On Tuesday we discussed Nathanial Hawthorne, and we took notes on a power point on his background and beliefs. We learned that Hawthorne was a dark romanticist whose works explored the idea human nature and that he was concerned with the inner truths of our hearts. After discussing Hawthorne, we discussed chapter two of The Scarlet Letter and pointed out the light and dark imagery. We also talked about the townspeople’s view of Hester, but in particular we looked at the women’s critical views toward her. After discussing the chapter we looked for reviews that had been written during the time of The Scarlet Letters Publishing. As an addition to the class discussion I have found a review of The Scarlet Letter that connects to what we have been learning about.
http://ibiblio.org/eldritch/nh/loring.html
This review goes into greater detail about the transcendentalists and their views in relation to the novel. It also explains what we discussed about Hawthorne’s exploration of human nature.
The new vocab word is Malefactress. It is found in chapter two of the scarlet letter.
Hester Prynne was seen by her puritan contemporaries as a malefactress because she had committed adultery.
I believe Nathanial Hawthorne was a very intricate and possibly private person. His ideas of human nature and inner truths is clearly shown in The Scarlet Letter. I can just picture the wheels of his mind rolling, but unfortunately sometimes it is hard to really understand what his actual thoughts were. I would love to find out more about him, and I think it would have been cool to sit down and talk with him.
ReplyDeleteI think that the website you posted is a great source about Transcendentalism. Learning about Transcendentalism and Hawthorne before going into the novel was definatley a positive factor that lead me to understand where Hawthorne got all of his ideas from. He was very interesting to learn about because of his rationalism. I also think that it was very helpful to look at the light and dark imagery in the novel. This explores two opposites as they contrast and connect with nature, which Hawthorne exposed in several ways. Hawthorne brings out human nature in this novel and I find it very interesting.
ReplyDelete