Hawthornes Brilliant Mind Essay -- Literary Analysis

Whenever reading a short story or novel, sometimes many questions pop into the mind wanting to know why the author writes in that particular fashion. In each circumstance, every author has a motivation that fuels them into their writing styles. For Nathaniel Hawthorne, influences came from every direction. Born from a puritan father, Hawthorne was always taught that god was the number one priority in his life. That he should always follow the rules and live without guilt or sin. When his father died at age 4, Hawthorne became increasingly interested in literature and was inspired by Spenser, Bunyan, and Shakespeare (Pennel 2). These authors had a significant influence on Hawthorne’s style as a writer (Pennel 2). For his Puritan heritage and his personal experiences influenced Hawthorne in his short story â€Å"Young Goodman Brown,† and his novels The Scarlett Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. One of the biggest influences of Hawthorne’s writing was his Puritan heritage. During the late 16th and 17th century, a group of people sought to â€Å"purify† the Church of England of remnants of The Roman Catholic â€Å"popery† left over from Queen Elizabeth’s I reign (Encyclopedia Britannica). The puritan people believed that one must be in convention with god in order to redeem one from one’s sinful condition. Later this reformation was an essential building block when founding colonies in America and establishing the Puritan way of life. Hawthorne’s great-great-grandfather father, John Hathorne was a Puritan and was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Bay colony in the 1630s (Pennel 2). So for Nathaniel Hawthorne, his Puritan heritage can be traced back to one most important people to have settled in America and establish his influence t... ...l about his interesting life. Works Cited Marks, Patricia. â€Å"Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition† Salem Press: p1-10. Literary Reference Center,. Web 8 May 2012 "Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)." Short Story Criticism. Ed. Sheila Fitzgerald. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale Research, 1989. 152-197. Literature Criticism Online. Gale. Glendale Community College. Web 8 May 2012 Pennell, Mellissa McFarland. Student Companion to Nathaniel Hawthorne. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1999. Print Pfister, Joel. The Production of Personal Life. Class, Gender, & the Psychological in Hawthorne’s Fiction. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991. Print "Puritanism". Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica. Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica Online. Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 08 May. 2012 Terence, Martin. Nathaniel Hawthorn. Revised Edition. Boston: Twayne Publishers. 1983. Print