Hawthorne+notes

Hawthorne notes

•Born in Salem, Massachusetts •A descendant of one of the judges who oversaw the Salem Witch trials. •1821-1824 Attended Bowdoin College in Maine. •1837 - Published //Twice Told Tales//, a collection of short stories. •1839 - Unable to support himself writing, took a job in a custom house.
 * He said of the Puritans’ actions during the trials, “I take shame upon myself for their sakes.”

•1841- Joined the transcendentalist utopian community at Brook Farm, Massachusetts.
 * The farm experimented in true equality of labor and feminism. All workers were paid equally and women’s and men’s work were interchangeable.
 * Met Sophia Peabody, a transcendentalist, at Brook Farm.
 * The two became engaged and Hawthorne became disillusioned with farming at Brook Farm.
 * He confided to his fiancée that he "never suspected that farming was so hard," and wished to be rescued from it "before my soul is utterly buried in a dungheap."
 * 1842- Marries Sophia, leaves Brook Farm.

•Gets a job at the Custom House, a political position. •Writes and publishes: //The Scarlet Letter -// 1850 // The House of the Seven Gables - // 1851

•Hawthorne and his wife had three children. •He was a consul in Liverpool, England from 1853-1857. •He and his family traveled through France and Italy. •He died in 1864 of stomach cancer.

•A literary movement in Europe and America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. (Europe in the 18th, America in the 19th.)

•It is not to be confused with “Romantic novels” ie, sexy, steamy novels of the 20th century.

•Romanticism is a reaction against the ideals of the Age of Reason which stressed reason, order, and rationality, and the idea that the answers to the questions about the world could be found in science.

•Romanticism is marked by the following beliefs: 1. Intuition, imagination, and emotion are superior to reason. 2. Poetry is superior to science. 3. The natural world is a source of poetic inspiration. 4. Industry and city life are to be distrusted; rural life and the wilderness are idealized. 5. Emotional and intellectual freedom is elevated over the traditional norms and strictures of society.