The Scarlet Letter: Use Of Romanticism In Development Of Characters
In Hawthorne's revered novel The Scarlet Letter, the use of
Romanticism plays an important role in the development of his characters.
He effectively demonstrates individualism in Hester to further our
understanding of the difficulties of living in Boston, the stern, joyless
world of Puritan New England. It is all gloom and doom. If the sun ever
shines, one could hardly notice. The entire place seems to be shrouded in
black. The people of this society were stern, and of course repressive.
They always put a lid on more natural human impulses and emotions than any
society before or since. But for this reason specifically, emotions began
bubbling and eventually boiled over, passions a ...
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won't reveal the name of the father of the
child. Although the usual penalty for adultery is death, the Puritan
magistrates have decided to be merciful to her declaring that Hester's
punishment will be to stand for several hours on the scaffold, in full view
of everyone. In this "powerful but painful story," (Chorley 184) Hester
realizes her sin, and acknowledges that she must pay the price for her
crimes. She might, Hawthorne tells us, have left the narrow-minded colony
to start life all over again in a place where no one knew her story. The
sea leads back to England, or for a woman of Hester's strength, the track
leads onward into the wilderness. But Hester turns her back on these
escape routes. She stays in the settlement, shackled, as if by an iron
chain of guilt, to the scene of her crime and punishment. As Hester stand
s on the scaffold, thinking of her husband, he appears before her startled
eyes at the edge of the crowd. And his first gesture is indicative of ...
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and a great joy in having
a child. Although the mother is not permitted to clothe herself in bright
colors, she finds a sense of relief in dressing her child in gleaming
colors, imaginatively arranged. Hester dresses her child in her own "wild,
desperate, defiant mood, that flightiness of her temper" (66). As Hester's
new garments represent her restraint in dealing with the world around her,
Hawthorne uses Pearl's attire as a vehicle by which Hester deals with her
new life after being imprisoned. Since Hester is unable to dress in colors
that please her, she uses her child as an indirect way to do so. When
Hester exits the prison, she makes a striking contrast to the grim, ...
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"The Scarlet Letter: Use Of Romanticism In Development Of Characters." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 11 Feb. 2005. Web. 23 Dec. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Scarlet-Letter-Use-Romanticism-Development-Characters/22050>
"The Scarlet Letter: Use Of Romanticism In Development Of Characters." Essayworld.com. February 11, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Scarlet-Letter-Use-Romanticism-Development-Characters/22050.
"The Scarlet Letter: Use Of Romanticism In Development Of Characters." Essayworld.com. February 11, 2005. Accessed December 23, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Scarlet-Letter-Use-Romanticism-Development-Characters/22050.
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