A Critical Response to Hawthorne’s Puritans Essay -- Literacy Analysi

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) is critically acclaimed for the portrayal of New England Puritans in his fiction. The aristocratic picture of the rigid and forbidding Puritan community in his flora reflects the widespread attitude towards Puritans, yet Professor Deborah L. Madsen, in her paper, Hawthornes Puritans From event to Fiction claims that this big portrayal of Puritanism results in a powerful trick of the actual puritans and of the dynamics of Puritan theology (Madsen 1999, p 510) . The present reaction is a critical review of Madsens paper. The title of the paper is appropriate. small-arm Hawthornes Puritans implies a difference between actual Puritans and those conceptualized by Hawthorne, From item to Fiction extends this idea by suggesting the disparity between history/ fact and Hawthornes fiction. Madsens study argues that Hawthorne attempts to defend his puritan ancestors by creating a monolithic Puritanism, in which the conduct of all authoritarian puritans res embles that of his own ancestors much(prenominal) as John and William Hathorne. The ultimate goal of Hawthorne, according to Madsen, is to excuse the sins of his fathers by showing that they were incapable of acting otherwise (Madsen, 1999, p. 510). What Madsen means by a monolithic Puritanism is one that here allows only one interpretation of itself and its moment (Madsen, 1999, p.516). In other words, it is an essentialist and stereotypical representation that does not take into tarradiddle the complexities and the changeability of puritan behavior in an attempt to portray its fundamental and unchanging essence. The outcome is a fixed and commonly-held image of puritans as a grim and gloomy race, impatient with human weakness and m... ...h they are compose and the social sphere in which he moved, his background, and various other influences on him. In conclusion, she brings out how Hawthornes fiction creates a biased and monolithic portrayal of the puritans ignoring the com plexity of their theology and culture. Ideally, Madsen should have shed some comfortable upon this complexity which could have substantiated her claim that Hawthorne denies the existence of any sophistication in puritan culture and theology. Works CitedHawthorne, N., 1850. The Scarlet Letter available at http//www.forgottenbooks.orgMontrose, L. A., 1989. Professing the Renaissance The Poetics and Politics of Culture, in Veeser, A., 1989. The New Historicism, New York, capital of the United Kingdom Routledge. pp. 15-36.Madsen, D.L., 1999. Hawthornes Puritans From Fact to Fiction. Journal of American Studies, 33 (1999), 3, 509-517