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Nathaniel Hawthorne: Marriage, Success, and Final Years

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Nathaniel Hawthorne: Marriage, Success, and Final Years

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On July 9, 1842 Nathaniel Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody. She was a painter, illustrator, and transcendentalist. After their wedding, they moved to Concord, Massachusetts and had their first child of three, in 1844. Their family was in debt and Hawthorne had to move to Salem to get a job as the Surveyor in the Salem Custom House. And when he lost his job, it was actually a good thing because it led him to writing The Scarlet Letter, making him famous. His success continued when he went on to write The House of the Seven Gables, Blithedale Romance, and Tanglewood Tales. But after 1860, Hawthorne was past his prime and found little success. As he continued to age, his health began to fail. He passed away in his sleep on May 19, 1864 in New Hampshire.

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In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne makes sin one of the main themes throughout the entire book. He made sin well known in three of the main characters. For Hester Prynne, her sin was having a kid with someone whom she is not married to. Love is frowned upon by the Puritan society and then when Hester refused to tell who her "lover" was, she was faced with even more punishment. Hester was sentenced with 3 hours of standing on the scaffold and en eternity of wearing the scarlet letter "A." But, Hester did get something good out of her sin, her daughter Pearl, who as said in the book, "keeps Hester away from the powers of darkness." Unfortunately, Pearl has some kind of evil within her due to her being "the result of her mother's sin." The next person that Hawthorne made a sinner was Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, who had the same sin as Hester because he was Pearl's father. The difference is Hester came forward with the truth, except for refusing to tell who Pearl's father was, whereas Dimmesdale has not said a word about Hester, Pearl, or anything else. He is a Reverend in a Puritan society, so if he were to come forward he would be more frowned upon and scorned than Hester is. And the final sinner is Roger Chillingworth, who is Hester's legal husband. Chillingworth was held captive by Native Americans in Amsterdam before he escaped to Massachusetts and found out that his wife (Hester) had a baby with somebody who was not him. Once Chillingworth had an idea of who the father was (Dimmesdale), he sought revenge. He pretended to be Dimmesdale's personal physician and friend so that he could get close enough to punish him physically and mentally.

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Nathaniel Hawthorne's other main theme in The Scarlet Letter is honesty. Hester was almost completely honest about her sin of having Pearl with a man that she was not married too. The only thing, as I mentioned before, that she wasn't truthful about was who Pearl's father was. Other than that, she revealed everything else about her sin, accepted her punishment and didn't have too much guilt from it in the end. Dimmesdale on the other hand, was not honest at all. He was so high in society (as the Reverend) that he could never reveal his sin as it would destroy his name and the townspeople would turn against him. Dimmesdale never owned up to his sin and it destroyed him in the end. He starts to "torture himself physically" and "always grabs his chest in pain" because his heart literally aches from not being honest about his sin.

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The scarlet letter "A" is one of Hester's punishments for having Pearl. It's a representation of her sin and exposes her to the world. It has to stay on her chest for the rest of her life. When it was forced upon her by the Puritans after Pearl was born, it stood for "adultery". And as time progresses it turns Hester into a good-natured person who is helpful, hardworking, and happy. By the time Pearl is 7, the Puritans are accepting Hester and saying that the scarlett "A" on her chest stands for "able" instead of "adultery."

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Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. His father, Nathaniel Hathorne, died four years after Hawthorne was born from yellow fever while away at sea. After his father's death, his mother, Elizabeth Clarke Manning Hathorne, sisters, and him moved to a house that he referred to as "Castle Dismal." Hawthorne attended school with his teacher, Joseph Worcester until November of 1813 when he was injured while playing ball and had a long convalescence. At one point Hawthorne relapsed and it was during this time that he got really into reading. And in 1820, Hawthorne and his sister, Lousa, published 7 issues of The Spectator which was a funny parody of the Salem Gazette except it was often focused on death. Then in 1821, Hawthorne left for Bowdoin College in Maine. Throughout college Hawthorne was always short on funds and asking his mom for money when he wrote her, but he did have an active social life. One that included gambling, drinking, smoking, and breaking college rules with his friends causing him to almost get suspended. Fortunately he didn't and graduated on September 7, 1825.

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The wild rosebush is right outside the prison doors which is where Hester was a few months after Pearl was born. In chapter 8 of The Scarlet Letter Mr. Wilson asks Pearl "Who made thee?" and she responded with that she was not made but instead "plucked...from the wild rosebush outside the prison doors." This quote shows that Pearl doesn't think she's from God, she knows she's from her mother's sin which led her to the prison where she had Pearl and where the rosebush is.

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Puritans believe, especially in the Scarlet Letter, that the slightest mistake or mishap is a sin. The sin of the whole book is Hester and Dimmesdale having Pearl, but there are also others. For example, Chillingworth wanting revenge on Dimmesdale for having a baby with Hester. But there is also redemption in the Puritan society which includes Hester confessing to her sin, serving her punishment and is now looked at as a more helpful and caring person because she redeemed herself after her sin.

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Puritans in the 17th century didn't believe in love outside of marriage. That's why it was frowned upon when Hester had Pearl because as far as the townspeople knew she didn't have a husband. Meaning Pearl was conceived out of wedlock which is looked at as a crime in the Puritan society leading to punishment. And for Hester this was the scarlet letter "A" on her chest for eternity and 3 hours of standing on the scaffold in front of the townspeople.

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