On Transcendental Ideas Reflected in The Scarlet Letter

1、on transcendental ideas reflected in the scarlet letter transcendentalism is the main means to show the ideas of romanticism, and during the period, nathaniel hawthorne is one of the most important writers. however hawthorne is not the true believer of transcendentalism. he ever wrote a novel, the b

2、lithedale romance (1852), satirizing the movement, and based it on his experiences at brook farm, a short-lived utopian community founded on transcendental principles. mcfarland, philip, hawthorne in concord, new york: grove press, 2004. p149 but in fact, he is a writer with paradoxical thoughts. ju

3、st as for one thing, he is influenced much by the puritanism and bases on it to know the world and human beings; for another thing, he deprecates the doctrines of puritanism. this is also true of his attitudes towards transcendentalism. though he disapproves of some theories, such as the idea of “hu

4、man is godness”, we cant deny that he is inspired by transcendentalism as well. transcendentalism is a literary and philosophical movement, which emerged in new england in the early to middle 19thcentury. and among transcendentalists core beliefs was an ideal spiritual state that transcends the phys

5、ical and empirical and is only realized through the individuals intuition, rather than through the doctrines of established religions. /wiki/transcendentalismin the following, the paper is set out to analyze the transcendental ideas reflected in his most famous novel the scarle

6、t letter from three aspects, that is, characters, setting, and plot.firstly please allow me to briefly introduce the writer and his novel. nathaniel hawthorne is one of the most influential writers in the 19th century. after graduation from bowdoin in 1825, he returned to salem to live with his fami

7、lies who even during his early years had prevented him from making friends of his own age. a course book of american literature（美国文学教程),主编曹曼，武汉大学出版社，2007，chapter 4 the transcendentalism, p129 and he tended to be conservative in many of his views. and the scarlet letter is regarded as a masterpiece o

8、f hawthorne and a classic of american romanticism. it is not only a romance. the story begins in seventeenth-century boston, then a puritan settlement. a young woman, hester prynne, is being led to the scaffold, where she stands for the public shame and is forced to wear the scarlet letter “a” on he

9、r gown at all times because of her adultery and not revealing her lovers identity. in the crowd she recognizes her missing husband who now is called roger chillingworth, and he settles in boston and intent on revenge. several years go away; while her lover arthur dimmesdale, the venerable minister,

10、suffers the psychological anguish, tortures he himself and leads to his death; hester lives in the edge of a town and brings up her illegitimate daughter pearl, on her own. in the meantime, her charitable deeds and quiet humility have earned her appreciation from the community who ever scorned at he

11、r adultery. hawthornes description of the characters with human virtues, such as loyalty, kindness reflected the ideas that transcendentalists advocate, that is, the absolute good and unspotted innocence of nature. in this story, we can see that hester is a kind-hearted woman and she would not like

12、to reveal her fellow sinner with the fear that the minister would possibly receive the contempt from the community. and she is so strong that she endures years of shame and scorn without any complaints and by herself brings up pearl to be a naughty girl. and pearl was born to be the symbol of her mo

13、thers sin, but also represent hesters courage to suffer all the shame and unfairness, and her hope for new life. through showing readers the good qualities of human beings hawthorne reminds us of the remaining goodness in that money-oriented society. after the independence war, american society expe

14、rienced great changes. the expansion towards the west, rich natural resources, and flocks of foreign migrants played an important role in the development of america. furthermore, the progress in science and technology and many creations brought a revolutionary change to the societys development. 现代美

15、国小说史(survey of modern american fiction), 王长荣著，上海外语教育出版社，1992, chapter 1，p1 and in fact industrialization and urbanization on a large scale led to some social issues as well. people paid much attention to achieving more and more wealth and power, but took humanity into consideration less and less. th

16、e social background not only promoted the movement of transcendentalism, but also makes difference to hawthornes thoughts and writing. just as the puritan settlement in the 17th century he describes in the scarlet letter, where women gossips, official authorities view sin as intolerance and be punis

17、hed and suppressed, and people look down upon the sinners. just as those transcendentalists, hawthorne concerns about the moral, emotional and psychological effect of the sin on common people. and the case of hester discourses the sufferings under the control of church authorities. furthermore, hest

18、er is a true practitioner of transcendentalism. the transcendentalists put emphasis on humans subjective initiative which is helpful to break through the shackles of calvinisms doctrines, such as fatalism. 6. 霍桑：红字，姚乃强译，译林出版社，1996年 as the plot goes, she isnt surrendered to the power, but pursues her love and follows her heart with courage; she also rejects of standard societal beliefs and fights against authorities to achieve happiness bravely; and she successful cha