The Romanticism in American Literature

• The Renaissance in or the flowering of American literature. Writers tried self-consciously to be new and original.

• The decade of 1850-59 is unique in literary production. American authors, published remarkable works in such a concentration of time.

Works by European American Writers

Year Author Title

1850 Ralph Waldo Emerson Representative Men

1850 Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter

1851 Herman Melville Moby-Dick

1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Tom's Cabin

1854 Henry David Thoreau Walden

1855 Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1806-1864): His Life

• Born on July 4, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts.

• In 1813 , injured while playing ball; The reasons for the lengthy recovery may be psychological

• Attended boarding school in Stroudwater, Main;

• 1821 – 1825 studied in Bowdoin College in Maine.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1806-1864): His Life

• Married Sophia Peabody in 1842.• lived in Concord, but returned to

Salem late in 1845, and in 1846 , took the position of Surveyor of the Port.

• In 1853, Consul in Liverpool, England.• Hawthorne's last home was at the

Wayside in Concord. He was in failing health in his final years.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1806-1864): His Works

• Best known for the novel, The Scarlet Letter

• Many readers also know him for his short stories, including "Young Goodman Brown," "The Minister's Black Veil," "The Birth-mark," "The Artist of the Beautiful.” Hawthorne wrote over 100 short stories and sketches, however, 16 of these are uncollected stories; the rest are in three collections: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from an Old Manse, and The Snow Image and Other Twice-told Tales.

The Elements of Fiction: Plot (I)

• Plot: the sequence of events or incidents of which the story is composed.

• Conflict is a clash of actions, ideas, desires or wills.

a.person against person.b.person against environment - external

force, physical nature, society, or "fate.“c.Inner conflict-conflict with some element

in her/his own nature; maybe physical, mental, emotional, or moral.

Discussion Questions

• 1. How many episodes does the story consist of?

• 2. What are the major conflicts in the story? What’s the major issue of conflict?

What are the major conflicts in “The Minister’s Black Veil”

• Minister Hooper & his Parishioners

• Minister Hooper & his fiancee

• Within Minister Hooper

• On his wearing a black veil

Main Conflicts (I)1. What are the congregation’s

reactions to the veil? Why does Mr. Hooper wear the veil in their opinion?

2. What is the subject of Mr. Hooper’s sermon on the first day he wears the black veil?

3. Are the descriptions of a funeral and wedding significant? Why are there different attitudes towards the veil at the wedding & the funeral?

Main Conflict (I)

Why do you think Minister Hooper did not allow the Reverend Mr. Clark to take off the veil. Who is competent to do this job in Minister Hooper’s mind?

Astonishment& Wonder

Uneasiness

Pathos & Awe

A bugbear; Tortured for some great crime

Main Conflicts (II)

• What does Minister Hooper tell Elizabeth the veil is? What two possible explanations for wearing the veil do they discuss?

• What reasons does Hooper give Elizabeth not to desert him?

What is a covenant

• A covenant is a mutual agreement and commitment, to which the consent of both parties is critical.

The Three Covenants

• The Covenant of Works held that God promised Adam and his progeny eternal life if they obeyed moral law.

• The Covenant of Redemption. Christ, who chose to sacrifice himself for fallen man, bound God to accept him as man’s representative. Having accepted this pact, God is then committed to carrying out the Covenant of Grace.

• The Covenant of Grace. God promises redemption in return for human faith.

The Covenant of Grace in Human Experience

Puritans believed that the elect individual would generally experience certain stages

• Baptism • Preparation: a true sight of sin• Vocation/Calling:often identified as conversion• Justification: the point at which God acquits

the individual of guilt for Adam's sin and for the individual's own, and imputes Christ's righteousness to him or her.

• Sanctification • Glorification

• “Tremble also at each other! Have men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil? What, but the mystery which it obscurely typifies, has made this piece of crape so awful? When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his best beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, lo! On every visage a Black Veil!”

Image, Metaphor & Symbol

• Image, metaphor, and symbol shade into each other and are sometimes difficult to distinguish.

• In general, however, an image means only what it is;

• a metaphor means something other than what it is;

• and a symbol means what it is and something more too.

“The Veil” as the Symbol

• What’s the literal meaning

-- Two folds of crape

What effects does the veil have?

1.Give a darkened aspect to all living & inanimate things. (P51, p5)

2.Distanced Mr. Hooper and his parishioners. (P52)

3.The Earth had on her Black Veil. (P54)

4.Making the wearer a very efficient clergyman. (P58, p2)

The Elements of Fiction: Irony

• A. Verbal irony - the opposite is said from what is intended.B. Dramatic irony - the contrast between what a character says and what the reader knows to be true.C. Irony of situation – an event or situation turns out to be the reverse of what is expected or appropriate

• The narrator/the character/ the audience perceives more –or less – than another; irony potentially present;

What is the irony in this story?

• Secret Sin

Mr. Hooper

The Narrator

The Reader

The Parishioners including Elizabeth

What does this irony reflect?

• 1. Is it possible for people to be honest according to this novel? Why or why not?

• Is it possible for people to understand each other, why or why not?

• Is it possible for us to be close to God as we have thought?

Theme

• The Hypocrisy of human and human religion