Thesis: In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Maypole of Merry Mount," Edith and Edgar represent
             I. Edith and Edgar realize that foolish jollity is naive.
             A. The Lord and Lady of the May learn to love truly.
             B. The Lord and Lady learn that the focus of life is more than simple pleasures.
             II. Edith and Edgar realize that pessimistic gloom is dispensable.
             A. The Lord and Lady see Endicott softened.
             B. The Lord and Lady understand that the focus of life is more than sin.
             III. Edith and Edgar realize that life is neither all jollity nor all gloom.
             A. The Lord and Lady are able to bring joy to the Puritans.
             B. The Lord and Lady have no desire to return to the forest.
             The American Romantic Age of literature, where authors focus on emotions, was a reaction against the Neoclassic Age of literature, where authors focused on rational thought. The Romantics began writing about the individual and nature by focusing on imaginative literature that uses distant settings, in time and space. "The Maypole of Merry Mount," by Nathaniel Hawthorne, contains many of these attributes which classify this story as a Romantic piece. This allegorical story also shows Hawthorne's objection towards the ideas of two different groups of people. In "The Maypole of Merry Mount," Edith and Edgar represent the error of both jollity and gloom.
             Edith and Edgar come to realize that foolish jollity is naive. The Lord and Lady of the May realize this naivete when they learn to truly love. When Edgar notices that something is bothering Edith, he turns toward her and "chancing to look into his Lady's eyes, was wonder struck at the almost pensive glance that met his own" (762). This "pensive glance" is a realization that comes only from the sorrows of true love; therefore, "From the moment that they truly loved, they had subjected themselves to earth's doom of care and sorr...