Cynda BevisProfessor Owens

English 110215 July 2010

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Theme of Sin in his

Writing

Hawthorne was born in Salem Massachusetts in 1804 to a family that took part in the Salem Witch trials.

His writing interests come from his ancestral history and Puritan background.

He used many different writing techniques and themes but focused on the use of sin in his literature.

Background:

The Scarlet Letter- Sin and PunishmentThe Minister’s Black Veil- Secret SinThe Marble Faun- Guilty FactorYoung Goodman Brown- Initiation into SinThe Egotism- Omnipresence of SinRoger Malvin’s Burial- Concealed Sin

Themes of Sin:

Most common in Hawthorne’s work.

“The separation of the intellect from the heart”

Hawthorne's belief that Unpardonable Sin is committed when one breaks away from the "magnetic chain of humanity.”

This is found throughout many characters in Hawthorne’s short stories.

Unpardonable Sin

Hester Prynn

e

Arthur Dimmesdale

Roger Chillingworth

Pearl

The four most significant character’s in Hawthorne’s short story the Scarlet letter

Characters:

Has a child with the town Minister and is married to Roger Chillingworth.

Is punished for committing adultery, shunned before the town, and has to wear Scarlet Letter “A” on her chest forever.

Her appearance is not affected by sin but her mind is reminded by pearl and her soul feels shameful.

Hester Prynne

Town Minister who fathered Hester Prynne’s child.Suffers from sin most because he lives in secrecy.Preaches about the sin he committed but will not admit.Was tortured by the vindictive Chillingsworth and

carved an “A” on his chest to cope with his sin.Sin kills him because he suffered in his mind, body, and

soul.

Arthur Dimmesdale

Hester’s husband who was presumed dead but came in town to find his wife being shunned on a pedestal.

Never made it known that he was Hester’s husband so he could seek revenge.

Let vengeance and his sinful actions take over him and becomes marked as evil.

Roger Chillingworth

Represents sin.

Daughter of Hester and Dimmesdale.

Hester’s painful penance of her adultery but beautiful joy of her life.

Pearl

Short story that is written with the theme sin.Reverend Hooper decides to wear a black veil that

covers his face the rest of his mortal life.Town judges his evil look and believes he is

hiding behind secret sin which he preached about.Reader never knows if the minister is hiding

behind sin or teaching the town a valuable lesson.

Minister in the Black Veil

Decided to wear a black veil that covered his entire face and does not give reason behind his actions.

The town believes he is hiding and assumes he is evil and becomes scared of him.

Suffers with loneliness because the town judged him and did not face their secret sin, instead, focused on his.

Reverend Hooper

Young Goodman BrownFocuses on the initiation into sin.Shows that under a certain influence, there is sin

and evil in everyone.Uses symbolism to bring the devil into the

community through the environment and people.Purpose of this story was to show that everyone is

capable of sin, but not everyone accepts sin.

The Discovery of the omnipresence of sin. Hawthorne uses symbols to show that the disease

the man is diagnosed with is egotism, and he has a disease of the mind, in the body and sin.

Once a man is overcomes his serpent inside, and misery in sin, he is healed.

The Egotism

The tortures of concealed sin.He shows how sin left unredeemed can torment a

person to the brink of insanity.The sin committed was not leaving a man to die on his

wishes, but not honoring his death in the woods.Because of the guilt and sin kept inside, he suffers a life

time and tragedy by killing his son.

Roger Malvin’s Burial

Beneficial results of sin.Compared to Adam and Eve and the sins in each

character like The Scarlet Letter.Love story that focuses on purity, hidden evil, and

darkened circumstances.

The Marble Faun

Much of his work focused on the theme of sin and was based in the Puritan time period.

Sin was the central focus of many stories, traits of many characters, and hidden twist behind endings.

Summary of Sin

Works CitedFairbanks, Henry G. “Sin, Free Will, and ‘Pessimism’ in Hawthorne.” Modern Language

Association. PMLA, Vol. 71, No. 5 (2010): 975-989. 10 July 2010. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Scarlet Letter." Anthology of American Literature. New York:

Prentice Hall, 2003. 1028-1148. 16 June 2010.Marks, Barry A. “The Origin of Original Sin in Hawthorne’s Fiction.” University of California Press. Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 14, No. 4 (2010):359-362. 11 July 2010.McCullen, Joseph T., John C Guilds. “The Unpardonable Sin in Hawthorne: A Re –

Examination.” University of California Press. Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 15, No. 3 (2010):221-237. 11 July 2010.

Miller, James E., Jr. “Hawthorne and Melville: The Unpardonable Sin.” Modern Language Association. PMLA, Vol. 70, No. 1 (2010):91-114. 11 July 2010.

Reuben, Paul. Perspectives in American Literature- Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864). Web. 10 July 2010.

Smith, Nicole. Article Myriad. “The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. 2010. Web. 7 July 2010.

---. Article Myriad. "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Effects of Sin on the Mind, Body, and Soul. 2010. Web. 16 June 2010.

Williams, Roger. “The Bloody Tenet of Persecution for the Cause of Conscience” 1643. Web 17 June 2010.