Transcendentalism in The Scarlet Letter
People every day are given the bountiful task of having to discern the perfections or flaws of a person’s being. Variations of personalities chose to put more emphasis on one attribute over the other. Belief systems or religions follow the same guidelines. For example, Puritanism and Transcendentalism are diverse forms of one population’s viewpoints. Nathaniel Hawthorne was raised in a Puritan home but married and converted to Transcendentalism. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s influence from Transcendentalism contrasted with his Puritan history, derived from his early years at Brook Farm, and led to symbolism in his writing of The Scarlet Letter.
The Scarlet Letter portrayed parts of Puritan lifestyle but was written …show more content…
The novel is meticulously structured; Hawthorne formed his story in four parts, each controlled by one idea. The ideas are Puritan community, Roger Chillingworth; the mysterious husband, Hester, and Dimmesdale. Individual sections focus on one significant scene in a symbolic setting. The symbolic setting in the first, second, and fourth sections is the scaffold in the marketplace, where the criminals are evaluated for their accused sins. Next, the forest and its darkness are the symbol for the third section. Hawthorne strengthened the meaning of the action with depictions of light and dark colors he shaped with a silent, ironic tone (“Hawthorne, Nathaniel”).
Transcendentalism practices dwelling and the captivation of beauty in the world. It is understood that one’s surroundings influence the entirety of your senses. One example from The Scarlet Letter that symbolizes this belief is Dimmesdale’s poor health. There is an illustration in the text that Chillingworth was the “leech”, and he sucked the life out of the Reverend. Dimmesdale also continued to hide the secret that he was the adulterer alongside Hester Prynne. His guilt eventually devoured him to the point of severe
People every day are given the bountiful task of having to discern the perfections or flaws of a person’s being. Variations of personalities chose to put more emphasis on one attribute over the other. Belief systems or religions follow the same guidelines. For example, Puritanism and Transcendentalism are diverse forms of one population’s viewpoints. Nathaniel Hawthorne was raised in a Puritan home but married and converted to Transcendentalism. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s influence from Transcendentalism contrasted with his Puritan history, derived from his early years at Brook Farm, and led to symbolism in his writing of The Scarlet Letter.
The Scarlet Letter portrayed parts of Puritan lifestyle but was written …show more content…
The novel is meticulously structured; Hawthorne formed his story in four parts, each controlled by one idea. The ideas are Puritan community, Roger Chillingworth; the mysterious husband, Hester, and Dimmesdale. Individual sections focus on one significant scene in a symbolic setting. The symbolic setting in the first, second, and fourth sections is the scaffold in the marketplace, where the criminals are evaluated for their accused sins. Next, the forest and its darkness are the symbol for the third section. Hawthorne strengthened the meaning of the action with depictions of light and dark colors he shaped with a silent, ironic tone (“Hawthorne, Nathaniel”).
Transcendentalism practices dwelling and the captivation of beauty in the world. It is understood that one’s surroundings influence the entirety of your senses. One example from The Scarlet Letter that symbolizes this belief is Dimmesdale’s poor health. There is an illustration in the text that Chillingworth was the “leech”, and he sucked the life out of the Reverend. Dimmesdale also continued to hide the secret that he was the adulterer alongside Hester Prynne. His guilt eventually devoured him to the point of severe