Historical Explanation:
Nathaniel Hawthorne is an American short-story writer and novelist during the early 19th Century. He was born in Salem, Massachusetts where the Salem witch trials took place. His grandfather, John Hawthorne was one of the judges that sentenced witches to death. His best known works are The Scarlet Letter (1850), Twice Told Tales (1837), Mosses From an Old Manse (1846).
Metaphysical Implication:
“Happiness is a butterfly”
Hawthorne makes an analogy of a butterfly and happiness to attribute the temporal trait to happiness. Butterflies land on this for a moment, then flies away.
“Which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp”
Hawthorne says that as we try to chase after happiness, it runs away from us. Happiness is not something we can pursue.
Hawthorne further illustrates this by saying “but which, if you sit down quietly, may alight on you.” Rather, if we be still, then happiness will automatically come to us.
Hawthorne focuses on our heart intention: If we desire something we will never have it, but if we desire nothing it will come to us.
A person once asked a monk, "How do I find happiness?" The monk replied, "Take away 'How do I' from your question and what do you have?" "Find happiness," the person said. "Now take away 'Find'' the Monk replied. "Happiness." "Now you have it," the Monk said.
Practical Application:
As college students, we can live hectic lives of doing homework, writing papers, and studying for tests. We may think that we can attain happiness by making good grades. But according to Hawthorne, if we seek to make good grades solely for the sake of happiness, then we will never be happy for long; by the virtue that happiness is fleeting. Rather we should make good grades for sake of our duty, regardless of whether it makes us happy or not, and happiness will come to us.
