Scarlet Letter Rough Draft The Romantic Element Of...

Kenneth Pak Mrs. Rocha AmLit Honors 4 7 October 2014 Scarlet Letter Rough Draft The Romantic era, occurring roughly from the early to mid 1800’s, was the period of reformation that shaped the society into one that valued latitude over order; this contrasted from the rigid, legalistic Puritan society that had been prevalent prior to the Romantic era. Through the newfound freedom of expression that was introduced during this period, many literary pieces that reflected these ideas began to surface. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and James Russell Lowell’s The First Snowfall exemplify the romantic element of reverence for nature through the depiction of a placating snowfall and the isolating outskirts of society; these enhance the themes of romanticism by suggesting that reverence for nature may liberate one from his/her nostalgic griefs and suppressed emotions. In The First Snowfall, Lowell demonstrates the Romantic element of reverence for nature through the descriptions and dialogue of the snowfall’s restoring nature, implying that the snowfall can subdue the narrator’s pain and usher him to move on. Reverence for nature is the romantic belief that God resides and works through nature, providing it with an authority over the individual. The First Snowfall recounts the father’s memories of his past heartbreaks regarding his dead, first-born daughter. As the father observes the snowfall, he narrates that â€Å"[t]he stiff rails were softened to swan’s-down, / [a]nd still