Analysis Of `` The Scarlet Letter `` By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American writer in the 1800s. He had many works of Romanticism, most being inspired by Puritan New England. One of these is The Scarlet Letter, which he wrote based on the Puritan era. Puritans had a series of beliefs including: the will of God explains all natural phenomena, God chooses who becomes one of the elect, and ministers and church members control and made up the government. Hawthorn does include examples of Romanticism as the story goes on, but this novel focuses more on the Puritan lifestyle throughout the timeline of the story. Hawthorne also includes a bit of sarcasm when mentioning the Puritan’s beliefs.

The “American Identity” as I perceive it is to have a state of mind to be part of the American culture. The “American Identity” is about (no matter what your race is) living in America and physically taking part of the American culture. The adjective “American” means a native or inhabitant of North America or South America.

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.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a brilliant writer of the 19th century. Hawthorne created a novel that reflected the time period of the Puritans in New England. The Scarlet Letter contains a representation of the people during that time period but can also be related to the reader’s time period. Originally, God created the world with complete perfection until man fell, and sin entered the world. In the eyes of God, a sin is a sin. There is no worse sin that one can commit. Man is the one that decided that one sin could be more harshly judged than another. Hawthorne uses the theme of sin to show the importance of one’s faith and conviction and how those principles relate to fallen sinners.

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

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 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.

Though never forced to don a branding like the letter “A” in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, people in modern society are always remembered along with their act of wrongdoing. However, the subjects of the public judgement may not see their choices as immoral. People shame for a difference in beliefs and morals. For instance, Kim Kardashian, a popular reality TV star attained her own personal fame by making a sex tape with rapper Ray J, and, consequently, was shamed in the headlines. Despite the bashing, Kim did not see why her act was deemed shameful. Kim acts as a modern day Hester Prynne because she underwent the same humiliation from her society.

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 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.

Symbolism is a tool often used by authors to express a deeper meaning in order to help understand the work. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses this tool in order to develop the characters in a more complex way. Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism to uncover the true nature and emotions of the main characters Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl.

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main characters have different kinds of burdens to carry depending on their level of ownership over their actions and identity. Dimmesdale has the worst burden to bear because he did not own up to his actions until the very end, Hester has to adjust to the punishment that the Puritans gave her, and Pearl has no burden because she is honest. Throughout the novel, they face different obstacles that contribute to their everyday lives that makes it hard to process everything at once. It’s also to show how the characters were able to face the problems and deal with them

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).

“The same platform or scaffold, black and weather-stained with the storm or sunshine of seven long years.” (Hawthorne p.99). In most novels, symbols are introduced to the readers often through prevalent attributes. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there are many people, places, and objects that hold a more complex meaning than it’s shown to be. This novel, containing shame, secrets, and ultimately retribution is shown with many characters and situations. These symbolic ideas are used throughout The Scarlet Letter to bring deep connections between the characters and the story. The symbols usually appear to have a literal or vague meaning to them throughout the story, yet they can be key details that change in meaning as the

The Scarlet Letter Critical Analysis Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, the direct descendant of John Hawthorne, and a judge at the infamous Salemwitchcraft trials. The guilt that Hawthorne felt over the actions of his ancestor had an enormous impact on his writings. In his introduction of "The Scarlet Letter", Hawthorne accepts the guilt from his forefathers and offers to repent for their crimes (Waggoner, 5). This unusual way of viewing guilt and sin is one driving factor in Hawthorne's writing. The other, which is closely related to the first, is the relationship between men, and of man to humanity as a whole.