Analysis Of John Hawthorne 's ' The Scarlet Letter '

Hester Prynne is punished for adultery by placement in prison and requirement to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest. Hawthorne describes her emotions of guilt as she reflects on her punishments and hopes that they might better her as a figure in society. Throughout the story, Hester experiences many conditions of emotion and passion. As Hester often observes her daughter, Pearl, who was conceived out of wedlock and is the result of the act of adultery that has haunted Hester over the span of the novel, and thinks about the prices she paid and all that was taken from her resulting from the conception of Pearl, Hester sometimes “burst into passionate tears”(Hawthorne 44). Although

Hester Prynne is forced to wear the scarlet letter for the rest of her life because of the one sin she has committed. As she stands on the scaffold in front of the whole town she is told “... And then and the after for the remained of her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom.” (Hawthorne 59). This quote shows that hester is forever going to be guilty for the one sin she has committed with Dimmesdale. Hester will never be treated the same or looked at the same off because of the Scarlet A on her bosom. As the book goes on Hester moves into a cabin that is half in the forest and half in society and raised her daughter Pearl. She made clothes for a living and she decided to start making extra clothes for the poor. Hawthorne then explains how the poor don’t even have respect for Hester because of her scarlet letter “...she give of her little substance to every demand of poverty; even though the bitter-hearted pauper threw back a gibe in requital of the food…” ( Hawthorne 146). This proves that she is still being treated different because if her sin. She is getting treated so wrongly and this sometimes make her feel guilty for committing her sin. Although Hester can leave at anytime she plesases she decides to stay in this town because she believe she should be punished in the same town that she committed her sin. She also stays because of

Throughout, “The Scarlet Letter,” Hawthorne is able to enhance the plot by intricately incorporating symbols which represent a deeper meaning. One of which, is the infamous, and ambiguous, scarlet letter that lays upon the bosom of Hester Prynne. In the beginning of the book, the audience is immediately introduced to the scarlet letter as a symbol of shame and adultery. The narrator describes the Puritan society as very judgemental and harsh. Comments like, “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die,” creates this negative and unwelcoming atmosphere which surrounds Hester for a majority of the book. From then on, the Puritans constantly refer to the

In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, the theme of sin viewed through the prism of many colors is the essence of the novel. The protagonist, Hester, her child, Pearl, and the Reverend Dimmesdale all live in a Puritanical society in Boston, and are subject to the Puritans' strict religious beliefs and rigid attitudes. Exposed to sin and the temptation of its concealment in varying degrees, these characters evolve through the novel in different ways. Hawthorne brilliantly displays these differences by juxtaposing extreme and vivid colors—concealment is shown in dark, drab, and gloomy shades, while openness has a bright and colorful sheen. In this way, Hawthorne establishes a dichotomy between lack of color and color in order to show

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester has finally been released from prison. After she was released, she was able to leave Boston, but she decided against it. Because of her wrongdoings, the community has shunned her. Even though she is shunned, she still has the means to provide for herself and her daughter, Pearl, by her magnificent sewing skills. Pearl helps her get through all that she is going through. Because Pearl is the result of Hester's sin, everyone treats her differently.

With a “tall…figure of perfect elegance…and dark and abundant hair,” Hester has but one fault about her: the “scarlet letter…upon her bosom” (Hawthorne 44). Destined to wear the letter A on her chest for the rest of her natural life, Hester recognizes that this is not only her punishment, but also a reminder to every one of her adulterous actions. With the act of adultery being Hester’s only known sin, thus far, the reader is left wondering just how deeply it will affect her. Coming with a larger price than she could have ever imagined, Hester’s sin essentially makes her an outcast and “in all her intercourse with society…there [is] nothing that [makes] her feel as if she belong[s]” (Hawthorne 67). After her sinful act is brought into the open, Hester is isolated within her own realm, with only her young daughter to accompany her. This sense of isolation builds a metaphorical barrier between the people of Hester’s community and herself, despite her attempts to integrate back into their sphere. Following seven long years of this lifestyle, it seems that Hester finally is accepted by her community, and shockingly enough, “many people refuse to interpret the scarlet letter A by its original signification [, and instead,] they sa[y] that it

Nevertheless, Hester accepts her punishment for adultery and faces all that comes her way with it. She may accept wearing the scarlet A trimmed with gold thread as a decoration but it was a burden she carried around daily, and Hester accepting her sin has unhappy results. In Chapter 2, the author mentions that the scarlet letter took Hester out of ordinary relations with humanity and enclosed her in a sphere by herself. As a result, to this Hester becomes lonely because the only person she has is Pearl who is the product of her sin. Although, Hester may not suffer as much as the other characters her sin is widely known to the community and she has

As the novel progresses, readers watch Hester transform herself from once adulterer to selfless civilian. In the beginning, readers learn quickly of Hester’s egregious sins. She cannot conceal her sin of adultery from her town as she has a child named Pearl as a result. She is publicly punished by being forced “…to stand only a space of three hours on the platform of the pillory, and then and thereafter, for the remainder of her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom” (Hawthorne 56). Hester must wear a scarlet letter ‘A’, which symbolizes adulterer, on her chest so that every person that comes upon her knows of the sin she has committed. Initially, Hester is mortified of the public symbol of sin she is made out to be and feels an immense amount of shame because of the callous stares from villagers. Eventually, she and Pearl move to the outskirts of town to try to move on with their lives while the indignity of the letter “A” follows. Over time, Hester begins to be a valuable aspect of society in that she sews clothes for the community and delivers food to the poor among many other good deeds. The townspeople begin to view Hester as a hard worker and her past slowly begins to fade. The once infamous letter becomes “…the symbol of her calling” and “… many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original

Societal influence on people is a highly discussed topic today, and evidently was in the past, as Nathaniel Hawthorne makes comments on how society should affect people in The Scarlet Letter. This book is about a woman named Hester Prynne, who is condemned to wearing a scarlet letter A by the Puritan society, in which she lives. The symbol explored is Hawthorne’s use of nature. Nature is found everywhere, no matter where a person looks. It can be a display of beauty or a display of ugliness. It also contains many elements, such as leaves, stems, and roots. Nature is used in The Scarlet Letter to represent the characters of the novel. Hawthorne uses nature to point out how the actions of characters reveal their true nature in order to convey that by not living by one’s true identity, a person doesn’t live their life to the highest potential, and instead corrupts their natural character.

In literary history, authors and poets have often used objects to represent non-physical concepts. For example, the raven in Poe’s “The Raven” was a tangible form of death, specifically that of his lover Lenore. Hawthorne, however, uses a single symbol in multiple forms to illustrate different ideas. In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the red letter “A” appears as embroidery to represent Hester’s perseverance, as a flaming image in the sky to represent her redemption, and as an injury on Dimmesdale’s chest to represent his guilt.

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is an intriguing story which demonstrates how sin changes the way the sinner lives. The story begins when a woman called Hester Prynne is sent by her husband to Boston. Her husband was supposed to come soon after she arrived but, when he never came, it was decided that his ship was lost at sea. Presently, Hester commits adultery with a theologian named Dimmesdale. Once convicted, Hester is forced to wear a scarlet colored “A”. Although everyone believed Hester’s husband had died, he was, in fact, alive. When Hester’s husband, Chillingworth, notices the scarlet letter upon his wife’s clothes, he seeks revenge on the man who slept with her. The sins Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth committed changed their lives forever.

The scarlet letter has affected Hester in many ways. One of the biggest ways it has affected her is in the way of feeling very guilty and shameful. She thinks 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 sinful passion” (Hawthorne, 76). Hester believes that her sin will serve as a walking example to the whole community and that people will always remember her for her adulterous act. Likewise, when she made the decision to still live in her town, on the outskirts that is, she feels that by facing her sin head-on and cope with the people who will continue to gossip about her, it is her only way to make herself pure again. When she enters

Nathaniel Hawthorne, in The Scarlet Letter, and Daniel Solove in his piece about “Shaming and the Digital Scarlet Letter” show that one who lives two lives with two dual personalities, purposefully or accidentally, can live the lie for only so long before he makes a mistake, becomes confused, and betrays his identity.

Who is Arthur Dimmsdale? Do we, as readers, ever fully understand the extent of Dimmsdale’s character provided to us by Nathaniel Hawthorne? In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, the on-the-surface themes of sin and suffering are very clear, but the development of the different characters and their own personal challenges plays a big factor (and maybe even the biggest factor) to the moral of the story rather than what is shown in plain sight. There are three main characters that reflect the different themes and help progress the plot. Hester Prynne is the reason for the conflict within the text, being the woman cast off from society because of an adulterous relationship that bore her a child. She is sometimes argued to be the “heroine”, but is more frequently seen as a symbol of independence and comfortableness outside of the social norm. She is the only character with the ability to recognize, acknowledge, and move forward with her sin, which is important to understand as the complexity of the other main characters are examined. Roger Chillingsworth is hardly a character to speculate in regards to good nature because he completely lacks in that area. “The Leach”, so he is called, is determined to get revenge because of his wounded pride and his already present evil nature, making his sin the blackest of them all. Being Hester Prynne’s husband before he left, he comes back bearing a different name and learns of the mischief that had been taking place while he was

The story of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is one with many twists and turns. A young woman moves to Boston, Massachusetts while her husband takes care of affairs in England. After two years pass she secretly has an affair with the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. When she becomes pregnant and gives birth to her daughter Pearl, the town punishes her for committing the act of adultery. She is sentenced to stand on the town scaffold for public embarrassment and to wear a letter “A” on her bosom for the rest of her life. As she stands there she sees her husband from England in the crowd, who later threatens to find the father of the child and seek his