The Historical Romances Of Walter Scott Essay

Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his bold novel, The Scarlet Letter tackles a variety of themes that include: sin, guilt, redemption, postfeminism, and organized religion's abuse of power. Hawthorne spoke in a somber and grim tone, designed to arouse a sense of suspense for his readers. The audience in which he was addressing would have been conservative Christians and women suffragettes, all of whom reflected the ideologies during this time period. By instilling clever diction, Hawthorne exposes hypocrisy in Puritanism and objects against the religion's superfluous punishments; which force individuals to endure unnecessary and extreme suffering.

The Romance Narrative is rife with traditional literary tropes. If you’ve read such tales as swashbuckling wandering knights facing magic dragons and other such impossible odds, then you have an idea of what this genre is about. The tradition dates back to the epic, and can be seen in early mythological tales such as the Illiad, or the Odyssey, and early English stories like Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, or the Arthurian tales. They include adventure and fantastical elements; heroes battle villains to determine if good can triumph over evil.

Romanticism is the involvement of emotion, fantasy, and intuition in a story. It happens to be the opposite of rationalism which involves logic, reason, and rationality in a story. There happens to be five romantic elements to choose from. They include: dissatisfaction with city life, desire to connect with nature, concern of individualism, nostalgia for the past, and supernatural interest. Of the six stories we could choose from all of them have some part of romanticism in them in one way or another. I chose to express a desire to connect with nature in “Rip Van Winkle”, “Thanatopsis”, and Walden.

The Romantic Period is characterized as an artistic and intellectually stimulating literary movement. Writers of this genre and time are considered to be those who fused the elements of romance in their writings to enhance the human experience. Edgar Allan Poe, known as the father of the modern short story, epitomizes this notion in his writings. In “Annabel Lee,” and “The Oval Portrait,” Edgar Allan Poe uses romance to illustrate the essence of death and misery and to illustrate elements in which the reader can actually feel that was is happening in the story is happening to them.

Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the greatest American authors of the nineteenth century. He published his first novel Fanshawe, in 1828. However, he is widely known for his novels The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables. 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. In order to understand the book properly, it’s necessary to use these three perspectives.

The scaffold appears early in the when Hester Prynne is forced to climb up to the scaffold where her punishment will be carried out. The mother and child are gawked at and humiliated, as they are forced to stand there on display for the town. Hawthorne writes:

Romanticism, the genre of literature and art that predominated the European world in the eighteenth century, directs its focus towards ideas of rebellion, individualism, and the natural beauty of the world. Guiding the spirit of the French Revolution, romanticism introduced Europe to a new set of values that give more power to the individual and offer a new hope of freedom. Frankenstein, a horror fiction novel written by Romantic author Mary Shelley, serves as one of the most notable examples of this literary field. Remarkably, although Romanticism concluded around the late nineteenth century, more recent novels appear to be influenced by Romantic values. One example of a Romantic themed novel is Ethan Frome, written by early twentieth century author Edith Wharton. The protagonist of the story, Ethan, becomes trapped in the tensions created by the opposing forces of desires and morality. Although these two novels were written almost one hundred years apart, Ethan Frome and Frankenstein contain similar aspects of Romanticism in the way that both novels address the forces of nature and emotions.

well, romanticism is when an author or a writer shows emotion in a short story and also proves some kind of point to the reader. They try to teach the reader some type of moral in the story. In the story “The Minister’s Black Veil”, by Edgar Allan Poe, Edgar tries to show that beneath the black veil he has sinned, by wearing the black veil he shows everyone how we all look because we all have secret sin even if we don't all wear black veils on our faces. Mr. Hooper has left us without really telling us what he has done but he left us with the impression that he has committed adultery. He feels ashamed and later on he dies without confessing about what he’s done. Mr. Hooper also fits all the characteristics of a romantic character. He is not afraid to admit that he has sinned and he actually tells people what he’s done, by wearing the black veil. We also know that he has sinned but a characteristic of a romantic character is that we don’t know everything about him and their are still some things we don’t know about him that could really change our perspective on him. As source 4

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne was written in 1849. This novel won him much fame and a good reputation as a writer. In writing The Scarlet Letter, Hawethorne was creating a form of fiction he called the psychological romance. A psychological romance is a story that contains all of the conventional trappings of a typical romance, but deeply portrays humans in conflict with themselves. The Scarlet Letter won Hawthorne great critical acclaim, and even today the book remains on the best seller list. The Scarlet Letter is so popular maybe because generations of readers can interpret it and see subtle meanings that somewhat reflect their own lives. Each of us, has

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is a fine example of the romantic genre as it reflects certain conventions such as the hero and heroine?s characteristics. It also subverts many romantic conventions for example, the journey to happy ever after. Conventions of the gothic/horror genre are also found in the novel.

     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 the Middle Age literature, women are often presented or meant to come off as an unimportant character; which can also reflect on how the author wants the women character represent. Women are usually shunned, have no say or control in what they do; due to what men desire; like Ophelia and Gertrude did in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. But these female characters that I will discuss are women with power, control, and a voice. Majority of the female character’s appearances are made to represent wickedness, evil, or a seducer who challenges a man belief; and does not symbolize perfect women.

Although Puritanism, Romanticism and Transcendentalism do not coexist peacefully, these almost worldview kind of people groups are deeply embedded into three fictional characters from the book, The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This enthralling and rich classic which takes place in Boston Massachusetts during the time of Puritanism gives the reader not only a taste of the Puritans and their staunch attitude, but also of a less common way of thinking and behaving which is expressed through a certain character in the book. The three main characters in this book are all diversely different but are bound tightly together by a long kept secret and discovering their methods of thinking and acting upon

The genre of historical fiction novels can be subdivided into many categories and often crosses genres, such as historical mysteries and romances. The traditional definition of the historical fiction genre is “fiction set in the past” where the author is writing from research rather than personal experience. This definition leaves a lot of room for interpretation, controversy, and contradiction. Critics in the media, even when they praise individual historical novels in their reviews, somehow manage to turn this praise into criticism of the genre as a whole. In 1950, author Howard Fast, a historical novelist himself, wrote: “This is an era of many historical novels, few of them good and very few indeed which have more than a nodding

A romance requires the telling of a true story in remote places and times. The Knight’s Tale begins with the lines “Once upon a time,” to retell the old events of Theseus in the ancient city of Athens (24). The Knight’s tale meets the requirement of a medieval romance in the first sentence, as it opens with a tale of a far off land in ancient times. Idealized aristocratic conduct, another requirement a medieval romance must meet, becomes present