Identify the passages from “The American Notebooks,” cited on page 243, with the complete works for which they furnished cues.
Read “The House of the Seven Gables” for the light it throws on the history of the Hawthorne family in the earlier generations.
Read any one of the four great romances or the three later ones with reference to the constant recurrence of sin as a theme.
Compare this treatment of sin in Hawthorne with the treatment of crime in Poe.
Hawthorne is chiefly interested in individual experience. Read one of his romances for clear evidence of his social consciousness.
Discuss his success in any given story in connecting “a bygone time with the very present that is flitting away from us.”
The use of symbols in the development of his long stories is obvious. How far does he rely upon the symbol in any one of his more effective shorter stories?
Glance over several short stories to see if any can be found in which action is not subordinated to its effect on the character who commits it.
Read a selected chapter or two, such as the earlier ones in “The House of the Seven Gables,” for observation on Hawthorne’s style, particularly on the quiet play of humor in it.