On The Loneliness In Hawthorne’s Short Stories

Hawthorne is a great writer in American literary history. He is one of the few observers who are calm enough to explore the dark side of human nature during the Romantic period in 19 th century. His philosophy about human nature has a special significance crossing age and era. The evil of human nature and the loneliness of human beings are two important contents of Hawthorne’s philosophy on human nature. He discusses in many of his short stories that loneliness and evil could devour one’s mind. He believes that loneliness is the root of all evil, from which human begins and comes to an end.From the perspective of Freud’s psychoanalysis, this thesis analyses loneliness presented in Hawthorne’s short stories, including lonely images in Hawthorne’s short stories, the scenes where the loneliness appears and Psychic conflict at the moment when loneliness appears. Besides, this thesis, taking his family legacy and his personal experience, the Puritanism and the Transcendentalism in 19 th century into consideration, tries to explain how Hawthorne’s thought is shaped.His thought has positive meanings not only to America society in 19 th century,but also to the modern society. The development of science, technology and the abundant of various materials provide space for the modern citizens to stay alone,loneliness occurs as shadows and become an unavoidable perplexity. Rediscovering Hawthorne’s thoughts on loneliness can give us a hint to find a way out of loneliness.