By MSM YAQOOB
One of the prominent literary figures of
American literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne was a novelist, short story writer.
His works generally deal with history, morals, and faith.
Hawthorne seems to have been recognized as a
member of the Transcendental Movement early in his career by scholarly circles.
A "half-transcendentalist," as he is known. Many aspects of transcendentalism
were integrated into Hawthorne's prose, including the belief in free will
rather than divine intervention. In 1842, he married Sophia Peabody, a fellow
transcendentalist. But he is remembered as anti-transcendentalist.
The historically touch shows that the claims, which began in Salem Village in 1692 and spread across Essex County, Massachusetts, became the worst and most dramatic episode of witch hunting in colonial America. Twenty citizens were executed in all, with nineteen being hanged. More than a hundred people had been imprisoned, and many had died as a result of their imprisonment.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was linked with the Salem witch trials, which is vividly clear in his novel The House of the Seven Gables. The Scarlet Letter where he is dealing with his inherited remorse over his ancestors' role in such a dark period in American history. Not much but the short discussion shows he was against this dark history.
