ipl-logo

Scarlet Letter Romanticism Essay

780 Words4 Pages

The Scarlet Letter is a novel that boldly exemplifies the definition of American Romanticism to place God back into the natural world and enveloping humans in an untamed, natural environment. Numerous connections to God and nature found in the novel are identified within individual characters. Pearl shows this deep connection through her free, untamed spirit, directly found in nature and nature and the animals that inhabit it. The rosebush, as seen throughout the novel, has a subtle yet meaningful impact on Hester and the outcome of her sin. Arthur Dimmesdale’s soul torn in two directions, to the cognitive thinking of the truth, and hiding in fear with the word of God. Roger Chillingworth’s attempts to murder Arthur Dimmesdale by breaking the bonds created of nature, with nature. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne creates a superb connection as an American Romanticism era novel by enveloping the untamed world filled with the righteous and evil acts that human beings encounter coincides with human integration of nature and God. From the first few pages of the novel, it is evident that Hester Prynne’s daughter, Pearl is a vivid character who …show more content…

Dimmesdale love for Hester and Pearl, his secret lover and his child is clouded by his fear and cowardness to remain in the past. Dimmesdale inner fear of the truth becoming exposed has resulted in him hiding the truth with his love of God to do good in the world. Dimmesdale became mentally unstable as he could not speak his mind due to conforming with the old, original ideas and beliefs, straying away from the new American culture. Once Dimmesdale revealed he too had a scarlet letter on his chest, symbolizing the impossibility to hide a sin, and eventually, they will surface to be

Show More
Related

Scarlet Letter Pearl's Bond With Nature

801 Words | 4 Pages

Though Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter two hundred years after the Puritan era, an insight into their community is still seen. Though some characters embody the Puritan era, others are the opposite. Pearl’s strong bond with nature connects her to Romanticism and individualistic spirit disconnects her from Puritanism, and Hester, like her daughter, does not reflect the Puritan era through her indulgence in clothing and emotional characteristics. Pearl’s bond with nature connects her to Romanticism. Pearl’s connection with nature is demonstrated when she is described to be as wild as a bird (Hawthorne 139).

Read More

Juxtaposition In Scarlet Letter

752 Words | 4 Pages

Dimmesdale has many tapestries strung around his house that literally depict scenes regarding adultery. This shows that he is recognizing his sin or he is just obsessed with adultery, which connects to Hester either way. Also, Pearl takes the burrs and lines them around her mother’s scarlet letter, then later on throws some burrs at Dimmesdale, symbolizing her giving him his own A. Dimmesdale also berates himself publicly as a sinner, although not announcing what his sin is, and says phrases like “It must needs be better for the sufferer to be free to show his pain, as this poor woman Hester is, than to cover it all up in his heart” (212), which shows that he must be putting a great deal of thought into both Hester and his sin. Also, throughout the story he constantly seems to either be clutching or covering his chest pain to possibly hide an A, which is later hinted towards as Chillingworth, who has a life goal of finding out who Pearl’s father is, rips open Dimmesdale’s shirt and immediately erupts into a fit of triumph. This means that there is an actual indication, possibly a self-branded A, on his chest that he is Pearl’s father, which unravels all the previously foreshadowed hints and deems all suspicions therefore

Read More

How Does Hester Prynne Change Throughout The Scarlet Letter

620 Words | 3 Pages

Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter follows Hester Prynne, a young woman living in puritan Massachusetts in the mid-1600s, and how the label of being an “adulterer” considerably impacts her life for years after the crime. Arthur Dimmesdale, an unmarried man and the town’s respected minister, is secretly the father of Hester’s newly born daughter, and the guilt he experiences slowly kills him throughout the novel. The Scarlet Letter was never meant to be a love story; Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale would never have ended up together due to their positions in society and how their lives were affected following the scandal.

Read More

Who Is Hester A Sinner In The Scarlet Letter

1066 Words | 5 Pages

Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter writes about a love affair between a Puritan Minister, Arthur Dimmesdale and a married woman, Hester Prynne. This affair results in the birth of their daughter Pearl, who later becomes important in the story. As a result of this forbidden relationship, Hester is condemned to public shame by wearing a Scarlet Letter. Because of the Scarlet Letter, Hester is looked down upon by the community and, at first Dimmesdale doesn’t receive any of the blame. Hawthorne uses his characters to represent transition and change in America in the 1800’s.

Read More

Hester, Pearl, And Roger Chillingworth In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

1486 Words | 6 Pages

The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a remarkable American novel. Hawthorne created this story to have many different characters. The main characters of this book are Hester Prynne, Pearl, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Most of these main characters evolved throughout the book, however, this is not true for all of them. Despite Hester, Pearl, and Dimmesdale evolving throughout The Scarlet Letter, the only character that did not change was Chillingworth, who was introduced as evil which eventually led to his demise.

Read More

Scarlet Letter Essay

1138 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” the puritan society emphasizes their strict morals and religious beliefs that sinning of any kind is not tolerated and should be confessed as the result of punishment. Hester Prynn and Arthur Dimmesdale commit the sin of adultery and only Hester confesses her partaking in the sin and receives her punishments. By Hester confessing her sin, she is able to gain forgiveness from God and feel guilt free. Meanwhile, Dimmesdale is consumed by his overpowering guilt of not confessing and enduring the punishments with Hester. Through the experiences of Hester and Dimmesdale, Hawthorne suggests that revealing sin leads to growth while concealing sin leads to guilt and self-destruction.

Read More

Roger Chillingworth The Greatest Sinner

623 Words | 3 Pages

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is seen as an outcast in the Puritan dominated society. She is punished for her sin of adultery, however, she is not the greatest sinner. Roger Chillingworth is a manipulative man who commits even more atrocious crimes. He forces Hester to marry him and does not treat her very well. He is later consumed by revenge and hides his identity in order to punish Dimmesdale.

Read More

Mother Nature In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

1291 Words | 6 Pages

Nathaniel Hawthorne writes The Scarlet Letter and demonstrates the controversial topic through the scarlet letter “A”, which is owned by Hester Prynne. The scarlet letter represents sin, adultery, righteousness, and able throughout the story. Besides the major theme, there is the significance of Mother Nature expresses the essential relationships between main characters, the contrast to the Puritan society, and changes in several different situations. It makes the society lightened and brought honesty back. Hester has imprisoned, and there is the rosebush on the outside of prison-door.

Read More

How Does Nathaniel Hawthorne Use Biblical Allusions In The Scarlet Letter

1458 Words | 6 Pages

However, he also uses these allusions to create a new side to his narrative as evident when he describes Hester’s resilience, and to create a new element in the plot as evident in his description of Dimmesdale’s penance and need for redemption. Therefore, Hawthorne demonstrates an effective use of allusions to craft a religious and detailed narrative for The Scarlet Letter by reviewing on parallels between the Bible and the novel’s main characters. There’s more to The Scarlet Letter than these allusions though, and there are many questions to answer about this book. These questions may never be answered fully, but by reading the novel itself, we might find the right places to start searching for answers and formulate our own opinions on the matter. What’s important from this novel is the realistic warning about what might happens when an individual place themselves too highly among others, a message Hawthorne writes to warn against the fervor of transcendentalism of his time.

Read More

Chillingworth's Journeys In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

1346 Words | 6 Pages

“The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a classic American novel that explores many themes including society, religion, and personal growth. The main characters of the novel include Hester, a shamed adulteress; Dimmesdale, a guilty preacher; Roger Chillingworth, a vengeful husband; and Pearl, an innocent child. Each of these characters experience their own journeys that fundamentally change themselves and their morals. Hester’s journey is one of shame to strength while Dimmesdale’s is one from a moral figure to tortured sinner. Roger Chillingworth, an intelligent scholar becomes an insidious, vengeful villain.

Read More

Who Is The Protagonist In The Scarlet Letter

251 Words | 2 Pages

The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story of two lovers who are in search of redeeming themselves by God and how society has them in confinement where they cannot wiggle or stretch for a breath of freedom. Each persuading idea for one of the two being the Protagonist develops; in which as the story goes into great detail of how passion for love began in a colony of puritan rule and how they both fell into struggle, but found happiness in between to make a balance of hope. The protagonist is assured to be Hester Prynne because of how she tries to atone for her sin, how Nature does not approve of her hiding her true self, and her title with the vivid red letter A on her chest. While that is true Dimmesdale can still be argued to be

Read More

Guilt And Sin In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

816 Words | 4 Pages

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is heavily centered on showing diverse ways the Puritan people could face guilt and sin. As the plot develops, the four main characters: Hester Prynne, Pearl, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingsworth, all reach individual climaxes by dealing with the effects of guilt and sin differently. Hester confronts the guilt of adultery head on by flagrantly wearing a scarlet letter on her chest, Pearl deals with guilt and sin by being a living symbol of Hester’s egregious offense, Arthur Dimmesdale confronts the guilt of sin privately which leads to mental instability, and Roger Chillingsworth faces guilt and sin by being consumed by the darkness it causes. There are several climaxes in The Scarlet Letter due to the main characters facing the central conflict, the effects of guilt and sin, in various ways.

Read More

Scarlet Letter Essay

987 Words | 4 Pages

The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850 by Nathaniel Hawthorne has a storyline that parallels the Puritan lifestyle of Boston, Massachusetts during the seventeenth century. The novel begins at the site of an old, wooden jailhouse, where many of the townspeople are gathered to watch the public shaming of Hester Prynne. As Hester emerged from the iron-spiked oak door of the large building, the whole crowd was taken aback to see the badge on her chest bore an incredible scarlet and gold stitched ‘A’, rather than a plain one, as it was meant to bring shame and embarrassment. The crowd parted for her as the beadle began to escort her to the podium where she could be publicly scrutinized, all while holding her illegitimate child tightly in her

Read More

How Does The Scarlet Letter Be Forgiven

602 Words | 3 Pages

In the story of the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne presents us a religion repressive society. In this society, It's inhabitant lives under strict moral code, transgressors were isolated and punished. Hawthorn questions if religious society should be ruled by grace, our main characters were statements that sinner can be forgiven. Pearl functioned as the second scarlet letter and hope to Hester and Dimmesdale. She continually reminds our characters there is no escape to sin.

Read More

Theme Of Relationship In The Scarlet Letter

1597 Words | 7 Pages

Author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, uses his writing to show how each character shapes Hester in a particular way. In "The Scarlet Letter," Hester 's relationships with her daughter Pearl, her agape Arthur Dimmesdale, and her vengeful husband Roger Chillingworth help readers to see the maturity in Hester with each one. The mother-daughter relationship has a unique quality like no other. A mother and daughter love and support each other through good times and bad times. In an article written by Eavan O 'Brien, he talks in further detail about the dynamic mother-daughter relationships have.

Read More

More about Scarlet Letter Romanticism Essay

Related Topics

Open Document