Hawthorne's View Of Their Short Story Of The Tragic

Famous for The Scarlet Letter abroad and home, Nathaniel Hawthorne was and is renowned as a distinguished short story master. After a careful reading and study of his short stories and research papers about him, the author of the thesis is aware of the fact that Hawthorne gained an insight into the relationship between science and technology and human beings and nature. Meanwhile, we should not lose sight of the fact that Hawthorne did write quite a few short stories concerning science and technology in which the protagonists are doomed to tragic death at the end of these stories, such as The Birthmark, Rappaccini's Daughter and Ethan Brand. This thesis, therefore, is mainly concerned with the tragic ending of his short stories of science by using Aristotle's theories of tragedy and through close reading.After a close reading of his short stories, the thesis reaches a conclusion about his conception of science and technology, and makes an analysis of his writing purpose in Chapter One. Actually, Hawthorne's understanding of science and technology is still of great significance to human beings today. Chapter Two is an attempt to apply Aristotle's theories of tragedy to the study of Hawthorne's short stories concerning science and technology. Chapter Three explores the writing purpose of his short stories of science and technology. Eventually, this thesis arrives at the conclusion that it is Hawthorn's conception of science and technology that enables him to compose his tragic short stories. In a nutshell, Hawthorne admonishes us in his short stories that the essential prerequisite for any scientific study is to conform to the law of nature and any confrontation with it is bound to end up in tragedy.