"The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne How Hester Prynne has romantic characteristics, but is inevitably transcendental. This essay is also meant to be a short one page paper.

In society you can be seen as either obligated to it or as an individual separate from it. Hester Prynne is an individual that is separate from it (Puritan society). It is often argued that Hester is a romantic, but with evidence provided by the novel it is apparent that she is a transcendentalist. The romantic characteristics may apply to her at times, but her character in full is inevitably transcendental. If Hester is seen …

…from the rest of society. No longer viewed how the Puritans expected the rest of society to view her as, Hester no longer carries a burden of punishment, but the burden of creating her own identity. Her final words of true intuition, "Be true! Be true! Be true! [...]" provides insight to her inner most feelings about herself. Hester never attempted to prove herself to anyone, but herself. And True to herself, she became a transcendentalist.