Thursday, November 8, 2007

Dealing with Scarlet Letter as a Romantic novel

Although The Scarlet Letter was set during the Puritan time period, it is a romantic novel. The forest, where Hester goes when she wants to escape from the town, is a romantic place used in the novel. The forest deals with nature and transcendentalism, which were the main components of romanticism. Another romantic element used in the novel is death, like the killing of Dimmesdale. Intuition is also another element in The Scarlet Letter. Many characters in the novel had to deal with situations where they had to use reason vs. intuition. Like Hester, she used intuition to polish her scarlet letter because it defines her and her independence.

No comments: