Scarlet Letter: Transcendentalism

Improved Essays
Transcendentalism connected with the scarlet letter by characters having close relations with nature and spiritual ideas which led to many decisions to step out of social norms. Pearl accurately represents transcendentalist ideals because she is one of the characters that is closer to nature.”God as a direct consequence of the sin which man thus punished,had given her a lovely child”( Hawthorne 61).From the moment pearl was born she was seen as a symbol of innocence that was born out of sin but still she was also seen as perfection .As soon as hester was freed and could move away she moved out of the town into a place closer to nature. which allowed pearl to connect with nature at a young age. “She had wandered, without rule or

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Transcendentalism can be described as the desire to do what your conscience tells you is right instead of what the society does. In the film The Dead Poets Society, Romanticism is an emotion which has dominated logic and intellect; bring out the theme of transcendentalism in the film. This essay will discuss romanticism and transcendentalism portrayed in the film and Nature, Self-reliance, Walden and Resistance to Civil Government. The boys in the film are encouraged to look at things in their own perspective.…

    • 647 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “But Pearl, who was a dauntless child… screamed and shouted, too, with a terrific volume of sound… caused the hearts of the fugitives to quake within them.” In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne the story of a married woman who had a child out of wheelock is told. Throughout this novel Pearl, Hester’s child out of wedlock, is viewed as a character who represents sin, hope, and love, because she is a character that represents a different person than what a puritan is suppose to be, the way that Pearl stands out and does not fit into the puritan colony is shown throughout the story. Since the day Pearl was born she was a representation of sin and of a “Demon offspring”(Hawthorne 232). Pearl was a child out of…

    • 1134 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Transcendentalism was an intellectual movement that encouraged eight moral ideals. These ideals were intended to give structure to everyday life and improve the moral character of those who lived according to them. Although the transcendental movement has mostly subsided there are still many people who live following transcendental principles. A modern day example of living for transcendentalism is the life of Chris McCandless. The life, journey, and death of Chris McCandless is told in the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.…

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pearl helps Hester understand her life because she realizes that Pearl is the reason she should stay…

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Famous transcendentalist writer Henry David Thoreau once wrote “ Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the Life you’ve imagined”. These ideals spoke to Chris McCandless on many levels. McCandless was a big supporter of transcendentalism, and its way of life. Therefore, McCandless decided he would go survive in the Alaskan Wilderness.…

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the 1630s, The Puritans came to North America in search of religious freedom. They were persecuted back in England. Their only hope was to leave England. Perhaps in America they could establish a colony whose government, society, and church were all based upon the Bible. In the process, they greatly impacted America in government, religion and social mores.…

    • 1502 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jon Krakauer’s Into The Wild is a biography that recounts events from the life of Chris McCandless, a transcendentalist who decided to go into the Alaska wild on his own with very few supplies and live his life as simplistically as possible. He uses McCandless’s personal journals as excerpts that give specific and reliable details from his time off the grid. Krakauer’s fascination with - and connection to - McCandless creates a more romanticized perspective of his journey while still staying true to the non-fiction form of a biography. While Krakauer’s intentions for the book were for it to spread transcendentalist and anti-societal ideas, the way in which people receive these ideas is not always the same. Certain issues addressed in the book can be taken harshly or acceptingly, and because many of the issues…

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    • Transcendentalism: The American manifestation of Romanticism was Transcendentalism and it stood as one of the major American Revolution. Transcendentalists believed God to be supreme and most mighty as he animated everything. It was a reaction which stood against modernism and rationalism. It was marked by the mystic belief in a spiritual state that transcended the physical and the factual and the perfect state could only be attained by one’s own intuition and reflection.…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    This is a canvas painting of a pond. The painting comes off realistic in the actual water, but around the side it looks almost fuzzy. There is lots of detail in the painting, though it's also simple. There is simplicity in the color scheme, it is mostly greens, browns, and there is some purple in there. Even though the color scheme is fairly simple, and almost dull, it still shows lots of details and looks very realistic.…

    • 184 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Man’s greatest invention: the wheel, Man’s worst invention: homework (especially on the weekends) The constraint from which reasoning entrapped differences to the freestyle hippie ideal of living now. Puritans soul search, self scrutiny, self-disciplined and moderate themselves for they praised the light of god. Deists rule to acknowledge what's there while opening the gate to individuality, staying curious but witty.…

    • 812 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    5. Whenever Hester finds herself in danger/trouble she likes to isolate herself. 6. When she came out of prison she isolated Pearl and herself away from the town, closer to the sea.…

    • 278 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Self-Reliance Rhetorical Analysis Transcendentalism was a philosophical movement that developed in the late 1820s in the Eastern region of the United States as a protest against the general state of intellectualism and spirituality. Most of the Transcendentalists became involved as well in social reform movements, especially anti-slavery and women's rights. Finding its root in the word “transcend,” Transcendentalists believed individuals could transcend to a higher plane of existence in nature. They believed that God is located in the soul of each individual and that, humanity’s potential is limitless.…

    • 1008 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Transcendentalism is not a religion, but way of thought. Although each transcendentalist holds different beliefs close to them, the main ideas are the same; to be alone, to be self reliant, and to be in nature. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the writer of The Scarlet Letter, was himself a transcendentalist who believed that religious persecution was wrong, and that separation of church and state was essential; he uses the Puritans to illustrate this. Hawthorne “added a 'w' to distinguish himself from the history which included John Hathorne, a prominent judge in the Salem witch trials of 1692-3.”(Nathaniel) The Scarlet Letter captures transcendentalist views by following the life and punishment of Hester Prynne for seven years after she committed adultery with Arthur Dimmsdale, who was a highly respected Puritan minister.…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Books are a principle staple mark in a child's social and academic development. They furnish the foundation for an adolescent's inspiration and curiosity to be constructed. In America's modern day curriculum though, countless immature students are being forced to read a series of novels that promote profane and violent content, one being the popularized Fahrenheit 451. Positioned in the 24th century, Fahrenheit 451 apprises the reader about the principal protagonist, Guy Montag. Early within the novel, Montag gains gratification in his profession as a fireman, burning illegally possessed books and homes of their owners.…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What is your impression on how puritan world view is taken up and treated by Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter? The Scarlet Letter is an indictment on the follies of the puritans featuring the rigid values and beliefs of the society. Hawthorne criticizes various aspects of the puritan confraternity through the lives of the characters and the punishsment one is made to undergo because of the sin committed. Hawthorne took the puritan view seriously in the scarlet letter by depicting the gender inequality, hypocrisy of government officials and stiff rules of the puritan society.…

    • 786 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays