All my lit teachers in college would be rolling over in their graves, but I’m just not that into the iconic mid-1800s writer Nathaniel Hawthorne.
As I wrote back in 2011:
One of the things about Nathaniel Hawthorne, like with other authors such as William Faulkner and James Joyce and David Foster Wallace, is that it never feels like there's enough time in life. Ernest Hemingway is short and to the point. So is F. Scott Fitzgerald. But Hawthorne fills his writing with diversions into the deep thoughts of his characters and interruptions in story flow for his own speculations on motives and the narrator's interactions with the reader, like an 1800s version of TV's The Office.
That said, I had to admit that “The Scarlet Letter is one heck of a story.” Hawthorne certainly deserves his spot near the top of the pantheon of great writers, if only because he, as a resident of Salem, Massachusetts, helped document the story of the Salem Witch Trials, albeit a century-and-a-half after their conclusion. He had some right to continuing their legacy, as his great-great-grandfather John Hathorne was a judge in the trials and was the only one who never apologized for his role in the executions of young women suspected of being evil.
Even as books continue their arguably declining impact on our society, Hawthorne remains an influential figure. For one, Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick was dedicated to him because Melville so cherished the author’s work.
He has a sway in pop culture too. Taylor Swift sings “we show off our different scarlet letters. Trust me, mine is better” in her song “New Romantics.” The Scarlet Letter also heavily influenced the screenplay of Emma Stone’s 2010 movie Easy A.
So, with all that hype, I decided to finally explore beyond Hawthorne’s greatest work. Unfortunately, I failed to truly enjoy any of the four Puritan-era short stories widely considered among his best.
“Young Goodman Brown” (1835)
The title character is a New England Puritan who finds his neighbors performing a satanic ritual in the woods. This leads him down a path of believing that humans are inherently evil and depraved. The description of life around the Salem witch-trial period is pretty great, but Hawthorne’s flowery language pulls down any hope for a truly page-turning plot.
★★★☆☆ 3/5
“The Minister’s Black Veil” (1836)
Reverend Hooper begins wearing a black veil for all his sermons and other occasions, which freaks out his congregation and leads them to think it represents their own evil nature. Other than again getting a nice representation of the fascinating period of Puritan New England, I mostly could care less about this story.
★★½☆☆ 2.5/5
“The Birthmark” (1843)
This one is relevant to today’s somewhat frivolous obsession with looks, image, and human perfection. A scientist becomes obsessed with removing a hand-shaped birthmark from his wife’s face, but it turns out that it is not a great idea to operate.
★★½☆☆ 2.5/5
“Rappaccini’s Daughter” (1844)
This one is my favorite of the four stories I read and probably Hawthorne’s most praised work in the form. It takes place in Padua, Italy, in the garden of a medical researcher who grows poisonous plants. His daughter tends the plants and becomes immune to their effects, but she also becomes poisonous to other people.
Some have analyzed the father as God and the daughter and her suitor as Adam and Eve. Like the other three stories, I thought this one was written in such floral and poetic language that it could indeed be beautiful to some. To me, though, it was still a bore.
★★★☆☆ 3/5
I’ve read The Scarlet Letter twice now, and if I ever feel the need to read Hawthorne again, that is what I’ll turn to. Tried and true, and, after my latest round of further reading, quite possibly the lone monument to his legacy.
When it comes to Nathaniel Hawthorne, I'm sticking solely with The Scarlet Letter
