Conclusion Sugestion An Analysis Of Puritanistic Values In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter

xlix CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION AND SUGESTION

4.1 Conclusion

After having analyzed the Puritanistic values trough Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, I conclude that there are three intolerable behaviors which are supposed to be in sociable morally. They are intolerance, cruelty, hypocrisy. The intolerance attitude arises because the puritans think that they are the chosen people by God. They have absolute rights to determine which one is right and which one is not right for the authority of God is on their hands. That’s why they deny living together for those who are not brought into their groups only. The Puritans are also quite strict in principle by having no option for bitterness. They are blind to treat punishment for the wrongness as if they were not forgiveness for the mistakes. They are very cruel in punishing the sinner only for their own partly judgment. The Puritans seem not to take the human side value for punishment which results cruelty in their social behavior. More than the effect of cruel punishment, the Puritans are hypocritical in manner. They hide badness behind the words of God. They can not tolerate the consequency of being true in God is referred to limited power of man. Man is a weak creature which is denied by Puritans that direct them to be hypocrites.

4.2 Sugestion

In my opinion, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is moralistic novel. It is full of with moral advice that portrays the negative sides of Puritan’s manners. The Universitas Sumatera Utara l portrayals it self voices social phenomena which is rather in contrast than the true meaning of humanity. As part of literature, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a reflection of society. It summarizes some of human life in terms of Puritanistic values thus, the moral lesson is may give positive response to its readers to denying hypocritical manner, intolerance and cruelty which are regarded out of social norms. The analysis of this novel can at least portray how the novel reflects the realistic occurrence to be noticed and understood for bitterness in the future. Universitas Sumatera Utara li BIBLIOGRAPHY Bernard, L.L. 1930. Attitudes Social in Encyclopedia of the Social sciences. New York: Macmillan. Blumin, M Stuart. 1995. The Hypothesis of Middle- Class Formation in Ninetieth Century :a critique and proposal. New York : American Review Cullen, Jim. 2003. The American Dream. New York: Oxford University Press Davies, A. Andrew. 1990. The Nature of Puritanism in Perfecting the Church Below. London: The west monster conference Endraswarsa, Suwardi.2003. Metodelogi Penelitian Sastra Yogyakarta: Pustaka Widyautama Flower, Elizabeth and Murphy.G. Murray. 1997. A History of philosophy in America vol I. New York: Capricorn Books Hawthorne, Nathaniel. 1962. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Ohio States University Press -------------------------- 2004. The Scarlet Letter terjemahan. Yogyakarta: Narasi Hudson, Winthrops. 1965. Religion in America, In Historical Account of The Development of American Religious Life. United States: Charle Scriones’s J.D Legg. 1986. The Footsteps of God. New York: Evangelical Press. Kenney, William. 1966. How to Analyze Fiction. New York Oxford University Press. Lauter Paul.1994.The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Lexington D.C: Heath Company Miller Perry. 1956. The American Puritan: Their prose and poetry. New York: Garden City Achor Books Universitas Sumatera Utara lii - --------------1939. The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century. New York: Garden City Achor Books Palmer, Edwin. 1996. Lima Pokok Calvinisme. Jakarta: Lembaga Reformed Injili. Wellek, Rene and Austin Warren. 1989. Theory of Literature Third edition. New York : A harvest Book, Brace and World Incoperation. Another resources http: www.everything.com Uploaded on November, 28th 2007 http:www.exampleessays.comviewpaper56114.html Uploaded on January, 21st 2008 http:www.hawthorneinsalem.orgpage10378 Uploaded on March, 19 th 2008 Universitas Sumatera Utara liii Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Literary Works Fanshawe, published anonymously, 1826; Twice-Told Tales, 1stSeries, 1837; 2nd Series, 1842; Grandfathers Chair, a historyfor youth, 1845 Famous Old People Grandfathers Chair, 1841 Liberty Tree: with the last words of Grandfathers Chair, 1842; Biographical Stories for Children, 1842; Mosses from an OldManse, 1846; The Scarlet Letter, 1850; The House of the SevenGables, 1851: True Stories from History and Biography the wholeHistory of Grandfathers Chair,1851 A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys, 1851; The Snow Image and other Tales, 1851: The Blithedale Romance, 1852; Life of Franklin Pierce, 1852; Tanglewood Tales2nd Series of the Wonder Book, 1853 A Rill from the Town-Pump,with remarks, by Telba, 1857; The Marble Faun; or, The Romance of Monte Beni 4 EDITORS NOTE published in England under the title of Transformation, 1860, Our Old Home, 1863; Dolliver Romance 1st Part in Atlantic Monthly Pansie, a fragment, Hawthorne last literary effort, 1864; Universitas Sumatera Utara liv A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804. His family descended from the earliest settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony; among his forebears was John Hathorne Hawthorne added the “w” to his name when he began to write, one of the judges at the 1692 Salem witch trials. Throughout his life, Hawthorne was both fascinated and disturbed by his kinship with John Hathorne. Raised by a widowed mother, Hawthorne attended Bowdoin College in Maine, where he met two people who were to have great impact upon his life: Henry Wadsworth Long-fellow, who would later become a famous poet, and Franklin Pierce, who would later become president of the United States. After college Hawthorne tried his hand at writing, producing historical sketches and an anonymous novel, Fanshawe, that detailed his college days rather embarrassingly. Hawthorne also held positions as an editor and as a customs surveyor during this period. His growing relationship with the intellectual circle that included Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller led him to abandon his customs post for the utopian experiment at Brook Farm, a commune designed to promote economic self- sufficiency and transcendentalist principles. Transcendentalism was a religious and philosophical movement of the early nineteenth century that was dedicated to the belief that divinity manifests itself everywhere, particularly in the natural world. It also advocated a personalized, direct relationship with the divine in place of formalized, structured religion. This second transcendental idea is privileged in The Scarlet Letter. After marrying fellow transcendentalist Sophia Peabody in 1842, Hawthorne left Brook Farm and moved into the Old Manse, a home in Concord where Emerson had once lived. In 1846 he published Mosses from an Old Manse, a collection of essays and stories, many of which are about early America. Mosses from an Old Manse earned Hawthorne the attention of the literary establishment because America was trying to establish a cultural independence to complement its political independence, and Hawthorne’s collection of stories displayed both a stylistic freshness and an interest in American subject matter. Herman Melville, among others, hailed Hawthorne as the “American Shakespeare.” Universitas Sumatera Utara lv In 1845 Hawthorne again went to work as a customs surveyor, this time, like the narrator of The Scarlet Letter, at a post in Salem. In 1850, after having lost the job, he published The Scarlet Letter to enthusiastic, if not widespread, acclaim. His other major novels include The House of the Seven Gables 1851, The Blithedale Romance 1852, and The Marble Faun 1860. In 1853 Hawthorne’s college friend Franklin Pierce, for whom he had written a campaign biography and who had since become president, appointed Hawthorne a United States consul. The writer spent the next six years in Europe. He died in 1864, a few years after returning to America. The majority of Hawthorne’s work takes America’s Puritan past as its subject, but The Scarlet Letter uses the material to greatest effect. The Puritans were a group of religious reformers who arrived in Massachusetts in the 1630s under the leadership of John Winthrop whose death is recounted in the novel. The religious sect was known for its intolerance of dissenting ideas and lifestyles. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses the repressive, authoritarian Puritan society as an analogue for humankind in general. The Puritan setting also enables him to portray the human soul under extreme - pressures. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, while unquestionably part of the Puritan society in which they live, also reflect universal experiences. Hawthorne speaks specifically to American issues, but he circumvents the aesthetic and thematic limitations that might accompany such a focus. His universality and his dramatic flair have ensured his place in the literary canon. Universitas Sumatera Utara