puritanism and Romantism essays

puritanism and Romantism essays Puritan moral teachings in American Romanticism Abstract: Under the influence of American Puritanism, American Romanticism favors Christian moral teachings. Puritan notions as self-restraint, sin and salvation weigh greatly and serve as Romantic authors ¡Ã‚ ¯ moral measurement. Taken as a specific example, American leading Romantic Nathaniel Hawthorn can illustrate this impact explicitly. Special emphasis will be put on his novel the Scarlet Letter. A brief biographical introduction about the author can help to know where his Puritan thinking pattern comes from. In his masterpiece the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorn shows his belief in original sin and redeem through professions and painful life, which is obviously from Puritan sources. Other works are also to be mentioned in a combined effort with former text to strengthen the central ideal. Keywords: Puritanism, Romanticism, moral teachings, self, sin, salvation, Nathaniel Hawthorn, the Scarlet Letter 1.1. Source and characteristics of American Romanticism. Early in the nineteenth century, the attitudes of America ¡Ã‚ ¯s writers were shaped by their New World environment and an array of ideas inherited from the romantic traditions of Europe. A new American Romantic was pluralistic; yet it frequently shared certain general characteristics: moral enthusiasm, faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that the natural world was a source of goodness and man ¡Ã‚ ¯s societies a source of corruption. (ÃŽÃŽÂ °ÃƒË†ÃƒÅ 199054) 1.2. American Puritanism moral teachings that have influenced American Romanticism. Puritan doctrine taught that all men are totally depraved and require constant self-examination to see that they are sinners and unworthy of God's Grace. Because man had broken the Covenant of Works when Adam had eaten from the Tree of Knowledge, God offered a new covenant to Abraham's people who held that election to Heave...