his characters. There is almost always in Hawthorne a radical difference between the sin that is actually committed and the sin that the characters believe they have committed. Hawthorne's irony, in fact, often turns precisely on this incongruity between the realities of living and the orthodoxies of belief" (2).
The Transcendentalists saw human beings in a very positive light. Ralph Waldo Emerson is a good example of this. Hawthorne is considerably different from Emerson in his philosophical approach. Many of Hawthorne's stories reflect his Puritan background. The Hathornes (as the name was once spelled) took part in the Salem witch trials in the 17th Century, and later in the Quaker persecutions.
Guilt is a strong theme in Hawthorne's work. This reflects the Puritan/Calvinistic influence. Thus, Hawthorne's symbolic language is often concerned with the belief that the judgment of mankind is predestined by God. Some people are predestined for damnation; others are predestined to be saved. We have no way of knowing who is to be saved--only God knows. Original Sin has affecte
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