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Scarlet Letter Romanticism Essay

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The feeling of exasperating love defies the health of the mind and body through a vital time in literature. Nathaniel Hawthorne accomplishes this through the book, “The Scarlet Letter”. He emphasizes puritanic views in his writing as well as romanticism through four different characters: Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Pearl. The basis of the story was that Hester Prynne was being punished and shamed for her sin of adultery with Arthur Dimmesdale in proof of the baby girl named Pearl, leaving Hester to overtake this ever longing shame for seven years. The relationship between all of these characters of “The Scarlet Letter” exhibits the period of romanticism in American literature and the significance that enhanced the many writings of other authors of this time. This novel expresses the ways of how puritans were treated for their sins and an example of this expression would be Hester Prynne and her sin of adultery. Hester is shamed and stowed upon in the market place in the second chapter as she holds the baby next to her scarlet letter. This …show more content…

Ideally the novel was written in the puritanic age and the salem witch trials of the early 1800s which gave a lot of significance to the story. The blame of the Puritans was what lead to the ever longing shame that Hester Prynne had to deal with. The romanticism was what gave the novel a touch of flavor onto the story making it a more valuable read for the audience. “The Scarlet Letter” really gave an understanding of the puritans and how they treated the sinners of their actions and the precautions they had to face during this time. Most people would agree that this novel best categorizes it as a “romantic read” but the idea of puritanism played as the backbone to the whole purpose to this read. As a result, the ways of puritism overtakes the purpose of romanticism in “The Scarlet

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