The Scarlet Letter Puritanism Vs. Romanticism And Reflection

8 Pages 2043 Words

grassy-margined streets of the settlement, or in her mother's cottage. The flowers appeared to know it,” once again this shows the difference between Romanticism and Puritanism, as the Puritans felt that anything that came from the forest was evil. (194) Pearl had a knack of fitting in with natural things. Puritanism puts all of its stock in the religious leader of the community; Arthur Dimmesdale was the Religious leader of the community where the story takes place. The reader soon discovers hates himself and must physically inflict pain upon himself. "He thus typified the constant introspection wherewith he tortured, but could not purify, himself" to never forget what he has done (141). To Dimmesdale, it is bad that Hester is shown publicly as a sinner, but what is far worse than public shame is Dimmesdale's own cruel inner shame. Knowing what only he and Hester know, the secret of theirs eats away at Dimmesdale's weakening and slowly killing him As the Puritans would call Dimmesdale a sinner, the Romantics level him as a human. The Scarlet Letter is wrapped in a deluge of allegorical theories and philosophies. Ranging from Puritanical to Romantic, Nathaniel Hawthorne embodies his ideas to stress his Romantic philosophies through Pearl, Hester, and Dimmesdale throughout the whole of the novel. Nathaniel Hawthorne has a sufficient reason for repeatedly making reference to mirrors throughout his refined novel, The Scarlet Letter. The use of mirrors in the story serves a beneficial purpose of giving the reader a window to the character’s innermost thoughts. When viewed in a mirror ...