The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel
The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel: In combining realistic and imaginative elements to tell a
moving and dreamlike story, The Scarlet Letter is an example of the
romance genre. In fact, the novel’s original title was The Scarlet Letter: The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel A Romance. The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel While today we think of romances as love stories, and The
Scarlet Letter does contain love scenes between its two protagonists, the
term romance as Hawthorne uses it refers to a work of fiction that does not
adhere strictly to reality. The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel In the preface of the book, Hawthorne defines
romance as taking place “somewhere between the real world and fairy-land, where
the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each imbue itself with the nature of
the other.” The Scarlet Letter mixes the actual in the form of a
historically accurate setting, believable characters, and realistic dialogue
with elements of the imaginary, such as the giant “A” that lights up the night
sky and the strange mark burned into Dimmesdale's chest. The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel These otherworldly
effects heighten the sense of drama in the story, and convey the feeling that
while the exact story is probably not true, it conveys a deeper emotional truth
that surpasses the specifics of the tale.
The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel: The Scarlet Letter also qualifies as a romance in that
it incorporates fantastic elements while remaining emotionally and
psychologically realistic. The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel Hawthorne wrote in the preface of another of his
romances, The House of the Seven Gables, that a romance “sins unpardonably
so far as it may swerve aside from the truth of the human heart.” The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel In The
Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne underscores the emotional veracity of his tale by
qualifying the fantastical elements as possibly the result of the characters’
heightened emotional states. The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel For example, when the A appears in the sky, he
leaves open the possibility it is an optical illusion caused by Dimmesdale’s
guilty conscience: “We impute it, therefore, solely to the disease in his own
eye and heart that the minister… beheld there the appearance of an immense
letter.” The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel Similarly, Hawthorne suggests some witnesses claimed there was no mark
on Dimmesdale’s chest when he died on the scaffold. These acknowledgments that
characters’ emotions influence their interpretation of events bolsters the
sense of psychological accuracy in the novel.
Historical Novel
The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel: The Scarlet Letter is also a historical novel, in that
it was written in 1850 but set in the 1640s and contains real-life settings,
characters, and actual historical events. The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel In setting his story in 17th century
Boston, Hawthorne explores the Puritanical foundation of our country, and uses
the period’s strict laws and repressive beliefs to ask enduring questions about
the nature of sin and guilt. Several characters from the book are based on
actual historical figures such as Governor Bellingham, Mistress Higgins, and
the character of the narrator himself, whose life story closely follows
Hawthorne’s own biography. The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel Hester’s punishment for adultery in the form of a
scarlet letter A affixed to her dress echoes the true instance of a woman named
Mary Batcheller, who in 1651 was sentenced to have the letter A branded into
her flesh after she was found guilty of an extramarital affair. The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel (In The
Scarlet Letter, one of the townswomen suggests Hester’s punishment is too
lenient, and she should have had “the brand of a hot iron” on her forehead.) By
the end of the 17th century, women convicted of adultery had to wear the letter
A sewn into their clothes.
The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel: Hawthorne uses his historical setting to suggest that many
of the beliefs and customs of his characters are the result of the times
they’re living in, and that society is continually moving between repressive
and permissive modes. The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel He compares the dour Puritanical community in Boston both
to the “sunny richness” of Old World Europe, where Hester was born, and to the
generations to follow, which, he writes “wore the blackest shade of Puritanism,
and so darkened the national visage with it” – a reference to the Salem witch
trials that would take place fifty years later. The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel The character of Miss Hibbins,
who freely boasts of consorting with the Black Man, or devil, in the book, is
based on the real life figure Mary Hibbins, who was executed for witchcraft in
1652. The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel The fact that the townspeople tolerate Miss Hibbins, and gradually soften
their stance towards Hester, implies that their Puritanism is more forgiving
and humanitarian than the version that will be practiced by the next
generation. In setting his novel in the past, Hawthorne comments not only on
the morals of a specific period, but contrasts them to both the past and the future.
The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel: Hawthorne is chiefly remembered as the creative genius who
sought to define the romance. He contributed four major romances to the world's
literature: The House of the Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance,
The Marble Faun, and The Scarlet Letter. The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel In each of these he sought, in
the prefaces, to define what romance meant to him. In the Custom House preface
of The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne discusses part of his concept or
definition of the romance novel. He explains that life seen through moonlight
is the subject of the novel. If the writer is sitting in a room in the
moonlight and looks around at the familiar items on the floor — a wicker
carriage or a hobby horse, for example — he can discern a quality of
"strangeness and remoteness" in these familiar objects. The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel And so he has
found a territory in which the familiar becomes enchanted and "the floor
of our familiar room has become a neutral territory, somewhere between the real
world and fairy-land, where the Actual and the Imaginary may meet, and each
imbue itself with the nature of the other." Hawthorne believes that
". . . at such an hour, and with this scene before him, if a man, sitting
all lone, cannot dream strange things, and make them look like truth, he need
never try to write romances."
Finally, The Scarlet Letter is a psychological romance. Hawthorne proposes to study the effects of sin on the lives of his characters. The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel Far ahead of his time, he delves into human alienation and what it does to the soul. Doubt and self-torture provide psychological shadows in the character of Dimmesdale. Rebellion and defiance in the face of repressive laws can be seen in his heroine, Hester Prynne. She may be forced to wear the scarlet letter, but she mocks that sentence with her elaborate embroidery. The Scarlet Letter as a romance novel The Puritan concern with man's depravity and its effect on individual characters is intertwined throughout the plot. What happens when a person has an excess of passion or intellect? When a balance of the two is not achieved in an individual, what is the end result? Within the framework of the romance, Hawthorne lays out his evidence of the psychological conflicts within and around his characters.
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