Daniel Bell explores how Nathaniel Hawthorne utilized conventional figures such as the noble Founding Father, the narrow Puritan, and the rebellious daughter to shape his interpretation of New England history. Through these characters, Hawthorne critiques and reflects on the complexities of his cultural heritage, revealing deeper insights into the societal norms and tensions of his time.
FThis enduring novel of crime and retribution vividly reflects the social and moral values of New England in the 1840s. Nathaniel Hawthorne's gripping psychological drama concerns the Pyncheon family, a dynasty founded on pious theft, who live for generations under a dead man's curse until their house is finally exorcised by love. Hawthorne, by birth and education, was instilled with the Puritan belief in America's limitless promise. Yet - in part because of blemishes on his own family history - he also saw the darker side of the young nation. Like his twentieth-century heirs William Faulkner and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hawthorne peered behind propriety's façade and exposed the true human condition.