Scarlet Letter and how it is Romantic

A detailed Summary of Scarlet Letter and how it is Romantic

A reverend has sex with a married woman and denies the baby of his own for seven years. Sounds like a sitcom on FOX, but it is the plot of The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. If Hawthorne intended us to read this novel solely based on plot, he would not have written it. He is a romantic, believing in strong emotions that contradicted those of the rationalist views of thought and logic. The Scarlet Letter, written during the time of the Romantic Era, represents romantic literature.

Romantics had 10 certain characteristics that separated themselves from the rationalist. Those characteristics are: being young and possessing youthful qualities, is innocent and pure of purpose, has a sense of honor based not on society's rules but on some higher principle, has a knowledge of people and of life based on deep, intuitive understanding, not on formal learning, loves nature and avoids town life, and is on a quests for some higher truth in the natural world.

The first sign of nature in the novel is when the narrator gives the description of the prison door, "But, on one side of the portal, rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush, covered, in this month of June..."(46). Where the root of all the dark and evi

The Scarlet Letter is an example of Romantic Literature because the novel includes the ideas that nature is purer than society, youth over old age, and honor based on a higher principles than what society has set. On Hester's death bed, she lies near Dimmesdale as the narrator notes "a new grave was delved, near an old and sunken one, in that burial-ground beside which King's Chapel has since been built. It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both" (239). Society still recognizes Hester's punishment by having space between them, but sharing their unison of love in the afterlife. The last line of the novel ends like this "ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER A, GULES" (240). Similar to the lives of individuals, their "letters" glow on them even after their decease.

Pearl not only represents the youth also in this novel, but she can be seen as a supernatural being. Mistress Hibbens, a witch, believes that Pearl portrays the "devil child." In the governor hall, the narrator describes Pearl as, "There was a fire in her and throughout her; she seemed the unpremeditated offshoot of a passionate moment" (93). Pearl contains this energy that only the supernatural have, which is a romantic trait.

As an infant Pearl constantly played with the scarlet letter on Hester's bosom. This might have been because she possessed a supernatural sense or she was just enlightened by the elaborate design the letter contained. Whatever Pearl might contain is ambiguous, but the point being established is that she is separated from society, which makes her a part of nature.

To the Puritans, the forest represented evil because sinners signed their names in the "Black Man's" book (signing their names to the devil), but to the Romantics, the forest was where they could escape from the city's corruption. Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale did just that when they met in the forest, "Thou little knowest what a re

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Approximate Word count = 1354
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English