The Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne And Herman...

Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville were well acquainted with one another and wrote a series of letters back and forth for a time. Their friendship has been seen as â€Å"one of the most famous in American literary history† (Hayford 435). Both authors have received a lot of attention as two of the more prominent writers of the nineteenth century and their names are often thrown together in criticism of that era. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s most famous novel is likley The Scarlet Letter while Herman Melville is both famous and infamous for the long descriptions of Moby Dick. Criticism often compares these two authors and these two novels, studying symbols such as the sea or themes such as revenge. What is less explored is the particular use of children in both of these books. Each of these books feature a childish figure who brings forward the themes and concerns in the novel and the children of both novels are presented in a similar light. These characters are Pip and Pearl and, while each has received attention separately, there is more to learn about the novels through a comparison of the two. In The Scarlet Letter, the young Pearl plays an instrumental part in the development of the novels plots and themes. She has received some attention because of her memorable position in the books. In fact, one critic claims that Hawthorne â€Å"warns us that we shall have difficulties in understanding the plot unless we can interpret Pearl properly† (Qin 32). Understand Pearl opens aShow MoreRelatedHerman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne Show the Unbridgeable Gap Between Human Desires and Human Possibilities and the Mixture of Good and Evil in Even the Loftiest of Human Motives987 Words   |  4 PagesSantangelo Hawthorne and Melville In both works, â€Å"Bartleby the Scrivener† and The Scarlet Letter, Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne show the unbridgeable gap between human desires and human possibilities and the mixture of good and evil in even the loftiest of human motives. In â€Å"Bartleby the Scrivener† by Herman Melville, this idea is shown by how the Lawyer keeps Bartleby as one of his employers, even though Bartleby does not deserve to still be working. 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Some of the definable elements of romanticism