Assignment Writing
Topic :
American Literature
Name : Ravina Parmar
Batch year : (2019-2021)
Roll no. 17
Enrollment no : 2069108420200031
Submitted to : Smt. S. B. Gardi English Department Bhavnagar
Abstract :----
Nature is the most important part of the novel. In Literature we can see that nature is always there. Sometimes we can say that nature came as a negative term or as a positive thing. That depends on the author. Here we can say that the study of nature is a very important one. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Nature for different purposes. So the present research is about how Nathaniel Hawthorne used Nature in his novel The Scarlet Letter.
Key words :--
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet letter, Nature, Puritan society,..
Introduction :---
Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804, Nathaniel Hawthorne was the only son of Captain Nathaniel Hawthorne and Elizabeth Clarke Manning Hathorne. (Hawthorne added the "w" to his name after he graduated from college.) By the autumn of 1863, Hawthorne was a sick man. In May, 1864, he traveled to New Hampshire with his old classmate Pierce in search of improved health. During this trip, he died in his sleep on May 19, 1864, in Plymouth, New Hampshire. He was buried in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery at Concord.
The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is a work of historical fiction by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in 1850. This novel is set in Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649. The novel is about Hester Prynne.
The Scarlet Letter was one of the first mass-produced books in America. It was popular when first published. ( Philip McFarland) It is considered a classic work today. It inspired numerous film, television, and stage adaptations. Critics have described it as a masterwork and novelist D. H. Lawrence called it a "perfect work of the American imagination". ( Edwin Miller)
Research Objectives :---
So the following objectives are behind my research.
To examine how Nathaniel Hawthorne used Nature in this novel The Scarlet letter.
Is nature symbolizing something, then what ?
To define how Hawthorne used nature to convey the mood of a scene or particular character of the novel.
To define how nature helps the readers gain a deep understanding of the plight and inner emotions of the characters in the novel.
How nature is incorporated into the story line.
So let's discuss how Nathaniel Hawthorne used " Nature" in his novel.
How does Hawthorn use nature in The Scarlet Letter :--
In the Scarlet letter Nature plays a vital role. Nature is also one of the most important symbols.
In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses a wide range of symbols, such as: aspects of nature, for example the forest, sunshine and water; things, like the scarlet letter itself and places like the scaffold.
One of the most important situations or parts of the book, when Hester Prynne speaks to the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale about their predicament, takes place in the forest. When reading the novel, it becomes increasingly apparent that there is a contrast between the forest and the town, as settings.
The article "Character," "Nature," and Allegory in The Scarlet Letter by Seymour Katz in which we finds that the interesting study of the Nutue in the Scarlet Letter. In which he mentioned that Hawthorne uses nature in reference to the person of The Scarlet Letter, thirty three times in three types of distinguishable extension. On twenty four occasions the word nature refers to the nature of the particular person in the novel.
In the novel we come to know that the forest symbolizes a dark and mysterious place where impulses and urges reign and also where the goings-on are to be kept a secret.
The forest is described as dismal, gloomy and full of shadows with an imposing, cloudy sky that is filled with threatening storms (p. 181).
When Dimmesdale and Hester first see each other, Hawthorne describes them as being
"in the world beyond the grave, of two spirits who had intimately connected in their former life, but now stood coldly shuddering, in mutual dead" (p. 181).
Also in the forest, Hester undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter, and, taking it from her bosom, threw it to a distance among the withered leaves....[and] took off the formal cap that confined her hair (p. 192).
We know that during the Puritan times, a woman letting her hair down would never happen in town--it would be blasphemous, only in the woods would it happen.
At the holiday, Pearl asks about Dimmesdale, Hester hushes her because those are only things that happen in the forest and they are not to be spoken about in the town (p. 215).
Also, Hawthorne uses the sunshine to signify warmth, love and acceptance. The sunlight gives the reader a feeling of exposure and scrutiny. This feeling is later revealed to the reader by Hawthorne,
Her prison-door was thrown open, and she came forth into the sunshine, which, falling on all alike, seemed, to her sick and morbid heart, as if meant for no other purpose than to reveal the scarlet letter on her breast (the Scarlet letter, p.71).
In The Scarlet Letter, nature stands in contrast to Puritanism. Where Puritanism is merciless and rigid, nature is forgiving and flexible. This contrast is made clear from the very first page, when the narrator contrasts the "black flower" of the prison that punishes sin with the red rose bush that he imagines forgives those sentenced to die.
The theme of nature continues with the forest outside Boston, which is described as an "unchristianized, lawless region." In the dark forest, wild, passionate, and persecuted people like Hester, Pearl and Mistress Hibbins, can escape from the strict, repressive morality of Puritan society.
The forest, which provides a measure of comfort and protection that exists nowhere in society, is also the only place where Hester can reunite with Dimmesdale. When Hester moves to the outskirts of Boston, the narrator says she would have fit in better in the forest. Hester's choice to live on the border of society and nature represents her internal conflict: she can't thrive entirely within the constraints of Puritanism, but because of her attachment to society and to Dimmesdale, she also can't be free.
Pearl throws one of the burrs she is carrying toward Dimmesdale. She tells Hester that they should leave since the Black Man has possessed Dimmesdale and will get them too.
So here we can say how Hawthorne uses the burrs. So here we come to know the mental state of Pearl. She had thrown the bird because maybe she had identified Dimmesdale as a sinner, Pearl threw him an extension of the scarlet letter. But is his sin adultery or silence?
At one point in the novel we come to know that Mr. Wilson asks Pearl who made her. Pearl says that she was plucked from the rose bush just outside the prison door. Wilson wants Pearl to answer God, but instead she answers Nature. So here we can see the importance of nature in this novel.
The forest is also a symbolic place where witches gather, souls are signed away to the devil, and Dimmesdale can "yield himself with deliberate choice . . . to what he knew was deadly sin." In these instances, the forest is a symbol of the world of darkness and evil. Mistress Hibbins knows on sight those who would wander "in the forest" or, in other words, secretly do Satan's work. When Dimmesdale leaves the forest with his escape plan in mind, he is tempted to sin on numerous occasions during his journey back to the village. The forest, then, is a symbol of man's temptation.
Forest is also a place of freedom. Here the sun shines on Pearl, and she absorbs and keeps it. The forest represents a natural world, governed by natural laws, as opposed to the artificial, Puritan community with its man-made laws. In this world, Hester can take off her cap, let down her hair, and discuss plans with Dimmesdale to be together away from the rigid laws of the Puritans.
As part of this forest, the brook provides "a boundary between two worlds. " So here we can see that the binaries between Forest and the town. So here we come to know how forest is portrayed by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Conclusion :----
As part of this forest, the brook provides "a boundary between two worlds. " So here we can see that the binaries between Forest and the town. So here we come to know how forest is portrayed by Nathaniel Hawthorne. So in this no e nature provides us a gist of the character's thoughts and his or her mental condition. Here we can say that the clear difference between whatever happens in town and the forest. That means Nature doesn't have any rules or regulations. So we can conclude that Hawthorne used nature to convey the mood of a scene or particular character of the novel.
Work cited : --
Brown, Bryan D. "Reexamining Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter.http://www.usinternet.com/users/bdbournellonie.htm.March 1, 2002.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel (1850). The Scarlet Letter: A Romance story (2 ed.). Boston: Ticknor, Reed and Fields. Retrieved July 22, 2017 – via Internet Archive.
Katz, Seymour. “‘Character," ‘Nature," and Allegory in The Scarlet Letter.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction, vol. 23, no. 1, 1968, pp. 3–17. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/293231 Accessed 4 Dec. 2020.
McFarland, Philip. Hawthorne in Concord. New York: Grove Press, 2004: 136. ISBN 0-8021-1776-7.
Miller, Edwin Haviland. Salem is my Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1991: 284. ISBN 0-87745-332-2.
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