By: Travis, Colin, Leiana, Alexis and Allen

Hester Individual Non-Conformist Judged by Puritan Society Connections with Walden Pearl Connection to Nature Human Spirit IMPORTANT CHARACTERS

Individual Vs. Society Society is forcing her to conform to their beliefs Isolation The Scarlet Letter puts her into her own sphere Nature Pearl’s connection to nature Nature represents truth, the human spirit, and purity RELATED THEMES

Identifying the presence/influence of transcendentalism through: Themes Characters Rejection from Puritan Society Would you define The Scarlet Letter as a Transcendentalist novel based on the points listed above that you can see evident through out the novel? EXAMINING THE TOPIC

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is heavily influenced by the ideas of Transcendentalism because of the representation of the themes of nature, self- determination, and truth by the main protagonists Hester and Pearl. WORKING THESIS

“It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom, that may be found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow.” Chapter 1, Page 56 QUOTE # 1

“But she named the infant ‘Pearl’ as being of great price, -purchased with all she had, her mother’s only treasure!...of the sin which man thus punished, had given her a lovely child, whose place was on that same dishonored bosom...” Chapter 6, Page QUOTE #2

“A pure hand needs no glove to cover it!” Chapter 12, Page 188 QUOTE #3

“On this public holiday, as on all other occasions, for seven years past, Hester was clad in a garment of coarse gray cloth. Not more by its hue then by some indescribable peculiarity in its fashion, it had the effect of making her face personally out of sight and outline…” Chapter 21, Page 271 QUOTE #4

“Pearl resembled the brook, in as much as the current of her life gushed from a wellspring as mysterious, and had flown through scenes shadowed as heavily with gloom. But, unlike the little stream, she danced and sparkled and prattled airily along her course.” Chapter 16 QUOTE #5

“She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness; as vast, as intricate and shadowy, as the untamed forest, amid the gloom of which they were now holding a colloquy that was to decide their fate.” Chapter 18, Page 239 QUOTE #6