Hawthorne – English 2030
Basic Puritan Beliefs – (Tulip)
Total Depravity - through Adam and Eve's fall, every
person is born sinful - concept of Original Sin.
Unconditional Election - God "saves" those he wishes only a few are selected for salvation (predestination).
Limited Atonement - Jesus died for the chosen only, not
for everyone.
Irresistible Grace - God's grace is freely given, it cannot
be earned or denied. Grace is defined as the saving and
transfiguring power of God.
Perseverance of the "Saints" - those elected by God have full power to interpret the will of God,
and to live uprightly. If anyone rejects grace after feeling its power in his life, he will be going
against the will of God - something impossible in Puritanism.
Hawthorne was also influenced by the Salem Witch Trials which “were a series of hearings and
prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692
and May 1693” (Wikipedia).
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Hawthorne, however, wrote in the Romantic tradition (1820-1860) – many
describe him as a “dark romantic.”
The publication of The Scarlet Letter in 1850 sparked his career and
established him as a major American writer.
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“Young Goodman Brown”
Goodman Brown
Faith
The Old Man/Devil
Goody Cloyse
The Minister
Deacon Gookin
1. Was it all a dream?
2. What is the significance of names? (Goodman Brown and Faith, particularly)
3. How does Goodman Brown react to his wife and others upon his return to Salem? Why? Is he
justified in acting this way?
4. How is Goodman Brown changed by his experience in the forest?
Hawthorne – English 2030
“The Minister’s Black Veil”
Reverend Hooper
Elizabeth
Reverend Clark
The Townspeople
1. Why do you think Hooper wears the veil?
2. Why does Hooper not take his veil off for Elizabeth? Why is her response to his refusal
especially significant?
3. How would a first-person point of view change the story?
“The Birth-Mark”
Aylmer
Georgiana
Aminadab
1. Is Aylmer evil? Is he simply a stock version of a mad scientist?
2. What does the birthmark symbolize? How does Aylmer’s view of it differ from the other
perspectives in the story? What is the significance of its handlike shape?
3. In what sense can Aylmer be characterized as guilty of the sin of pride?
4. How is Aminadab a foil for Aylmer?
5. What do Aylmer’s other experiments reveal about the nature of his work? How do they
foreshadow what will happen to Georgiana?
6. Is Georgiana, to an extent, responsible for her own death?