ meeting in the woods. However on the way to the meeting, Brown meets his childhood catechism teacher Goody Cloyse and Deacon Gookin revealing Hawthorne’s belief that the church goes against its own preaching and thus making the church corrupt which is evident when Brown “cast up his eyes in astonishment” with the site of Goody Cloyse heading towards the witches’ meeting (401). Also, this shows Hawthorne’s belief of the hypocrisy in the church since the exact thing this church and town were trying to dispose of, witchcraft, they were also taking part in. Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of how events in dreams expose one’s real opinions in life adds to the criticism of the religious community. After Brown wakes up, his life changes because he has a new opinion of the church which causes him to become depressed since his whole life has been a lie. In fact, the dream was an “evil omen for young Goodman Brown” (406). He feels that the church is corrupt and hypocritical just as Hawthorne feels. This also reveals how humans conform to society without questioning their surroundings. Even though Hawthorne grew up in Salem in the footsteps of the extremely religious Puritans, he was strongly disagrees with their actions which is revealed through the critical tone in his works.
ReplyDeleteHawthorne’s works frequently are found to criticize the actions of the puritans in New England. It is as if he is ashamed of his ancestors and their actions during the Salem witch trials. By Freudian principals, self conscious of the human is expressed in one way or the other. In Hawthorne’s “The Minister’s Black Veil” the characters superego is revealed. This occurs through Hooper’s wearing of the black veil. This veil is a means for blatantly covering up all the sins committed in the means to demonstrate Salem‘s sins, and how they covered them up, by deeming people witches in order to kill them. Hawthorne also expresses the irony in the situation; that the Salem witch trials required the church to sin to better society. “Reverend Clark bent forward to reveal the mystery of so many years”, but this can never be done. For no one will admit to something they have gotten away with for so long. “Father Hooper snatched both his hands from beneath the bedclothes, and pressed them strongly on the black veil”, what would happen if everyone knew? That is just to big of a risk to take. “Never!’ cried the veiled clergyman. ‘On earth, never” (415). We all question ourselves internally on what is the right thing to do, but to often as humans we retreat and keep the veil remaining over our sins in life. Hawthorne makes it clear through Hooper’s super ego, the one that expresses it’s emotions, but still abides by society, that everyone focuses to much on covering up their wrong doings. By Freud’s principals, Hawthorne allows the reader to come to the conclusion in this story that even though the puritans covered up their sins by deeming them witches, it is still as obvious as the black veil to everyone that they still killed. Thus committing a sin. Hawthorne, though having ancestors in the witch trial era expresses his deep displeasure on the matter.
ReplyDeleteHaving valuable knowledge on the Salem Witch Hunts, Nathaniel Hawthorne was able to write about the happenings and the mental angst that people were in because of the fear of the unknown, ignorance, and the spread of propaganda. In is novel The Scarlet Letter, he gives townsfolk the appearance of being on an extreme, and almost exaggerated seeming, level of gullibility. Could this be because of his remorse for his ancestors’ participation in the tumultuous era?
ReplyDeleteThe Minister’s Black Veil is a good resource for this question. The story in whole is a metaphor that Hawthorne subconsciously uses which can be connected with his own life. The Minister appears to his congregation one day with his face covered by a veil. His reasoning for the veil is to hide from the damnable and unpardonable sin he committed in the past. The congregation is confused and bothered by this blatant and foreign tactic. They claim he “has gone mad”, and is affecting even the most “sober-minded of men”. Hawthorne wrote this under the discretion of his Super-ego. The defense mechanism that Freud was so mindful of is activated in Hawthorne’s mind that made him write in this style. What triggered it?
There could be a number of answers; however the relation can be made if a lifestyle comparison is made between the minister and Hawthorne. Both have a following of people; one has church goers, and another has readers, which puts both in a position of power and influence. They both have a past that they r not entirely proud of, one an “unspeakable” sin, and the other the misdeeds of his predecessors. The Freudian concept of Super-ego is to stay within society’s boundaries and dispel all impulsive tendencies and live for a more appeasing existence instead of being appeased.
Hawthorne believes that the Puritan society is naturally evil. He relates most of his stories or novels on how he sees the Puritan society. In his short story "The Minister's Black Vail", Mr. Hooper commits a sin of murdering one of his good friends. As in "The Scarlet Letter", also by Hawthorne, Mr. Hooper covers his face with a black vail, as Hester was given a scarlet "A" to wear. These items show there shamefulness to their Puritan society. The society believes that there are consequences for your sins and showing the society you committed a sin is almost like a requirement. Mr. Hooper is also the priest in the society, so by covering up his sin with a black veil is a hidden sin. His action is also hypocritical because it his duty to tell the people in the society to uncover their sins, but he does otherwise with his own; "It grieved him, to the very depth of his kind heart, to observe how the children fled from his approach, breaking up their merriest sports, while his melancholy figure was yet afar off" (413). Mr. Hooper feels because of sin he is putting shame on the entire society. Freud's concept of superego, ego, and id relates to "The Minister's Black Veil" because Mr. Hooper has a mix of and id and superego conscious. He has a superego conscious because he knows the morals of his society and he believes he is respecting them by feeling guilty about his sin and showing his shame to his society; however, he is not respecting the true morals of his position in the society. He has an id conscious because he doing what he feels is right, but also what he wants, not what he should truly be uncovering to the Puritan society. Hawthorne believes the Puritan society is evil, and destroyed the minds of its people; "For some time previous, his mind has been confused, wavering doubtfully between the past and the present" (414). The Puritan society has not only manipulated the minds of it's people, but also its minister. Mr. Hooper feels guilty about what happened and now that he has committed his own sin, he doesn't know what to believe anymore, or what to preach to his people.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Nathaniel Hawthorne lived in an once puritan society, he did not hold puritanism very high. He believed that many aspects of the overly religious Massachusetts Bay Colony, such as the officials, were corrupt. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne showa a narrow-minded community, which is run by a corrupt reverend, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester Prynne, the novel’s protagonist, is imprisoned for adultery. Ironically, the father of her child, who is born out of wedlock, is the Dimmesdale. This “morally correct” man is then sinful. However, he is not punished like Hester Prynne, who must be isolated from the town and wear a scarlett “A” on her chest. Because the reverend had suppressed his sexual desires, id, for so long, eventually his superego was no longer able to control his wants, leading to the downfall of the situation. Hawthone believed that the puritan society was corrupt, and the officials were the leading cause of evil.
ReplyDeleteThe "birthmark" though not directly about puritanism, still reflects the religion as well as Hawthorne's feelings about magic. To Alymer, his wife's birthmark becomes a "symbol of his wife's liability to sin, sorrow, decay and death" (418) his nightmare about her birthmark, reflecting his disgust of it and his deepseated desire to be rid of it, is the catalyst that makes his wife willing to do anything to get rid of it. Alymer's science is almost like magic. "in his hands verious clods of dirt assumed a soul" (423) and though his successes are great his failures eat away at him. He is obsessed with removing the birthmark and is blinded by his obsession. The only thing that keeps his wife from perfection is the birthmark, and once it is removed she is perfect and no longer fit for the human world. His wife's one imperfection blinds him to her other qualities. His assistant seems to be aware of what will happen if Alymer removes the birthmark, but doesn't stop it and laughs evilly at the end; he could be seen as the devil. his wife is an angel brought to earth, and Alymer is the man that failed to see the gift he was given. His "magic" kills his wife as it alters nature and the natural order. With Freud's ideas on dreams as well as human's obsessive tendencies it becomes clear that Alymer will do anything to get rid of the birthmark once he has become aware of it. Hawthorne's religion colors this book as he notes how Alymer's wife is a "celestial" (427), the similarities of Aminadab to the devil, and the use of magic to overcome nature but eventually brings sorrow.
ReplyDeleteIn many, if not all of his works, Hawthorne hints to the idea that people aren't what they seem, especially the Puritans. As an anti- transcendentalist, Hawthorne struggled with the idea of good and evil coexisting. As a result of this precarious harmony, there must be evil in everyone, no matter how pure their facade is. With ancestors that carried out the Salem witch trials, Hawthorne knew personally that the puritans could be a corrupt society. He brings out this theme in The Scarlet Letter and Young Goodman Brown. In The Scarlet Letter, protagonist Hester is put through cruel punishment for indulging in her love for a man who wasn't her husband. When this union resulted in a child, Hester was ostracized from the Puritan community. In very ungodly fashion, the women of the town gossip about her, and the men are lenient because they are lustful. The father of the child, a reverend, openly lies to the community, and keeps his secret for years. While this work is a bold statement of nature vs. humanity, it is also a clear statement on Hawthorne's perception of Puritans. They were hateful, unforgiving, and hypocritical. He shows that someone who was exiled by the Puritans ended up being the most pure character of the book. In Young Goodman Brown, a man is led into the woods to participate in dark magic. Thinking that he is deviating from his society, Brown is shocked to find that not only did his ancestors follow the devil, but the town members,including his wife and the Pasteur, are followers as well. This is both a more abrupt and round about way of expressing the author's views on the Puritans. Abruptly so because Hawthorne has the town involved in the evil arts. But Hawthorne is saying more than that. The "good" people are fundamentally liars. They put on a pure facade, but they certainly aren't. The preacher is judgmental; the women are gossipy; the men lust. Everyone has goals, ambitions, and greed: it's the human condition. However hard the Puritans tried, they could not overcome that, and in pretending to do so, Hawthorne believed they were flawed.
ReplyDeleteGood posts everybody...this was a bit tougher than we thought it would be and was difficult to digest. Kudos to Rachel for bringing in an "outside" novel, and Kelsey and Kelly for their insightful posts. Everybody did a good job of taking the entry into a new direction.
ReplyDeleteGood job, everyone, on the connection between Hawthorne's guilt and the stories and for the analysis of superego, ego, and id. Kevin, I found your post to be particularly insightful, concerning this latter aspect. Kelsey, good connection between "The Scarlet Letter" and "The Minister's Black Veil. Trisha, good job on examining the irony in "The Scarlet Letter." Overall, everyone demonstrated a good grasp on Freudian principles and Hawthorne's works.
ReplyDeleteKudos to the BLOG administrators for devising an excellent prompt that brought about interesting discussions and even took it in a new direction! Please don't forget to include textual evidence always.
ReplyDeleteNathaniel Hawthorne, by nature, is a very religious man. He was raised in a puritan society and his ancestors were deeply involved in the Salem Witch Trials, which are today considered one of the most terrible displays of irrationality and fear ever to occur in the United States. His family and denomination's involvement in this grotesque affair left a large impact on Nathaniel's overall perspective of the world. In his writings Hawthorne almost solely focuses on Puritan society. In many cases, like in "Young Goodman Brown", the stories become more of an examination of human faith and an introspection of the flaws of the church overall. In "Young Goodman Brown", Hawthorne details a horrifying dream that disillusions a man to the false Christians in his community. Likewise, Hawthorne felt as though the Puritan church was full of corruption and cruelty. And, like Brown, he distrusts most of the clergymen involved.
ReplyDeleteHawthorne’s roots in Salem most likely contribute to his criticism of Puritan society. Such criticism is prevalent in “Young Goodman Brown” in the way that he negatively portrays the church leaders in Goodman Brown’s dream. During that time in Salem, witch meetings were considered evil and witches were possessed by the devil. During his dream, Goodman Brown sees his catechism teacher Goody Cloyse and Deacon Gookin on his way to a witch meeting. Goodman Brown had once viewed these “elders of the church” as “venerable saints [and] reputable and pious people,” but now as he sees them going to the witch meetings, he sees them as “men of dissolute lives and wretches given over to all mean and filthy vice, and suspected even of horrid crimes” (406). This is an example of Hawthorne’s criticism of the Puritan church because he portrays the leaders as being evil, corrupt, and hypocritical of their own teachings. Using Freudian psychoanalytic techniques, I would conclude that Hawthorne uses Goodman Brown’s dream as a way to show that the human mind can be easily corrupted by authority figures, and that not all things that appear to be good and pure actually are.
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