During class, we came up with a list of terms and ideas that define romanticism as well as a second list for realism. According to our class notes, romanticism has an exotic locale for a setting. In The Scarlet Letter, the small community surrounded by wilderness is classified as the exotic locale. Romanticism also has a supernatural component. There is witchcraft, mention of the Devil, and angels in The Scarlet Letter. The use of archaic language is also a part of romanticism. In The Scarlet Letter, words such as “ye”, “thus”, “thou”, etc. were used throughout the book which gave it a slight Shakespearean feel during the dialogues. There is also a lot of symbolism in romanticism. In The Scarlet Letter, the letter “A”, the rosebush, and the supernatural were all symbols along with many others. The letter "A" shows up in places such as page 40 of the novel which is an introduction to Hester Prynne herself. The rosebush is the first real symbol introduced and gives a contrast of the prison and the outside world. There was still beauty in the world while Hester spent her time in prison (page 36). One character of the book, Mistress Hibbins, was thought to be a witch which introduced the supernatural aspect into the novel. She was mentioned sporatically throughout the whole plot. Another supernatural occurence was the way that the scarlet letter was "flaming" on Hester Prynne's breast (page 55). There was a heavy emphasis on plot rather than character development in The Scarlet Letter, which is another idea from romanticism. Most of the dialogue and descriptions in the book were focused on getting to the next big event that was going to take place. There was some development but it was scattered throughout instead of being focused on specifically throughout. There is always a moral or didactic purpose in romanticism. The moral of The Scarlet Letter, in my opinion, was that you shouldn’t commit sin because sin has a devastating effect on all of those involved. Hester Prynne, Reverend Dimmesdale, and Pearl were all affected in different ways. Hester Prynne was the one that took all of the blame for the adultery her and Reverend Dimmesdale committed. Reverend Dimmesdale had to live with the guilt and other emotions he felt because of the fact that Hester Prynne wouldn’t name him as her fellow adulterer. In the end, it ate him up inside, he physically branded himself, and died from the relief of finally exposing himself as the father of Pearl in the end. Pearl grew up as the “elf child” and was publically shunned from a young age. She had a sincere and honest way of looking at the world because of all that happened to her. Finally, in romanticism, there is a clear hero and a clear villain. In The Scarlet Letter, the villain was Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband. "That old man's revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart" (Page 100). Hester clames that Chillingworth's sin of leaving her with no confirmation of coming back is worse than the sin she committed. He comes right at the time that Hester is being publically humiliated when she got out of jail. Then, he harasses her and tries to get her to tell him the name of Pearl’s father for most of the novel. Hester Prynne is the clear hero of the novel. She keeps the identity of Pearl’s father secret the whole time even though she was harassed and verbally abused to try and make her reveal him.
Realism is basically the exact opposite of romanticism. It can be classified as being everything after Walt Whitman. In realism, there is often a dialect, a language that reflects the way that people truly speak. The heroes in realism are flawed. The morality is often very subjective. There is use of quotitian which is “the everyday”. There is no exotic locale whatsoever. For example, in one of Whitman’s poems, he just describes a normal beach and uses words like “scum”. In realism, there is also hardly ever a moral. The character development in realism is more important than plot development. The characters are also realistic. There is no supernatural component to realistic works. Using these comparisons, we can see that The Scarlet Letter is clearly a work of American romanticism.
Works Cited:
-Class Notes including discussions as well as the chart of themes and symbols
-Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. , 2005.
-"Important Quotations from The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne". http://www.brighthub.com/education/homework-tips/articles/41967.aspx
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