Analysis Of ' The Scarlet Letter '

Without an honorable reputation a person is not worthy of respect from others in their society. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the struggle to shake off the past is an underlying theme throughout the novel. Characters in this novel go through their lives struggling with trying to cope with the guilt and shame associated with actions that lost them their honorable reputation. Particularly, Hawthorne shows the lasting effect that sin and guilt has on two of the main characters in the book: Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale.

The setting of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet letter” is crucial to the understanding of the event that takes place in the story. The setting of the story is in Salem, Massachusetts during the Puritan era. During the Puritan era, adultery was taken as a very serious sin, and this is what Hester and Dimmesdale committ with each other. Because of the sin, their lives change, Hester has to walk around in public with a Scarlet Letter “A” which stands for adultery, and she is constantly being tortured and is thought of as less than a person. Dimmesdale walks around with his sin kept as secret, because he never admits his sin, his mental state is changing, and the sin degrades his well-being. Chillingworth

In chapters 9-15 of The Scarlet Letter, the author decides to dedicate an entire chapter to each character. For example, on chapter 9, the chapter is dedicated to what happens with Roger. Roger becomes friends with Arthur Dimmesdale in chapter 9. Dimmesdale is sick, and he thinks Roger is kind and suspects nothing. But Roger, who is Arthur's personal physician, begins to suspect that Dimmesdale is hiding something from him. At this part of the book, we don't know what the author plans for Dimmesdale to hide, if he even is hiding anything at all.

Hester put herself through all of this because she committed a sin that she could not forgive herself for. For the rest of the book she only takes off the scarlet letter once, in the

1. The book is The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn. The genre of the novel is historical fiction.

Dimmesdale ultimately lets his fear of a bad reputation get in the way of his true happiness and internal peace. By not confessing his sins, he harbors guilt on his conscience until the very end of his life.

Hester Prynne’s sin was adultery. This sin was regarded very seriously by the Puritans, and was often punished by death. Hester’s punishment was to endure a public shaming on a scaffold for three hours and wear a scarlet letter "A" on her chest for the rest of her life in the town. Although Hawthorne does not pardon Hester’s sin, he considers it

However, Arthur Dimmesdale's confession is not as clear and resounding as he wants it to be. His shriek in the night was only loud to him because he partly wanted to confess, and he perhaps thought that in standing on the scaffold he was taking a huge step. When a person gets to this point, they have two options according to Hawthorne. Either go all the way in confessing or go half-heartedly into it, and if this path is taken, it is more likely to stay hidden. Dimmesdale, himself, does try keeping it hidden even longer since no one found him there that night. However this should be viewed as a failure of Dimmesdale's courage lacking for necessary confession, rather than character for repentance.

In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne describes many defining instances of different characters’ morality. Some of the characters’ opinions are very different, but the people of the town have a general morality that leads Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale to deal with their sins differently in public, than in private.

In chapter nineteen of The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses a shift images with melancholic undertones in the beginning to multiple hope-filled images of Hester's life with Dimmesdale and Pearl. Hawthorne uses the tone shift to draw attention to the progression of not only the relationship between Hester and Dimmesdale and Hester's overall perception of herself and her past actions. Hawthorne employs the shift of diction and imagery to further illustrate how complex Hester's character is and supports his overall message to his readers that women are complex and therefore should not be susceptible to hasty generalizations and condemnation. As chapter nineteen progresses the scenery surrounding the family, becomes an indication of the acts proceeding

The Scarlet Letter, a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a novel that takes place in the town of Boston, Massachusetts in 1642. Hester Prynne, the main character of the story, commits the sin of adultery. Because of this sin, she is "blessed" with a child named Pearl. Her punishment is to wear a scarlet letter “A" on her chest for the rest of her life, which affects the way the townspeople look and act around her. Also, she must stand on the scaffold in the town for three hours for the whole town to recognize her grave sins. The man who should be standing upon the scaffold along with her and Pearl is the town minister, Dimmesdale. He is presented as a weak character because of his fear of losing his beloved reputation as such a holy

They lock her up in prison and force her to wear a scarlet “letter A” (Hawthorne 27) on her breast to show the world what she had done. After years of wearing the scarlet letter, Hester finally accepts it as a part of her sin, which is the first step to leading her towards redemption. Once Hester is released from prison, she is expected to participate in society and help people, even though they judged her for what she did. In order to make others happy, she

Hester Prynne was born in England. She met her husband, Roger Chillingworth in Amsterdam, Netherland and got married with him, although she didn’t love him. Chillingworth sent her to Boston to wait for his arrival, but she ended up by having a child with Authur Dimmesdale, who was a minister of the town. So she was sent to the prison as she had committed adultery. One day, she was emerged from the prison with the letter “A” on her breast, which is a sign of punishment for her adultery commitment. She and her three-month old daughter, Pearl were led to the scaffold of pillory. At there, she was asked to tell who Pearl’s father is, but she refused to tell. Although Dimmesdale, Pearl’s real father tried to convince her to tell everyone the truth, she still refused. On the scaffold, she noticed her real husband, Roger Chillingworth. She was shocked.

“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

Hester Prynne is first introduced by an angry crowd of people calling for her death. It seems as Hester has done something terribly wrong, something unforgivable. It gave me mixed thoughts, because I had no idea what she had done that made these people so furious, she could be innocent for all I, or any of the characters, know. Hester’s babe was compared/contrasted to the Scarlet Letter on herself, showing that her babe, not the Letter, was the true consequence to her sinful actions, although the Letter was the more shameful/public symbol. The crowd find anger in how she apparently shows of the Scarlet Letter as if it’s something she is proud of, and not something she is ashamed of, as it was designed to be.