Connection of the book and Transcendentalism

In Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne describes the community and their religion. The whole community fallowed the same religion and teachings. It was almost like the community was one. During the first chapter, a crowd of people from Hester’s community mocks and curses Hester. Would it be different if the community had different religions? It probably would because other religions might have a different opinion on adultery.
Transcendentalism allows one to think for himself/herself. Transcendentalists ignore the influences of others. Transcendentalists try to find themselves through nature. Nature cannot influence a human to think a certain way. Nature actually reveals what a person really feels without any thoughts that are not from him/her mind.
When the community is angry with Hester, they were all in unison. But it is not because the crowd originally had the idea that adultery was wrong. The crowd thought adultery was wrong because of the religion as I said before. This example could go both ways: transcendentalist and imperialist. The crowd was all one, all had the same thoughts and acted as one, a teaching of transcendentalism is that everything related to nature is one. This includes animals and plants. But on the other hand, the cause of the crowd having the same idea was not cause the true believed it, it was taught to them. Their teachers forced them to accept these ideas, not allowing them to question the teachings.
A key important point in Transcendentalism is nature. When Hester is pushed away from society, she goes to live in the abandoned house. The only thing that surrounded the house was woods. The self-confinement of the woods, she began to learn about herself and her thoughts. The woods is also the place where Pearl expresses herself. She runs freely with out any thought of what society would think.
Transcendentalists believe in a over-soul. Over soul is the theory that everything is connected. In Scarlet Letter the Reverend Dimmesdale was portrayed as a humble, kind man. Roger Chillingworth was portrayed as a evil man, he was also referred as the “black man”. Even though Dimmesdale and Chillingworth were very different, they were connected. Dimmesdale depended on Chillingworth to help him live. Soon they grew a relationship, which is the connection.
A over soul connection is also found when Chillingworth and Dimmesdale were walking and come across a grave. On the grave was a black weed. Chillingworth says that the weed grows from the man’s body, actually from the man’s sin. This is an example that man, or man’s emotions, transform into plant.
In Scarlet Letter, the characters believe in the supernatural. When a red A appears in the sky, the people believe it is an angel sending a message. Transcendentalist believed that the supernatural exist as well. Transcendentalists saw the world split in two. One side was God, spirits, and over-soul. The other side was humans, animals, and nature. Transcendentalist saw the supernatural side superior to the human/nature side. The transcendentalist had no proof of its existence, but transcendentalist were open to theories because they felt that they should speak freely.

Few Quotes and How Their Related to Transcendentalism

“She had wandered, without rule or guidance, into a moral wilderness. Her intellect and heart had their home, as it were, in desert places, where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers - stern and wild ones - and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.” Chapter XVIII
Transcendentalist focused around nature. Transcendentalist felt that they could learn about themselves from nature. Nature is also part of the over-soul, equally as important as humans.
“It is to the credit of human nature, that, except where its selfishness is brought into play, it loves more readily than it hates. Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love, unless the change be impeded by a continually new irritation of the original feeling of hostility.” Chapter XIII
Transcendentalism is about transforming or changing. Hatred changing into love could possibly be a example of transcendental.
“A pure hand needs no glove to cover it.“ Chapter XII
Transcendentalist believed in the truth. Transcendentalist did not want to follow society thought their rules and regulations, transcendentalist wanted to express them selves by their own thoughts, not ones given to them by religion or culture. When people fallow the rules and regulations, they are fictionally meaning they are putting on gloves, covering their impulse.
“A bodily disease, which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may, after all, be but a symptom of some ailment in the spiritual part.” Chapter X
Hawthorn writes that the character is suffering from a spiritual sickness. Transcendentalist did not try to prove that their theories of the spiritual world were true, but that everyone is free to believe in it anyway they want to.

A Quick History of Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism was not widely known until Randolph Waldo Emerson wrote essays questioning religion behaviors. The real thought of transcendentalism cam from European scholars who question the manners that their religion required them to act by. The scholars drew up theories that revolve around the thoughts of spirits and God exist. The theories usually state that the Spiritual world was superior to the human world.
When Emerson writes about the theories of the Transcendentalist in Europe, Americans start to get involved in Transcendentalism. Many created groups that question the society they lived in. Cambridge, Massachusetts was a large territory mostly composed of Transcendentalist who freely shard their ideas. Cambridge was known as the utopia of Transcendentalism. The Transcendentalist argued why did peoples thoughts and self-spirit. The transcendentalist could believe in religions and transcendentalism. Transcendentalism was the opposite of imperialism, which is basically everything the Transcendentalist do not believe in. Many writers of the time period would revolve their works around transcendentalism or imperialism.

Transcendentalism... My Understanding

Transcendentalism is not a religion, it is a way of thinking. One could be involved in a religion and still believe in Transcendentalism. Transcendentalism is how one views the world through their eyes. Knowing one's self is key to learning about transcendentalism. Transcendentalist are constantly faced with questions about themselves and their thoughts. Transcendentalist are also very nonconformist, or at least during their time era. At that time, many colonies and social areas were conformed and were taught to act certain way. It must have been hard to go against everyone in the community. But what motivated the transcendentalist was the phrase "fallow your heart". 

Transcendentalist believe in God, spirits, and souls. One of the most distinguishing feature of the Transcendentalist, is the belief of the over-soul. The over-soul is a main stream of life. Fragments of the over-soul reside inside all living thing, not just humans and animals, but nature. All plants are believed to have an over-soul as well. If one imagines there is two parts to the world, a physical and a spiritual, transcendentalist link the physical to the spiritual. Instead of using science to answer "how" and "why" objects function the way they do, transcendentalist use believes that the supernatural causes them to do so.