n society in his novel. Hawthornes great-grandfather, who one of the judges at the Puritan witchcraft trials, was like the magistrates of The Scarlet Letter that attempted to make a society that would be a Utopia of human virtue and happiness. A further parallel found between Hawthornes life and the novel is the element of seclusion found in each. Hawthorne secluded himself from society with his few family members and close friends. In the same way Hester Prynne was secluded from society in her little, lonesome dwelling that stood on the shore, looking across a basin of the sea at the forest-covered hills toward the west out of the circle of the town. Prynne now felt in every gesture, every word and even the silence of those with whom she came in contact, implied, and often expressed, that she was banished, and as much alone as if she inhabited another sphere. In addition to the similarity Hawthorne and Prynne had in their isolated lifestyles, there is another correspondence in their devotion to their crafts. Hawthorne was dedicated to his craft of writing. He read all that he could and wrote in journals and for publications. Prynne was so dutiful to her craft that she offered up a real sacrifice of enjoyment in devoting so many hours to such rude handiwork" just as Hawthorne did with his writing. It was described that she had a taste for the gorgeously beautiful, which, save in the exquisite productions of her needle, found nothing else in all the possibilities of her life to exercise itself upon. These examples show how Hawthornes experiences as a man contributed to his novel, The Scarlet Letter.Hawthornes philosophized that the Puritan obsession with sin undermined instead of proliferated virtue, which can be seen when reading The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne had a discrepancy with the moral decay of Puritanism. He held strong opinions on sin and had a firm moral sense. Hawthorne also theorized that man should seek the highest t...
