西北师范大学美国文学通史课件 Chapter 5 Colonial Period.pptVIP

Chapter Five: Two Giants in Novel-writing Hawthorne and Melville Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864) I. Literary Status Greatest Romance-writer Pioneering psychological novelist Moral novelist II. Life 1804, July 4, in Salem, Massachusetts, a Puritan family Ancestors’ role in the Salem Witchcraft Trial in 1692 Bowdoin College – read widely – writing tales and novels Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864) III. Major Works Short story collection: Twice-Told Tales (1837) Moses from an Old Manse (1846) Romances: The Scarlet Letter (1850) The House of the Seven Gables (1851) The Blithedale Romance (1852) The Marble Faun (1860) Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864) IV. Hawthorne’s Black Vision of Life All his life, Hawthorne seems to be haunted by his sense of sin and evil in life. Most of his works deal with evil one way or another. A. Evil exists in the human heart (“Earthy Holocaust”) B. Everyone possesses some evil secret (“Young Goodman Brown”) C. Everyone seems to cover up his innermost evil (“The Minister’s Black Veil”) D. Evil seems to be man’s birthmark. E. Evil comes out of evil though it may take many generations F. One source of evil is overweening intellect. (The tension between the head and the heart) Hawthorne’s intellectual characters are usually villains, dreadful because devoid of fellow feelings. (Hollingsworth, Chillingworth, Dr. Rappaccini – Hawthorne’s negative attitude toward science is reflected in his writings and characterizations). Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864) V. Hawthorne and his romance Romance is in Hawthorne’s mind the predestined form of American narrative. VI. The analysis of his masterpiece – The Scarlet Letter 1. Story and Plot: an aging English scholar Chillingworth – his young beautiful wife Hester Prynne – young and promising priest Arthur Dimmesdale – Pearl 2. Theme: A. Romantic or Puritan? A story of love or sin? a moral or immoral story? B. the adaptation of American Romanticism to American Puritan moralism – the load of didacticism – t