Hawthorne’s view of American history in The Scarlet Letter

As for Nathaniel Hawthorne’s approach to American history, we are obliged to focus especially on his perception of the early Puritan colonists’ generation. This stage is depicted by him essentially as full of hope and faith in their common future on the one hand, but brimming over with hardship and bringing sadness, gloom, and darkness to themselves, as well as to others, on the other hand.
The Puritans’ hope and steady belief in bright future has indeed a lot to do with the fact that they managed to move from England, to get to their Promised Land, and to set up a community on the basis of common confession, and thus a community free of religious persecution.
On a more specific level, their hope in happy destiny can be observed in their attitude towards pastor Arthur Dimmesdale; he is in fact the chief person with whom their expectations rise and fall. They perceive him as a symbol of their community, they wish him all the best, almost canonize him and, as he seems ...