Hawthorne for the Twenty-first Century?

Baym, Nina

doi:10.2307/resoamerlitestud.30.2005.0331

Cited by 1 publication

(6 citation statements)

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“…A few scholars agree that Hawthorne"s writing has little relevance to the circumstance we are in today (Bay, 2005;Li, 2006;Yamin, 2010). The idea of what makes Hawthorne"s works a flare for or reaction against Puritan constraints has changed throughout the more than 170 years between The Scarlet Letter and the present article.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Scholars have undertaken several studies with various interpretations of The Scarlet Letter (Bay, 2005;Hariyanti & Nurhayati, 2017;Lanlan, 2011;Li, 2006;Littlefield & Sara, 2015;Mussies, 2018;Roggenkamp, 2018;Sharma, 2022;Splendora, 2013;Woameno, 2018;Yamin, 2010;Zivic, 2014) and a few of them (Li, 2006;Richardson, 2014;Sharma, 2022) subscribe to the classic Puritan view of predestination sin and could think that The Scarlet Letter is driven mostly by sin. Hawthorne asserts that sin not only corrupts the body and the mind but also affects the soul.…”

Section: Hawthorne's Perspective On 'Sin'mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The third group of scholars (Bay, 2005;Dani, 1997;Splendora, 2013;Woameno, 2018) who approach literature from a psychological perspective are convinced by Levin (1967:11) who claimed: "Hawthorne, like his ancestors, was preoccupied with the normal life, with questions of responsibility and motivation, and with the moral and psychological effects of sin or misfortune." They define sin as anything that disturbs the balance of the mind.…”

Section: Hawthorne's Perspective On 'Sin'mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The majority of the aforementioned studies have focused on psychological, physical, sociological, cultural, and religious aspects and have painted a bleak, dismal, and rigid portrait of Hawthorne"s world (Bay, 2005;Hariyanti & Nurhayati, 2017;Lanlan, 2011;Li, 2006;Littlefield & Sara, 2015;Mussies, 2018;Richardson, 2014;Roggenkamp, 2018;Sharma, 2022;Splendora, 2013;Woameno, 2018;Yamin, 2010;Zivic, 2014). People strongly adhere to Puritan doctrine, which shows no compassion for sinners.…”

Section: What the Scarlet Letter Holds For The Twenty-first Centurymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These studies provide the right opportunity to think about a variety of essential questions, such as whether Hawthorne truly depicted Puritans or was a misrepresenter, an embolic or demonstrated sin as a contentious subject. Also, Bay (2005) pointed out that the most prevalent new ways of thinking about literature and the author"s life were cultural studies paired with the in-depth psychological study. Despite the fact that the twenty-first century seems to herald in a fresh wave of critical evaluations, the novel and Hawthorne haven"t been the subject of much new research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, A Product of Puritanism or a Reaction Against It: A 21st-Century Critical Perspective

Sharma¹

2023

WJEL

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The paper examines ‘The Scarlet Letter’ to determine whether Hawthorne critiques Puritan society’s stringent regulations or supports it in its genuine sense. The article first determines whether Hawthorne agrees with the Puritan concept of sin by examining his perspective on sin. We examined varied past studies using survey method to carry out a descriptive analysis of the author’s justification for Hester’s belief that she is a sinner for the Puritans. Moreover, Hawthorne psychologically analyzes the struggle that exists in the thoughts of the characters as sinners that provokes an endless debate but remains unsolved. Besides, the study explores Hawthorne’s views on Puritanism, which raises a question for academics who are unsure of just how Hawthorne opposes the quintessence of the Puritan way of life. We find that the readers get confused by Hawthorne’s devotion to the novel as they read it and wonder if he was both a Puritanism product and a reaction against it; however, the study finds that Hawthorne was a blend of both of them. The study ends with broader implications about how Hester’s personality influences women’s lives in contemporary society in the twenty-first century.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%