An Image of Utopia in The Scarlet Letter and Pleasantville Essay

Hester displays acts of courage that portray her as a heroic character. Hester clearly suffers from her punishment of having to wear the scarlet letter ‘A’ in public as she attempts to maintain

Hester ends up becoming pregnant from this encounter. She has her daughter Pearl from it. Hester is forced to wear a letter A on her chest at all times because of this. This shows that in this time period, people were very limited when it came to marriage and sex. She was unable to deal with the matter privately because the church is what ruled the law in that time. The 10 commandments were laws to them. Hester ends up being in prison for becoming pregnant and isn’t release for a while. After she was released, she was forced to wear the big, red A that was supposed to symbolize the fact that she had an affair. She was the image of the fallen for the

After the crime of adultery, many things have changed including Hester’s appearance. The clothing she wears and her hairstyle changed from being beautiful to plain. She wanted to be invisible to society, to be unnoticed, but it was difficult for her because of the letter “A” she still wears on her chest.

The Puritans despised Hester and her symbol for her sin, and shunned her for many years even after her prison sentence. Hester could have just lived a depressed, lonely life in seclusion with her daughter Pearl, but she decided to accept her sin and wrong doing to become a mentally stronger woman. During the many years of Hester being in prison and being rejected when she was released, she practiced needlework to provide food for her and her daughter. As the people in Salem recognized her talent of her embroidery and garments, they began respecting her talent, and so the scarlet “A” that stood for “adulterer” slowly began to stand for “able.” Hester started to supply apparel for babies, ceremonies, inaugurations, and funerals. Furthermore, the Scarlet letter has another symbolic meaning. When Pearl went to the seashore, she made a green letter “A” out of seaweed – nature’s color. This was symbolic for Pearl’s sinless life so far because she hasn’t truly been introduced to sin; she still is “green” and “pure”. As for Hester, her scarlet “A” is symbolic of her many sins, for no one can avoid sin as they grow older.

Pleasantville is a movie where significant change occurs based on the theories of social change. In the movie, the TV show Pleasantville is set in the 1950’s and everything and everyone in that show is in black and white. And being that they’re set in the 1950’s the have the same outdated morals, values and beliefs that are associated with 1950’s culture. However, the town of Pleasantville slowly but surely turns into colour when they go against their societal norms and beliefs and have sex, read, paint, express emotions and many other things. Pleasantville portrays a town that is ready and is in need of social change and how social changes are required for humanity to progress. One could say that the colour changes in Pleasantville are viewed as a bad thing because it would mean that you broke a societal value or norm in Pleasantville where everything is always perfect. However, David and Jennifer prove to the locals that the colour change is anything but bad and how it allows them to express every facet of their minds and not be stuck in the same roles and routines day in and day out. These sociological, anthropological and psychological changes are needed when trying to move forward as a society and Jennifer and David have helped Pleasantville expand their horizons.

To begin, the town of Pleasantville represents a utopian society because it achieves equality. Pleasantville exceeds equality by treating everyone the same and making no one better than anyone else. Everyone in Pleasantville is the same color and can all do the same thing as everyone else. There is no such thing of being homeless or having more money as someone else. By having everyone in Pleasantville being able to do the same thing and live the same way it achieves an equal society. However when things start to change in

Hester was her own person, she didn't care what any of the townspeople thought about her choices. She did her own thing and wore clothes that stood out from the crowd. Hester was very brave to act like she did when she was completly embarassed by the whole town. While everyone looked at her like a "hussy" as the women called her, she didn't let it get to her. She wore the "A" on her shirt like it didn't bother her at all. "Streching forth the official staff in his left hand, he laid his right upon the shoulder of a young woman, whom he

First of all, in Pleasantville, People may think that they have happy lives. They are truly independent. They can do anything that they want. In fact, their life is so conventional. For example, George is a head of a family. He works hard at his job during the working hour. Then he would come home as he always does. He would take off his coat, put down his suitcase and say, “Honey, I’m home”. Betty, his wife, would offer him a warm welcome with all the dinner that is nicely prepared on the table. They basically have

In the beginning of the novel, Hester refuses to let her sin define her, which her subtle, beautiful, yet defiant nature displays. With all eyes on her as she walks out of the jail, the townspeople notice “On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A” (Hawthorne 46). This embroidered A serves as a punishment of her sin and is supposed to be a disgraceful, ugly reminder to her and everyone around her. If she had succumbed to her punishment and the persona that went with it, then it would be an ugly A, but she makes

First, Hester’s punishment could be compared to a spectacle. Indeed, after having committed adultery in a Puritan society, the town government decides to punish Hester by exposing her on a scaffold for several months and by making her wear the “A” letter on her breast to be able to identify her as an adulterer. During this time, she faces endless mockeries and insults but she never gives up; she grows stronger and doesn’t let the town judgement affect her.

The most irony in the novel is the differences between the identity from which society assigns for Hester through the scarlet letter and the identity which she creates by herself. Though, letter A is a label of sin which people in the community try to impose on Hester, she doesn't let this Puritan view interfere her thought and feeling. On the contrast it seems that this letter also exposes the

The reader has never known Hester Pynne without the letter, except for the hour she removed it when talking to Minister Dimmesdale. The insignia represents Hester’s adultery, she is ordered to wear a scarlet letter A for the rest of her life and in death. Her grave stone read “On a field, stable, the letter A, glues” (Hawthorn Page 240). The letter “A” soon becomes Hester’s identity. If a person knew what the A stood for, Hester would be avoided, but other people such as out of towners and Indians it caused them to think she was of great importance. When told the letter could be removed from her breast she responded “Were I worthy to be quit of it, it would fall away of its own nature, or be transformed” (Hawthorn Page 151). Pearl would not go to her mother if Hester was not adorned with the memento. For a long period of time the meaning of the A was negative receiving similar responses in the towns’ people and Hester. Over time such responses became different, the A changed. Hester proved to be an honorable person thus the A soon represents

Hester was also a symbol of peace. Towards the end of the book, she ends up turning into an adviser to some of the townspeople. Her kindness towards the town made most of them look at her from a different perspective. She would bring the homeless clothes that she made for them and they would criticize her afterwards. Children would call her names their parents would call her and women would give her the silent treatment or yell at her (Hathorne). That all changed towards the end. Instead of thinking of her letter as “adultery” it was now known as “able”.

The harsh townspeople force her up on the scaffold to be humiliated in front of the whole town. Not only is she sent up on the scaffold with her sin revealed by the “A” for everyone to see, Hester becomes an example of what a woman should not come to be. The author is talking about Hesters experience on the scaffold and her pregnancy, “Throughout them all, giving up her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman's frailty and sinful passion”(32). Hester looses her individuality and is labeled by the townspeople and known for the Scarlet Letter. Further, the townspeople singled her out as an alien or outcast of the town forcing her to live an abnormal live. She was ridiculed and known for her one sin, unable to have acceptance back into society. Although the townspeople feel as if Hester has brought sin upon there lives, she clearly have not harmed any of the townspeople physically, and they have no grounds to punish Hester. The cause of the townspeople's harsh disciplinary acts on Hester originates from a strict, unrealistic standards of puritan society and the zero tolerance of any ungodly behavior observed in the town. Due to the absence of proper justice, Hester's sentencing is left up to the harsh townspeople in which they show no mercy or

     In the beginning of the story, Hester is being punished for adultery, and is forced to wear the letter A on her bosom. It is shown so that people will know her as an