The man Nathaniel Hawthorne, an author of the nineteenth century, was born in 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts. It was there that he lived a poverty-stricken childhood without the financial support of a father, because he had passed away in 1808. Hawthorne was raised strictly Puritan, his great-grandfather had even been one of the judges in the Puritan witchcraft trials during the 1600s. This and Hawthornes destitute upbringing advanced his understanding of human nature and distress felt by social, religious, and economic inequities. Hawthorne was a private individual who fancied solitude with family friends. He was also very devoted to his craft of writing. Hawthorne observed the decay of Puritanism with opposition; believing that is was a mans responsibility to pursue the highest truth and possessed a strong moral sense. These aspects of Hawthornes philosophy are what drove him to write about and even become a part of an experiment in social reform, in a utopian colony at Brook Farm. He believed that the Puritans obsession with original sin and their ironhandedness undermined instead of reinforced virtue. As a technician, Hawthornes style in literature was abundantly allegorical, using the characters and plot to acquire a connection and to show a moral lesson. His definition of romanticism was writing to show truths, which need not relate to history or reality. Human frailty and sorrow were the romantic topics, which Hawthorne focused on most, using them to finesse his characters and setting to exalt good and illustrate the horrors of immorality. Nathaniel Hawthornes experiences as a man, incite as a philosopher and skill as a technician can be seen when reading The Scarlet Letter.The man, Nathaniel Hawthornes religious background, seclusion from society, and devotion to his craft can be related to his novel The Scarlet Letter. His religious upbringing as a Puritan is what gave him the knowledge to write about Bostons Purita...
