Assignment : How does Hawthorn use Nature in The Scarlet Letter

 Assignment Writing

               Topic :

How does Hawthorn use nature in The Scarlet Letter

                              American Literature

                          

• Name :  Ravina Parmar

• Batch year : (2019-2021)

• Email:ravinaparmar827@gmail.com

Roll no. 17

• Enrollment no : 2069108420200031

•  Submitted to : Smt. S. B. Gardi English Department Bhavnagar

Table of contents

Abstract…..  Key words..  Introduction…  Research Objective : How does Hawthorn use nature in The Scarlet Letter :--  Conclusion :  Work cited  :

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.

Assignment : Tiresias and his significance in the poem The Waste Land

         Assignment Writing

               Topic :

Tiresias 's significance in the poem The Waste Land

                        Modernist literature

                          

• Name :  Ravina Parmar

• Batch year : (2019-2021)

• Email:ravinaparmar827@gmail.com

Roll no. 17

• Enrollment no : 2069108420200031

•  Submitted to : Smt. S. B. Gardi English Department Bhavnagar

Table of contents

Abstract…..  Key words..  Introduction…  Research Objective :  The significance of Tiresias in the poem The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot : Tiresias in Greek mythology Tiresias in the poem The Waste Land  Conclusion :  Work cited  :

✍️ Abstract :

           In the poem The Waste Land Eliot used a lot of characters, myths, and various aspects from various religions. So defining the significance of one thing is very difficult. Because the poem is like a collection of various images. It is not about one thing or not about  a single subject. And also the poem waste land doesn't have a single meaning but it is more for various interpretations. The poem is an amalgam of Western, Hinduism and Buddhist concepts and allusions but integrates elements from many more cultures. There are sudden changes of time, location, speaker, and even language (with fragments of German, French, Sanskrit, etc.). The poem is interesting to explore as an art piece of modernist experimentation. So this assignment is to define the role and the significance of the Tiresias. Here we find the important role of Tiresias.  This assignment is trying to justify Tiresias position in this Poem. Here Tiresias is not a mere spectator but a disconnection that assigns him almost omniscient authority rising above the other voices with a tone of certainty and providing a balance to the dislocated atmosphere.

✍️ Key words :

The waste land, modern poem, T. S. Eliot, Tiresias 

✍️  Introduction :

          The poem 'The Waste Land' is written by Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 1888 – 4 January 1965) was an American-born British poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, literary critic and editor. ( Ronald Bush)

He has won the Nobel prize for literature in the year of 1948. With the publication in 1922 of his poem The Waste Land, Eliot won an international reputation. The Waste Land expresses with great power the disenchantment, disillusionment, and disgust of the period after World War I. The poem’s original manuscript of about 800 lines was cut down to 433 at the suggestion of Ezra Pound. The Waste Land is not Eliot’s greatest poem, though it is his most famous. Nevertheless, Eliot was unequaled by any other 20th-century poet in the ways in which he commanded the attention of his audience.

Notable works : 

✍️ "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915)

✍️ The Waste Land (1922)

✍️ Four Quartets (1943)

✍️ Murder in the Cathedral (1935)

       The Waste Land poem is widely regarded as one of the most important poems of the 20th century and a central work of modernist poetry. ( Valentine Low ) In this poem we can find that the hundreds of allusions and quotations from other texts that Eliot peppered throughout the poem. In addition to the many "highbrow" references and quotes from poets like Baudelaire, Shakespeare, Ovid, and Homer, as well as Wagner's libretti, Eliot also included several references to "lowbrow" genres.

     The poem is divided into five sections. The first,

 "The Burial of the Dead",

"A Game of Chess",

" The  Fire Sermon",

" Death by Water" and 

 " What the Thunder Said".

✍️ Research Objective :

The research objectives of this study are as follow:

To define the position of Tiresias in this poem.

Which are the references of Tiresias I'm this poem.

What was the role of Tiresias in the poem The Waste Land.

To define Tiresias as the heart of the poem.

Tiresias as a metaphorical voice of  Eliot.

✍️ The significance of Tiresias in the poem The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot :

  👉  Tiresias in Greek mythology :--

         In Greek mythology Tiresias was the blind , immortal, telling about the future. He was Theban seer, the son of one of Athena’s favourites, the nymph Chariclo. He is a participant in several well-known legends. Among the ancient authors who mention him are Sophocles, Euripides, Pindar, and Ovid.

In Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, Oedipus, the king of Thebes, calls upon Tiresias to aid in the investigation of the killing of the previous king Laius.

Eighteen allusions to mythic Tiresias, noted by Luc Brisson, fall into three groups: the first recounts Tiresias' sex-change episode and later his encounter with Zeus and Hera; the second group recounts his blinding by Athena; the third, all but lost, seems to have recounted the misadventures of Tiresias.

Hera was displeased, and she punished Tiresias by transforming him into a woman. As a woman, Tiresias became a priestess of Hera.  After seven years as a woman, Tiresias again found mating snakes; depending on the myth, either she made sure to leave the snakes alone this time. As a result, Tiresias was released from his sentence and permitted to regain his masculinity.

 Tiresias have vast experiences of life, as he was cursed

He was famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. Tiresias participated fully in seven generations in Thebes, beginning as advisor to Cadmus himself.

       The figure of Tiresias recurs in later European literature, both as prophet and as man-woman, in many works. And in the myth we find that Tiresias died after drinking water from the tainted spring Tilphussa, where he was impaled by an arrow of Apollo.

👉️  Tiresias in the poem The Waste Land :--

        In the poem The waste land we can see that the many references of the Tiresias. At some point we can see that T. S. Eliot using ' I '  is for whom that is not clear. So at some point we can say that this ' I ' is for Tiresias. In the opening of the poem we can say that Tiresias   presents as a human being.

April is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain. 

( The Waste Land)

              Thus Tiresias seems to become the transitional gure that permits Eliot to regure the ‘heap of broken images’ of ‘ The Burial of the Dead’ in his mind, even if by ‘What the Thunder said’ he has only managed to ‘shore against his ruin’; it still appears that Tiresias has allowed for progression, in the speaker’s resolve to seemingly reclaim these disjointed ideas, images and emotions which litter the text.

          But the exact references we find in chapter three : The Fire Sermon .  Yet Eliot's placement of Tiresias at almost  the exact halfway point is revealing of his value. Here we can see that the poem structurally, Tiresias appears to be a transitional and bridging gure, perhaps representative of a turning point in thought for Eliot and, as in a ve-act tragedy, and his brief appearance could thus highlight Tiresias as a pivotal character. 

By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept . . . Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song,

Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.

( The Waste Land)

Tiresias laments the contemporary degeneration of love into lust. Here Tiresias presents his vast  experience of life and it's various aspects.

Musing upon the king(Fisher) my brother's wreck

And on the king my father's death before him. ( The Waste Land)

    This line  shows us a relationship with king Fisher. Tiresias has suffered all, he is of the past and also of present. As the brother of King Fisher he mourned his sickness and impotency. Again we can see that the Tiresias come in between the poems.

       Further in the fire sermon we have lines like Unreal City Under the brown fog of a winter noon..

           Here we can say that Tiresias now muses on various kind of sex abnormalities like homosexuality. There is we find the street hotel that is the place known for homosexuality in the post was London. Here T. S. Eliot first mentioned Tiresias by name during a single section of "The Fire Sermon," but he alludes to him obliquely throughout the poem. In his own notes, Eliot says that Tiresias is an important unifying figure in The Waste Land, and it is clear that this role is closely connected with Tiresias's union of male and female in his own person. He introduces himself in just these terms:

I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives,          (The Waste Land)     

 Here Tiresias describes an early evening scene in a city. Although blind, Tiresias is a seer, so he can see all human activity, like a god. Eliot’s notes reveal that what Tiresias sees creates the poem’s contents. Here Tiresias observes a typist after she comes home from work. Like the woman in “A Game of Chess,” the typist prepares for a visitor. 

 " And I Tiresias have foresuffered all Enacted on this same divan or bed; I who have sat by Thebes below the wall And walked among the lowest of the dead. "( The Waste Land)

Tiresias observes a rather pathetic sexual encounter between a typist and a clerk and reminds us that he once foretold this encounter. As a hermaphrodite, Tiresias identifies with both parties. Here Tiresias’ recognition of its ironic unsuitability for the incident described, rendered more poignant by the emphatic ellipses. In this way, Tiresias’ significance is highlighted by his judgmental position in the poem. 

" O City city, I can sometimes hear Beside a public bar in Lower Thames Street, The pleasant whining of a mandoline And a clatter and a chatter from within Where fishmen lounge at noon: where the walls Of Magnus Martyr hold Inexplicable splendour of Ionian white and gold. " ( The waste land)

Here we can see that Tiresias roams modern London and hears timeless sounds, including music from an ancient instrument and the chatter of fishermen. Magnus Martyr, a church in London, evokes Tiresias’s memory of the Ionian era of ancient Greek history, which took place centuries before Homer wrote about such events in The Odyssey. Tiresias transcends time. He can foresee the future, but he lives in the present as well as the past.

 " Who is the third who always walks beside you? When I count, there are only you and I togetherBut when I look ahead up the white road There is always another one walking beside you Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle …'"

( The Waste Land)

  The “brown mantle, hooded” suggests a ghostly monk. However, readers may note that the mystery man is also Tiresias, who might be either a man or a woman. It can be or it can't. Because that depends on your reading and interpretation. Your reading must be different but that is my way of looking.

 

✍️ Conclusion 

                   Thus,  Tiresias seems to represent the internalised understanding of the speaker, which Eliot is fundamentally attempting to seek out. Each man, arguably, is his own prophet, and seemingly ‘the waste land’ is a state of mind, the essence of which is conveyed to the reader by the destabilising and disorientating mixture of allusions, images and voices. It is through the prophetic omniscience of Tiresias that this is communicated; thus he is the gure at the heart of the poem, at once bridging the gap between male and female characters, as well as connecting the present state of ‘the waste land’ to the future, foreseeable resolution and recovery. Whether he is viewed as the mythological prophet, the metaphorical voice of Eliot, or the embodiment of every character in the poem, it is evident that the text would seem disunited, and purposeless, without his presence.

✍️  Work cited :

• Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

• Eliot, T S, and Frank Kermode. The Waste Land and Other Poems. New York, N.Y., U.S.A: Penguin Books, 1998.

• Low, Valentine (9 October 2009). "Out of the waste land: TS Eliot becomes nation's favourite poet". Timesonline. Retrieved 6 June 2011.

• Luc Brisson, 1976. Le mythe de Tirésias: essai d'analyse structurale (Leiden: Brill).

• The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. Tiresias. 6 Feb. 2020, www.britannica.com/topic/Tiresias.