Symbolism in Hawthorne’s Style of Writing.

Essay by tshvnbt October 2014

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Symbolism in Hawthorne's Style of Writing.

Nathaniel Hawthorne has a great amount of respect as an American novelist in the nineteenth century. He wrote some of the best-known and most respected fictions in The Romantic Era. Hawthorne's works usually have a strange, mysterious psychological themes, and involve a lot of symbolic imagination. He developed a unique style of romance fiction that represent his own belief, deeply concern with the ethical problems of evil and the nature of sin. Hawthorne uses his stories to analyze the inner world of human mind, criticize Puritan ideals and ways of life. With a writing his style, Hawthorne turn his stories into parables. They begin with a simple idea, become more and more complex as the relationships of characters develop by symbolism. He is one of the most well-known symbolists who effectively manages to use his symbols throughout his stories to show his message. To fully understand Hawthorne's message, it is necessary that readers must study the symbols in his works and decode the meaning that he puts behind the symbols.

In Hawthorne's famous allegorical short story, Young Goodman Brown, symbolism is used throughout the story in all form of names, colors, and objects. "Hawthorne's method in Young Goodman Brown is such that the tale's full meaning cannot be determined by the narrative itself" (Walsh 331). "Anyone who has read his Young Goodman Brown cannot fail to see the use of allegorical and symbolic methods throughout this short story, which uses the background of witchcraft to explore uncertainties of belief that trouble a man' s mind" (Zhu 58). The use of symbolism involve so much that we have to decode the every symbolical image to reveal the actual message. "For an understanding of what happens to Goodman Brown the reader should be conscious of...