Analysis Of The Book ' The Scarlet Letter '

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 the corners of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, stand two fascinating characters—Pearl and Roger Chillingsworth. In the story, Pearl is the illegitimate child of the protagonist, Hester Prynne, and the minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, while Chillingsworth is Hester’s estranged husband who everyone thought was dead. Both of these two supporting characters have a surreal presences and each are deeply involved in Hester’s life, particularly her life after the discovery of her adultry. With as many similarities as they have, the reader may question what the respective rolls of these two characters are. Much has been said about the characters individually, but in this paper I will explore how the characters relate to each other in the telling of the story. Based on the similarities, differences, and roles that the characters play in the story; I will explain how they many in fact be read as foils of one another.

Chapters 9 and 10 investigate the relationship in the middle of Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. On one level, Chillingworth speaks to "science" and Dimmesdale speaks to "deep sense of being." Like Chillingworth 's disfigured shoulders, Dimmesdale 's disease is an outward sign of an internal condition, and not medication or religion suffices to cure it. What hampers his recuperation is his failure to admit his infidelity with Hester, which is by all accounts due, in any event to a limited extent, to the group 's reliance on the adolescent priest. He comprehends that he, in the same way as Hester, is an image of an option that is bigger than himself—for his situation, devotion and goodness. As it were, admitting would mean mending himself at the cost of the community.dimmesdale considers other, apparently hopeless good contemplations. The numerous disagreements that he experiences may come from the constrictive and off and on again two-faced nature of the ethical framework. For instance, the priest declines to wed any of the ladies in the group who show sympathy toward him, both out of a feeling of duty to Hester and out of an unwillingness to embroil a blameless outsider in a dim history of "sin." On the other hand, by inactively holding up for God to deal with things, as he proclaims himself to be doing, Dimmesdale causes Hester to endure awfully.

- Pearl shows she is different from the rest of the people in the community based on how Pearl and the townspeople interpret the Reverend Dimmesdale’s torment.

What Does the construction and furnishing of Governor Bellingham’s Mansion reveal about the Governor and Puritan culture?

The Puritans view Dimmesdale as a saint, but instead he is morally anemic and unable to confess his hidden sin. “Dimmesdale is a symbol of hypocrisy and self-centered intellectualism; he knows what is right but has not the courage to make himself do the public act, he represents the secret sinner who fights the good fight in his soul and eventually wins.” (Cliffs Notes). Chillingworth is seen as a victim — a husband betrayed. But in reality, “he is the worst possible offender of humanity and single-mindedly pursuing an evil goal.”

    From the beginning of the story Dimmesdale is developed through the archetype of The Fall. His position as a minister gives him the reputation of being an innocent and holy man; however, Dimmesdale’s action of adultery is a great sin in which he is no longer innocent in the eye’s of God. He suffers from a great sense of guilt and is tortured mentally and physically. Dimmesdale moves to a cottage in the forest where he can hopefully recover from his great insanity through the help of physician, Roger Chillingworth. The narrator describes Dimmesdale’s

Arthur Dimmesdale’s place in society is subject to a large amount of scrutiny and irony because he holds the position of a Puritan minister, someone who must follow the word of God closely, yet he has wrongfully sinned. By participating in the acts of adultery with Hester Prynne, Dimmesdale places himself in an emotional trap because he cannot admit his wrongdoing to the public. His dilemma exists based on the fact that his soul will be tarnished in the eyes of God if he admits to his actions, but holding the news inside is even more painful on an

“He lived peaceable, reassured, and hopeful, having but two thoughts: to conceal his life, and to sanctify his life: to escape from men and to return to God.”(Page 72)

Symbolism is the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character. In the novel “The Scarlet Letter”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, symbolism is the main feature of the story. Symbolism is used throughout the novel to describe every object in the story from the characters to the rosebush to the scarlet letter itself. One of the major symbols in “The Scarlet Letter” is the black man, who can not only be connected to the development of the characters: Chillingworth, Pearl, Hester, and Dimmesdale, but also to the history of Puritanism (the time period at which this novel takes place).

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s time-honored novel, The Scarlet Letter, the relationship between Pearl and her biological father, Arthur Dimmesdale, changes from that of unfamiliarity and fear to one of love and acceptance. Throughout most of the novel, Dimmesdale is unable to face Pearl without being reminded of his sin and he becomes estranged to his own child. As a result, Pearl lacks a true connection with her father which becomes a detriment to her own behavior. However, in the end of the novel, Dimmesdale is able to bridge the gap between himself and Pearl before his death by revealing his true identity to the public. Subsequently, this changed relationship between the two characters allows

His sins eventually lead him to his own tragic downfall. Disconnected from his mind he is unable to distinguish between right and wrong.. Dimmesdale urges Hester to tell the name of the man whom she had relations with. He argues that it would be better for the man to reveal himself because it is healthier to admit to his shame than “to hide a guilty heart” (Hawthorne 63) and “add hypocrisy to sin” (Hawthorne 63). Outwardly, Dimmesdale recognizes the harm of concealing sin, but he is unable to follow his own advice. He remains silent which only adds to his sin. When Dimmesdale interacts with others, he acts as a respected and beloved minister without sin. He does not reveal his dalliance with Hester, and they continue to refer to him as “a miracle of holiness” (Hawthorne 131). His continued withholding of his guilt leads to increased distress and eventually he turns to self-torture in an attempt to “purify himself” (Hawthorn 133). However, Dimmesdale does not realize that the only way to rectify his sin is through an open confession to those who worship him. He no longer maintains the standards of integrity and purity that he expects of himself. The conflicting desire to free himself of the burden of sin and the desire to remain in good standing with the town adds to his torture, until he eventually succumbs to the truth and

He visited many places and analyzed their language and words. When he was writing his plays, he made up words, and used old ones. People loved hearing his words and unique language. In Elizabethan times, people wanted to explore. They explored places, language, etc. Shakespeare loved hearing the new words and liked to put them in his plays. There are words and phrases he made up that we still use today; such as "catch a cold", and "elbow room". His vocabulary will always be difficult, but

“Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted for too long a series of generations in the same worn-out soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth.” (23)-Nameless narrator’s narration