How did Hawthorne Feel About Women?

The Scarlet Letter was written in the 1800’s by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The novel is about a young wife who becomes pregnant while her husband was away which makes it pretty obvious he wasn’t who impregnated her. Being pregnant by a man other than her husband leads to her being forced to wear a red letter “A” on her chest as a public shaming. The very popular novel is read in many high school and college English classes.

As you can tell by reading The Scarlet Letter, the puritans didn’t see women as we do today. Puritan ministers taught and furthered male supremacy. Using examples as the two parts of the soul, the immortal male part and a mortal female part. “Names of women found in census reports of Massachusetts Bay include Patience, Silence, Fear, Prudence, Comfort, Hopestill, and Be Fruitful. This list reflects Puritan views on women quite clearly.” As stated on ushistory.org. Another example of the sexist Puritan ways is how they “knew” the difference in the sex of the baby a woman is carrying. If it’s a boy, the mother has rosy cheeks but if it’s a girl, the mother would be pale.

Nathaniel Hawthorne didn’t see women the same way that the Puritans did. He was born about one hundred and fifty years after the time he was writing about. In his different stories and romances, women vary from independent to not so independent. “In his short stories and romances, Hawthorne creates a wide range of female characters. Some are strong, independent-minded, and self-confident, like Hester Prynne or Zenobia [The Blithedale Romance]. Others embody the gender expectations for women in Hawthorne’s day, such as Phoebe Pyncheon [The House of Seven Gables].” As stated on hawthorneinsalem.org. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne plays a very strong women going through something that would be scandalous in our times. In her time, being pregnant with a man other than her husband’s baby was punishable by law.

Hawthorne’s view on strong women, such as Hester Prynne is unlike many of his time. Many of his female characters are portrayed as strong and independent. It was rumored that Prynne was loosely based on his wife, Sophia Peabody. Peabody was always supportive of Hawthorne’s work. "Although, during Hawthorne’s time period, men were considered dominant, Hawthorne characterizes women as strong and independent (though sometimes morally repugnant), while many of his male characters are morally weak.” As stated on shmoop.com. In the mid 1800’s, it was odd for a male writer to portray his characters in such ways and I’m sure this was greeted as oddly refreshing and controversial.

How did Hawthorne feel about women? It seems as if he viewed them like men. They can be strong and weak, they have different strengths and weaknesses. Hawthorne respected women which wasn’t normal for his time, but opened doors for story plots with heroines.

I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government.

“I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government.” - Henry David Thoreau


Henry David Thoreau was born 1817 and Concord, Massachusetts. In 1845, he started a twenty-six month long experience by living on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s land near Walden Pond. During this he lived in a one-room cabin and on trip to town in 1846, he ran into a tax collector and refused to pay taxes. “In 1846, on a trip into town, he ran into the local tax collector who asked him to pay six years of delinquent poll taxes. Thoreau refused because of his opposition to the Mexican-American War and slavery. He spent a night in jail and was freed the next day, over his loud protests, when his aunt paid his taxes.” as stated on newworldencyclopedia.org. He opposed the government for waging the Mexican-American War because he saw it a try at extending slavery. “He opposed the government for waging the Mexican war (to extend slavery) eloquently in Resistance to Civil Government, based on his brief experience in jail; he lectured against slavery in an abolitionist lecture, Slavery in Massachusetts. He even supported John Brown's efforts to end slavery after meeting him in Concord, as in A Plea for Captain John Brown.” as stated on vcu.edu.

When writing “Civil Disobedience” Henry David Thoreau probably didn’t realize he would be affecting great leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. “Over the years, Thoreau's reputation has been strong, although he is often cast into roles -- the hermit in the wilderness, the prophet of passive resistance (so dear to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King).” as stated on vcu.edu.

Today’s government may need a dose of Thoreau’s philosophy. Our problems are a little different, it’s no longer slaves. I’m not trying to step on any toes, our government is sufficient. But we need a better government to help us do what’s right; less war and more caring for the economy.Though I feel as if this quote could have fit anywhere in time, I’m sure that many people have thought so before. As a college student, the economy is my worst enemy. “Today’s unemployment rate is 9.1 percent. From 1931 to 1941, the annual rates ranged from 9.9 percent to 24.9 percent. So peak unemployment since the start of the most recent recession, as bad as it has been, remains well under half of the peak it reached during the Great Depression.” as stated on politicalfact.com.

What was Thoreau's Experiement on Walden Pond?

Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1817 coincidentally is where he died in 1862. After graduating from Havard University, he became good friends and protege with Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Although the two American thinkers had a turbulent relationship due to serious philosophical and personal differences, they had a profound and lasting effect upon one another.” As stated on stanford.edu. During his lifetime he only published two books, along with essays that were first delivered as lectures. Thoreau lived a simple life he made his living by teaching briefly and a pencil maker for a short time but he lived mostly off being a land surveyor. Thoreau remained unmarried though he was believed to have loved deeply at least twice and was close with family and friends.


In 1845, Thoreau moved to Walden Pond, which was owned by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson. Thoreau built a cabin on the pond. “ I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what it had to teach me, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” as Thoreau stated Walden. Simplicity was the main theme of all of Thoreau’s writing, he found this simplicity in his one room cabin on Walden Pond. “It was a place for him to find solitude while he wrote, but for his ever-questioning mind it was also an experiment in self-reliance and living close to nature.” As stated on online-literature.com.


During his stay at Walden Pond, Throreau finished his first book A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers and wrote his second book Walden. He also spent one night in jail for not paying a poll tax in a rebellion against the government’s war and slavery, which is stated in the video below.



At forty-four, Henry David Thoreau died in Concord, Massachusetts of tuberculosis. Though he only wrote two books, they are even more popular today than they were in his time.

Did Poe's life have anything to do with these stories?

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the most popular names when it comes to yesterday’s thriller stories. He was actually the first when it comes to certain aspects. Did his life have anything to do with these stories?


Poe was born in 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts to traveling actors. He was the second of three children. Three years after he was born, his parents died and he was sent to live with a wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife, Frances Valentine Allen. His siblings were sent elsewhere. Allen raised Poe to be a business man, but Poe was never interested in that life. As stated on poemuseum.com, “Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business. By the age of thirteen, Poe had compiled enough poetry to publish a book, but his headmaster advised Allan against allowing this.”

In 1826, Poe went to the University of Virginia leaving Richmond. As stated on poemuseum.com, “...where he excelled in his classes while accumulating considerable debt. The miserly Allan had sent Poe to college with less than a third of the money he needed, and Poe soon took up gambling to raise money to pay his expenses. By the end of his first term Poe was so desperately poor that he burned his furniture to keep warm.” Humiliated by becoming poor and having no funds sent by Allen, he returned to Richmond to his fiancé's house only to find that she was engaged to another.

In 1829, Poe’s foster mother died. On her deathbed, she just wanted for Poe and Allan to make up, but the make up didn’t last long. In 1831, Poe moved in with his aunt, Marie
Clemm. She was the mother of Virginia Clemm who became Poe’s wife at the age of thirteen, Poe was 27. During this time, he was writing poetry books and became the editor of Southern Literary Journal and became a respected critic and essayist. “Though not without his detractors and troubles with employers, it was the start of his career as respected critic and essayist. Other publications which he contributed to were Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine (1839–1840), Graham’s Magazine (1841–1842), Evening Mirror, and Godey’s Lady’s Book.” as stated on online-literature.com. In 1847, Virginia died in their home in NewYork, which lead him to abusing alcohol and acting even more erractic. A year later he was engaged to his teenage sweetheart, Elmira Royster. In 1849, Poe died; the reason is unknown.

“Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name.” As stated on poemuseum.com. Poe was extremely unfortunate, but a normal person.

Was his experiences the reason he was such a good writer? In my opinion yes. The loss of parents, the hard relationship with his foster parents, the jilted love of his first fiance and the untimely death of his first wife are the building blocks of his intriguing stories. I leave with two videos, the readings of “The Raven” and “Annabell Lee” both poems that reflect Poe’s life.

What was Fredrick Douglass' Role in Ending Slavery

We all know that Frederick Douglass played a role in ending slavery, but what role did he play? Fredrick was a gifted writer and speaker playing a huge part in the freedom of slaves along with working towards rights for African Americans and women. “...Frederick Douglass used his exceptional skills as an orator, writer, journalist, and politician to fight for the abolition of slavery and for an end to racial discrimination. He helped to shape the climate of public opinion that led to the ratification of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which were created in large measure to protect, respectively, the freedom, citizenship, and voting rights of ex-slaves.” as stated on encyclopedia.com.




Fredrick Augustus Washington Bailey was born on the eastern shore of Maryland in February 1817, his exact birth date is unknown. He was born to slave parents and and separated from his mother at a very young age and sent to work for Captain Aaron Anthony. “As a slave, Douglass was not allowed to have much of a childhood. He was separated from his parents, and he was forced to work hard and suffered cruel treatment while working on the property of Captain Aaron Anthony.” stated on notablebiographies.com. He was later sent to work for Hugh Auld, where he was treated far better. Anthony died and Douglass was sent back to work for his nephew who mistreated slaves much like his uncle. Soon after, he was bought by the Auld’s and brought to Baltimore to work on the ship yards. There he borrowed a African American sailor's identification papers. By passing himself off as a sailor, he was able to escape to New York. He switched his name to Douglass and then married a free African American woman from the south.

“Always striving to educate himself, Douglass continued his reading. He joined various organizations in New Bedford, including a black church. He attended Abolitionists' meetings. He subscribed to William Lloyd Garrison's weekly journal, the Liberator. In 1841, he saw Garrison speak at the Bristol Anti-Slavery Society's annual meeting. Douglass was inspired by the speaker, later stating, ‘no face and form ever impressed me with such sentiments [the hatred of slavery] as did those of William Lloyd Garrison.’” stated on pbs.org. Many days later Douglass gave a speech at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society annual convention in Nantucket. “Of the speech, one correspondent reported, ‘Flinty hearts were pierced, and cold ones melted by his eloquence.’” stated on pbs.org. After writing a autobiography about his coming to freedom, he was forced to flee to the British Isles, his English friends bought his freedom from his past owner for $711.66. (encyclopedia.com)

During the Civil War, he fought hard to make the abolishment of slavey an issue the union was working towards fixing. He met with Abraham Lincoln about the issue. “Lincoln's 1863 emancipation proclamation sent a strong signal that the North would seek the abolition of slavery in the South, and in 1865, the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution formally ended the institution of slavery in the United States. By the end of the war, nearly 200,000 African Americans had enlisted in the Union armed forces.” as stated on encyclopedia.com, “Douglass personally helped to enlist men for the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Colored Regiments and served as a leading advocate for the equal treatment of African Americans in the military.”



Douglass isn’t the only slavery ended but he is a very large reason, which insures him to be a true American hero.

What was Washington Irving Famous For?

You’ve all heard of Washington Irving, but what do we know about him? Irving was the youngest of 11 children. He was born in New York, New York on April 3, 1783, which happens to be five days after the Revolutionary War ended. Irving’s father was in the Revolutionary War under George Washington, which happens to be how Irving’s first name was decided. “Washington Irving, the famed essayist, biographer, historian, writer and politician, is often referred to as ‘The Father of American Literature’ or ‘The Father of American Letters,’” as stated a Washington Irving biography.



Early is Irving’s life, he had a passion for reading. He later studied law and various law offices, though he only practice briefly. “Irving was not passionate about law and preferred writing for the papers, The Morning Chronicle and The Corrector, which his brother Peter edited.” stated in a brief biography of Washington Irving. He traveled the world for a little while. Irving social life was affected by the early death of his seventeen year old fiance. After the death of his mother, he stayed in Europe for a few years. “In England Irving had a romantic liaison with Mary Shelley.” as stated in the first biography.

“In 1807, Irving, along with his brother William and other friends began the satirical journal, Salmagundi. It was written for a New York audience, and it mocked that audience, generally, while it specifically mocked well-known men and women of New York society,” stated in the second biography. Salmagundi was popular, but unprofitable and was closed down in a year.

Irving’s best pieces were written after his brother sent him to Europe on business. While away, his mother died and the business shut down. As stated before, Irving stayed in Europe and met various people who inspired his writings. “One of these influences was Sir Walter Scott, who interested him in German Literature and Romantic History. These works were published in 1819-1820 as The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Stories from this collection, such as ‘Rip Van Winkle’ and ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,’ presented a fine example of Irving's craft.” as stated in the second biography.



Irving created many great things. To this day his famous for his short stories “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hallow.”

Was Mary Rowlandson a Damsel in Distress?

When imagining the dark early days of America, when the natives where fighting for their land and stolen brothers and sister, when the when the new European settlers were fighting for their freedom from England. When a white woman is captured the first thing that comes to mind is she was treated poorly, not fed, beaten and a word all of us are thinking but none of us want to say, raped.




Mary Rowlandson, born Mary White, was born in 1637 in Somersetshire, England to wealthy parents, and two years later, they decided to immigrated to Salem, Massachusetts. She married a puritan minister, Joseph Rowlandson. In 1675, Joseph made a trip to Boston to rally troops to protect their hometown of Lancaster, Massachusetts. While Joseph was away, Mary and her three childeren where taken hostage by the Narragansett, Wampanoag and Nashaway/Nipmuc Indians and would only be given back for ransom of twenty pounds, roughly $31 in American dollars.

“A state of alertness prevailed in the town of Lancaster, Massachusetts. Its 50 families were always ready to crowd into the 5 or 6 garrison houses in case of an Amerindian attack. The continual war between King Philip's forces and colonial troops made everyone aware of imminent danger. Joseph Rowlandson, minister to the small frontier town, was in Boston appealing, once again, to the colonial government for protection. His appeal fell on deaf ears; the danger from attack was rated as minor.” Stated in UMASS Biography of Mary Rawlandson. At sunrise they were attacked, where was Mary Rowlandson, protecting her family every way she could. "Then I took Children to go forth and leave the house: but as soon as we came to the dore and appeared, the Indians shot so thick that the bulletts rattled against the House, as if one had taken an handfull of stones and threw them, so that we were fain to give back." (p. 119, A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson)

“While a prisoner, Mary Rowlandson travelled some 150 miles, from Lancaster to Menamaset then north to Northfield and across the Connecticut river to meet with King Philip/ Metacomet himself, sachem of the Wampanoags. Next she traveled up into southwestern New Hampshire, south to Menamaset, and north to Mount Wachusett.” As stated on WSU Rowlandson Biography. As far as I can see, no damsel could be walking 150 miles, walking from Self Hall to Stone Center wears me out.

She carried her wombed child on her very own wombed side side and until the death of one of her daughters. “Her other daughter now belonged to another warrior and she soon found out her son was in a nearby encampment. It seems that although she was a captive, the Amerindians did not prevent her seeing her children and gave her a Bible to read.” Stated in UMASS biography of Mary Rowlandson. After a while she was not allowed to see her children until she was ransomed. She went on with the pain and uncertainty of the well-being of her remaining childern and morning of her lost daughter.

She servived on food she wasn’t use to, but which is far better than I would do. "The chief and commonest food was Ground-nuts : They eat also Nuts and Acorns, Harty-choaks, Lilly roots, Ground-beans, and several other weeks and roots, that I know not. They would pick up old bones, and cut them to pieces at the joynts, and if they were full of wormes and magots, they would scald them over the fire to make the vermine come out, and then boile them, and drink up the Liquor, and then beat the great ends of them in a Morter, and so eat them. They would eat Horses guts, and ears, and all sorts of wild Birds which they could catch: also Bear, Vennison, Beaver, Tortois, Frogs, Squirrels, Dogs, Skunks, Rattle-snakes; yea, the very Bark of Trees; besides all sorts of creatures, and provision which they plundered from the English." (pp. 159-160)

With all this information, I don’t believe that Mary Rowlandson was a damsel in distress, she was no Mary Draper Ingles, but she was a survivor.

The sovereignty and goodness of God, together with the faithfulness of his promises displayed, being a narrative of the captivity and restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, commended by her, to all that desires to know the Lord's doings to, and dealings with her. ..., 1682 (known as the Narrative).
Narrative. reprint of 1953 edition. Sandwich, MA: Chapman Billies, Inc. ISBN 0-939218-20-8.