Puritanism and Romanticism & The Scarlet Letter

A religious group that migrated from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England in the early 1600s Believed in a “pure” interpretation of the Bible Religion and government closely intertwined Ministers counseled the magistrates Strict rules against the theater, music, clothing, and even poetry

A Western artistic, social, philosophical, literary, musical and cultural movement Desire to apply “reason” to practices in science, politics, religion, and art Notion of “progress”—an optimistic era that stresses the rights and potential of the individual Deep interest in humanity’s relationship with Nature and the notion that an earlier spiritual relationship with Nature must be restored Use of symbolism and metaphor reflecting idea that reality has multiple layers of meaning Interest in social/political reform movements More lyric poetry, fiction, and journal writing

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote during the Romantic Period in American literature, which lasted from 1830 to Literary contemporaries: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edgar Allen Poe, and Walt Whitman. The Scarlet Letter is considered a piece of American Romantic literature, because it is set in a remote past, the Puritan era two-hundred years prior to Hawthorne’s time, and because it deals with the interior psychology of individual characters.

Hawthorne’s novel is set during the Puritan era—early 1600s. Thus, the speech of the characters in the story is that of Puritans. However, The Scarlet Letter—considered a Romance and filled with Romantic themes—was written during the Romantic Period.