Puritans: A Brief Overview

Ian Coyne

Coyneandbill

The Scarlett Reader

This post focuses on the historical background of Puritanism

Puritans: A Brief Overview

History is fickle when it comes to grabbing my interest. For example, if I find a book on the reasons behind the French Revolution, I’d probably find it interesting and start tearing into it. On the other hand, if you were to toss me a book about ,say, the financial history of Finland, I’d throw it right back in your stupid face because that book is about as boring as a counting grains of sand. Sure, some sick, sick people can find Finnish financial records interesting, but I am not one of those people. I love reading about the why’s that influence history, not just a droll of facts listing events in chronological order. That’s why I, unlike certain other people roped into this assignment, enjoyed looking at what events and occurrences in the world during the 15^th century that influenced Puritanism, a central ideology present in The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. So let’s take a look at history of the Puritans before we delve into The Scarlett Letter.

Before one can understand Puritanism, one must understand the Church of England. The Church of England was formed in Britain in the 16^th century by King Henry VIII and served as the home base for a new sect of Christians, the Anglicans (“Church of England, English national church”). The Church was formed from a schism with the Rome-based Catholic Church which forbade Henry’s marriage to a new wife, the previous having been beheaded by Henry. So Henry, being the maverick that he is, pushed new laws through parliament that allowed his new church that he founded, called the Church of England, to be outside the jurisdiction of the Catholic Church, thus allowing him to marry and use the Church and its power however he saw fit. So how does this relate at all to Puritans? The answer: It relates immensely.

The new Church of England went through tumultuous in-fighting among itself and other Christian sects in England, Puritanism being one of these sects. This fighting led to lots of political deadlock, civil unrest, a few lopped off heads, and lots of dissatisfied sects that were routinely discriminated against (“Puritanism”). Cries by Puritans for reform in the Church fell on deaf ears, and Puritans were routinely mocked for their strict lifestyle that made the much-despised Roman Catholics look like rowdy teenagers. Eventually, all the abuses the Puritans suffered at the hands of the empowered Anglicans led Puritans to seek sanctuary in the newly-opened Americas. After some work, the Puritans wishing to leave England created the Massachusetts Bay Company and landed a charter granted by King Charles I that allowed them to found new settlements in Massachusetts (“Massachusetts Bay Colony”). With their promised land secured, many Puritans hopped aboard luxurious boats packed wall-to-wall with supplies, dirty sailors, and swaths of unwashed farm animals to establish a new beginning free of oppression in the New World.

Once arriving in Massachusetts Bay, the Puritans quickly got to work on setting up their slice of Puritan pie on foreign soil. Under the leadership and beard of governor John Winthrope, Puritan settlers worked hard to ensure that they survived and thrived in the cruel, untapped Massachusetts wilderness. Though the first winter was difficult for the settlers, the Puritans pulled through mostly due to their community-focused religion that stressed sharing and helping others. This is much in contrast to the previous English settlements, such as Jamestown, which failed spectacularly because their greedy settlers were more focused on finding gold than tending crops. But when winter came around, the settlers died in droves regretting their decision to go screw around in the woods with their buddies searching for nonexistent gold. But enough about those guys, back to the Puritans.

So after years of hard work and sacrifice, the Puritan settlements in Massachusetts began to prosper under relative peace, homogony, and commerce. On top of their physical success, the Puritans also succeeded in planting the democratic system in America through its intercolony politics and the political involvement of common citizens in community decisions.

And there you have it, a nice historical backdrop to accompany The Scarlett Letter. Now when you read it in class, you can impress your teacher and friends with your cursory knowledge of the history of Puritanism!

WORKS CITED

“Massachusetts Bay Colony | American History.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.

“Puritanism | Religion.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.

“Church of England | English National Church.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.

Nathanial Ha(w)thorne

Paulina Smolinski

This post focuses on the author of The Scarlet Letter.

Sometimes the past that so desperately haunts us can also lead us to eternal fascination.  Often the ideas of the past that loom inadvertently in our minds make a more profound impact than we imagined. Such is the case of the author Nathanial Hawthorne. The past that he tried to stifle eventually arose again and became the main inspiration for his greatest works. This not so hidden secret that he kept stemmed to his ancestors as his family descended from the earliest settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Hawthorne).  Among those early Puritan relatives was John Hathorne, one of the judges at the notorious 1692 Salem witch trials. Nathanial Hawthorne was a descendent of the man responsible for the death of many innocent people and two dogs (“Nathaniel Hawthorne – Biography.”). This is not a past that anyone would want to expose in a family-tree-portrait-in-the-living-room fashion. Hawthorne was no different as he changed his name from Hathorne to Hawthorne with a w in order to eliminate association with his ancestor’s infamous past (“Nathaniel Hawthorne – Biography.” n.pg.). In the end, it was the Puritan culture that initially Hawthorne so intently pressed down which became the topic of his most successful novels such as The Scarlet Letter as well as other stories such as “Young Goodman Brown” (“Nathaniel Hawthorne – Biography.”).  Hawthorne criticizes and highlights all the elements of the culture that made it so characteristic and strange. The idea for the novel is described with the introduction “The Custom House” as Hawthorne describes a narrator who is eerily similar to himself (Hawthorne 3). The narrator finds himself in a sea of Puritan mystery as he finds the scarlet letter that a women had to wear during the Puritan Era along with her story. In the same fashion, Hawthorne’s course of life events from his birth in Salem to fascination with the obscure culture lead him to the creation of The Scarlet Letter in my opinion.  Overall, I believe that he could not escape the past that haunted and fascinated him considering that eventually it became the central topic of his works.

I find it intriguing that Hawthorne chose to write about Puritan culture; considering the fact that he could write about any topic and he chose to write about the one element of his life that he has been trying to desperately hide. Honestly, there are certain things in everyone’s life that they are not proud to claim; however few people go on to then write a successful novel about them. This inspiration to describe the Puritan culture in a slightly sarcastic, judgmental tone may lie in the fact that he spent some time in Salem after graduating college. I mean he could have also have been sarcastic since the Puritain culture was ever so slightly covered in a sheet of insanity. Hindsight is twenty-twenty,looking back, the whole killing innocent people on no physical evidence does not seem like the brightest idea. Hawthorne’s diaries show us that he spent most of his time in the witch trial fatherland reading and writing as he began to develop the historical basis of the novel (“Nathaniel Hawthorne – Biography.”). Personally, the creative narrative where the narrator often steps out to speak to the reader is what I enjoy so far in Nathanial Hawthorne’s style. Furthermore, I find it fitting that my description of his inspiration to write the novel be done in that same opinionated, slightly sarcastic manner.

Work cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Bantam Dell, 1850. Print.

“Nathaniel Hawthorne – Biography.” Nathaniel Hawthorne. The European Graduate SChool, n.d. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

The Year 1850 and Dark Romanticism

Nathan Simms

Cameratologist

I used to like to read. I read every single day; sometimes I would skip school and just read all day. As my time has been incrementally filled with more and more school work, the time that I used to set aside for reading has all but evaporated entirely. When my English teacher introduced The Scarlet Letter to my Honors English class, I groaned internally. Thus far, I have enjoyed most of the required reading in school, but The Scarlet Letter has always been the novel that vast majority of my senior peers have whined about. And then we were slammed with a blog assignment. This blog is intended to be informal as well as informative and professional. Now I don’t know about you, but I’m fairly decent at writing essays. This blog is most definitely not an essay. This journal-esque form of writing is much more challenging than I initially thought. That being said, I’ll certainly do my darndest.

To alleviate some of my stress toward this assignment, I’ve  taken it upon myself to research how the year 1850 influenced the reception the novel, as well as the literary period/movement to which Nathaniel Hawthorne belonged.

To start, 1850 was a year of turmoil in the US. Millard Fillmore took office in July after President Taylor unexpectedly fell ill, passing away just five days later (Freidel and Sidey). The rest of the year was filled with debates over the one of the main issues in our nation: slavery. These debates were particularly focused around the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. To preface, slavery is bad. Like really bad (Nathan Simms). If anyone tries to tell you, “Maybe a few slave states in America really wouldn’t be that bad,” I urge you to reconsider your relationship with that person. In this day and age, that type of mindset is justly rejected. However in 1850, that was exactly the mindset of many Americans below the 36°30′ line of latitude. It was the opinion of many that we needed to allow the states below the line (with the exception of Missouri) to be slave states (Noll). The Compromise of 1850 argued another method of divvying up “free” and “slave” states, but ultimately was rendered inert by the Missouri Compromise–although it did play a big part in preserving the union for another few years.

So as I am sure you can see, The Scarlet Letter was published into a time of political discussion and incrementally rising tempers. 1850 was a year of discussion just on the brink of the Civil War. 1850 also falls into the Romantic Period of American literature. The Romantic Period spanned from 1800-1860, and The Scarlet Letter belongs to this period. More specifically, it belongs to the Dark Romantic movement (Carrol). In addition to Hawthorne, the authors Poe and Melville also belong to this movement. The Dark Romantic movement is widely characterized with three key ideas: unsettling symbolism, horrific themes, and the psychological effects of guilt and sin. Hand in hand with Dark Romanticism came Anti-Transcendentalism. In fact the two are so intertwined that they are sometimes used synonymously. Transcendentalism was the belief that if one observes nature and society, that a perfect type of society can be achievable (“Transcendentalism”). Obviously, the Anti-Transcendentalists wanted to show that a society like this was absolutely not achievable, and used writing to bring up the darker parts of human society.

The movements at this time were certainly more dark than any previous American literary movements, and they certainly have left an impact on us. The Scarlet Letter  is considered an American classic, and many other works of the time are also held in high esteem. In a time of American turmoil, they sought to make the hoi polloi of America to question themselves and society as a whole, which is quite certainly a lot more than I can say about the vast majority of today’s media content.

My hope is that I can work my way through this novel without griping liking my peers, and that I’ll be able to enjoy it despite my workload. Who knows, maybe this platform of self expression will rekindle my love of reading; only time will tell.

Works Cited

Carrol, Heather. “The Dark Romantics in American Literature.” Education Portal. Education Portal, n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.

Freidel, Frank, and Hugh Sidey. “Millard Fillmore.” The White House. The White House, 2006. Web. 19 Feb. 2015.

Noll, Mark. AP US History Notes, 2015.

Simms, Nathan. Opinion, 2015.

“Transcendentalism, An American Philosophy.” Ushistory.org. Independence Hall Association, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.

Puritan Culture Relating to the Scarlet Letter

Charles Baker

charlesbbaker

The Scarlet Reader

This post focuses on the culture of Puritanical America in which the story takes place

The  Scarlet Letter is a book that brings a terror to most students when they first hear of it. Described by high school seniors as the most dense, bland book they have read, it strikes a fear that may only be matched by Tale of Two Cities. Needless to say I was displeased with the idea of being forced to read it. This apprehension was swayed when I was told we would blog about the book when we read it. This was a project format I had never experienced before. We were assigned groups, and we went off to study different parts of background information, in order to further give us a further understanding of the story before we began to read. I was given the task to research Puritan culture as to gain an understanding on motives of characters in the story. Because this is about their culture, I will not be going in depth about their history.

Puritan culture is most heavily based on religion, as they follow a Calvinist doctrine. Their belief system can be laid out in the acronym of Tulip:

T: Total Depravity- the extensive ruin of mans nature and how man is flawed in mind, body, and soul.

U: Unconditional Election– God only saves those he wishes, predestination.

L: Limited Atonement – Jesus died for the chosen only, not for everyone.

I: Irresistible Grace – Gods grace omnipresent and cannot be earned or denied.

P: Perseverance of the Saints – The elected have the power to interpret god’s will. (Ruben)

The Puritans were also interested in the concept of Typology, where God’s intentions are apparent in human action and natural phenomenon. Those who fail to see these intentions are flawed by human limitations. Puritans also felt that history was cyclical, and types of saints and leaders would repeat. This can be shown in the parallel between Moses and John Winthrop, as both lead people away from religious oppression. Typology also talked about how God’s wrath and reward are present in natural phenomena like bountiful harvest, famine, flooding, locusts, and storms(Ruben).

Puritans were also constantly aware of their status in the eyes of god, and they were constantly fearful of backsliding.  Backsliding is when a person who is saved falls to temptation.  To avoid this, members of the church were told to stay modest, continue to soul search, constantly pray, and to be introspective.

Before writing this, I was informed that the story would revolve around a woman who was punished because of adultery. With this knowledge, I have decided to look at the punitive system In Puritan America.

To start, I will look at the laws that merit capital punishment. Puritan America is famous for the Salem witch trials, so it is fitting that one of the crimes that falls under this category is witchcraft. Other laws include worshiping false idols, men committing adultery (the mistress is also killed), murder,  bestiality, homosexuality,  theft, being a false witness in a capital case, and  treason(“Capital Crimes in Puritan Massachusetts”). Minor punishments would include being put in the stocks (see picture below) for hours at a time. Being branded for one’s crime (such as a T for thief) was also popular in the time period. The puritans were and incredibly punitive culture (Cox).

“Capital Crimes in Puritan Massachusetts.” The Historic Present. N.p., 06 Sept. 2012. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.

Cox, James A. “History.org: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation’s Official History and Citizenship

Website.” Colonial Crimes and Punishments : The Colonial Williamsburg Official History & 

       Citizenship Site. Colonial Williamsburg, Winter 2002. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.

Reuben, Paul P. “PAL: American Puritanism: A Brief Introduction.” PAL: American Puritanism: A Brief 

       Introduction. N.p., 19 June 2014. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.

Before There Was a Scarlet Letter

As I have transitioned from a regular English class to an Honors English class, I have realized that the work load is both strenuous and tiresome. We, referring to my classmates last year, never had to analyze books and novels as in-depth as we have to this year. It seems as though every piece of work we are learning about revolves around Puritan themes and ideals, so when our teacher gave us The Scarlet Letter to dissect and read, there was no surprise that it revolved around Puritanism. But, the project that came with it, is not only interesting, but takes a different approach to writing that I have not experienced before. This time we are writing blog posts in an informal style that allows for my thoughts and opinions to be expressed in a metacognitive form. So, because I have been given the opportunity to research the book, I would like to look into other works of literature during this time period that may have affected or influenced the writing of The Scarlet Letter.

The Scarlet Letter stands out as a classic among the other works of time which include Melville’s Moby Dick, Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, and Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. But many believe that The Scarlet Letter was written during the time period of American Literature known as Realism, but in truth it was written during the Romantic Period. To me when I hear the word “romantic” I think of a couple skipping through a meadow as dramatic music plays in the background, but after researching the literary time period I find that it is far from that. Romanticism emphasizes on three main points: inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual. After taking a further look into a “true” romantic writer, I start to see many similarities between the works of Hawthorne a Melville, especially between The Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick. Both Hawthorne and Melville were intrigued not only by each other’s pasts, but also through their writing styles. After hearing years ago that Melville actually dedicated Moby Dick to Hawthorne, I only thought that Hawthorne would do the same for Melville, which he did, in the novel The Scarlet Letter through the style of it. The Scarlet Letter was heavily influenced by Melville’s ideas, for instance, “the outside world through the eyes of the common man” (Moby-Dick: Social Physics and Metaphysics). It is interesting that the main character in Moby Dick, Ishmael, “carries with him the Puritan tendency to focus on objects in the material world that are physically marked. In so doing, he manifests the Puritan epistemology in which social behavior is analogous to the inner scrutiny of meditation but at the same time here moves himself from the community within which the Puritans of Hawthorne’s novel create and contain their identity”  (Moby-Dick: Social Physics and Metaphysics). The works of Melville were later said to be “one of the many reasons why I [Hawthorne] became a writer” (Moby Dick and the Letter A).

After examining the different works of literature during this time period, I have come across another writer who had seemed to have had a very strong link with Hawthorne’s works: Edgar Allen Poe. You must be thinking to yourself, “Chris, are you sure that one of the most intense authors of all time can be linked with Nathaniel Hawthorne?” Well, let me put it simply, yes. Both Hawthorne and Poe wrote about the human condition and human nature in a way that few other writers of the time period did. At first glance, one would think that Hawthorne was not a writer who was heavily influenced by the sin, guilt and morbidity (Valella, Rob), but it is said that he was considered to be a “Dark Romantic.” This was first seen in his early works as an author.

So, hopefully you have gotten to this part of my blog and have understood the effects of  the literary time period on the book The Scarlet Letter, but if you had decided to stop halfway because you believed this to be “too boring,” then I am sorry that I had wasted a minute of your time. But in all, Hawthorne was a man who believed that in order for a one to be successful, you must look to the past. He did exactly that, and by doing so, he wrote one of the most influential books in American literary history.

Works Cited

“Romanticism”. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.

“Moby Dick and the Letter A.” Canonical Thoughts. N.p., 02 Oct. 2011. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.

“Moby-Dick: Social Physics and Metaphysics.” Moby-Dick: Social Physics and Metaphysics

(n.d.): 49-91. Ohio State Press. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.

Valella, Rob. “Hawthorne and Melville.” HAWTHORNE AND MELVILLE. N.p., n.d. Web. 25

Feb. 2015.