There have been times in American history when logic and facts were far more important than mere silly emotions. However, after Romanticism began to be written in the early 19th century, during the Industrial Revolution, the emphasis shifted to emotions, including guilt, anger, sin, and happiness. It showed that American society, in particular, was moving toward a different era where intuition and spontaneous emotion were much more valued. The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, uses themes of dark romanticism to address the problems faced by the characters in the book. In his book, Hawthorne reflects these tenets of dark romanticism by addressing themes like good and evil, the madness inherent in the human psyche, and the innocence of children. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne greatly signifies the importance of guilt and sin. The book focuses on Arthur Dimmesdale's guilt and compares it to the revenge-driven Roger Chillingsworth. Hawthorne says that although the effects of guilt on the mind seem completely harmless, this emotion is deadlier than any blade. For example, Dimmesdale is deeply obsessed with his own sins and the fear of not being able to confide about his sins. To make matters worse, he connects these sins to the world around him. This makes him see hatred, evil and shame everywhere. The forest symbolizes its secrets which can be revealed at any time by the villagers thus endangering its high reputation. Consumed by his guilt, Dimmesdale seems to view everyone as a threat, except where the real threat comes from: Roger Chillingsworth. As a result, Dimmesdale cannot recognize any threats because he sees threats in everything due to his guilt. Hawthorne also questions the idea of ​​evil in history. Often throughout the story, characters debate who the “black man” is. He is believed to be Dimmesdale or Chillingsworth, while Pearl is considered the devil's child. The characters want to discover the root of this evil that has manifested itself in their lives through their sins. They wonder if it was because Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale that Chillingsworth became evil. This suggests that loving someone else breeds hatred which in turn creates evil. Contrary to this, however, the narrator asserts that knowledge of the heart "makes" one individual dependent on another. This means that two people using each other for comfort cannot be considered an evil act. This means that the concept of evil is not what Dimmesdale and Hester did. Evil lies in the poisonous and dangerous heart of Chillingsworth, whose hatred is fueled by false love. There is a strong belief in the innocence of youth throughout The Scarlet Letter. Throughout history, youth is consistently seen as a superior notion of wisdom. History tells us that there is unlimited knowledge coming from those who have not been influenced by urban society. Pearl, Hester's daughter, had a very strong intuition that Dimmesdale was "the black man." She wondered why the minister never showed his affection in public and only showed them in private settings. The forest is the symbol of an escape from society. In this place, Hester and Dimmesdale could then speak freely. Additionally, the forest considered Pearl its own, going so far as to allow her to interact with the animals by..