George Fox, Quaker from England(courtesy of Dr. John L. Idol, Jr.)
Excerpt from "The Gentle Boy"
Hawthorne's hesitations about the "unbridled fanaticism" of the Quakers are
evident in this passage in which Dorothy is taking in Ibrahim.
Excerpt from "The Gentle Boy"
Hawthorne illustrates the cold cruelty of Puritans toward Quakers, a cruelty
they evinced even in church.
Excerpt from "The Gentle Boy"
Hawthorne criticizes the flinty cold-heartedness of the Puritans toward Quakers
and those who would show them normal human affection and regard.
Excerpt from "The Gentle Boy"
In this passage Puritan children act out the cruelty of their parents and
physically attack Ibrahim, the gentle Quaker boy.
Excerpt from "The Gentle Boy"
In this passage Hawthorne makes clear that the Quakers may have been fanatical
and worthy, in his view, of some correction. Nevertheless, it also emerges
that the cruelty of the Puritans toward them went beyond reasonable bounds.
Excerpt from "Main Street"
Hawthorne's fundamental respect for the Quakers and their "new idea" along
with his scorn for the suspicion with which his ancestors regarded Quakers
comes through clearly in this passage.
Excerpt from "Mrs. Hutchinson,"
There is an implied criticism of Quaker fanaticism in Hawthorne's sketch,
"Mrs. Hutchinson" as the religious audacity of Antinomian Anne Hutchinson
reflects the behavior Hawthorne rejects in Catherine in "The Gentle Boy."
Hawthorne's provocative representation of religious dissident Anne Hutchinson,
also, bears some remarkable similarities to Hester Prynne of The Scarlet
Letter. His ambivalence toward Hester is mirrored in his admiration and
censure of Mrs. Hutchinson, a figure who may have influenced him when he was
composing The Scarlet Letter. In this passage from "Mrs. Hutchinson"
Hawthorne imagines the trial of Anne Hutchinson by some of the leading religious
figures of her time. While Hawthorne clearly admires Hutchinson’s spirit and
intelligence, he deplores her tremendous pride and, one surmises, comes to
agree with the judgment delivered upon her.
Excerpt from Chapter 2 of The Scarlet Letter
Hawthorne's description of the Puritan persecution of the Quakers suggests
that he must have regarded it as commonplace in the Boston of The Scarlet
Letter.
Excerpt from Chapter 6 of The Scarlet Letter
This passage depicts Pearl's relationship to the other children of Puritan
Boston and the reader learns that persecution of Quakers was so common as
to become imitated by children in their play.
Excerpt from The House of the Seven
Gables, Chapter 1
The circumstances surrounding the "haunting" of the House of the Seven Gables
by the spirit of old Matthew Maule serve not only as an indictment of the
greed of the Pyncheons, but also reflect the persecution of the actual historical
Thomas Maule, who was an outspoken Quaker and a sometimes victim of Puritan
intolerance.
Excerpt from The House of the Seven Gables, Chapter
13
In this passage Hawthorne makes free use of the historical involvement of
both Cotton Mather and Sir William Phips in the persecution of those accused
of witchcraft. In The House of the Seven Gables, Matthew Maule is hung as
a witch. His "original," Thomas Maule, a Quaker, was not hung, but rather
harassed and even whipped by the Puritans of Salem
Link to full
text of The House of the Seven Gables
