The Scarlet Letter As A Romantic Novel-Original-October 23, 2007

    Steeped in the ideals of American Romanticism, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel is much more emotionally charged than a basic narrative tale. The Scarlet Letter embodies the transcendentalist principles of the literary era in which the novel was produced. An emphasis of the importance of feeling over logic permeates the book, as well as the acknowledgment of the higher meaning displayed by nature. The hero–or in this case, heroine–of the Romantic American novel is also present in the tale of Puritan social repression.

Hester Prynne, although a woman (unlike Natty Bumpo, for example), is Hawthorne’s embodiment of the American hero. Separated from the village by the insignia upon her chest, Hester is an individual of self-sustenance: a trait belonging to most heroic figures in Romantic literature. Living in a house outside of the town, Hester cooks and sews for herself and her child without the assistance of another person; even in the town she stands alone, as on the scaffold during her condemnation, and thenceforth, when a ring of space is formed around the stigma attached to the adultress. Despite the scorn presented by her neighbors, Ms. Prynne provider her servitude to the community by employing her skills as a seamstress and domestic caregiver. Even the townspeople who ostracized her relinquish their judgments to claim her as their own and praise her skill with needle and thread, as well as her generosity to those sick or otherwise in need. Hester’s duty is relentless, as Hawthorne notes that she is only at home when the sky is dark. Another facet of the American hero that is present is Hester’s character is a trait of bad luck with the opposite sex. First married to an older man with whom she shared no love, the heroine then cheats on him with another man. To worsen her plight, Hester faces the condemnation of not only her husband, but also that of her lover (as his position of secrecy requires). Just as the hope of finally binding herself with Dimmesdale, the man she loves, reaches Hester, he dies, leaving her forever in solitude. The steadfast determination of Hester’s spirit is indicative of the transcendentalist ideas of the Romantic era in American literature.

To reach beyond earthly experience is touted by Hawthorne when he demonstrates Hester and all of her love existing despite the repressions of her community. Even with a scarlet badge of shame upon her breast, Prynne experiences life as deeply as the Puritan townspeople, forging a position of matronly importance in the town that thinks itself punishing her. In time, Hester even brings herself to discard her letter in a brook, realizing that her life with Pearl and Dimmesdale is greater than the epithet of a red “A.” Just as the heroine continues to carry humanity despite a sign supposed to rob her of it, she and Dimmesdale maintain their love regardless of their removed positions in society (he as the pious clergyman, and she as the ignominous sinner).Meeting in the trees seven years after they first admitted their passions, Prynne and Dimmesdale still desire to live in the company of one another, though years have passed without even the intimacy of a true word. A plan to move beyond the restricting Puritan community embodies the transcendentalist ideas of a reaching a high place (union of the man and woman) despite earthly circumstances (the secrecy of their relationship that must be maintained in the pious town). The emotionally bound motives that carry Hawthorne’s novel are harmonious with the theories that American Romanticism is based upon.

By characterizing a classic American hero and the beliefs of transcending earthly bondage, Hawthorne has written a novel of American Romanticism. The independent, generous spirit of Hester Prynne matches that of the other heroes of the period, and transcendentalsim is clearly expressed in the literary work. The Scarlet Letter may be considered the “perfect” novel of American Romanticism due to the completeness with which it fulfills the ideals of the literary style.