2.1.2 Influence from his mother

Art comes from life but more than life. Literary works are often inextricably linked with the background of their authors. The sentence also applies to Hawthorne and his works.

As introduced above, due to the special nature of his father’s work, Hawthorne did not have much time living and communicating with his father like fathers and sons of ordinary families. Compared with his mother, the role of father was almost negligible for Hawthorne. 

After his mother taking the three kids to Maine, she was living an isolated life ever after. In Maine, it seemed that Hawthorne tended to live in solitude, too. He usually read books in his room or wandered and pondered near the waterside. His living experience made him a reclusive writer. It was in such a living condition that Hawthorne had lots of thinking. 

As a witness to the miserable life of his mother, Hawthorne realized her marginal social situation, which triggered his thinking on the social status of women. They were suffering unfair treatment from their families and the society physically, mentally, economically and politically. His mother’s experience evoked his questioning of patriarchal society. 

2.1.3 Influence from his wife

Another woman attached great importance to his life and writing was his wife, Sophia Peabody. When he and his mother lived together, it is much more like a detached life far away from earthly world. Then, the meeting with Sophia Peabody was the beginning of his earthly life. The marriage seemed like a rebirth for Hawthorne. He began to merge into social life.

With a father who had originally been a teacher, a mother who sometimes ran small schools, and two older sisters who were teachers, Sophia received a wide-ranging and deep education in traditional academic subjects at home and in those schools run by her mother and sisters. She has many sterling qualities. She brought a lot to Hawthorne. For example, she rekindled his ambition to have the goal of work, and made him get the idea of making material wealth.

In a good marriage, both sides should support each other and promote each other. From their relationship, people can see the power derived from their efforts. To build up a happy family, Hawthorne took a position at the Boston Custom House for he knew that his writing could not support a family and then explored the possibility in 1841 of living at the experimental utopian community, Brook Farm. After he was fired, Hawthorne turned to full-time writing. To help with the family's finances, Sophia sold hand-painted lampshades and fire screens. Sophia was Hawthorne’s devoted and supportive lover.

From Sophia, Hawthorne saw significance, independence, power and virtue of women, which made him realize how respectable women could be. In a word, Sophia’s behavior and quality attached great importance to the formation of his feminist view.

2.2 Social factors

Social background is another factor that triggers writers to contemplate and create. The turbulent social environment is often the fertile ground for the birth of literature. Hawthorne was exactly in such an era that was a period of political turmoil, especially because of the human rights movements that later activated the development of feminism. 

Since ancient times, women have always been in a very disadvantageous position in social relations. Like women in many other countries, American women also had been living in the same kind of environment, though they had played a significant role in the development of economy and the society. They could never escape from sexual discrimination which was deeply rooted in the social cognition. 

However, thanks to some efforts made by those advanced people, women began to realize their situation and thus turn to fight for equal treatments and rights. Abigail Adam, wife of the second American president John Adam, contributed to changing women’s social status. Margaret Fuller, author of Women in the Nineteenth Century, called for the society to guarantee women’s equal rights. Her work provided solid support for women to fight for themselves. Nevertheless, their situation has not improved until the year of 1848 with the first conference of women held in Seneca Falls, mark of the rise of Feminist Movement.  解读《红字》中清教主义对霍桑女性主义的影响(4):http://www.chuibin.com/yingyu/lunwen_206631.html