Analyzing Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The May-Pole of Merry Mount Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The May-Pole of Merry Mount is a story about the American dream as shown by the lively group living in Merry Mount and the no-nonsense Puritans. Both groups represent a part of America and the future of a nation. Of course, this short story is loosely based on a true historical event, and Hawthorne is clearly commenting on the attitudes and feelings of opposing ideals in this “new world”. Just look at the debate between Bradford and Morton and their views of how to interact and deal with this foreign land. We need look no further than Hawthorne’s story to see that he is divided on the issue and seems to take no sides in this fight. Therefore the story is attempting to tell the reader that this land that would become America is filled with difficult moral and social decisions, there is no black and white it is simply shades of grey. As it is stated in the story: “Jollity and gloom were contending for an empire” (Hawthorne p.1). Richard Chase states in his literary analysis of early American literature The Broken
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It is quite clear that he detests the so called “purity” of the Puritans as he describes them as such in the story: “Not far from Merry Mount was a settlement of Puritans, most dismal wretches, who said their prayers before daylight... till evening made it prayer time again. Their weapons were always at hand to shoot down the straggling savage. When they met in conclave, it was never to keep up the old English mirth, but to hear sermons three hours long...” (Hawthorne p.4). The Puritans in this case spend too much of their lives wallowing in gloom by fighting for their existence in what Bradford calls in Of Plymouth Plantation: “... a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men...” (Bradford
It is quite clear that he detests the so called “purity” of the Puritans as he describes them as such in the story: “Not far from Merry Mount was a settlement of Puritans, most dismal wretches, who said their prayers before daylight... till evening made it prayer time again. Their weapons were always at hand to shoot down the straggling savage. When they met in conclave, it was never to keep up the old English mirth, but to hear sermons three hours long...” (Hawthorne p.4). The Puritans in this case spend too much of their lives wallowing in gloom by fighting for their existence in what Bradford calls in Of Plymouth Plantation: “... a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men...” (Bradford