Nathaniel Hawthorne Quotes

Day 4 - The Salem Witch Trials, Hawthorne and the New England Aquarium

The town of Salem is pretty historical with cemeteries, statues and museums. One of the most horrible events that took place there was the Salem Witch Trials. The trials were held there, of course, but we took a deeper look at the innocent people who died here. People convicted of being witches would lose all of their property, belongings and even their name. Twenty people were convicted of being witches. On Sept. 19, Giles Corey was convicted of witchcraft, but he was not hung. Giles suffered death by being pressed with boulders because he would not say that he was a witch. As they put more boulders on him, he would say with his last breaths, “More weight, more weight.” Corey did not want his family to suffer the consequences of his admission. After the cemetery, we went to the Salem Museum. We watched a 15-minute video about how Salem came to be. It all started when two people discovered there were thousands of fish in the ocean near Salem. Soon the town became a center for the fishing industry. Not all good things last; there were very few fish, so the fishing industry died. Salem moved on to the lumber industry because there were acres of trees, but that also died out. After our Salem 101 history class, we went to the famous House of Seven Gables, the setting for the Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book, “The House of Seven Gables.” It is called the House of Seven Gables because the house actually has seven gables. The house was built by John Turner. He made the ceiling low because it was easier and cost less to heat during the winter. The best description is that there is a cylindrical 200,000-gallon tank in the center of the building that holds the giant sea turtles, huge fish, eels and more. A walkway winds its way to the top to a four-story coral reef exhibit. In some areas we saw fish that looked like Dory and Gill from “Finding Nemo.” All I could think was, “Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. What you do is keep swimming…” Did you know that Boston has a Holocaust Memorial? That is where we headed next. There are six glass towers, which are engraved with each serial number tattooed on the prisoners from the Holocaust. The six towers represent the six concentration camps. On the sides of the tower are quotes from survivors. At each end, there is a plaque that tells of the events that happened between 1933 and 1945.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

It's basically a character-driven book. Most of the action goes on within the characters' hearts. There's very little dialogue. And the few dialogues that there are sounded most unnatural to me, and that not just because of use of classical pronouns like 'thee' and 'thou.' The book presents interesting psychological studies of characters buried under a sense of guilt. But the sensibilities of the characters and their feelings and conflicts are far removed from the present day feelings and sympathies. So it is a bit hard to relate to them, more so because we hardly hear them speak. And the character of the child, and her words, sounded most unnatural of all.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

... Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, edited by William Charvat, ... Mifflin Company for permission to quote from Hawthorne's Prefaces in the ...

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Shmoop Biography

... Rose Hawthorne (1851-1926) Son: Julian Hawthorne (1846-1934) Quotes "For ... Nathaniel Hawthorne,The Scarlet Letter, Chapter 18 30 "The fiend in his own ...

Nathaniel Hawthorne, the contemporary reviews

Be sure they lose nothing of their real vitality or kindling power to virtue and the imagination in such hands as Nathaniel Hawthorne's. [Quotes extensively ...

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The scarlet letter

Franklin Pierce, a man of no linguistic originality, used the figure in a speech of 1841 that Hawthorne quotes,17 and Turner suggests that Hawthorne himself ...

The Entanglements of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Haunted Minds and Ambiguous Approaches

In Salem is My Dwelling Place: A Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne (1991), Edward Haviland ... Miller quotes Hawthorne's abandoned manuscript on Dr. Grimshawe, ...