1500 words roughly double space
Choose ONE of the following topics.

Write a six to eight page essay on one of the following three topics. Do not research this essay on the following topics. SOURCE MATERIALS ARE NOT TO BE USED in the writing of the paper on this topic. Do not come within a mile of the various guides available on these works! Trust your own ability. You may only use the materials, including the introductions, contained in the Norton Anthology. Construct the paper out of your own reading of the texts. Your paper must be well written. It must be a literate document. Make sure that you have a thesis. In short, you must conclude something significant about the elements you are comparing, contrasting, analyzing.

Your essay must contain internal documentation, a combination of signal phrases and parenthetical citations: Hawthorne reveals his . . . clearly (308). Delano states this openly in the first chapter (Melville 536). There must be a Works Cited Page (does not count toward the 6 to 8 page requirement).
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Since this is such a short paper, you must be sure that you make your points in an effective manner that you arrive at the main points of your essay quickly and clearly. Be sure to draft and revise your essay carefully before you post it to the assignment section of this course. Be sure to revise. Be sure to revise.

1. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance (1852) is the third of his four completed novels. Unlike The Scarlet Letter (1850) it is set in the modern period. It is a relatively short work that contains four major characters. Write an analysis of either Coverdale or Zenobia. If you choose Coverdale, at some point in the analysis you must compare him to Aylmer (“The Birth-Mark”) Or Wakefield (“Wakefield”). Both of these Hawthorne short stories are at the course site or in the Norton text. Be sure to keep Coverdale at the center of your analysis. If you choose Zenobia, at some point in the analysis you must compare her to Hester in The Scarlet Letter. The text of The Blithedale Romance can be found online. It is not in the Norton text.

2. Herman Melville’s “Benito Cereno” is a novella (longer than a short story but shorter than a novel) about an American encounter with slavery. Analyze the main character. At some point in the analysis relate the main character to Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown.” Tie together the insights that both authors have about the nature of evil.

3. The House of the Seven Gables (1851) is the second of the four novels that Hawthorne wrote in his lifetime. It was his personal favorite, since it dealt with his hometown, Salem, Massachusetts. Write a character analysis of either the main female or male character in the novel. At some point in the paper you must make a significant comparison or contrast between the character you have chosen and Hester or Arthur/Roger in The Scarlet Letter. There must also be a comparison/contrast with ONE of the male or female characters in ONE of the Hawthorne short stories that we will read and study.