Ambiguity In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter Essay

While Hester tries to protect Dimmesdale by not giving the name of Pearl's father, she actually condemns him to a long road of

We find out how much Roger and Hester have in common. They are both holding a deep secret, they are unhappy and they both have a very desirable skill and both live on the outskirts of this Puritan society.

According to the Urban Online Dictionary, Moral Ambiguity can be defined as “Lack of clarity in ethical decision-making. That is, when an issue, situation, or question has moral dimensions or implications, but the decidedly “moral” action to take are unclear, either due to conflicting principles, ethical systems, or situational perspectives.

During the 17th century, a Puritan commonwealth presided over Boston and was known for its strict adherence to religious, moral and social codes. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes rhetorical strategies in order to denounce the Puritan system of beliefs and bring to light the hypocrisy of the Puritan community as he tells the agonizing story of a young woman who was condemned by society.

In the novel The Scarlet letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, it is about a young woman named Hester Prynne, who has committed adultery and gave birth to a daughter named Pearl. As a punishment, Hester has to wear a cloth with a scarlet letter ‘A’ on her chest that stands for ‘Adulteress’ for all her lifetime. Meanwhile, Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth, who has been missing for two years come back and decides to take a revenge on Hester’s lover. Throughout the novel, Chillingworth has discovered that a young minister named Dimmesdale is Hester’s lover. Dimmesdale is the worst sinner than Chillingworth because Dimmesdale doesn’t have moral, he is coward that decides to keep his secret, and he doesn’t have

Abandoning Hester and her illegitimate daughter Pearl also augmented his problems. Forcing Hester to go and find work around town, an obviously hard task for a single parent.  He also abandons them emotionally and physically. He is rarely there when Hester and Pearl needed him.  Innocent little Pearl wonders why Dimmesdale is so afraid of public displays of affection, yet when they are alone, he takes notice of her and Hester. Talking to him, Pearl asks  "Wilt thou stand here with Mother and me, tomorrow noontide? (149),” a question whose answer is unclear for Pearl. In fact, the only way Hester and Pearl receive any kind of support from Dimmesdale is when Hester threatens to tell the truth about his sins.

In the Scarlet Letter there are two characters that are provided as a foil for one another. The one character Dimmesdale seems as if he is kind, but he has a terrible burden on him that is being torturing out of him. Chillingworth is his opposite. You think he is nice when really he is quite evil. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth bring out each other's characteristics and bring out the characteristics of other characters around them.

The Scarlet Letter is a book filled with sins of many different kinds. There is lying, adultery, and transgressions throughout the novel. However, there is a man who consistently models all these sins together--Arthur Dimmesdale. He is guilty of lying to his people, encouraging a woman to cheat on her husband, and committing transgressions against God and man. For this, he has sinned the worst of all characters.

Even though it is clear that Dimmesdale felt extremely guilty, he never actually wanted to admit that he had sinned. The fact that he intended to confess his sin for the final time during the night shows that he does not want the people to know, but just wants to clear his conscience by confessing to himself. While Dimmesdale was on the scaffold, Reverend Wilson walked by and Dimmesdale apparently said hello but was in such

Conflict can take on many forms in one’s life, such as conflict with self, with society, with religion and with others. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, develops the theme of conflict through the moral sin of Hester Prynne. Conflict is observed through Hester’s difficulties with the townspeople, challenges with the Puritan way of life, struggles with herself and tensions with Roger Chillingworth. Committing sin in the Puritan society leads to a great deal of conflicts.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's bold novel, The Scarlet Letter, revolves around sin and punishment.  The main characters of the novel sharply contrast each other in the way they react to the sin that has been committed

        Pearl primarily serves the role of silently urging Dimmesdale to overcome the pressures to conform to society, and to allow his guilty inner-self to emerge and receive retribution for his sins. She exists as a constant and living reminder and product of the sin Hester and Dimmesdale committed, and acknowledges the false innocence Dimmesdale tries so desperately to maintain. Her inquisition, "Why does he not wear [a scarlet letter] outside his bosom as thou dost?" (ch 16) to her mother concerning Dimmesdale is evidence of this. Pearl has no chance to conform to society because at birth she is regarded

   "...pain is in itself an evil; and indeed, without exception, the only evil; or else the words good and evil have no meaning." (Chase 127) In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne presents a very clear view of his stand on morality, which he carefully cultivates through the course of the story. The moral, which is "Be true!" applies equally well to all of the characters in the novel. Though his view does seem to stand as true through the length of the story, it does not, unfortunately, transfer as smoothly to our lives today. In essence it is a hedonistic view to take, which requires a slight stretch as to his interpretation as to how evil, and important, an individual's pain is unto

As American-British novelist Mark Lawrence once said, “We’re built of contradictions, all of us. It’s those opposing forces that give us strength, like an arch, each block pressing the next”. The aforementioned contradictions are what lead to conflicts, and in turn growth and acceptance. Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his revolutionary classic The Scarlet Letter, delves into the conflicts that the brave, yet infamous Hester Prynne has to overcome. As Hawthorne unfolds the unfortunate tragedy of Hester and her mysterious lover, the battles Hester has to face are multiple external and internal stimuli that bring about the growth of Hester as a character. The onerous obstacles that Hester must face through her life wear her out mentally, but only then can she truly grow and accept who she is.

Nan Lei in the critical article, “A Brief Study on the Symbolic Meaning of the Main Characters’ Name in The Scarlet Letter” (2015), suggests that Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism to greatly enhance the importance of three of the main characters in his novel. Lei supports her suggestion by talking about the different ways in which each character’s name is symbolic, and how that directly correlates with their characteristics and their actions. Lei’s purpose is to elaborate on the depth of the main characters names in order to reveal to the reader how Hawthorne implicitly makes the characters very meaningful to the book as a whole. She establishes a knowledgeable and admiring tone towards readers of The Scarlet Letter. This article proved to be very effective in displaying and supporting the authors claim. I do agree with the author’s critique, and found that there were many strengths within this article that helped to make her paper more effective.