The Scarlet Letter

Romanticism first started out in the mid 18^th century to some extent a reaction against the English Enlightenment and against rationalism (“Romanticism”). Romanticism can be defined in many ways by the style and focus of writing. This style tends to focus on passions and inner struggles; an emphasis upon imagination as a gateway to transcendent experience and spiritual truth; an obsessive interest in folk culture, national and ethnic cultural origins, and the medieval era; and a predilection for the exotic, the remote, the mysterious, the weird, the occult, the diseased, and even the satanic (‘Romanticism”).

Many components make a romantic novel. Setting is usually in an exotic location. The Scarlet Letter takes place in what Hawthorne calls ‘The Wilderness’ making the setting seem more exotic and unique then a small settlement somewhere in Massachusetts. Even the opening scene starts off in an exotic setting, a dim prison house on the outskirts of town where a single rose bush grows.

Also, most romantic novels have a certain amount of supernatural elements that adds suspense to the story. There are certain events in The Scarlet Letter that can be seen as supernatural, such as a comet forming an ‘A’ in the sky that all the townsfolk see or how the sunshine seems to deliberately avoid Hester in the woods. Even, the minister’s unexplainable ailment can be called a bit supernatural, including the unknown scar on his chest, which he constantly clutches.

Didactic, meaning the story in a whole teaches a moral. In the very first chapter, Hawthorne states that this story will teach a moral lesson and in the end you come to a sense of learning from the tale about guilt, inner pain, social order and standing and also spiritual truth or self-awareness.

Language is usually poetic or archaic, trying to create a distinct American style of writing. A big part of these novels are that they’re idealistic, imaginative and creating events of other components in a nonrealistic form.

Also, they value the plot over character development. Romanticism focuses more on the meaning of the story and the plot than over describing or creating many characters to follow their tale of growth throughout the book. The Scarlet Letter focuses more on the unfolding of the letter and how the townspeople react and how their views change over time. Hawthorne writes more about inner and outer struggles of people and the passion of religion than on ones own personal beliefs.

Good vs. Evil is one of the obvious components. In these types of novels there is a noticeable difference between who or what is good or evil. In the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne creates a grey area between both good and evil to create a tension between the black and white views of his puritan religion. However, you can still see sides of good and evil in the Scarlet Letter. Hester’s secret husband, Chillingworth, can be described as an evil character, he is referred to many times in the text as the ‘Black man’, showing him as dark or evil, maybe even satanic. Hawthorne also incorporates witchcraft into the plot at random moments to show corruption in society and the constant presence of sinful thoughts.

Symbolism in romanticism can be used as allegory. The most obvious symbol in this particular story is the letter ‘A’. In the beginning the letter ‘A’ on Hester’s chest meant Adulterer, but over the course of the story the denotation of the letter changes to represent the changing times and the influence of time upon society and their thoughts.

Nature plays an important role in romanticism. In this period of writing, authors show a deepened appreciation of nature and its beauty. The rose bush in the opening scene of the Scarlet Letter showed natures random beauty by incorporating the rose bush as a symbol to represent beauty and growth in a dark place.

As years progressed and times changed, romanticism gave way to a new style of writing, realism. Realism is the theory or practice of fidelity in art and literature to nature or to real life and to accurate representation without idealization (“Realism”). The components of realism are somewhat opposites of romanticism. Instead, realism represents the beginning of Modern Literature, and a lot of realistic writings take place at the time of the two world wars. This writing focuses on the literary term quotidian, which means resembling everyday life. Also, instead of having the center be about the plot, realism favors character development. Morally ambiguous, which means the moral is unclear or inexact because a choice hasn’t been made between to alternatives. The main character represents a flawed hero, showing the non-idealistic and realistic nature of the novels. No one person is perfect, so the flawed hero is shown as anyone. Nature for nature’s sake, like romanticism nature does play a big role in realism too but unlike romanticism nature doesn’t represent another meaning, it just there to show the setting and create a more aesthetic view.