A Critical Response to Hawthorne’s Puritans

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) was highly appreciated by drawing New England Puritans in his novel. In his work, the strict and intimidating Puritan community's stark image reflects the general attitude towards Puritans, but Professor Deborah L. Madsen claims her paper "Hawthorne's Puritan: Facts to Fiction" The overall depiction of Puritan brought about "the real distortion of Puritan theology's actual Puritans" (Madsen 1999, p 510).

Nathaniel Hawthorne is a famous writer in the 19th century. One reason why he is well known is his view on Puritanism. Hawthorn is often criticizing Puritanism in his short stories and novels. Two short stories showing Hawthorne's puritanism are "Young Goodman Brown" and "Minister Black Veil". In "Young Goodman Brown", Hawthorne demonstrated the hypocritical nature of Puritan, using the hypocritical nature of young neighbors and friends of Goodman Browns. - "Age of Enlightenment" is also called "era of reason", it is an era of social, religious and political revolution through the 18th century, which changed the minds of humanity in this "awakening" era . Liberty of ignorant thinking, thought, action These thinking, thinking, actions are separated from ignorant views on how to maintain and adhere society, providing a new thought space for the world There.

The Puritan doctrine theory is too strict, the principle of extremism is the reason why Hawthorn criticized in his story. Hawthorn criticized Puritanism in the "red letter" by praising the love and feeling of defeating authority and religious beliefs, but in "Young Goodman Brown" criticism of Hawthorne is criticized through doubt and collapse of faith It is expressed. This is thought to be based on the benefits of Puritanism. Next, we need to study how Hawthorn uses a romantic story to achieve his story.

Nathaniel Hawthorne is a prolific writer who weaves some of the most famous stories in American literature. Hawthorn's work tends to focus on the theme of sin by Puritan, but he usually criticizes Puritan's ideals. Among Hawthorn's works ("Young Goodman Brown", "The Minister's Black Veil", "Red Letter", etc.), there is a character life outside the Puritan community and it can be classified as an outsider's story I will. - Self-deception is described as a strong impulse and desire to maintain or defend the beliefs and concepts that are deemed true even though there is strong evidence that the opposite is true (Stanford Philosophical Encyclopedia). Self-deception is a way for us to keep our false beliefs. "There is a possibility that these rationalizations" even create themselves "(Skeptic's Dictionary; Perspectives, 117).