A Study On Hawthorne’s Nostalgia In The Scarlet Letter From Sociohistorical Criticism

The Scarlet Letter is the representative work of American romantic novelist Nathanial Hawthorne in nineteenth century. After its publication, it achieved great success and Hawthorne instantly became the most popular writer. The novel is popular all the time for its rich imagination, large amount of psychological descriptions and excavation of human nature. It draws wide attention abroad and at home and studies on it never stop. Scholars analyzed it from many perspectives such as its theme, characters, psychological descriptions, Puritanism and symbolism.However, there is no study on Hawthorne’s nostalgic emotion concealed in the story.After a close reading and studying researches abroad and at home, the thesis writer found that the descriptions of New England, Puritanism and historical event in the story reveal Hawthorne’s nostalgic emotion.The thesis will study Hawthorne’s nostalgic emotion revealed in The Scarlet Letter from the perspective of sociohistorical criticism and explore his attitude to radical social changes and its significance.This thesis is composed of three parts: introduction, main body and conclusion.The first part will give a brief introduction to the writer and the work The Scarlet Letter, and researches abroad and at home.The second part is the main body of the thesis including three chapters: Chapter One discusses his nostalgia for the past homeland: his seeking for America origin and thinking about the reality. Hawthorne was suspicious of social upheavals the advancement brought, because instead of flourishing and prosperity, the development contributed to the falling and fading of the society. Chapter Two studies his nostalgia for Puritanism: his agreement on the original sin and defense for puritan morality.Hawthorne thought men were born sinful and only can be saved by doing the good.Whereas the social problems rooted in the inner heart of individuals so the solution to crimes is to purify individual’s inner world. In addition, in spite of the harshness of Puritanism, it worked on regulating individual and society. Chapter Three analyzes hisnostalgia for tradition: his praise to social traditions and criticizing to the radical advanced modern civilization. Hawthorne praised ancestors’ toughness and diligence which he insisted was the essence of America, while Hawthorne was critical to progressive social civilization like feminism and scientific development. The former was against the social ethics and the latter eroded human nature.The last part is conclusion. Through above discussion, it concludes that The Scarlet Letter conveyed Hawthorne’s sentimental attachment to tradition, Puritanism and New England hometown. Hawthorne was spectator of the time who solemnly and sternly observed the realistic society. He incisively detected moral decay and the corruption of social circumstance in industrial and scientific developing society, and condemned people’s neglect to tradition and national foundation. His nostalgia is a reflection on social progress and to find a proper way of social development which can be obtained by returning to tradition. Hawthorne’s thinking of modernity problems went beyond his time and manifested his forward looking.This thesis enriches and advances researches on Hawthorne and provides a new perspective for people to study Hawthorne and his works. Under the thrivingly developing society, the thesis on one hand can warn people not to forget tradition and essence of the nation; on the other attract people’s attention to modernity problems like social corruption and inter-personal alienation.