Scarlet Letter
There were many great works of writing during the romantic period of writing. Many works that captured the readers imagination. They would give people thoughts and fantasies of things that could happen. It used many depictions of and how things were during that time period. They were also very creative. These romantic stories captured great detail and imagery for the reader. Romantic stories of this time period used much symbolism in them as well. Many of them were often short stories that readers were able to finish in one sitting. Even the novels are commendable and hard to put down because of the excitement and anticipation that the stories build up. According to American Short Stories, Fourth Edition romanticism is an ardent interest in the emotions and the imagination; an awareness of the mystery, ecstasy, and yearning locked up in the human heart. It is also a fondness for the picturesque, exotic and sensational manifestations of these feelings, like imagery and symbolism; a search for new realms of experience, a thirst for novelty and a desire to live intensely. In the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the story shows the characteristics of being a novel of the romantic period
Hawthorne builds up and shows much mystery. First of all, there is the mystery of who the father of pearl is. Most of the first part of the book is about who might be the father of pearl. You find out and it is very surprising who it is. This mystery helps save Hester's life, because they don't know who the father is they alleviates her punishment from death to wearing the letter A instead. Secondly, Hawthorne creates another mystery with the appearance of Robert Chilling Worth. This is shown in this quote,"At his arrival in the market-place, and some time before she saw him, the stranger had bent his eyes on Hester Prynne. It was carelessly, at first, like a man chiefly accustomed to look inward, and to whom external matters are of little value and import, unless they bear relation to something within his mind. Very soon, however his look became keen and penetrative. A writhing horror twisted itself across his features, like a snake gliding swiftly over them, and making one little pause, with all its wreathed interevolutions in open sight. His face darkened with some powerful emotion, which, nevertheless, he so instantaneously controlled by an effort of his will, that, save at a single moment, its expression might have passed for calmness. After a brief space, the convulsion grew almost imperceptible, and finally subsided into the depths of his nature. When he found the eyes of Hester Prynne fastened on his own, and saw that she appeared to recognize him, he slowly and calmly raised his finger, made a gesture with it in the air, and laid it on his lips."(63). Hawthorne kind of leaves the man as a mystery at the beginning. He never really tells you who he is. The only person that really knows who he is, is Hester. The building up of mysteries are very important in a romantic novel. They keep the reader into the book. In conclusion, Hawthorne shows many characteristics of a romantic novel in the novel The Scarlet Letter. He made this novel very deep. There are so many different things that you can pull out of it, if you want to. The way that he describes things is one of a kind. He also shows a great deal of symbolism and that makes his books even better. There are so many things that make you not want to put this book down. He use
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1531
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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