Many American writers find the Salem Witch Trials to be a truly horrifying and frightening chapter in American history. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the writer of "Young Goodman Brown" as well as a number of other texts that are very critical of the Puritans, actually had a great great-grandfather who served as a judge in the trials. In fact, he was so embarrassed by his predecessor's involvement in such a terrible and shameful event that he added the "w" to his last name to differentiate him from Judge Hathorne, his ancestor. We can see the way Hawthorne tried to work through the guilt he seemed to feel about his family's partial responsibility for the trials through the books and short stories he wrote. He was highly critical of the Puritans in The Scarlet Letter as well as The House of the Seven Gables. He always presents them as unnecessarily severe and morally rigid; they are often hypocrites or liars who are ruled by their greed or judgment of others. Arthur Miller in his play, The Crucible, is likewise very critical of the Puritans, comparing their witch hunt to the metaphorical witch hunt that was the Red Scare in the American 1950s and 60s.
No comments:
Post a Comment