Scarlet Letter Romanticism Essay

Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the ideology of Puritan society in the novel the Scarlet Letter; however reader also get to witness his characters being an illustration of hypocrisy and victims to their own guilt. In the Scarlet Letter, as in many of Hawthorne’s shorter works, he makes profuse use of the Puritan past: its odd exclusionary belief, its harsh code of ruling, its concern with sex and witchcraft. The Scarlet Letter is a story that is embellished but yet simple. Many readers may view this novel as a soap opera due to the way Hawthorne conveys this Puritan society’s sense of strictness and inability to express true emotion along with the secrecy and how deceiving the characters are being. As the story unfolds the main character Hester Prynne is bounded in marriage at an early age. She engages in an adulterous affair with an unknown member of their small village. Hester soon becomes pregnant and with her husband’s absence the chances of this child belonging to her husband are slim. The towns’ people know that she has committed a sin and imprisons her for her crime.

The Scarlet Letter Introduction The Scarlet Letter is a classic tale of sin, punishment, and revenge. It was written in 1850 by the famous American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. It documents the lives of three tragic characters, each of whom suffer greatly because of his or her sins. Shot Plot The story begins with Hester Prynne, a resident of a small Puritan community, being led from the town jailhouse to a public scaffold where she must stand for three hours as punishment for adultery. She must also wear a scarlet A on her dress for the rest of her life as part of her punishment. As she is led to the scaffold, many of the women in the crowd complain that

A common theme throughout literature is religion and how the author feels about his or her faith. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses rhetorical devices to draw comparisons between characters and events in The Scarlet Letter and Biblical figures and accounts. A few of the devices found in this novel that connect it to the Bible are symbolism, paradox, allusions, and characterization. It is important to first look at the characters and how they are described through characterization.

In Ch.8, Hester’s speech about why Pearl should remain in her care includes a metaphor. Identify the metaphor and describe how its meaning reveals insight into Hester’s character.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was not a Puritan. But Hawthrone’s forefathers were Puritans, so he had an understanding of their belief system and their basis behind it. He stated that he hoped the sins of his forefathers had been forgiven. Hoping to expose those ideas which he understood, yet despised, Hawthorne purposely presented many important Puritan beliefs as import aspects to the Scarlet Letter. In the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne addresses three main Puritan beliefs: providence, predestination, and the strict code of ethics that the settlers of New Englanders lived by.

On page 36, the wives say “At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead. Madam Hester would have winced at that, I warrant me. But she, --- the naughty baggage, --- little will she care…… always in her heart”. This shows how Hester was a sinful woman, that her sinful crime cannot be forgiven and had a price to pay for. A mark on her chest, the scarlet letter, that states to the whole society of the Massachusetts Bay colony how a sinner is punished. Also on page 41, “from this intense consciousness of being the object of severe and universal observation…… of her thoughts”, the use of intense consciousness and universal observation, points out the juxtaposition that the author wrote to compare the inside of Hester to the outside which is universal observation. This synthesis shows public humiliation and shame towards Hester, as the doctrine states that sinners are sinned towards the puritan law. Only governors decide how the sinner should be punished but the sin must be known to others, to show what the circumstances will be.

     In Hawthorne's revered novel The Scarlet Letter, the use of Romanticism plays an important role in the development of his characters. He effectively demonstrates individualism in Hester to further our understanding of the difficulties of living in the stern, joyless world of Puritan New England.  It is all gloom and doom.  If the sun ever shines, one could hardly notice.  The entire place seems to be shrouded in black.  The people of this society were stern, and repressed natural human impulses and emotions than any society before or since.  But for this reason specifically, emotions began bubbling and eventually boiled over, passions a novelist

     In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s American classic The Scarlet Letter the main character Hester Prynne is portrayed as the preeminent feminist heroine through the portraiture of her crime and punishment. In this novel, a Puritanical society in New England condemns Hester Prynne to wear a highly embossed depiction of the letter “A” on her breast as punishment for an act of adultery. How Hester handles the consequences of her castigation is what brings about the heroic feministic qualities of the main character. Three aspects that corroborate Hester Prynne’s qualities are: 1. Admitting her sin openly to fellow man and God, 2. Putting up with the taunting and social exile of

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a great piece of literature. It explores problems in society that still occur today. It is fascinating to see how the Puritans punished adultery then and the lack of punishment of adultery in our society now. It shows how all the characters affect Hester and what everyone does in the community. It shows that no one is exempt from any type of crime in that town. In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, he analyzes the characters of Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale and Pearl.

In this novel you will find that the main characters are the prime examples of Love, Hate, Sin, and Purity. Although adultery is condemned and seen as sin, adultery isn't what Hawthorne focuses on. Through my analysis of the Scarlet Letter I noticed that there were three different types of love. The act of hatred plays a vile role throughout the novel. Hawthorne uses Pearl as a blatant symbol of purity, from her birth till the end of the novel. As you will see Love, Hate, Sin, and Purity does play a vital role in this story.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, He writes about a disputable scandal which occurs in seventeenth century during a time period where the Puritan way of life is quite prevalent. He reveals the values of the Puritan society as well as how this society affects the characters in his novel. Hawthorne writes about the sin of adultery between protagonist Hester Prynne and her counterpart Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester Prynne is exposed of her sin in the very beginning of the novel. She is ostracized by her community and is sentenced to wear a scarlet letter as a symbol of her crime.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter explores how the human condition and sin clash. Placing the characters in Puritan Boston, Hawthorne reveals the hypocrisy of a theocratic government, especially when it comes to punishment. Hester Prynne has committed adultery, a hideous sin which coincides as a malicious crime in such a government. The punishment consists of public humiliation branded on her chest until she dies. This type of government would lead anyone to despair, however, Hester does not allow society to decide her identity. The punishment of wearing the scarlet letter affects Hester Prynne’s personality and physical appearance, allowing her to grow as an individual, even though the people of Boston considered her to be an

The Scarlet Letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne during the nineteenth century. The novel is set in the seventeenth century Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Scarlet Letter tells the story of Hester Prynne who has an affair. Prynne is awarded a scarlet letter “A” to show the public she committed adultery. In the novel, Nathaniel Hawthorne presents us with Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth, characters who possess sinful characteristics throughout the novel; yet during the time the novel is set (1600’s), each of the characters have experienced punishments appropriate for the time.

Adultery was a moral wrongdoing and transgression in 1850. Hawthorne captured the essence of the events that could occur in any Puritan woman’s life after committing this sin from his own perspective of the topic, Hawthorne did this within a writing of his. The Scarlet Letter was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. The Scarlet Letter is about the life of Hester Prynne and the other characters after she played a part in committing the sin of adultery. Hester partakes in moral trials throughout the novel too, some even concerning her daughter Pearl. The Scarlet Letter reflects on the toll that secrets can play of a person, through Dimmesdale and the effects of a person 's’ decision on others around them.

The judgemental villagers clamored around newly returned Roger Chillingworth, a noteworthy physician, as they strained to see the debacle just ahead of their stances. The door of the confining cavern called prison swung open. Out strode Roger’s wife, Hester Prynne, carrying an unknown child who was claimed as her own and a flourishing scarlet letter A adorned on her bosom. The Scarlet Letter is a historical fiction starring Hester Prynne. Resident adulteress of Salem, Massachusetts. Using descriptive terms and symbolic language, Hawthorne includes many controversial issues of the time including Puritanism, the Renaissance and Romanticism buried between the pages. Roger Chillingworth is the adulteress’ husband and main antagonist who struggles with mental and emotional problems and is a defining contribution to the controversial plot.