Wharton writes what she knows

After reading a few works by Edith Wharton in several of my classes you begin to see what she writes about. The Gilded Age and the life of the rich and famous, she writes about old New York and Europe. There is always a scandal or controversy and a loss of status or monetary inflow such as Lily Bart in the House of Mirth or the Countess Ellen Olenska in the Age of Innocence. Lily Bass desperately searches for money and social rank that ends in her death in the end on the novel, while Countess Ellen Olenska seeks to escape from a horrible marriage with her cheating husband. Now these stories may not fully represent Edith Wharton’s life but there are influences of her life that are represented within each novel.
Edith Wharton was born into a rich family in New York City. She lived the opulent life she wrote about. “To escape the bustling city, the family spent summers at ‘Pencraig’ on the shores of Newport Harbour in Newport, Rhode Island. When Edith was four years old they moved to Europe, spending the next five years traveling throughout Italy, Spain, Germany and France. Back in New York young Edith continued her education under private tutors. She learned French and German and a voracious reader, she studied literature, philosophy, science, and art” (Merriman) You can see some of the similarities in her life style and the lifestyles that her characters live in her books.
One of the biggest similarities that I saw between her and her works was the character of Countess Ellen Olenska and the situation that she was put into. Edith Wharton married banker Edward Robbins Wharton in Trinity Chapel on April 29 1885. They honeymooned in Europe and spent the next few years traveling Europe. They came back to the states and moved to New York on Park Avenue next to the park. Their marriage at first was good he helped her publish some of her works in magazines such as; Scribner’s Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, Century Magazine, Harper’s, Lippincott’s and the Saturday Evening Post. “While in Paris, Wharton met journalist Morton Fullerton, who would become a close friend and was instrumental in getting some of her works published in France. They also had an affair that lasted three years. Teddy had a mistress and had been embezzling funds from Edith to support her. They were divorced in 1913.” (Merriman) There are some differences between Edith Wharton on Countess Ellen Olenska yet I feel that Wharton must have drawn on her personal experiences to create the situation between the count and countess in Age of Innocence. The differences in when the novel takes place and the actual events of Wharton’s marriage take place in two different points in time which is why they were treated differently.
In most of Edith Wharton’s writings she is making fun of the society that she grew up and lived in but most good writers write what they know and draw from personal experiences. Which is what I believed made Wharton’s writing so authentic.
Merriman, C. D. "Edith Wharton." Online-literature.com. 2007. Web. 20 Sept. 2009.

American Romanticism in The Scarlet Letter

From its poetic language to its supernatural influences The Scarlet Letter is a novel that clearly defines the American Romantic movement. It covers all of the main points of Romanticism; exotic local, supernatural influences, poetic language, symbolic undertones and the fight between good and evil. We also see the connection to Romanticism through the characters themselves.
One of the most prominent romantic issues in this novel is the fight of good versus evil. The true evil in this novel being Chillingworth, the spiteful husband of Hester Prynne. His entire presence in the novel is only to stir up mischief. From the first moments when he is introduced it is clear he is up to no good. “It was better to stand thus, with so many betwixt him and her, than to greet him, face to face, they two alone. She fled for refuge, as it were, to the public exposure, and dreaded the moment when its protection should be withdrawn from her.” (46) His involvement in the novel is purely out of spite for Hester. Even his appearance begins to change throughout the novel he begins to embody the evil that has consumed him.
There are many supernatural elements in the novel, mostly pertaining to the scarlet letter. One of the most important one is the letter that burns on Dimmesdale’s chest. It burns through the entire novel as his guilt grows over the seven years of hiding his secret. It is the burden he must live with as he lives in the shadow of his actions. At the end when he reveals it to the community many see it and some don’t. The letter isn’t the only supernatural element in the novel; Pearl is referred to in the story as “the devil child by Mistress Hibbens, a witch. In the governor hall, the narrator describes Pearl as, "There was a fire in her and throughout her; she seemed the unpremeditated offshoot of a passionate moment" (69)
One of the main influences of the romanticism is symbolism in objects and nature. One of the most common natural symbols in the novel is the rose bush that is mentioned in many instances through the story. It serves many meanings mostly representing Hester. “This rose bush, by strange chance, has been kept alive in history; but whether it had merely survived out of stern wilderness… or whether, as there is fair authority for believing, it had sprung up under the footsteps of the sainted Ann Hutchinson.”(37) Another example of the natural symbolism is when Hester and Dimmesdale have their meeting where they discuss fleeing to Europe. They meet out in the deep parts of the forest outside the boundaries of the town. To the Puritans, the forest represented evil because this is where witches and other sinners signed their names to the devil. The forest was where they could escape from the city's corruption.
The Scarlett Letter and its protagonist Hester define the romantic movement and Hawthorn is a prime example of an American romantic writer with his poetic language, symbolism and supernatural undertones.