Puritan Projections In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s "The Scarlet Letter" And Stephen King’s "Carrie"
Open Access
- 1 June 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by New Bulgarian University in English Studies at NBU
- Vol. 7 (1), 69-86
- https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.21.1.5
Abstract
It is considered that the Puritans that populated New England in the 17th century left a distinctive mark on the American culture. The article explores some projections of Puritan legacy in two American novels of different periods – Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850) and Stephen King’s Carrie (1974). After establishing a connection between the Puritan writings and gothic literature, the two novels are analyzed in terms of some Puritan projections, among which are the problem of guilt and the acceptance of an individual in the society. Some references regarding the idea of the witch and the interpretations it bears, especially in terms of the female identity, are also identified. Despite the different approach of the authors in terms of building their characters, those references are mostly used in a negative way, as an instrument of criticism and exposing inconvenient truths.Keywords
This publication has 11 references indexed in Scilit:
- IntroductionPublished by Taylor & Francis Ltd ,2020
- A Lost Lady: A Narrative of Manifest Destiny and NeocolonialismEnglish Studies at NBU, 2020
- “We Found the Witch, May We Burn Her?”: Suburban Gothic, Witch‐Hunting, and Anxiety‐Induced Conformity in Stephen King's CarrieThe Journal of American Culture, 2017
- Maps of Heaven, Maps of Hell: Religious Terror as Memory from the Puritans to Stephen KingPublished by Taylor & Francis Ltd ,2016
- American Gothic CulturePublished by Edinburgh University Press ,2016
- An Examination of the Use of Gendered Language in Stephen King's CARRIEThe Explicator, 2013
- A Thematic Analysis of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letterk@ta, 2009
- The Specter of SalemPublished by University of Chicago Press ,2008
- Investigations of an AmericanistJournal of American History, 1991
- Guilt, Ethics and ReligionRoyal Institute of Philosophy Lectures, 1968