Hawthorne and Republicanism: The Scarlet Letterand the writer’s Contextual Motivations

Abstract

Much has been said and written aboutNathaniel Hawthorne'sThe Scarlet Letter, its thematic significance, symbolism, archaic language and religious overtones. Yet it seems that one important thing has been ignored in the way of the analysis of this work and this isthe clues inside the story itself which will be significant when read in relation withThe sentenceabove is quoted from"the Custom House", the semi-autobiographical section, preliminary to Hawthorne'sThe Scarlet Letter. One may find such a section, a deficit or a just an old-fashioned authorialstrategy to provide enough suspense for reading. But many critics take this section as of more significance and try to investigate its relation-its autobiographical evidence-with the contextual motivations that have given Hawthorne the food for thought and consequently enough reason for the writing of The Scarlet Letter. This short paperintends to analyze in detail "republicanism" (Moss 1), as one of those motivesand tries to express the viewpoints of Hawthorne in this case.Looking at the matter of republicanism and its foundations in America, it is rather to be labeled as an eighteenth century phenomena, and its history goes back to the establishment of New England -George Washington becoming its first president in 1789-but by checking the histories, one finds that it is not till 1854 that the first American republican party is settled. In fact by 1854 the society of America was yet to bear the traces of sixteenth century Puritanism and in practice the idea of liberty had lost its color in the eyes of people. It was in such a context that writers like Hawthorne with political concerns started their work and tried to bring reformations.DeborabGossman in his article focuses on this matter and asserts that republicanism is the major concern of Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter, and believes that in-order to investigate the issue, Hawthorne has a kind of pathological treatmentand chooses the societal basis of American civil life as the context to be studied-a sixteenth century Puritan Colony at Boston, Massachusetts(59). He adds that Hawthorne's question the utopian viewpoints of puritans and by that he announces even his feeling of guilt for his puritan ancestry (60). In fact, it is this writer's obsession with the ruin that Puritanism has brought to people of America and his political struggle for expiatingthatcauses him to beexpelled from his job and consequently to be obliged to work in a custom house for several years. Here at this point another important thing is worthy to be mentioned-that would reveal another motif for Hawthorne in writing that novel. In an article,Reynold asserts the fact that by mid-nineteenth century, Europe was facing a change in matter of politics-England had become a great power, Spanish and Portuguese colonizerswerein flee, Napoleon warshad broken out and Italy was dealing with a bloody liberal uproar that finally lead to thebafflement of Holly Roman Empire. He believes that all those European struggles with liberal concern had in...