This week's activities will focus on the life, times, influences and writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Assignment #1
Conduct research and find out about the life and times of Nathaniel Hawthorne. A few links are listed below. Feel free to look at other sources.
Your task is to list create a list of 15 events or experiences from Hawthorne's life that appear to be Gothic influences or are important to his writing. Please explain each choice in a sentence or two. (30 points)
Possible links:
http://www.notablebiographies.com/Gi-He/Hawthorne-Nathaniel.html
http://www.biography.com/people/nathaniel-hawthorne-9331923
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLtotbVIXuU YouTube
Assignment #2: Setting: The location of a short story includes the actual place and the historical time frame and time of the clock, and the conditions when the events in a story take place.
Now that you know something about the author, as you read the short stories assigned for this week, think about the setting of each. Links to the stories appear in Assignments 3, 4, and 5.
- In what ways does the setting relate to the life and times of Nathaniel Hawthorne?
- How does the setting add to the development of each story?
- If each story were set in a different time and place, to what extent would that change the effectiveness of each story?
You will be reading and/or listening to three short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In addition, watch the video, listen to the radio play, and learn from the lectures.
Assignment #3 -Dr. Heidegger's Experiment
http://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/130/ (Text- read)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX3jMu_4YpU Audio Book- listen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHZ3xYeIAVQ Video- view
Respond to the following questions:
1. If you had the opportunity to go back in time to an earlier version of yourself, would you? Explain why or why not.
2. Read about the mad scientist in Gothic literature. http://epublications.marquette.edu/gothic_madscientist/
Explain to what extent Dr. Heidegger fits the definition.
3. Discover the meaning of the red rose: http://www.proflowers.com/blog/history-and-meaning-behind-red-roses Conduct a quick Internet search and discover the meaning of other colors of roses. Then, pick one and explain how the story would change if the color of the rose changed.
4. In paragraph form, explain if Dr. Heidegger's experiment was a success or a failure. This is your opinion. Be sure to justify your thoughts with evidence from the story.
Assignment #4 -Rappaccini's Daughter
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/RappDaug.shtml (Text)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlQgfmRFYVM Audio Book
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-i-5xzNcdJg Radio Play
1. Conduct a Google or Yahoo search for images of gardens in Gothic literature. Take a look. Locate one that reminds you of Rappaccini's garden. Copy/paste the picture or image and explain why you selected this particular garden. In what ways is the picture like Rappaccini's garden? (Paragraphs, please!)
2. Some literary experts suggest that Rappaccini's garden is a parallel to the Garden of Eden story as told in Genesis in the Bible. This literary device is known as a Biblical Allusion. http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-allusion.html
Review both stories and compare/contrast the similarities and differences.
What elements are the same? What differs? Is this a valid comparison?
Consider the setting, characters, conflict, climax, and theme in each story as you compose your response. This may be written in paragraph form or may be completed as a chart, graph, or bulleted list.
Assignment #5-Young Goodman Brown
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/YouGoo.shtml (Text)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch7zOnWfvFg (Audio Book)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neRfnsI7ZJI&list=PLYGpCpCTW57lVb-L-PKAsmpSW8P26rw84&index=1 (There are six sections to this lecture. Please review all.)
Setting and Grave Stones
This activity comes from: https://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/study/301_Hawthorne_Goodman.html
Complete the tasks/activities that are in RED. There are FOUR tasks. Please number your responses accordingly
Learning Activities Related to "Young Goodman Brown" and Early New England Gravestones
The Black Man of the Forest with His Familiar
(courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA)
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Many of Hawthorne's stories can be read as allegories. An allegory is a story or work of art that represents another meaning. It is different than a work that draws upon symbolism to suggest other meanings. In an allegory, concrete elements, such as characters, objects, actions, and settings, stand for abstractions (such as greed, virtue, love, hope). As seen in a parable, the elements in a literary or artistic allegory work together to communicate an idea or moral. You may be familiar with Jesus of Nazareth's parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) or the seventeenth-century English classic The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. (In Bunyan's allegory, the main character, Christian, along with his companion Hopeful, is imprisoned in the castle of Giant Despair. It is a key named Promise, however, that unlocks the prison door, freeing the two and allowing them to travel together on the narrow way and beyond to the Celestial City.)
The English settlers of seventeenth and eighteenth-century New England were quite familiar with these allegories and often saw their own lives in stark allegorical terms. They lived in a world of symbols. Gravestone carvers, for example, drew upon the many symbolic images surrounding death and funerals and even the verbal metaphors of ministers of the time. They incorporated these in their own style into the gravestones they produced and created one of New England's first folk art forms.
Skulls, crossed bones, winged hourglasses, picks and shovels were just a few of the common symbols carved on gravestones in Puritan times. These carvings were a symbolic language understood by all the people. Some stonecutters, however, went beyond the use of individual symbols on their stones and carved vivid allegorical dramas. The images worked together as a kind of story in stone, communicating a moral lesson or spiritual truth to the observer. In this way, seventeenth and eighteenth century gravestones were more than memorials to the dead: they were sermons to the living.
The following learning activities will give you practice with understanding and interpreting symbolism and allegory. They will also introduce you to the art of the New England gravestone-a haunting expression of the New England mind, which was one of the chief subjects of Nathaniel Hawthorne's writing.
Activities:
1.) View the following gravestones. In writing, describe the images you see (list the characters, objects, actions, and settings, as best you can, on each one). Notice the details, especially on the Susanna Jayne and Joseph Tapping stones. After you list each element, offer your interpretation of the symbolic and/or allegorical meaning of each. In a few sentences, explain the story carved on each stone.
Detail of the Right Border of the Isaac Spofford Gravestone, 1786, Beverly, MA
Detail of the Polly
Harris Gravestone, 1787, Charlestown, MA
Detail of the Susanna
Jayne Gravestone, 1776, Marblehead, MA
Detail of the Joseph
Tapping Stone, 1678, Boston, MA
2.) A. Explain how the following gravestone images and the story "Young Goodman Brown" reveal an aspect of the Puritan imagination.
Timothy Lindall Stone, 1698/99, Charter St. Burying Ground, Salem, MA
Detail of the Left
Border of the Lindall Stone
Detail of the Right
Border of the Lindall Stone
Phinehas
Pratt Gravestone, 1680, Charlestown, MA.
Detail of the Zechariah Long Gravestone, 1688, Charlestown, MA
Joseph Tapping Gravestone, 1678, Boston, MA
B. ) Reading and Writing Epitaphs:
Along with symbolic images, gravestone makers carved inscriptions on early New England gravestones. Often quaint and curious (if not outright strange), these epitaphs usually give essential biographical information: name, age, death date, names of parents and, for women, name of husband. Many epitaphs even include a vivid description of the cause of death or a eulogistic sentiment praising the virtues or accomplishments of the deceased. Most stones offer a few lines of hopeful-or not-so-hopeful-verse to the passerby. A common sentiment is "Death is a Debt to Nature due, / Which I have paid and so must You." Latin phrases, such as "Tempus Fugit" (Time Flies) and "Memento Mori" (Remember Death) are other common expressions inscribed on early New England gravestones.
Like the symbolic and allegorical carvings, gravestone epitaphs provide glimpses into the lives, beliefs, and imaginations of the first English settlers. They have many truths to tell. Puritan minister and writer, Cotton Mather, made this well-known comment on Boston's colonial gravestones: "And know, reader, that though the stones in this wilderness are already grown so witty as to speak, they never yet that I could hear of, grew so wicked as to lye."
Activities:
3.) Read over the following questions, and with these in mind, view the gravestones and read the epitaphs below. When you are done, answer the questions fully.
- What do you notice about the use of language and punctuation on early New England gravestones?
- What social and/or religious values and beliefs are stated or implied in the epitaphs?
- What insights do you gain into daily life in early New England?
- Elizabeth
Parris Gravestone, 1696, Danvers, MA.
- Nathanael
Mather Gravestone, 1688, Salem, MA
- Ephraim
Dean Gravestone, 1792, Attleboro, MA.
- Capt. Thomas
Lake Gravestone, 1676, Copp's Hill, Boston, MA.
- Gravestone
of Mary Robinson, 1722, Duxbury, MA
- Mary Harvey
and Child Gravestone, 1785, Deerfield, MA
- Epitaph on the Nathan
Cutting Stone, 1803, Westminster, MA.
- Gravestone
for "Caesar the Ethiopian," North Attleboro, MA.
- Rev. Jonathan
Pierpont Gravestone, 1709, Wakefield, MA.
- Epitaph on a Stone in the Milton Cemetery, Milton, MA.
4.) At the end of "Young Goodman Brown," Hawthorne writes: "And when he had lived long, and was borne to his grave, a hoary corpse, followed by Faith, an aged woman, and children and grand-children, a goodly procession, besides neighbors, not a few, they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone; for his dying hour was gloom."
Using any of the above as models, write an epitaph for Goodman Brown. Be sure it is faithful to the story and reflects your understanding of Brown's conflict and Hawthorne's theme. Begin with these words: "Here lyes ye body of Young Goodman Brown, . . . ."
or
Using the same approach as above, write an epitaph for Young Goodman Brown's wife, Faith.
Discussion Board - Week #2
Is Arizona a good setting for a modern or ancient Gothic story? If so, tell of specific locations and times. Have a bit of fun with this. For example, I recently visited the Desert Botanical Gardens in the evening. The sun had set, and a full moon was ascending in the eastern sky. I couldn't help but think that the desert, resplendent with giant cacti and Palo Verdes might just be a terrific setting for a Gothic story or poem. Add a bat or two and a howling coyote, and you have the makings of a frightening tale! Post three times - an original post plus two responses to others. (30 points)
Reading Alert!
Start reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. http://www.learnlibrary.com/jekyll-hyde/ Try to get through the first five books/chapters. You might try the chapter-a-day approach. Sometimes it is better to "digest" novels in small reading bites! Pay attention to the "mad scientist" and to the setting
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