MathanielHawthorne.pptVIP

Biographical Introduction Born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. College 1821 - 1825 Attended Bowdoin College in 1821; Friends: - future poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Franklin Pierce who became the 14th President of The United States. For a time in the 1830s, Hawthorne edited a magazine in Boston, and he was hired in 1839 as a weigher and gauger at the Boston Custom House. In 1841 he married Sophia Peabody, of a prominent Salem family. For some three years Hawthorne and Sophia lived in the house called the Old Manse, in Concord. In 1852, he wrote the campaign biography of his old friend Franklin Pierce. With Pierce’s election as President, Hawthorne was rewarded in 1853 with the position of United States consul in Liverpool. In 1857, his appointment ended; He died in 1864, a few years after returning to America. Works Twice-Told Tales 1837 Mosses from an Old Manse 1846 The Snow-Image, and Other Twice-Told Tales 1852 His four major romances or novels written between 1850 and 1860 The Scarlet Letter《红字》 (1850) The House of the Seven Gables 《七个尖角阁的房子》 (1851) The Blithedale Romance 《福谷传奇》 (1852) The Marble Faun 《玉石雕像》(1860) Much of Hawthorne’s work is set in colonial New England, and many of his short stories have been read as moral allegories influenced by his Puritan background. The Birth-Mark 《胎记》(1843) Rappaccini’s Daughter 《拉帕奇尼的女儿》(1844) My Kinsman, Major Molineux 《我的亲戚莫里诺少校》(1832) The Minister’s Black Veil 《教长的黑面纱》(1836) Young Goodman Brown《好小伙子布朗》 (1835) Major Themes of His Works Sin and Evil History and Antiquity Alienation - a character is in a state of isolation because of self-cause, or societal cause, or a combination of both. Puritan New England - used as a background and setting in many tales. Other themes include individual vs. society, self-fulfillment vs. frustration, hypocrisy vs. integrity, love vs. hate, and fate vs. free will, etc. The Scarlet Letter Plot Summa