Emersonian Nature in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter
In 1836, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote Nature, an essay setting the foundation of transcendentalism. Fourteen years later, Nathaniel Hawthorne would write the classic, The Scarlet Letter. At first glance, one may not connect the two, but the experiences of Hawthorne’s characters interaction with nature demonstrate a strong sense of transcendentalism that is also found within Emerson’s essay.
The Scarlet Letter focuses on Hester Prynne, a young woman accused with the sin of adultery in a staunch Puritan community. Her punishment is to wear a scarlet “A” as evidence of her sin. As readers, we know her sin is true as she has a daughter, Pearl, who was born during a two-year absence of her husband,
