John Hathorne Research Paper

Nathanial Hawthorne. Considered to be one of the greatest American writers of the 19th

century. But did you know that he hated portraits, and it is now thought that he was a

mild manic-depressive? Born in Salem, Massachusetts on July 4, 1804. A descendant of a

long puritan line of Hathorne's. His ancestry included his great-great grandfather, John

Hathorne who was a judge at the Salem witch trials 112 years before Nathanial was born.

Judge John Hathorne charged many with the crime of witchcraft,and condemned them to

their deaths. Nathanial was embaressed by this and changed the spelling of his last name

from Hathorne to Hawthorne. A Lot of his family history, life experiences and where he

lived influenced his writing greatly.

Hawthorne
He wrote the books : Lecture's on

Withcraft and History of Witchcraft and Salem Village. The Maule name was derived

from Thomas Maule, a Quaker merchant living in Salem at the time of the trials. In

Nathanials American Notebooks he records that his great great grandfather Judge

Hathorne, the judge in the witch trials, injured a neighbor named English once, who

never forgave him. Yet English's daughter married Hathorne's son. In the same way, the

descendant s of the Pyncheons and the Maules finally unite in marriage at the end of the

story. The Pyncheon and the Maule who get married at the end are Phoebe and Holgrave.

Phoebe is a smiling, public young woman. Holgrave is a kind artist ( daguerreotypist )

and is also the last desendant of Thomas Maule ( this is revealed at the end of the story).It

is believed that his cousin, Susannah Ingersoll, was who he had in mind when creating

the character of Miss Hepzibah Pyncheon. There is also evidence that Hawthorne had

himself in mind when creating the character of Holgrave, and of his wife,Sophia Peabody

Hawthorne, when creating Phoebe.***( Include other examples of the evidence that

suggests
At the time he wrote the House of the Seven Gables, he had just

finished with The Scarlett Letter which had won him much fame. At this time

Hawthorne was preoocupied with his worth in America's literary marketplace. He

promised his publishers and friends that his next book would have a "prosperous close",

which meant something along the lines of a happy ending which did not come naturally

to Hawthorne. He found himself in a tight spot when trying to end the book, which took

him several months to write. I believe it did the story more harm than good, because

while reading the final chapter, " The Departure", it felt as though the seriousness and

many of the true significances of parts of the story weren't there anymore. As though he

just ended the story that way to please the audience ( with a happy ending, everyone

becomes rich and moves onto a country house, Holgrave and Phoebe get married,and the

bad guy Judge Jaffrey Pyncheon just dies.).

Hawthorne was a very insightful, yet confusing man. Some would even say hypocritical

because he would criticize or claim something and in the end, praise what he critisized

and claim the opposite of what he originally said. I, on the other hand wouldn't say