The Scarlet Letter and Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism was a philosophical movement during the 19th century. Its focus was on individuality; which was based on the belief that humans were essentially good and that anything natural was good. The movement developed as a part of the European Romanticism. How much did the ideas of transcendentalism affected Hawthorne?-------- is a question which has been already answered by history. However, how far is his Scarlet Letter transcendentalist in its form or aspect?-- is being debated even today. One observation can be that, considering the author's association with the movement in its early stages, the novel does reflect some elements of the philosophy. However, to call the novel completely a transcendentalist text would be a matter of question. Hawthorne portrays a sort of tension between the Puritan society and the transcendentalist views."Forest and rosebush represent the good and evil sides of nature. And Hawthorne thought that transcendentalism was too optimistic...