Theme Of Romanticism In The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is considered to be a work of romanticism. Romanticism, a movement in art and literature throughout the 19th century, is a collection of ideas or values including individualism, imaginative idealization of childhood, families, love, nature, and the past (Craig White). Hawthorne uses strong feelings, interest in the common man and childhood, celebration of the individual, awe of nature, and importance of imagination throughout his novel to add interest and individuality to the story. Strong feelings and senses is one type of romanticism used in The Scarlet Letter. Romantics believed that knowledge was gained through intuition rather than deduction. Hawthorne uses Pearl, Hester Prynne’s daughter, as

Hawthorne shows this when he writes about a forest that has intriguing qualities. “ ‘See!’ answered Hester, smiling. ‘Now I can stretch out my hand, and grasp some of it.’ As she attempted to do so, the sunshine vanished” (Hawthorne 176). When Hester and Pearl were in the forest near their home, Pearl claimed that the sunshine would not touch her mother because of her scarlet letter. The sunlight, considered to be a symbol of purity, would not touch something impure. The forest was also where Hester found peace, because she was not judged by her scarlet letter there. Dimmesdale and she could also show their love for each other in the forest without anyone’s knowledge. The sun and forest are examples of how romantics gave nature supernatural and human

This is where romantics legitimized the individual imagination as a critical authority. At one point Dimmesdale showed the town his scarlet letter, and many people had separate explanations for it. “Some affirmed that the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, on the very day when Hester Prynne first wore her ignominious badge, had begun a course of penance – which he afterwards, in so many futile methods, followed out-by inflicting a hideous torture on himself” (Hawthorne 240). Some said that the letter was cut into him, poison from Chillingworth, a symbol that stood for angel, and some people didn’t even see the letter. Depending on what the people saw would change how they saw Dimmesdale. The different explanations are good examples of how romantic writers left mystery in their novels. The writers wanted to bring the imagination of the characters and the readers to the