This paper is concerned with Nathaniel Hawthorne and three of his most noteworthy works: The Scarlet Letter, "The Minister's Black Veil," and "Young Goodman Brown."
Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4, 1804 of an old New England family. After his father's death, Hawthorne was educated by his mother's brothers. In 1825, Hawthorn graduated from Bowdoin College. Among his classmates, Hawthorne made three lifelong friends: Longfellow, the poet; Franklin Pierce, later President of the United States; and Horatio Bridge, who first appreciated Hawthorne's literary genius. It was mainly through Bridge's influence that Hawthorne was made weigher and guager at the Salem Custom House (1839-1841), and surveyor at the Salem Custom House (1846-1850). Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody of Salem and Boston on July 9, 1842. They had three children: Una, Julian, and Rose. Later, President Pierce appointed Hawthorne to the consulship of Liverpool (1853-1857). Hawthorne lived in Italy for two years (1857-1859). While traveling for his health, attended by Pierce, Hawthorne died at Plymouth, New Hampshire on May 18, 1864 (Trent 19).
Although Hawthorne grew up in the center of Transcendentalism, his writings do not show the optimism of that philosophy. In many of Hawthorne's stories, the Gothic is an important element. The characters have a dark side to them. No matter who the person may be--from clergyman to seemingly innocent children--there is a negative side within every human soul. As A. N. Kaul points out: "The sense of sin itself is another thing again. Unlike "Gothic" mystery, it is undoubtedly central to Hawthorne's world, although not in the way supposed by a persistent line of his critics who have tended to regard him, as a sort of Calvinistic Dante. Hawthorne is not a Dante, if only because his are not the orthodox or traditional categories of sin; those who think otherwise simply confuse him with some of...