Analysis Of Nathaniel Hawthorne 's ' The Scarlet Letter '

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.

The characters in the Scarlet Letter are judged greatly through how and who they are able and unable to forgive. Such as the main female lead, Hester Prynne, and her struggle for the town to forgive her, finding the will to forgive herself and having God forgive her. Although, this was hard because every day she had to live with the scarlet letter upon her chest as a reminder of her sin. Another character that had one of the roughest times in the novel was Arthur Dimmesdale. This man kept a sin hidden for most of the novel and let it eat him away. The person that Dimmesdale needed to forgivehim the most was Pearl. He spent most of the novel trying to earn her beloved trust. Pearl would ask him favors to go into town with her but it

In a novel that revolves almost solely around sin, the consequences of said sin, and redemption, there is no greater sin than that of revenge. No character in The Scarlet Letter is free of sin, but all gain some sort of redemption, save one Roger Chillingworth, who is arguably the greatest sinner of them all. Hester Prynne may have committed adultery, and Arthur Dimmesdale may have also committed adultery with Hester (as a priest, no less), but sins of passion are not the same as sins of vengeance and anger. These sins of revenge and madness are what Chillingworth is guilty of, ultimately making him the worst sinner in the entire book.

In Chapter 3, Hawthorne uses contradicting diction to reflect the Romantics belief concerning the difference between good and evil as they label the “stranger” using words such as “remarkable intelligence” yet he is also described as having a “slight [physical] deformity” (56) being that the ugliness on the outside reflects the ugliness on the inside. This use of diction gives the reader the sense that the stranger is intellectual yet flawed in feelings and personality. The author’s depiction of the stranger’s asymmetrical figure provokes an ominous and sinister outlook. When the man recognizes Hester standing alone on the scaffold, "a writhing horror twisted itself across his features, like a snake gliding swiftly over them . . ." (57). The person who should ease Hester the most at this time, her husband, proves to make her feel uneasy and alone. To further emphasize the character’s contrary demeanor, Hawthorne dresses him in “heterogeneous garb”; He is dressed in “a strange disarray of civilized and savage costume” (56). Ultimately, Hawthorne anticipates that his audience will comprehend how unique and intricate the stranger is and consequently how he can further develop the story later on.

Hester haters being alone more than anything. She of course has Pearl, but every time she looks at Pearl she sees the sinful thing she did. She loves

“All the world had frowned on her... and still she bore it all, nor ever once turned away from her firm, sad eyes. Heaven likewise had frowned upon her, and she had not died. But thus frown of this pale, weak, sinful, and sorrow stricken man was what hester could not bear and live!” (Hawthorne 233­234). Love is powerful. It can be all consuming, and even blinding to other aspects of life. People who are deeply in love can often be lead to prioritize their love above all else; they would do anything and everything to protect their love. Such is the case in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's T​he Scarlet Letter​with Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale. Hester is an extremely strong woman who has committed what is considered to be one of the worst sins in Puritan society: adultery. However, public knowledge of her sin only further accentuates her strength and independence. The public sees her support her daughter, give to the poor, offer counsel to the community, and transform her public image. The one thing that the public is not aware of is that their beloved Minister, Reverend Dimmesdale, is the father of her child. Hester is madly and desperately in love with Dimsdale, and subtly but effectively leads Dimsdale to eventually come forward as her lover and as the father of her child. Throughout the novel, and in two scenes in particular, Hester subtly nudges Dimsdale towards professing that he is the father of Pearl by both inflaming his guilt of his secrecy and cowardice as well as

You’re free. Calmly sitting in a chair reading a book. One moment later, your tied up. Unable to move, unable to escape the ropes that tie you down. There is a tray of food in arms reach and you seem to be comfortably placed. You seek a way to get get out and run from whoever trapped you, yet part of you wants to stay. The pros and cons of the situation seem to be swirling around clouding your judgement. Equivalently, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the same clouded judgement with Hester’s exile. Throughout the novel Hester’s exile has the reader to believe that she has experiences that both enlighten and alienate her as a character. Even though experience with exile may seem to lead us down only one path, the one of despair and solitude, Hester’s experience with exile taught her that solitude gives strength, proving a rift teaches us more about our character.

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.

What Hawthorne describes in the first chapter in detail is the prison that was built. Starts of by describing the prisoners inside the prison mixed of women and men wearing sad colored and gray garments, some wearing hoods others beheaded. The door of the prison was described as being in front edifice, being made of oak and having iron spikes and the prison door was described as antique. Where the prison is located now use to be a glass plot which consists of overgrown Burdock, pigweed poisonous apples. The prison had a wild rose- bush which as the prisoners went in the prison they can smell the sweet scent and as prisoners meant there last moments they would come across the rose bush And would think I committed a horrible crime how can nature

Hawthorne’s wilderness is exactly what its name implies: wild. It does not hold the same rules or laws that Puritan civilization does. Instead it presents a myriad of situations and emotions, which make it one of the most important symbols in The Scarlet Letter. However, there is a twist. It doesn’t just symbolize one thing, but two that are distinctly contrary to one another. The forest can be a place of true nature where a person is shown as who they are supposed to be, not who other people make them out to be. The forest can also be a place of uncovering the sin that lies beneath everyone’s mind. These purposes have one thing in common: the revelation of truths.

“The happiness of the wicked passes away like a torrent!” This quote from Jean Baptiste Racin summarizes The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne in one sentence. The novel’s main focus is on three main characters and how the sins they commit affect their lives in the strict Puritan town of Boston around the year 1642. Hawthorne was very knowledgeable of his Puritan ancestry and shows it by incorporating some important thoughts and traditions into this story about sin and confession. Throughout the novel, the physical, social, mental and emotional changes that result from sin in the lives of the characters are never positive and the outcome of their spiritual battles are not always good; but the author makes it perfectly clear to us that concealing sin is not wise.

In The Scarlet Letter, the perception of sin deviates from person to person. The deviation occurs on the severity of the sin that was committed and who committed the sin. Focusing on Hester and Dimmesdale, it is easy to compare the consequences of coping with the perception of their sins, on a private and a public level. The outcome of dealing with their sin is extremely different. The theme of morality affects Hester and Dimmesdale also. They have varying levels of morality and this changes during the course of the novel.

American author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, felt guilty about the intolerance of his Puritan ancestors, one of whom judged at the Salem witch trials. He utilized his passionate sentiments regarding Puritanism as an inspiration for his iconic literary work, The Scarlet Letter; in which he does not embrace but rather critiques Puritan ideology. Because Hawthorne has fathomed the Puritan community, he favors to provide a more in depth understanding of their customs. Though born into this extremist civilization, Hawthorne conveys the idea that Puritans are highly unjust and unaware of the damage they inflict on others. Puritanistic customs, such as social regulation and overwhelming judgement, are such traditions that would further justify Hawthorne’s reasons for ridiculing his prior community, as well as religious discrimination and hypocrisy. Hardly ever does Hawthorne befuddle the reader by taking these beliefs into account and he depicts Puritans as a people with irrational standards originally intended for religious and societal reform. Ironically, the morality of the strict community transcends due to the scarlet letter; however, this fictitious take on the transformation of the Puritans differentiates with reality. While Hawthorne seems to occasionally uphold the society throughout the novel, he continues to criticize the Puritan community for its severe hypocrisy, lack of privacy, and religious

“So, in the course of the novel, the ‘A’ seems to encompass the entire range of human beingness, from the earthly and passionate ‘adulteress’ to the pure and spiritual ‘angel,’ taking into account everything in between,” begins Claudia Durst Johnson (128). Many believe the A in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter possesses only one meaning - adulterer; however, Hawthorne imbues the symbolic letter with diverse definitions. In the novel, Hawthorne plainly details three significant changes in the connotation of the A. At first sight, it represents the sin of adultery and ostracizes Hester from society. After the outcast builds a reputation of charity and labor, the A transforms into ‘able’ and highlights the favorable qualities of Hester. Finally, the A appears in the night sky after the death of Governor Winthrop and becomes ‘angel’ to signify his passing. Though the surface text shows a change in the implication of the A, the letter primarily revolves around Hester. Some critics believe other characters develop the interpretation of the A as they come under its influence. In many accounts of semiotic criticism, experts may support this claim unknowingly or actively pursue proof of the characters’ abilities to don their own A’s - either literal or metaphorical - and support the meaning of the classic work. The prime example, Hester Prynne, models the ornate A of ‘adultery’ and ‘able’. In contrast, Arthur Dimmesdale conceals

A letter can have many meanings. For example, an “X” often represents the location of a long lost treasure. Another example is the “S” on Superman’s which stands for hope. In The Scarlet Letter , by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne is shamed, as the result of committing adultery, by wearing the letter “A” on her chest. She is chastised by her community and raises her daughter away from everyone else.