... writers of the period -- Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. He also taught the only other Anti-Transcendentalist writer of his period -- Herman Melville. His most popular book, The Scarlet Letter, earned Hawthorne international fame. The period of time during which Hawthorne wrote was the New England Renaissance in America. By the year 1840, it was clear that the American experiment ... places that the cold light of reason alone could not break through. Relating directly to allegories is Hawthorne's use of symbolism in his stories. This is very evident in The Scarlet Letter wh...

• Word Count: 855
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... created by the Pilgrims. Known for their strict, repressive society, the Puritans barred all forms of deviation within their community, as described in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Set in the mid-1600s, The Scarlet Letter epitomizes the religious intolerance of Puritan society. By the mid-1800s, however, the religious fervor that had been so prevalent two centuries ago was gone, replaced ... and society's intolerance of it, a reoccurring theme in the Puritan world of the 1600s and an inevitable result of the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-1800s. In Hawthorne's The Scar...

• Word Count: 789
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Emerson, was an important force in New England intellectual circles. The Transcendentalists believed that human existence transcended the sensory realm, and rejected formalism in favor of individual responsibility. The Scarlet Letter shows some Transcendentalist influence, including a belief in individual choice and consequence, and an emphasis on symbolism. Henry David Thoreau and Nathaniel Hawthorne are different and alike in many ... slavery and against the Mexican War, which Thoreau and other abolitionists regarded as a means to expand the slave territory. Hawthorne also wrote many s...

• Word Count: 913
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

American Renaissance Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter," belongs to the period known as American romanticism, the period called, by F.O. Matthiessen, the American Renaissance. The American Renaissance took place roughly from 1840-1865, though the most significant work ... manner in which an developing capitalist ethic and a growing urban culture are explored. Nathaniel Hawthorne: many of Hawthorne's stories are set in Puritan New England, and his greatest novel, The Scarlet Letter (1850), has become the classic portrayal of Puritan America. Hawthorne's work often explores the vexed a...

• Word Count: 917
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... (13) It was this speech that sparked a period of creative energy, producing some of the greatest works of all time. Such works include, Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Henry David Thoreau's Walden, the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Edgar Allan Poe's short stories (Hurley 13, 15). Each American romantic adopted his own ... ...

• Word Count: 319
• Approx Pages: 1