Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804—1864)

1. Hawthorne’s Points of View to Human Nature Black vision of Obsessed, or haunted, by the Calvi

nistic concept of the original sin, Hawthorne cannot look upon any aspect of reality, either human or natural, without finding the germ that corrupts and destroys. For him human beings are evil-natured and sinful and this sin and evil is ever present in human heart and will pass on from one generation to another. His writings are to show how we are all wronged and wrongers, and avenge one another.

2. Paradoxical View towards Nature

According to Hawthorne, human beings are predestined. They are born sinners and will continuously sin. It is commonsensical that man takes the responsibility for something he chooses to do and deserves the punishment if he does it wrong. But in his fictional world, it is vice versa. The Calvinistic doctrine implies that no matter how hard man tries to redeem from his sin, he can never free himself from the depravity that is inherited in him because of Adam’s transgression and disobedience. Consequently, man can do nothing but bear Adam’s guilt.

Hawthorne’s Major Works:

1. Twice – Told Tales (1837) 2. Mosses from an Old Manse(1846)3. The House of the Seven Gables (1851)4. The Scarlet Letter (1850)5. The Blithedale Romance (1852)6. The Marble Faun (1860)

Hawthorne vs. Emersonian Transcendentalism

Hawthorne’s Black vision of human nature proves to be antipathetic to Emersonian Transcendentalism. Hawthorne's language, like Emerson’s, is an attempt to extract the secret meaning from reality, to render the sense of life in visible terms. But while for Emerson, the result of such a quest is nearly always positive, a joyous revelation or rather a confirmation, for Hawthorne it is far more frequently a revelation of evil, of death in life, of the mystery and ambiguity which surround us.

The Interpretation of the Themes Implied in The Minister’s Black Veil:

1. Mr. Hooper is a Christ figure and moral ambi

guity.

2. The veil stands for a symbol of sin and separati

on.

3. Its theme is about the psycic and spiritual isolat

ion of the individual from society.

4. The guilt of sin is omnipresent in each person’s

heart.