Use of Romanticism in Development of Characters in The...

Use of Romanticism in Development of Characters in The Scarlet Letter In Hawthornes 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 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 repressed 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 novelist†¦show more content†¦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 stands on the scaffold, thinking of her husband, he appears before her startled eyes at the edge of the crowd. And his first gest ure is indicative of the man. Whatever shock or dismay he may feel at seeing his wife on the scaffold he immediately supresses his emotions and makes his face the image of calm. The glance he bends on Hester is keen and penetrative. Here is someone used to observing life rather than participating in it. His is a furrowed visage (43). Chillingworth looks like a man who has cultivated his mind at the expense of another faculties - a perilous enterprise, in Hawthornes view (Loring 187). Where his overbearing intellect will take him, Hawthorne wants us to think that he could be the catalyst for great conflicts later in the novel. Chillingworths finger raised to his lips, commanding Hesters silence, begins a pattern of secrecy that is the mainspring of the novels plot; a secrecy that Hester must maintain in order to protect both her and her husband from the harshness of the Puritans. Hawthornes emphasis on the ability of Chillingworth to analyze the human mind and reasoni ng foreshadows his treatment of Dimmesdale later in the novel. Hawthorne shows that while Hester realizesShow MoreRelatedRomanticism Is Essential to the American Culture954 Words   |  4 PagesRomanticism is essential to the American culture. It was sought out to be the central movement of the American Renaissance, being most mediated through transcendentalism and it continues to influence on American thought and writing. â€Å"Romanticism has very little to do with things popularly thought of as romantic, although love may occasionally be the subject of Romantic art. 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