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Puritan Influences On Nathaniel Hawthorne's Writing

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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing was influenced through his upbringing in a Puritan town. Puritans are a group of believers that separated fro the church of England because they wanted to purify the church. (19) Puritanism comes from the church of England. (1)They go by the name Puritans. (1) Puritans are non-separating congregationalists with the Church of England. (1) They separated from the Church of England to “purify” the Church because they believed the church was corrupt. (2) There are three types of Puritanism, Quakers, Antinomians, and Baptists. (1) Baptists carry out the “essential idea of Puritanism”. (1)They believe that each individual has an indestructible God.(1) The Puritans have a certain set of beliefs that they follow strictly. …show more content…
(10) Salem was a very strict Puritanism city since the beginning. (10) His family was also strict puritians. (18) Nathaniel Hawthorne graduated from Bowdoin college in1825. (10) He would always spend his time in his local library. He was interested in reading and learning more about his puritan past. (10)He wrote his first novel was Fanshawe written in 1828. Fanshawe did not get very much attention. (10) He married Sophia Peabody in 1842. (10) He died while on a trip with the 14th president of the United States, Franklin Pierce. …show more content…
(18) He was inspired from the letter he found and wrote his book The Scarlet Letter. “At some future day, it may be, I shall remember a few scattered fragments and broken paragraphs, and write them down, and find the letters turn to gold upon the page.” (Hawthorne 38). “But the object that most drew my attention in the mysterious package was a certain affair of fine red cloth, much worn and faded. There were traces about it of gold embroidery, which, however, was greatly frayed and defaced…the shape of a letter. It was the capital letter “a”…My eyes fastened themselves upon the old scarlet letter, and would not be turned aside. Certainly, there was some deep meaning in it…” (Hawthorne 31). Hawthorne felt a connection to this scarlet letter, he had to know more about it. “I happened to place it on my breast…it seemed to me then that I experienced a sensation not altogether physical, yet almost so, as of burning heat; and as if the letter were not of red cloth, but red-hot iron…” (Hawthorne 32).The book is about a woman who is shamed because she was an adulterer. The woman had to wear this Scarlett letter and be shamed in front the whole town. The Puritans in the Scarlet Letter believe in Leviticus 20:10, “ If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife— with the wife of his neighbor—both and the adulteress are to be put to death. The main

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