After having a child out of wedlock, Hester Prynne is shunned by her Puritan community and forced to wear a scarlet "A" on her clothingbut Hester is not the only one who has transgressed. The guide provided informative info on the connection of the custom house and Hawthorne's novel , "The Scarlet . The room itself is cobwebbed, and dingy with old paint; its floor is strewn with grey sand, in a fashion that has elsewhere fallen into long disuse; and it is easy to conclude, from the general slovenliness of the place, that this is a sanctuary into which womankind, with her tools of magic, the broom and mop, has very infrequent access. The chief tragic event of the old mans life, so far as I could judge, was his mishap with a certain goose, which lived and died some twenty or forty years ago: a goose of most promising figure, but which, at table, proved so inveterately tough, that the carvingknife would make no impression on its carcase, and it could only be divided with an axe and handsaw. An effectwhich I believe to be observable, more or less, in every individual who has occupied the positionis, that while he leans on the mighty arm of the Republic, his own proper strength, departs from him. Lit2Go Edition. It is my belief, however, that had I attempted a different order of composition, my faculties would not have been found so pointless and inefficacious. $34.35. He might truly be termed a legitimate son of the revenue system, dyed in the wool, or rather born in the purple; since his sire, a Revolutionary colonel, and formerly collector of the port, had created an office for him, and appointed him to fill it, at a period of the early ages which few living men can now remember. The Scarlet Letter. This item: Scarlet Letter With the Custom House. Cluster all these individuals together, as they sometimes were, with other miscellaneous ones to diversify the group, and, for the time being, it made the CustomHouse a stirring scene. And here, some six months agopacing from corner to corner, or lounging on the longlegged tool, with his elbow on the desk, and his eyes wandering up and down the columns of the morning newspaperyou might have recognised, honoured reader, the same individual who welcomed you into his cheery little study, where the sunshine glimmered so pleasantly through the willow branches on the western side of the Old Manse. Had it been otherwisehad an active politician been put into this influential post, to assume the easy task of making head against a Whig Collector, whose infirmities withheld him from the personal administration of his officehardly a man of the old corps would have drawn the breath of official life within a month after the exterminating angel had come up the CustomHouse steps. In "The Custom House" Hawthorne speaks of a man known as the "gallant old general" who is the collector. It had been wrought, as was easy to perceive, with wonderful skill of needlework; and the stitch (as I am assured by ladies conversant with such mysteries) gives evidence of a now forgotten art, not to be discovered even by the process of picking out the threads. Still, even in respect of grace and beauty, there were points well worth noting. It seemed to methe reader may smile, but must not doubt my wordit seemed to me, then, that I experienced a sensation not altogether physical, yet almost so, as of burning heat, and as if the letter were not of red cloth, but redhot iron. MLS# 2229378. Here, too, comes his owner, cheerful, sombre, gracious or in the sulks, accordingly as his scheme of the now accomplished voyage has been realized in merchandise that will readily be turned to gold, or has buried him under a bulk of incommodities such as nobody will care to rid him of. The 1819 Custom House on Derby Street once housed the offices of U.S. Customs officials while the adjacent three-story Public Stores building was used as storage facility for merchant cargo before duties were paid. From the loftiest point of its roof, during precisely three and a half hours of each forenoon, floats or droops, in breeze or calm, the banner of the republic; but with the thirteen stripes turned vertically, instead of horizontally, and thus indicating that a civil, and not a military, post of Uncle Sams government is here established. Hawthorne The Custom House Essay Level: College, University, Master's, High School, PHD, Undergraduate Level: College, University, Master's, High School, PHD, Undergraduate 15 Fiction Books By Black Authors To Fall In Love With In 2022 User ID: 625240 Level: University, College, Master's, High School, PHD, Undergraduate, Entry, Professional Boston, MA: Ticknor and Fields. It had been her habit, from an almost immemorial date, to go about the country as a kind of voluntary nurse, and doing whatever miscellaneous good she might; taking upon herself, likewise, to give advice in all matters, especially those of the heart, by which meansas a person of such propensities inevitably mustshe gained from many people the reverence due to an angel, but, I should imagine, was looked upon by others as an intruder and a nuisance. The picturesque bay window and the porch . It was sorrowful to think how many days, and weeks, and months, and years of toil had been wasted on these musty papers, which were now only an encumbrance on earth, and were hidden away in this forgotten corner, never more to be glanced at by human eyes. The original and more potent causes, however, lay in the rare perfection of his animal nature, the moderate proportion of intellect, and the very trifling admixture of moral and spiritual ingredients; these latter qualities, indeed, being in barely enough measure to keep the old gentleman from walking on allfours. So much for my figurative self. The Custom House, and Main Street by Hawthorne, Nathaniel, Brand New, Free sh. On the contrary, I have allowed myself, as to such points, nearly, or altogether, as much license as if the facts had been entirely of my own invention. This I now opened, and had the satisfaction to find recorded by the old Surveyors pen, a reasonably complete explanation of the whole affair. My fellowofficers, and the merchants and seacaptains with whom my official duties brought me into any manner of connection, viewed me in no other light, and probably knew me in no other character. Copyright 20062022 by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida. This faith, more than anything else, steals the pith and availability out of whatever enterprise he may dream of undertaking. Oftentimes they were asleep, but occasionally might be heard talking together, ill voices between a speech and a snore, and with that lack of energy that distinguishes the occupants of almshouses, and all other human beings who depend for subsistence on charity, on monopolized labour, or anything else but their own independent exertions. Unless people are more than commonly disagreeable, it is my foolish habit to contract a kindness for them. at once shadowy and sensual, A tender loin of beef, a hindquarter of veal, a sparerib of pork, a particular chicken, or a remarkably praiseworthy turkey, which had perhaps adorned his board in the days of the elder Adams, would be remembered; while all the subsequent experience of our race, and all the events that brightened or darkened his individual career, had gone over him with as little permanent effect as the passing breeze. Thus, therefore, the floor of our familiar room has become a neutral territory, somewhere between the real world and fairyland, where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbue itself with the nature of the other. The life of the Custom-House lies like a dream behind me. However, the date of retrieval is often important. On Hester Prynnes story, therefore, I bestowed much thought. The quizzes have 12-18 questions and begin with a quiz over the author and the intro in the novel called "The Custom House." The rest of the quizzes are divided into groups of five, with quizzes over chapters 1-5, 6-10, 11-15, 16-20, and finally 21-24. Here are links to our lists for the novel: The Custom-House, Chapters 1-4 . These old gentlemenseated, like Matthew at the receipt of custom, but not very liable to be summoned thence, like him, for apostolic errandswere CustomHouse officers. The heat that had formerly pervaded his nature, and which was not yet extinct, was never of the kind that flashes and flickers in a blaze; but rather a deep red glow, as of iron in a furnace. As Salem was an important seaport for the United States at this time, custom houses were built to collect taxes on incoming cargo. Henceforth it ceases to be a reality of my life; I am a citizen of somewhere else. But I charge you, in this matter of old Mistress Prynne, give to your predecessors memory the credit which will be rightfully due And I said to the ghost of Mr. Surveyor PueI will. If, in our country, valour were rewarded by heraldic honour, this phrasewhich it seems so easy to speak, but which only he, with such a task of danger and glory before him, has ever spokenwould be the best and fittest of all mottoes for the Generals shield of arms. Looking at him merely as an animaland there was very little else to look athe was a most satisfactory object, from the thorough healthfulness and wholesomeness of his system, and his capacity, at that extreme age, to enjoy all, or nearly all, the delights which he had ever aimed at or conceived of. Providence had meditated better things for me than I could possibly imagine for myself. Large quantities of similar rubbish lay lumbering the floor. The founders of the greater part of the families which now compose the aristocracy of Salem might here be traced, from the petty and obscure beginnings of their traffic, at periods generally much posterior to the Revolution, upward to what their children look upon as longestablished rank. It throws its unobtrusive tinge throughout the room, with a faint ruddiness upon the walls and ceiling, and a reflected gleam upon the polish of the furniture. As you walk into your new home, you'll be greeted by the formal living and dining room with vaulted ceilings, decorative crown molding and luxurious architectural details. Peace be with all the world My blessing on my friends My forgiveness to my enemies For I am in the realm of quiet, The life of the CustomHouse lies like a dream behind me. I remembered to have read (probably in Felts Annals) a notice of the decease of Mr. Surveyor Pue, about fourscore years ago; and likewise, in a newspaper of recent times, an account of the digging up of his remains in the little graveyard of St. Peters Church, during the renewal of that edifice. Nor did it quit me when, late at night, I sat in the deserted parlour, lighted only by the glimmering coalfire and the moon, striving to picture forth imaginary scenes, which, the next day, might flow out on the brightening page in manyhued description. "Introduction: The Custom-House." $58.00. It was marked with the noble and heroic qualities which showed it to be not a mere accident, but of good right, that he had won a distinguished name. A remarkable event of the third year of my Surveyorshipto adopt the tone of P. The brave soldier had already numbered, nearly or quite, his threescore years and ten, and was pursuing the remainder of his earthly march, burdened with infirmities which even the martial music of his own spiritstirring recollections could do little towards lightening. Within the main story of the novel, some important locations include: the scaffold the forest outside of town the prison-house , which was written just after he was fired from the Salem Custom House in 1849. Entdecke CUSTOM HOUSE ; SCARLET LETTER ; HOUSE OF SEVEN GABLES ; Nathaniel Hawthorne in groer Auswahl Vergleichen Angebote und Preise Online kaufen bei eBay Kostenlose Lieferung fr viele Artikel! Not so with our old Inspector One brief sigh sufficed to carry off the entire burden of these dismal reminiscences. It is sadly curious to observe how slight a taste of office suffices to infect a poor fellow with this singular disease. A 10 out of 10. It converts them from snowimages into men and women. $33.27. I recall the figures and appellations of these few. It was the recollection of those memorable words of hisIll try, Sirspoken on the very verge of a desperate and heroic enterprise, and breathing the soul and spirit of New England hardihood, comprehending all perils, and encountering all. This introduction serves as a background of the novel, explaining the circumstances of its creation. The Custom House serves the small ship traffic going through the port, but it is usually a quiet place requiring only minimal work. Suffice it here to say that a CustomHouse officer of long continuance can hardly be a very praiseworthy or respectable personage, for many reasons; one of them, the tenure by which he holds his situation, and another, the very nature of his business, whichthough, I trust, an honest oneis of such a sort that he does not share in the united effort of mankind. It was only with the assistance of a servant, and by leaning his hand heavily on the iron balustrade, that he could slowly and painfully ascend the CustomHouse steps, and, with a toilsome progress across the floor, attain his customary chair beside the fireplace. https://library.northshore.edu/Hawthorne-Literature. Why does the narrator drop the scarlet badge? The remainder may perhaps be applied to purposes equally valuable hereafter, or not impossibly may be worked up, so far as they go, into a regular history of Salem, should my veneration for the natal soil ever impel me to so pious a task. (including. Now it was that the lucubrations of my ancient predecessor, Mr. Surveyor Pue, came into play. The characters of the narrative would not be warmed and rendered malleable by any heat that I could kindle at my intellectual forge. It still haunts me, and induces a sort of homefeeling with the past, which I scarcely claim in reference to the present phase of the town. They spent a good deal of time, also, asleep in their accustomed corners, with their chairs tilted back against the walls; awaking, however, once or twice in the forenoon, to bore one another with the several thousandth repetition of old seastories and mouldy jokes, that had grown to be passwords and countersigns among them. On emerging from the Old Manse, it was chiefly this strange, indolent, unjoyous attachment for my native town that brought me to fill a place in Uncle Sams brick edifice, when I might as well, or better, have gone somewhere else. The same torpor, as regarded the capacity for intellectual effort, accompanied me home, and weighed upon me in the chamber which I most absurdly termed my study. Nothing is too small or too trifling to undergo this change, and acquire dignity thereby. Then, moreover, as regarded his unceremonious ejectment, the late Surveyor was not altogether illpleased to be recognised by the Whigs as an enemy; since his inactivity in political affairshis tendency to roam, at will, in that broad and quiet field where all mankind may meet, rather than confine himself to those narrow paths where brethren of the same household must diverge from one anotherhad sometimes made it questionable with his brother Democrats whether he was a friend. The Custom House, by Nathaniel Hawthorne | 3primetime3 Wiki | Fandom It is a little remarkable, thatthough disinclined to talk overmuch of myself and my affairs at the fireside, and to my personal friendsan autobiographical impulse should twice in my life have. Finally, little heroic as he was, it seemed more decorous to be overthrown in the downfall of the party with which he had been content to stand than to remain a forlorn survivor, when so many worthier men were falling: and at last, after subsisting for four years on the mercy of a hostile administration, to be compelled then to define his position anew, and claim the yet more humiliating mercy of a friendly one. Instant downloads of all 1668 LitChart PDFs Are you sure you want to remove #bookConfirmation# place. I doubt greatlyor, rather, I do not doubt at allwhether any public functionary of the United States, either in the civil or military line, has ever had such a patriarchal body of veterans under his orders as myself. It was not merely during the three hours and a half which Uncle Sam claimed as his share of my daily life that this wretched numbness held possession of me. But, on examining the papers which the parchment commission served to envelop, I found more traces of Mr. Pues mental part, and the internal operations of his head, than the frizzled wig had contained of the venerable skull itself. From father to son, for above a hundred years, they followed the sea; a greyheaded shipmaster, in each generation, retiring from the quarterdeck to the homestead, while a boy of fourteen took the hereditary place before the mast, confronting the salt spray and the gale which had blustered against his sire and grandsire. They seemed to have flung away all the golden grain of practical wisdom, which they had enjoyed so many opportunities of harvesting, and most carefully to have stored their memory with the husks. What I saw in himas evidently as the indestructible ramparts of Old Ticonderoga, already cited as the most appropriate similewas the features of stubborn and ponderous endurance, which might well have amounted to obstinacy in his earlier days; of integrity, that, like most of his other endowments, lay in a somewhat heavy mass, and was just as unmalleable or unmanageable as a ton of iron ore; and of benevolence which, fiercely as he led the bayonets on at Chippewa or Fort Erie, I take to be of quite as genuine a stamp as what actuates any or all the polemical philanthropists of the age. In my particular case the consolatory topics were close at hand, and, indeed, had suggested themselves to my meditations a considerable time before it was requisite to use them. We start off with a little direct address from our narrator. Meanwhile, the merchants and shipmasters, the spruce clerks and uncouth sailors, entered and departed; the bustle of his commercial and CustomHouse life kept up its little murmur round about him; and neither with the men nor their affairs did the General appear to sustain the most distant relation. The better part of my companions character, if it have a better part, is that which usually comes uppermost in my regard, and forms the type whereby I recognise the man. It is well known that Hawthorne actually worked in a custom house, which leads one to presume that he is the narrator. With his own ghostly hand, the obscurely seen, but majestic, figure had imparted to me the scarlet symbol and the little roll of explanatory manuscript. It is no indication, however, of a lack of cheerfulness in the writers mind: for he was happier while straying through the gloom of these sunless fantasies than at any time since he had quitted the Old Manse. It had been intended, there could be no doubt, as an ornamental article of dress; but how it was to be worn, or what rank, honour, and dignity, in bypast times, were signified by it, was a riddle which (so evanescent are the fashions of the world in these particulars) I saw little hope of solving. But, as thoughts are frozen and utterance benumbed, unless the speaker stand in some true relation with his audience, it may be pardonable to imagine that a friend, a kind and apprehensive, though not the closest friend, is listening to our talk; and then, a native reserve being thawed by this genial consciousness, we may prate of the circumstances that lie around us, and even of ourself, but still keep the inmost Me behind its veil. Nathaniel Hawthorne THE CUSTOM-HOUSE. In short, unpleasant as was my predicament, at best, I saw much reason to congratulate myself that I was on the losing side rather than the triumphant one. This introductory section also links 1600s Boston to 1800s Boston, which was the time period in which Hawthorne was writing. According to the received code in such matters, it would have been nothing short of duty, in a politician, to bring every one of those white heads under the axe of the guillotine. Meanwhile, the press had taken up my affair, and kept me for a week or two careering through the public prints, in my decapitated state, like Irvings Headless Horseman, ghastly and grim, and longing to be buried, as a political dead man ought. The boy, also in due time, passed from the forecastle to the cabin, spent a tempestuous manhood, and returned from his worldwanderings, to grow old, and die, and mingle his dust with the natal earth. Planted deep, in the towns earliest infancy and childhood, by these two earnest and energetic men, the race has ever since subsisted here; always, too, in respectability; never, so far as I have known, disgraced by a single unworthy member; but seldom or never, on the other hand, after the first two generations, performing any memorable deed, or so much as putting forward a claim to public notice. His fellow workers mostly hold lifetime appointments secured by family connections. But then, what reams of other manuscriptsfilled, not with the dulness of official formalities, but with the thought of inventive brains and the rich effusion of deep heartshad gone equally to oblivion; and that, moreover, without serving a purpose in their day, as these heapedup papers had, andsaddest of allwithout purchasing for their writers the comfortable livelihood which the clerks of the CustomHouse had gained by these worthless scratchings of the pen. Hawthorne, Nathaniel. No aim that I have ever cherished would they recognise as laudable; no success of mineif my life, beyond its domestic scope, had ever been brightened by successwould they deem otherwise than worthless, if not positively disgraceful. Poking and burrowing into the heapedup rubbish in the corner, unfolding one and another document, and reading the names of vessels that had long ago foundered at sea or rotted at the wharves, and those of merchants never heard of now on Change, nor very readily decipherable on their mossy tombstones; glancing at such matters with the saddened, weary, halfreluctant interest which we bestow on the corpse of dead activityand exerting my fancy, sluggish with little use, to raise up from these dry bones an image of the old towns brighter aspect, when India was a new region, and only Salem knew the way thitherI chanced to lay my hand on a small package, carefully done up in a piece of ancient yellow parchment. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars . At some future day, it may be, I shall remember a few scattered fragments and broken paragraphs, and write them down, and find the letters turn to gold upon the page. The original papers, together with the scarlet letter itselfa most curious relicare still in my possession, and shall be freely exhibited to whomsoever, induced by the great interest of the narrative, may desire a sight of them I must not be understood affirming that, in the dressing up of the tale, and imagining the motives and modes of passion that influenced the characters who figure in it, I have invariably confined myself within the limits of the old Surveyors halfadozen sheets of foolscap. Nevertheless, vixenly as she looks, many people are seeking at this very moment to shelter themselves under the wing of the federal eagle; imagining, I presume, that her bosom has all the softness and snugness of an eiderdown pillow. If he possesses an unusual share of native energy, or the enervating magic of place do not operate too long upon him, his forfeited powers may be redeemable. Post navigation The truth seems to be, however, that when he casts his leaves forth upon the wind, the author addresses, not the many who will fling aside his volume, or never take it up, but the few who will understand him better than most of his schoolmates or lifemates. 4 beds, 3 baths, 3101 sq. ("Customs" are the taxes paid on foreign imports into a country; a "customhouse" is the building where these taxes are paid.) Page 7 of 21. . Nothing could be further from the truth. They spoke with far more interest and unction of their mornings breakfast, or yesterdays, todays, or tomorrows dinner, than of the shipwreck of forty or fifty years ago, and all the worlds wonders which they had witnessed with their youthful eyes. This is a packet of multiple choice quizzes for Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Soon, likewise, my old native town will loom upon me through the haze of memory, a mist brooding over and around it; as if it were no portion of the real earth, but an overgrown village in cloudland, with only imaginary inhabitants to people its wooden houses and walk its homely lanes, and the unpicturesque prolixity of its main street. Here, in a wordand it is a rare instance in my lifeI had met with a person thoroughly adapted to the situation which he held. It appears to mewho have been a calm and curious observer, as well in victory as defeatthat this fierce and bitter spirit of malice and revenge has never distinguished the many triumphs of my own party as it now did that of the Whigs. Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American short story writer and novelist. Thus, by an inevitable necessity, as a magnet attracts steelfilings, so did our man of business draw to himself the difficulties which everybody met with. They would take neither the glow of passion nor the tenderness of sentiment, but retained all the rigidity of dead corpses, and stared me in the face with a fixed and ghastly grin of contemptuous defiance. "The truth seems to be, however, that, when he casts his leaves forth upon the wind, the author addresses, not the many who will fling aside his volume, or never take it up, but the few who will understand him, better than most of his schoolmates or lifemates." Nathaniel Hawthorne , The Scarlet Letter tags: the-custom-house 0 likes Like seem to lose their actual substance, and become things of intellect." Then, at such an hour, and with this scene before him, if a man, sitting all alone, cannot dream strange things, and make them look like truth, he need never try to write romances. by Nathaniel Hawthorne Hardcover. I must plead guilty to the charge of abbreviating the official breath of more than one of these venerable servants of the republic. One of thirteen custom homes built in Salem in early America, the Custom House is known for its appearance in Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel The Scarlett Letter. Conscious of his own infirmitythat his tempered steel and elasticity are losthe for ever afterwards looks wistfully about him in quest of support external to himself. It would not reflect, or only with miserable dimness, the figures with which I did my best to people it. There would have been something sad, unutterably dreary, in all this, had I not been conscious that it lay at my own option to recall whatever was valuable in the past. Fortunately, his best friend was Franklin . What have you to do with us? that expression seemed to say. I seem to have a stronger claim to a residence here on account of this grave, bearded, sablecloaked, and steeplecrowned progenitorwho came so early, with his Bible and his sword, and trode the unworn street with such a stately port, and made so large a figure, as a man of war and peacea stronger claim than for myself, whose name is seldom heard and my face hardly known. A soldierNew Englands most distinguished soldierhe stood firmly on the pedestal of his gallant services; and, himself secure in the wise liberality of the successive administrations through which he had held office, he had been the safety of his subordinates in many an hour of danger and heartquake General Miller was radically conservative; a man over whose kindly nature habit had no slight influence; attaching himself strongly to familiar faces, and with difficulty moved to change, even when change might have brought unquestionable improvement. 16100 Jacqueline Court [1] Contents 1 History 1.1 Origins 1.2 Construction Show details. Doubtless, however, either of these stern and blackbrowed Puritans would have thought it quite a sufficient retribution for his sins that, after so long a lapse of years, the old trunk of the family tree, with so much venerable moss upon it, should have borne, as its topmost bough, an idler like myself. Such were some of the people with whom I now found myself connected. All three give glimpses of the shops of grocers, blockmakers, slopsellers, and shipchandlers, around the doors of which are generally to be seen, laughing and gossiping, clusters of old salts, and such other wharfrats as haunt the Wapping of a seaport. The old General's heroic qualities include a distinguished name, perseverance, integrity, compassion, and moral inner strength. Abstract:Nathaniel Hawthorne's essay "The Custom-House" takes the form of a classic nekuia, a descent into the underworld to confront the dead but commanding father and redeem a saving cultural Nevertheless, looking at the old warrior with affectionfor, slight as was the communication between us, my feeling towards him, like that of all bipeds and quadrupeds who knew him, might not improperly be termed so,I could discern the main points of his portrait. Moonlight, in a familiar room, falling so white upon the carpet, and showing all its figures so distinctlymaking every object so minutely visible, yet so unlike a morning or noontide visibilityis a medium the most suitable for a romancewriter to get acquainted with his illusive guests. His job at the Custom House stifles his creativity and imagination. And yet it strangely interested me. And yet, though invariably happiest elsewhere, there is within me a feeling for Old Salem, which, in lack of a better phrase, I must be content to call affection. His short stories include "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" (1832), "Roger Malvin's Burial" (1832), "Young Goodman Brown" (1835) and . The ancient Surveyorbeing little molested, suppose, at that early day with business pertaining to his officeseems to have devoted some of his many leisure hours to researches as a local antiquarian, and other inquisitions of a similar nature. tom / kstm/ n. 1. a traditional and widely accepted way of behaving or doing something that is specific to a particular society, place, or t, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) There he used to sit, gazing with a somewhat dim serenity of aspect at the figures that came and went, amid the rustle of papers, the administering of oaths, the discussion of business, and the casual talk of the office; all which sounds and circumstances seemed but indistinctly to impress his senses, and hardly to make their way into his inner sphere of contemplation. So little adapted is the atmosphere of a Customhouse to the delicate harvest of fancy and sensibility, that, had I remained there through ten Presidencies yet to come, I doubt whether the tale of The Scarlet Letter would ever have been brought before the public eye. Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic literature novel The Scarlet Letter tells a tale of an illicit roman. It was not painful to behold this look; for, though dim, it had not the imbecility of decaying age. And, in so intense a moment his demeanour would have still been calm. The fault was mine. Web. Ghosts might enter here without affrighting us. Indeed, so far as its physical aspect is concerned, with its flat, unvaried surface, covered chiefly with wooden houses, few or none of which pretend to architectural beautyits irregularity, which is neither picturesque nor quaint, but only tameits long and lazy street, lounging wearisomely through the whole extent of the peninsula, with Gallows Hill and New Guinea at one end, and a view of the almshouse at the othersuch being the features of my native town, it would be quite as reasonable to form a sentimental attachment to a disarranged checkerboard. The figure of that first ancestor, invested by family tradition with a dim and dusky grandeur, was present to my boyish imagination as far back as I can remember. With his own ghostly voice he had exhorted me, on the sacred consideration of my filial duty and reverence towards himwho might reasonably regard himself as my official ancestorto bring his mouldy and motheaten lucubrations before the public. Thus, on taking charge of my department, I found few but aged men. He had slain men with his own hand, for aught I knowcertainly, they had fallen like blades of grass at the sweep of the scythe before the charge to which his spirit imparted its triumphant energybut, be that as it might, there was never in his heart so much cruelty as would have brushed the down off a butterflys wing. There was no occasion to make much moan about this state of affairs. The third of eight . Such occasions might remind the elderly citizen of that period, before the last war with England, when Salem was a port by itself; not scorned, as she is now, by her own merchants and shipowners, who permit her wharves to crumble to ruin while their ventures go to swell, needlessly and imperceptibly, the mighty flood of commerce at New York or Boston. The next moment he was as ready for sport as any unbreeched infant: far readier than the Collectors junior clerk, who at nineteen years was much the elder and graver man of the two. But, "life" happens - and now the opportunity to enjoy this lovely space is available to some lucky buyer. None of them, I presume, had ever read a page of my inditing, or would have cared a fig the more for me if they had read them all; nor would it have mended the matter, in the least, had those same unprofitable pages been written with a pen like that of Burns or of Chaucer, each of whom was a CustomHouse officer in his day, as well as I. That was all. Here was a fine prospect in the distance. Removing #book# Free shipping. . Meanwhile, they shall be at the command of any gentleman, inclined and competent, to take the unprofitable labour off my hands. A gift, a faculty, if it had not been departed, was suspended and inanimate within me. It might be true, indeed, that this was a life which could not, with impunity, be lived too long; else, it might make me permanently other than I had been, without transforming me into any shape which it would be worth my while to take. There is one likeness, without which my gallery of CustomHouse portraits would be strangely incomplete, but which my comparatively few opportunities for observation enable me to sketch only in the merest outline. Could I have preserved the picturesque force of his style, and the humourous colouring which nature taught him how to throw over his descriptions, the result, I honestly believe, would have been something new in literature. Hawthorne. The new inhabitantwho came himself from a foreign land, or whose father or grandfather camehas little claim to be called a Salemite; he has no conception of the oysterlike tenacity with which an old settler, over whom his third century is creeping, clings to the spot where his successive generations have been embedded. The CustomHouse marker imprinted it, with a stencil and black paint, on pepperbags, and baskets of anatto, and cigarboxes, and bales of all kinds of dutiable merchandise, in testimony that these commodities had paid the impost, and gone regularly through the office. Their blood remains in his veins, but their intolerance and lack of humanity becomes the subject of his novel. A ray of humour, now and then, would make its way through the veil of dim obstruction, and glimmer pleasantly upon our faces. But even as he disagrees with his ancestor's viewpoint, he also feels an instinctual connection to them and, more importantly, a "sense of place" in Salem. Most persons, owing to causes which I may not have space to hint at, suffer moral detriment from this peculiar mode of life. Custom House in Salem for three years. It went with me on my seashore walks and rambles into the country, wheneverwhich was seldom and reluctantlyI bestirred myself to seek that invigorating charm of Nature which used to give me such freshness and activity of thought, the moment that I stepped across the threshold of the Old Manse. One of these items ships sooner than the other. In the absorbing contemplation of the scarlet letter, I had hitherto neglected to examine a small roll of dingy paper, around which it had been twisted. But now, should you go thither to seek him, you would inquire in vain for the Locofoco Surveyor. By the 1840s, he was a well known author, but he found it difficult to support his family on his . "Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804, in a small house three blocks from the Custom House. P.was the election of General Taylor to the Presidency. To observe and define his character, however, under such disadvantages, was as difficult a task as to trace out and build up anew, in imagination, an old fortress, like Ticonderoga, from a view of its grey and broken ruins. Hawthorne has ambivalent feelings about their role in his life. U.S.A. He also seeks fame. Web site: http://www.cu, Gap analysis generally refers to the activity of studying the differences between standards and the delivery of those standards. In some months of the year, however, there often chances a forenoon when affairs move onward with a livelier tread. Total price: $62.38. But, for myself, during the whole of my CustomHouse experience, moonlight and sunshine, and the glow of firelight, were just alike in my regard; and neither of them was of one whit more avail than the twinkle of a tallowcandle. This long connexion of a family with one spot, as its place of birth and burial, creates a kindred between the human being and the locality, quite independent of any charm in the scenery or moral circumstances that surround him. Summary: Salem and the Puritans The connection between Salem and the Puritans is made early on. His integrity was perfect; it was a law of nature with him, rather than a choice or a principle; nor can it be otherwise than the main condition of an intellect so remarkably clear and accurate as his to be honest and regular in the administration of affairs. 1850. We then strolled up to the Custom House and had a chance to see Nathaniel Hawthorne's desk and to hear more about the politicalclimate at the time that he was working there. On the transfer of the archives to Halifax, this package, proving to be of no public concern, was left behind, and had remained ever since unopened. ft. house located at 686 Hawthorne Pl, Creedmoor, NC 27522 sold for $480,000 on Oct 31, 2019. The old Inspector,who, by the by, I regret to say, was overthrown and killed by a horse, some time ago; else he would certainly have lived forever,he, and all those other venerable personages who sat with him at the receipt of custom, are but shadows in my view; white-headed and wrinkled images, which my fancy used to sport with . The clashing of the past and present is further explored in the character of the old General. At first collected for the British . It was well for their venerable brotherhood that the new Surveyor was not a politician, and though a faithful Democrat in principle, neither received nor held his office with any reference to political services. There was something about it that quickened an instinctive curiosity, and made me undo the faded red tape that tied up the package, with the sense that a treasure would here be brought to light. But I could imagine, even then, that, under some excitement which should go deeply into his consciousnessroused by a trumpets real, loud enough to awaken all of his energies that were not dead, but only slumberinghe was yet capable of flinging off his infirmities like a sick mans gown, dropping the staff of age to seize a battlesword, and starting up once more a warrior. It will be seen, likewise, that this CustomHouse sketch has a certain propriety, of a kind always recognised in literature, as explaining how a large portion of the following pages came into my possession, and as offering proofs of the authenticity of a narrative therein contained. Gradually, they have sunk almost out of sight; as old houses, here and there about the streets, get covered halfway to the eaves by the accumulation of new soil. This airy hall, therefore, over the Collectors apartments, remains unfinished to this day, and, in spite of the aged cobwebs that festoon its dusky beams, appears still to await the labour of the carpenter and mason. This section of the site focuses on the "Custom-House" sketch, the first chapter of Hawthorne's romance, The Scarlet Letter, which was written just after he was fired from the Salem Custom House in 1849. Externally, the jollity of aged men has much in common with the mirth of children; the intellect, any more than a deep sense of humour, has little to do with the matter; it is, with both, a gleam that plays upon the surface, and imparts a sunny and cheery aspect alike to the green branch and grey, mouldering trunk. His gourmandism was a highly agreeable trait; and to hear him talk of roast meat was as appetizing as a pickle or an oyster. Hawthorne explains that, in a certain light and time and place, objects ". The symbol endures even after those who created it have vanished. Wares included textiles, ceramics, artwork, and spices from around the world. The narrator says he now has the time to write. Nathaniel Hawthorne included "The Custom-House" as an introductory essay for the original publication of The Scarlet Letter because he believed the book was too short for successful publication. Hawthorne (as narrator) was granted the position of chief executive officer of the Custom House through the president's commission. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!, This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. LitCharts Teacher Editions. His gifts were emphatically those of a man of business; prompt, acute, clearminded; with an eye that saw through all perplexities, and a faculty of arrangement that made them vanish as by the waving of an enchanters wand. Even the old Inspector was desirable, as a change of diet, to a man who had known Alcott. Nathaniel Hawthorne worked at the U.S. It is that of the Collector, our gallant old General, who, after his brilliant military service, subsequently to which he had ruled over a wild Western territory, had come hither, twenty years before, to spend the decline of his varied and honourable life. There can be little doubt of Hawthorne's disdain for the stern morality and rigidity of the Puritans, and he imagines his predecessors' disdainful view of him: unsuccessful in their eyes, worthless and disgraceful. And, to say the truth, an appetite, sharpened by the east wind that generally blew along the passage, was the only valuable result of so much indefatigable exercise. NPS collections. The narrator's negative description of his colleagues shows his feelings about conformity. This technique, typical of the narrative conventions of his time, serves as a way of giving his story an air of historic truth. Sagaciously under their spectacles, did they peep into the holds of vessels Mighty was their fuss about little matters, and marvellous, sometimes, the obtuseness that allowed greater ones to slip between their fingers Whenever such a mischance occurredwhen a waggonload of valuable merchandise had been smuggled ashore, at noonday, perhaps, and directly beneath their unsuspicious nosesnothing could exceed the vigilance and alacrity with which they proceeded to lock, and doublelock, and secure with tape and sealingwax, all the avenues of the delinquent vessel. If his notice was sought, an expression of courtesy and interest gleamed out upon his features, proving that there was light within him, and that it was only the outward medium of the intellectual lamp that obstructed the rays in their passage. The framework of his nature, originally strong and massive, was not yet crumpled into ruin. A careful reading of this section explains the author's use of light (chiaroscuro) and setting as romance techniques in developing his themes. By an accurate measurement, each limb proved to be precisely three inches and a quarter in length. One of the most remarkable occasions, when the habit of bygone days awoke in me, was that which brings it within the law of literary propriety to offer the public the sketch which I am now writing. It would be sad injustice, the reader must understand, to represent all my excellent old friends as in their dotage. So, one fine morning I ascended the flight of granite steps, with the Presidents commission in my pocket, and was introduced to the corps of gentlemen who were to aid me in my weighty responsibility as chief executive officer of the CustomHouse. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. The step was palsied now, that had been foremost in the charge. My eyes fastened themselves upon the old scarlet letter, and would not be turned aside. Might it not, in the tedious lapse of official life that lay before me, finally be with me as it was with this venerable friendto make the dinnerhour the nucleus of the day, and to spend the rest of it, as an old dog spends it, asleep in the sunshine or in the shade? Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. The old Inspectorwho, bythebye, l regret to say, was overthrown and killed by a horse some time ago, else he would certainly have lived for everhe, and all those other venerable personages who sat with him at the receipt of custom, are but shadows in my view: whiteheaded and wrinkled images, which my fancy used to sport with, and has now flung aside for ever. So, with lightsome hearts and the happy consciousness of being usefully employedin their own behalf at least, if not for our beloved countrythese good old gentlemen went through the various formalities of office. The original manuscript ofThe Scarlet Letteris lost, and house printing style was imposed on the 1850 edition, so that version varies occasionally from Hawthorne's spelling, capitalization, and word division in manuscripts of the same time period. He asserts that, at the right time with the right scene before him, the romance writer can "dream strange things and make them look like truth.". This section of the site focuses on the "Custom-House" sketch, the first chapter of Hawthorne's romance. The first time was three or four years since, when I favoured the readerinexcusably, and for no earthly reason that either the indulgent reader or the intrusive author could imaginewith a description of my way of life in the deep quietude of an Old Manse. She had flourished during the period between the early days of Massachusetts and the close of the seventeenth century. While working at the Salem Custom House (a tax collection agency), the narrator discovered in the attic a manuscript accompanied by a beautiful scarlet letter "A." After the narrator lost his job, he decided to develop . Free shipping. After . Free shipping. The father of the CustomHousethe patriarch, not only of this little squad of officials, but, I am bold to say, of the respectable body of tidewaiters all over the United Stateswas a certain permanent Inspector. 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