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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 4 page paper explores Hawthorne's use of puritan characters in several of his stories, and argues that they are unpleasant and baleful, even though they believe themselves to be following God's law. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVHawthr.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
he sets them in Puritan New England. Narrow-minded, repressed, fearful and bigoted, the Puritans embodied some of the worst qualities in human nature. Although they thought of themselves as righteous
and God-fearing, their intractability makes them seem evil, while the people who are more free-spirited, even to expressing their sexual natures, seem much more pleasant. This paper explores Hawthornes use
of puritan characters in several of his stories, and argues that they are unpleasant and baleful, even though they believe themselves to be following Gods law. The Scarlet Letter As
the book opens, "we wait with the crowd for Hester to emerge from the prison. We overhear snatches of conversation among the women of the crowd, who express little sympathy
for Hester and even wish for a harsher sentence. The narrator interrupts these bitter sentiments, which match the prisons gloomy front, and contrasts them with a wild rosebush that blooms
by the prison door" (James). The crowd of hostile Puritan women, most of them looking older than their years and somberly dressed, stands in opposition to Hester-young and beautiful, not
yet embittered by her life in this harsh new world. The narrator describes the story as a "tale of human frailty and sorrow" and hopes the rose bush will serve
as a "sweet moral blossom" for the reader (James). Hawthorne thus identifies the story at the outset as a parable that is designed to teach a lesson (James). The
lesson Hawthorne is going to teach is that the Puritans attempt at establishing a society is bound to fail; Hawthornes narrator writes that despite the fact that they had hoped
to create a Utopia, both a prison and cemetery were necessary (James). Hawthorne "aims his irony not at the fact that the need for a prison arose, but at the
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