Investigating Social and Psychological Factors in the Life of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Their Impact on his Writings

Abstract

The study aims at investigating the social and psychological factors which influenced Nathaniel Hawthorne in his literary works with taking his novel “The Scarlet Letter”, as a case study. To achieve the objectives of this study the researcher used a qualitative method which implies both the coding technique and recursive abstraction in analyzing the novel “Scarlet Letter”. The study reveals that Hawthorne only represents his own community in the mid of 17th century Puritan New England and more specifically represents his social life with both Puritanism and Transcendentalism ( Salem and Boston) throughout his literary works. The study also reveals that Hawthorne literary works are influenced by his experience and in particular his historical heritage of Puritanism in a way deriving Hawthorne to express his own psycho to the wrong deeds of his ancestors’ actions. Hence, the study recommends; Hawthorne works especially novels have to besearched in depth by the students of English Literature and scholars.As well as the study suggest; Hawthorne’s literary works could be replicable on a wider scale to incudes allthe aspects of the factors that influenced Hawthorne’s literary books. These are based on the findings of the study, some recommendations, as well as some suggestions for further studying have been suggested.