Theme Of Romanticism In The Scarlet Letter

Register to read the introduction… They were attracted to rebellion and revolution. They mainly cared about the individualism and imagination. Some of the characteristics of American Romanticism are characters and setting set apart from society, characters that were not of our own conscious kind, formal language, supernatural foreshadowing, universe in mysterious, and gaps in causality. In addition, some of the themes American Romanticism produce are: emotional intensity, common man as hero, equality, individualism, Manifest Destiny, the nature of good or evil, abolition, and many other more. One of the author who himself or his work may sound familiar is Nathanial Hawthorne, who wrote The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts to a family with a long New England history. He was a descendent of the Puritan ancestors in the Salem witch trials. His last name was actually “Hathorne”, but he later added in the “w”. His father died when he was four due to a yellow fever. His uncle helped financed his college education at Bowdoin College. He stated, “I do not want to be a doctor and live by men's diseases, nor a minister to live by their sins, nor a lawyer and live by their quarrels. So, I don't see that there is anything left for me but to be an author.” He wrote his first novel, Fanshawe – published in 1828 anonymously, and turned out unsuccessful. He later married Sophia Peabody; they moved to Concord, Massachusetts and had three children. When he returned to Salem, he dedicated himself in writing The Scarlet Letter; he worked on the novel with determination. Later on, he also wrote The Blithedale Romance. After he returned to Concord, he went on to travel and live in France and Italy. He returned to Wayside, just before the Civil War started and published “Chiefly About War Matters”. He passed away on May 19, 1864, in Plymouth, New Hampshire, due to suffering severe bouts of dementia. By that time, his work The Dolliver Romance was published. He was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts. Hawthorne often dealt with themes such as sin, morality, and redemption. …show more content…
He also uses themes like innocence and love, good versus evil in man, and Puritanism. In Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, he portrayed many themes, including: revenge, guilt and blame, and women and femininity. The main plot of the Scarlet Letter was when a woman named Hester had to wear the letter A onto her clothing for everyone to see that she had committed adultery. It was a mark of shame, but she since she was skilled at needlework, she made it look beautiful. Her husband, who had sent her to Boston ahead has finally made it there, but changes his name to Roger Chillingworth, not wanting to be affiliated he plans to take revenge on Pearl’s father. Hawthorne often uses human nature in many of his writings. His style of writing includes sentence structures that are grammatically correct, and uses color description that is highly symbolic. His writing style was viewed as outdated when compared to modern literature. In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, he uses formal dialogue on his characters. He also uses attitudes such as irony and ambiguity. American Romanticism is a literary revolution. …show more content…
It is important because it “redefined the fundamental ways in which individuals in Western culture thought about their selves and their world” (English Dept. Brooklyn College). Moreover, it is still important today because it represents a belief in the importance of individuality and personal freedom and the value of self-expressionism; everyone can read something that they enjoy. The writers of this time produced some of the greatest works in American Literature. The themes of Nathanial Hawthorne’s writing reflected American Romanticism because in his novel The Scarlet Letter, he showed the good and evil in people, and sin and morality. I found this researching topic to be interesting because I learned about the author who wrote one of the most famous novels of all time, The Scarlet Letter. Sources "EThemes." Literature: Romanticism in American Literature -. University of Missouri, 24 Jan. 2011. Web. 05 May 2014. "Romanticism." Romanticism. English Department, Brooklyn College, 12 Feb. 2009. Web. 05 May 2014. Scheidenhelm, Carol. "Romanticism, Realism and Naturalism." Romanticism, Realism and Naturalism. Loyola University