It has been said about Nathaniel Hawthorne that "in his hundreds of references to witchcraft in his fiction, he was confronting his family and communal history -- a consistent and pervasive theme in his fiction."

Everyone in the class should read “Mainstreet” and “Custom House” in preparation for class discussion, even if you do not choose to write on the assignment.

Answer THREE of the Following:

1) In "Mainstreet" Hawthorne sketches 17th century Salem history.  His imaginary account of the procession along Mainstreet of the victims of the witch trials starts on page 106 and finishes on page 123. What do you make of this recital of Salem's tortured past, in the voice of a puppet “showmaster,” especially the portrayal of the witchcraft victims?  Is it a sympathic narrative meant to condemn Salem’s witch hunting past or, more generally, a cynical commentary, a puppet show about the failings of humankind.

2)"Alice Doan's Appeal" opens with a walk up to Gallows Hill, overlooking Salem, where he relates his fantastic tale of graveyards, ghosts, and tortured souls, and concludes with brief sketches of the witchcraft victims as they ascended the hill to their death and their accusers and onlookers -- creating a gloomy & dismal scene. He regrets there is no memorial to the witchcraft victims on the hill. What is Alice Doan's appeal?

3) In "Custom- House - Introductory to Scarlet Letter" Hawthorne confronts the powerful and mysterious hold that the town of Salem has on him. In this parting look at Salem and its history, at a time when he has to leave (having been fired from his job at the Custom House by a change in government), Hawthorne strives to remove the shame he feels about the past and distance himself from the curse of the past upon his family and the town itself. Is he accepting too much guilt for his ancestor's deeds  -- or is he using his confession about his family's past as a way of shaming the whole town  --  what do you think?
4) "Young man Goodman Brown of Salem Village" -- trapped in the same Devil's snare that trapped the Puritans of the old Colony -- from all ranks of society, doing the Devil's work, including Sarah Cloyse and Martha Cory, "There is no good on earth, and sin is only a name. Come Devil; for to thee is this world given." What is the meaning of this strange story about the abandonment of Faith, with its cynical (and despairing) homage to the Devil?

5)"House of Seven Gables:" Preface Hawthorne disavows any connection between the witch trails of the actual past and his "romance" his story. and suggests that despite the historical connection between the past & present in the town of Salem in which the story is set that it the story must be read as a romance. Is it? Describe Hawthorne's ghostly characters of the past, Colonel Pyncheon and Mathew Maule.