The Salem Witch Trials And The Transcendentalist Era

The Salem Witch Trials, which occurred in the late 1600s, was a time of accusation and injustice that taints America's history. One of the judges responsible for sentencing the accused to death, regardless of a lack of evidence, was John Hathorne, the great-great-grandfather of the famous American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthorne grew up listening to the stories of his great-great grandfather influencing him to write stories about the Puritan society and the Salem Witch Trials, which quickly became American classics. During his lifetime as well, the Transcendentalist era was in full swing, however, Hawthorne did not follow the beliefs. Components of Hawthorne's life became the building blocks of his stories. Hawthorne’s works
He started publishing in 1828 anonymously in gift books and magazines. (“Nathaniel Hawthorne”). Sometime later in 1850 he released his most famous novel The Scarlet Letter which illustrated the journey between two star-crossed lovers in a Puritan Boston, Massachusetts. (“Nathaniel Hawthorne”). Just a year later, he produced yet another one of his most well-known novels, The House of Seven Gables which centered on a house that was spooked by the previous owner’s sins. (Shmoop Editorial team). The house in the novel was based his cousin's house, called the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, where a lot of Hawthorne’s childhood was spent. Hawthorne’s book became so popular that the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion was to be referred to this day as the House of Seven Gables. (D'Agostino. ). Hawthorne often wrote about sin and guilt and the aftermath the two cause. Also, he was famous for writing about allegories that connect to his life and combines them with symbolism to shed light on his perspective about humanity. (Encyclopædia Britannica). One allegory Hawthorne writes about is the loss of innocence in “Young Goodman Brown.” Goodman Brown loses himself to the temptation of going to the witches, and seeing his wife Faith there, he realizes that no one is innocent. (Lorcher). Hawthorne also focuses on the psychological challenges that follow choices humans make and applies it on a universal level. For example, in Hawthorne’s short story “Dr. Heidegger's Experiment,” he uses the test subjects to symbolize how the inner greed and corruption affects how life turns out and how challenged a life can