This week we are studying the development of Romanticism as a literary genre in relation to the development of the United States as a social,...

For an essay
utilizing Nathaniel Hawthorne as a Romantic author whose work offers social commentary on
America, his 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter would be a fine
choice.

Though set in a Puritan colony, Hawthorne develops a proto-feminist
novel that speaks to overarching themes of nature, the city on a hill, and
individuality.

Like many Romantics, Hawthorne explores the idea that nature
is superior to the so-called civilizing efforts of humanity. Only there can Arthur Dimmesdale
and Hester Prynne find the full expression of their individuality. Puritan society, an
embodiment of the oppressive force of a theocracy, does not allow for natural sexuality or
individuality, and the novel details the toll that it takes on the free-spirited Hester Prynne
and the repressed minister with whom she falls in love.

The Puritan colonies
were meant to be the city on the hill in the new world, and Hawthorne argues throughout the
novel that they were ultimately a failure. The oppression and failed attempts at social control
through the combination of church and state are highlighted in theof the love triangle between
Hester, Roger, and Arthur and the ostracization of Hester and Pearl.

The Scarlet Letter offers abundant symbolism to analyze; the
scenes set in nature are among the novel's most lyrically written and symbolic. Only in the
forest can Hester, Arthur, and Pearl fully express themselves, and nature welcomes them in a way
that the construct of society never will.