The Scarlet Letter: Prompt 2
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson were among a group of authors known as the Romantics that valued feeling over reason, imagination over science, and nature over civilization. These ideals are commonly displayed in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Like any writers of the same time period, Hawthorne and Emerson may have never completely accepted each other's beliefs, however the characters that Hawthorne creates agree with Emerson’s advice, “[d]o not go where the path may lead; go, instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” One prominent character that Hawthorne carefully crafted was the daughter of Hester Prynne, Pearl. Pearl stands out as a true Romantic character as she displays the qualities …show more content…
While the whole colony sees Dimmesdale as a divine man who can do nothing wrong, Pearl challenges these beliefs and is able to follow her intuition to discover the truth. To illustrate, when Dimmesdale calls Hester and Pearl up to scaffold with him in the middle of the night, Pearl asks if he will stay with them until they have to mount the scaffold in front of everyone the next day. He responds, “‘Not so, my child. I shall, indeed, stand with thy mother and thee, one other day, but not to-morrow.’ Pearl laughed and, and attempted to pull away her hand. But the minister held it fast… ‘But wilt thou promise,’ asked Pearl, ‘to take my hand and mother’s hand, to-morrow noon-tide?’ ‘Not then Pearl,’ said the minister, ‘but another time.’ ‘And what other time?’ persisted the child. ‘At the great judgement day’... Pearl laughed again” (139). Pearl may be only three years old in the part of the novel, however she has the intelligence to know that the minister is lying. She asks him twice if he will join them, knowing that he will not, but she still pestered him on the matter. Moreover, after living with her mother and her scarlet letter for so long, Pearl connects the way that Dimmesdale hold his hand over her heart to the way that her mother wears the scarlet letter. She comes to the conclusion that the …show more content…
These ideals were common with the writings of the time period, and are still common in characters today. As time carries on, more and more people are trusting their intuition, imagination, and nature and are using these to build new things and create new ideas. Therefore, the philosophies of the great Romantic authors can still be applied today and can inspire people to blaze their own
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson were among a group of authors known as the Romantics that valued feeling over reason, imagination over science, and nature over civilization. These ideals are commonly displayed in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Like any writers of the same time period, Hawthorne and Emerson may have never completely accepted each other's beliefs, however the characters that Hawthorne creates agree with Emerson’s advice, “[d]o not go where the path may lead; go, instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” One prominent character that Hawthorne carefully crafted was the daughter of Hester Prynne, Pearl. Pearl stands out as a true Romantic character as she displays the qualities …show more content…
While the whole colony sees Dimmesdale as a divine man who can do nothing wrong, Pearl challenges these beliefs and is able to follow her intuition to discover the truth. To illustrate, when Dimmesdale calls Hester and Pearl up to scaffold with him in the middle of the night, Pearl asks if he will stay with them until they have to mount the scaffold in front of everyone the next day. He responds, “‘Not so, my child. I shall, indeed, stand with thy mother and thee, one other day, but not to-morrow.’ Pearl laughed and, and attempted to pull away her hand. But the minister held it fast… ‘But wilt thou promise,’ asked Pearl, ‘to take my hand and mother’s hand, to-morrow noon-tide?’ ‘Not then Pearl,’ said the minister, ‘but another time.’ ‘And what other time?’ persisted the child. ‘At the great judgement day’... Pearl laughed again” (139). Pearl may be only three years old in the part of the novel, however she has the intelligence to know that the minister is lying. She asks him twice if he will join them, knowing that he will not, but she still pestered him on the matter. Moreover, after living with her mother and her scarlet letter for so long, Pearl connects the way that Dimmesdale hold his hand over her heart to the way that her mother wears the scarlet letter. She comes to the conclusion that the …show more content…
These ideals were common with the writings of the time period, and are still common in characters today. As time carries on, more and more people are trusting their intuition, imagination, and nature and are using these to build new things and create new ideas. Therefore, the philosophies of the great Romantic authors can still be applied today and can inspire people to blaze their own