Transcendentalism in the scarlet letter. Scarlet Letter : Elements of Anti 2019-02-23
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Transcendentalism in The Scarlet Letter
As a minister, integrity is the most crucial part of his job and he must avert himself from all sins. Would it be different if the community had different religions? The movement appealed to the revolutionary spirit of America as well as to those longing to break free of the strict religious traditions of early settlement. We see that during the novel, her position in the eyes of the people of Boston is progressing. Hawthorne writes with a dark pessimism that bares no similarity to the optimistic writings of his fellow Transcendentalists and also uses other techniques to distance himself from their ideals. The Puritans were a group of religious reformers who arrived in Massachusetts in the 1630s under the leadership of John Winthrop whose death is recounted in the novel. The only thing that surrounded the house was woods.
The Puritan society shuns her and scorns her for what she did. However, the forest is also a safe place. Hawthorne as a traditional moralist considers Hester Prynne as a true sinner who has produced death and tragedy as the result of her sin: Earlier in life, Hester had vainly imagined that she herself might be the destined prophetess, but had long since recognised the impossibility that any mission of divine and mysterious truth should be confided to a woman stained with sin, bowed down with shame, or even burdened with a life-long sorrow 275. It is only from such real individuals that true community could be formed. During the summer of 1838, he began an essay on Shakespeare. In the mid-nineteenth century, particularly in the American colonies, a new philosophical movement known as Transcendentalism flourished. Hawthorne has many themes in his writing; one of them is alienation.
This great price is the guilt and harassment imposed by the community by her sin of adultery. Hester decides to leave her husband behind to migrate to Boston. While Hawthorne can go beyond the probable and use the marvelous, he must also do so without chaos; hence, he must provide artistic balance. In this way transcendentalists saw a direct connection between the universe macrocosm and the individual soul microcosm , so according to this concept intuition, rather than reason, is regarded as the highest human faculty. Furthermore the novel can be defined as a romantic novel by analyzing the characters Hester, Pearl, and Dimmesdale for their overall purpose to the story and the symbolism. The transcendentalist had no proof of its existence, but transcendentalist were open to theories because they felt that they should speak freely. Three other symbols are the scaffold, the sun, and the forest.
The Scarlet Letter, Part 3: Confused Thoughts on Transcendentalism + by Ralph Waldo Emerson
And what is her view toward her sin? Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love, unless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation of the original feeling of hostility. We shall start by talking about Roger Chillingsworth. Upon reading both the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and viewing the film produced by Roland Joffe, one notices the tremendous effort put into both. As we see during her punishment, Hester passes some different and difficult stages which show her as a transcendental and self-reliant character. A final important character in this novel includes Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale.
Transcendentalism in Nathaniel Hawthornes The Scarlet Letter Research Paper
. She develops an acute sense for the moral hypocrisies and the moral suffering of others; she can feel the secret weight of sin in the townspeople as they pass by her. He was dying because of his sin but all the people consider his dying situation as the result of his purity and holiness: Some declared, that if Mr. They suppress and deny aggressive and sexual impulses which lead to psychotic behavior. This is exactly what the transcendentalists loathed about society as a whole. According to the idea of compensation every action carries its reward or punishment with it. There is good to be done! One of the evils portrayed in this novel was sin.
It also deals with good versus evil and the dark side of romanticism. Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Robert Chillingworth must endure their different, yet surprisingly similar struggles as the novel progresses. He finally comes forward and acts as the father he should have been all along. He published his first novel Fanshawe, in 1828. She had borne a child illegitimately to an Italian while in Italy, having recently left Concord to travel abroad.
Connections between Scarlet Letter and Transcendentalism
For example, one could compare wrath to the destructive… 813 Words 4 Pages they can harm themselves, in addition to society and others. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne provides his audience with a real sense of the consequences of unconfessed sin, isolation from society, and the presence of evil everywhere. Hi Rebecca — thanks for the links! It is one of the finest examples of Transcendentalism in his book. Although Hester wears the scarlet, no one physically confines her to stay in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Her intellect and heart had their home, as it were, in desert places, where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods. Evil was not only portrayed.
📚 Romanticism Examples In The Scarlet Letter 📚
Follow me on Twitter: NicoleCheng13 and Instagram: nicolecheng13 Categories ,. His novel, The Scarlet Letter, can be analyzed from historical, psychological and feminist critical perspectives by examining his life from the past, as well as his reflections while writing The Scarlet Letter. Transcendentalism also pertains to a desire of being different from the society. Did Hester shun the society or did she merely seek to flee? We initially distrust Chillingworth, much as Hester does during her imprisonment, and that impression never really fades completely. Although The Scarlet Letter contains some Transcendentalist elements, the novel 's dark pessimism, weak portrayal of the human psyche, view of man 's relationship to the over-soul, and connection to nature cause it to differ greatly from the works of Emerson and other classic Transcendentalists. In this, they borrow heavily from their predecessors, the Romantics, who revered beauty, especially the beauty of nature. Despite that he is not a transcendentalist, Hawthorne did write his own works by using this philosophical and literary movement.
