She is also in conflict with her husband because he is not giving up on finding out who had an affair with her. This classic novel shares many literary elements with The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. However, can we say that both novels are similar? We will discuss this matter by comparing and contrasting the main male tragic heroes in each novel as well as the same themes used in each books. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of The Scarlet Letter, was born on July 4th 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts. He was the second child of a U. S Navy Captain who died of yellow fever in Suriname in 1808.
Since he was only four years old, Nathaniel was raised by his older sibling and his mom. As he got older, he grew this insane love for writing. He wrote and published his first piece of literature, The Spectator, in the August of year 1820. To share his talents, he distributed that newsmagazine to all of his loved ones. A year later, Hawthorne enters in Bowdoin College, where he became friends with the future poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and future American President, Franklin Pierce. He then graduated in four years later in 1825. For the next ten years, Hawthorne begins to isolate himself from the world.
He decides to stop talking to friends and family to focus on his writing to achieve his goal on becoming a successful author. Three years after his decade of intense isolation, Hawthorne publishes his first novel anonymously, Fanshawe. Unfortunately, Fanshawe did not bring success to Hawthorne at all. After publishing two more short stories with his original name, Nathaniel Hathorne, Hawthorne decides to add a “w” in his last name in 1830 for professional and personal uses. Nine years later, Hawthorne finds a job at the Custom House in Boston.
The Essay on Nathaniel Hawthorne 5
... 227) For the next twelve years Hawthorne lived in his mothers house.He Seldemly went out except late at night, or when going ... when he began to sign his stories. (Nathaniel Hawthorne American Writers II) One of Hawthornes ancestors was actually a judge in the ... as long; the inspiring tales a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1804. His name ...
A couple years after, he decides to quit his job to move Brook Farm in Massachusetts until the following November. After a three-year engagement, Hawthorne marries a painter named Sophia Peabody on July 9th 1842. He then has two children with her: Una, his daughter, and Julian, his son. A couple years after his children’s birth, Hawthorne loses his job at the Salem Custom House because of a political shakeup. To revenge his frustration against his town, he starts to work on The Scarlet Letter, a novel that talks about hypocrisy and adultery in Salem.
A month later, Hawthorne enters into a deep depression after the death of his mother but still keeps writing on his novel which is published in March, 1850 and becomes a huge success. A little over a decade later, after his third child was born, Hawthorne dies on May 19th, 1864 on a vacation with Franklin Pierce, a friend and the former President of America. To begin, The Scarlet Letter and The Great Gatsby share many similar characteristics in the two main male characters: Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale from The Scarlet Letter and Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby.
First of all, they had both committed adultery with the woman they fell in love with. Also, they are both tragic heroes; they are noble but imperfect, successful and powerful men but deal with aggravation in their personal lives and, theses two characters brought their own downfall with their hamartia. Dimmesdale was a respected Reverend who was gifted with wisdom. He lived most of his life in secrecy and regret when he kept silent that he was the man who had committed adultery with Hester Prynne.
Because of this, until he spoke the truth, Hester was not respected and was discriminated in their community. Additionally, their society did not consider her daughter as a human because they did not know who the father was. Gatsby was also a noble and successful man but he was not happy with his life. He was disappointed of his past because his born into a poor family and he was trying to win back the love of his life but couldn’t because she was married. Gatsby and Dimmesdale are also similar in the fact that they were both suffering for the woman they loved.
The Essay on Dimmesdale In Scarlet Letter
Changes of Reverend Dimmesdale's Character Throughout The Scarlet Letter "Life is hard, but accepting that fact makes it easier." this common phrase has been proven true in many people's lives, but is also a harsh fact that Boston's Rev. Dimmesdale, a key character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, had to face. In this story of deception and adultery set in the Puritan era, Hawthorne ...
Dimmesdale really wanted to reveal that he was the father of Hester’s daughter but did not want to suffer from the consequences. Gatsby also wanted to expose his love for Daisy and win her back but he had to surpass the obstacle of her being married to a different man. Although these two tragic heroes are similar, they also share some contracting elements. Firstly, they both live in different time periods; Dimmesdale lived in the 19th century and Gatsby lived in the 20th century. In addition, both characters have different meanings for love. For example, n the novel The Great Gatsby, when Jay Gatsby confesses his love for Daisy, we notice he is only focusing on how much he loved her house and her possessions. “He hadn’t once ceased looking at Daisy, and I think he revalued everything in his house according to the measure of response it drew from her well-loved eyes. Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way, as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real. Once he nearly toppled down a flight of stairs. ” (Fitzgerald 96).
Therefore, Gatsby only loved Daisy for her wealth and her social class.
On the other hand, Arthur Dimmesdale truly loved Hester Prynne for who she was from the beginning. Consequently, Gatsby is shallow compared to Dimmesdale. Furthermore, Gatsby did not have any real friends. Most of the people he hung out with where his business partners who only used him to make money and attend his fancy parties. On the contrary, Dimmesdale was surrounded with people who truly loved him and respected him for who he was. This is why when Gatsby died, almost nobody attended his funeral and Dimmesdale died in the arms of his loved ones.
As a final point, these characters have both similar and contrasting elements. In addition, The Scarlet Letter and The Great Gatsby both have common themes: adultery and the judgment of society. By way of contrast, the same themes of each story are explained differently. To begin, in both novels, the theme of adultery is explained in unison: adultery will lead to many consequences. It is the theme of how society is judging adultery that is important. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne had an affair with Dimmesdale and her society did not agree with this action.
The Essay on American Dream Gatsby Daisy Love
During the 1920 s Jay Gatsby had been living out what Fitzgerald calls the American Dream. Fitzgerald s American Dream through the views of Gatsby was to be very wealthy, have a sense of class, infinite capacity of hope, and wonder. Gatsby had sense of style that made him fit in to the upper class of society which again is part of the American Dream. The novel depicts how this dream has ...
She was punished for her decisions and had to spend years being discriminated by her own friends and neighbors. It wasn’t until the end of the book, when Dimmesdale came forward of him being Pearl’s father, that Hester and Dimmesdale seeked forgiveness and became free of guilt by becoming better people. As Pearl grew older, Hester’s society appreciated her and looked up to her as a mother figure; “ Such helpfulness was found in her – so much power to do and power to sympathize – that many people refused to interpret the scarlet “A” by its original signification.
They said it was “Able”; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (Hawthorne 145).
Hence, in the time period that Hester lived in, her community put a lot of energy and cares towards tradition and did not believe in those satanic actions. However, in the novel, The Great Gatsby, when Tom had his affairs with Myrtle and when Daisy had her affairs with Gatsby, all of their friends and family knew about it but did not care because it was none of their business. The society they lived in only cared about living the American dream.
These characters only committed adultery for the pleasure of it. They had no remorse for one another. But, Daisy and Tom both felt guilty when the people they were committing adultery with had died of tragic accidents. They were both suffering from their pains. It was only Nick Carraway, Daisy’s cousin, who thought that their actions were inappropriate and disgusting. As a final point, both novels share similar themes but are judged differently. To answer the question, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, is similar to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.
We can conclude with this answer because Arthur Dimmesdale and Jay Gatsby are two different characters that made the same mistakes and had the same ambitions: committing adultery with the woman they loved and wishing to be with them for the rest of their lives no matter how big their obstacles are. Also, both novels share the same themes and messages on how adultery can cause a negative affect in one’s life. On the other hand, since both stories were written in different time periods, the community in where the characters lived in had a different point of view on adultery. Works cited Fitzgerald, F.
The Essay on Hawthorne
Valuable Lessons Learned through the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne Throughout his works, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes symbolism to present a certain theme that pertains to human nature and life. In his works, The Scarlet Letter and The Ministers Black Veil, Hawthorne uses symbolism to present a common theme pertaining to religion: Though manifested sin will ostracize one from society, unconfessed ...
Scott, and Matthew J. Bruccoli. The Great Gatsby. New York: Collier, 1992. Print. “Nathaniel Hawthorne – Biography. ” Nathaniel Hawthorne. N. p. , n. d. Web. 13 Jan. 2013. “Nathaniel Hawthorne Timeline. ” Shmoop. N. p. , n. d. Web. 13 Jan. 2013. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter: Includes DVD. New York: Signet Classics, 2005. Print. ——————————————– [ 1 ]. “Nathaniel Hawthorne Timeline. ” Shmoop. N. p. , n. d. Web. 13 Jan. 2013. [ 2 ]. “Nathaniel Hawthorne – Biography. ” Nathaniel Hawthorne. N. p. , n. d. Web. 13 Jan. 2013. [ 3 ]. Hamartia: flaw, mistake or error.
