Just as transcendentalism has a positive focus on an ideal spiritual reality, anti-transcendentalism is concerned with the darker side of human nature. Anti-transcendentalists believe that man has the potential for evil as well as good, and that nature is unforgiving. When Hester asks Chillingsworth to forgive Dimmesdale and her their transgression, he responds that it is not in him to forgive. He believes that he is at the mercy of his own fallen nature, and that they are all just playing out the course of evil events that was started with Hester's infidelity. He is not in control of what happens, and he places no blame, saying "since that moment, it has all been a dark necessity...it is our fate...let the black flower blossom as it may" (Chapter 14).
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