How the Writings of Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, and Dickinson Reflect the Transcendental Movement - Essay Example

Therefore, the first principles of transcendentalism were based on an indwelling God and intuitive thought. The flourishing of transcendentalism has helped to create new ideas, literature, religion, culture and philosophy. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s fame lies with the publication a few novels and short stories. His novels include The Scarlet Letter (1850), The House of the Seven Gables (1851), The Blithedale Romance (1852, The Marble Faun(1860) and the short stories like Twice Told Tales(1837) Mosses from an Old Manse(1846) and Tanglewood Tales(1853).

He was not considered as a true transcendentalist as the group focuses mainly on the goodness innate in man and nature. They considered the state and religion and political parties corrupting the individuals and losing their purity. Further they considered that man has the capacity for self reliance. They believed that it is through this self reliance man can progress and bring goodness in society. Hawthorne’s writings reflected the negative side of the movement. He projected that evil and sin are mostly innate in human life.

His works reflect these elements. His work, The Minister’s Black Veil reflects some of the elements of transcendentalism. The minister is presented with a veil reflecting the original sin. He had projected the priority of individuals in the story. He firmly believed that transcendentalism should focus on individualism in a society which gives less importance to individuals. He stated through his writings that the life one has in this world is important than that is believed in after life. Tiffany K.

Wayne comments, “His novels and short stories engage a range of Transcendentalist philosophical and social themes, and many of his characters were drawn from his Transcendentalist acquaintances” (Wayne 140). The writer further goes on to state that his noted novel, The Scarlet Letter projected two of the strongest and most independent female characters namely, Hester and Pearl. Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) is another writer who imprinted his indelible marks in American Transcendentalist movement.

Consequently, many regard him as truly the center of the American transcendentalist movement who shared its ideas and values in a little book, Nature, published in 1836. The book was the result of his vast study in religion, philosophy and literature that extended for ten years. Emerson is well known for deploying his transcendental philosophy for social reforms. The philosophy was built upon the notion that every person participates in a divine and universal “Over-Soul.” This “Over-Soul,” whose influence felt intuitively, provides the basis for both individual self-reliance and collective social identity (Levine & Malachuk).

Emerson’s opposition to slavery in political and non-political contexts can be considered as his personal crusade against the social injustice which in time labelled him as an acknowledged moral voice of the Union cause. It is the same concept one can identify in his transcendental philosophy in which he remarked that human nature possesses dual aspects, basically material and ethereal. As man is capable of operating these two realms, he should have, as Emerson suggests, “the Understanding”.

But he also recommends that our actions should be in accordance with the universal moral laws that are intuitively perceived through “the reason.” Like other Transcendentalists, Emerson also borrowed these terms from the German