Comparing and Contrasting the Novel and Movie Version of The Scarlet Letter

In his book, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells of a story where a young woman has had an adulterous relationship with a respected priest in a Puritan community. Typical of Hawthorne's writings is the use of imagery and symbolism. In Chapter 12, The Minister's Vigil, there are several uses of imagery when Dimmesdale, the priest, is battling with confessing his sin, which has plagued him for seven years. Three evident techniques used to personify symbolism in this chapter are the use of darkness versus light, the use of inner guilt versus confession, and lastly the use of colors (black versus white).

The settings in The Scarlet Letter are very important in displaying the themes of the novel. The settings in this novel are almost characters, for they are an important part in developing the story. The scaffold, the forest, the prison, and Hester’s cottage are settings that show sin and its consequences result in shame and suffering.

The novel The Scarlet Letter and the film Chicago have many similarities and differences. Within time the values of a person have changed and not in all cases do things get serious. Time periods have changed and now adultery is not as serious as it used to be. In the 1850’s and 1920’s nothing was easy to get away with at all.

In the novel The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, all of the characters possess specific traits of the seven deadly sins which are lust, gluttony, greed, pride, wrath, envy and sloth. My character Roger Chillingworth possesses the sins, greed, wrath and pride. I will attempt to make a connection between the sins committed by Chillingworth and his motivation behind those sins and sins committed by people in our world today. For example, one could compare wrath to the destructive and horrible feats of today’s murders that feel they have been treated unjustly, therefore, take the lives of those they feel have wronged them. Another comparison is the effects that pride can have on today’s role models such as professional athletes and the result of greed on some of today’s entertainers who need more and more stuff, such as cars, homes, jewels and the list goes on and on.

1. As the story opens a throng is gathered.  Who are these people?  Where and why are they gathered?

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

Dimmesdale longs to confess his sin, but he cannot bring himself to do it. Dimmesdale has visions and delusions and begins to think falsely about the world. Dimmesdale feels as if there is a scarlet letter on his chest. When Dimmesdale brings himself to the platform where Hester was punished, Hester and Pearl join him. Pearl asks him if he will stand with them on the platform and he tells her on judgement day that he will. After time passes, people begin to think differently about Hester and the scarlet letter. They now consider the letter to be a sign of her strength. When Hester meets again with Roger Chillingworth she tells him that she must reveal the secret for the good of Mr. Dimmesdale. Hester wants Chillingworth to stop the evil practices

dealing with the guilt, he causes himself not to sleep or eat. Dimmesdale is described as, “pitiably weak; no evidence at once so slight and irrefragable, of a subtle disease, that had long since begun to eat into the real substance of his character” (Hawthorne 147). Seven years later, he confesses that he is Pearl’s father and he committed adultery with Hester Prynne. Tired of the guilt, Dimmesdale brands an ‘A’ on his chest to represent his sin just like Hester (Miller). Shortly after confessing, Dimmesdale dies.

Demi Moore's portrayal of Hester in the movie The Scarlet Letter proved her worth as a feminist actress, which led her to other, more modern female empowerment roles ranging from Striptease to GI Jane.  But in the moviemakers 'attempt to give the story what they might think is a little modern flavor, they barbarously misconstrued the theme, and thus the importance, of a timeless story.  In the novel, there can be little doubt that Hester is a strong person, but the movie made her out to be a martyr for women's rights.  The female empowerment theme of the movie also inevitably led to the characterization of Christians and their ethics as tyrannical and oppressive because the feminist

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

Cover or the movie... Two things by which a book shouldn't be judged. While evaluating a story we should consider that a book and a movie are two seperate things. As you can see from many examples like Harry Potter, 1984 and Scarlet Letter; script writers create a new story from a book. They cease the events, change them or even add new ones to the plot. So even if movie and the book have the same basis; they become two discrete creation. There are just a few instances that the book and the movie has the same sequence of events.

In the stories of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the antagonist characters display parallel story lines through their searches for the enemy. Roger Chillingworth, the former husband of Hester Prynne and the antagonist of The Scarlet Letter, works against his wife in order to find her untold second lover. Frankenstein is a contrasting story in which an unnamed monster is the antagonist towards his human creator, Dr. Frankenstein. Yet despite quite different story lines, the two characters possess traits that exibit parallels between them. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth displays the startling passionate characteristics of an unwavering drive to seek out his foe, madness as his focus on his search takes over his entire being, and terrible anguish when his task is unexpectedly over, all of which are reflected in the daemon created at the hand of Dr. Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley 's novel Frankenstein.

Dimmesdale whips himself to punish himself for his sins, and as his sin grew inside of him and festered there, he became very ill, he started getting very sick, holding his heart even more than usual. Chillingworth one night after Dimmesdale had fallen asleep, sneaks into Dimmesdale’s room, rips open his shirt, and right over his heart, is the Black Man’s mark, the scarlet letter ‘A’. Dimmesdale becomes even more sick as time goes on, Hester and Dimmesdale plan to leave to go to England, but before that happens, Dimmesdale gives his final sermon, which was phenomenal, and as they are leaving the church, Dimmesdale gets onto the scaffold, asks Hester and Pearl to join him “He turned towards the scaffold, and stretched forth his arms. ‘Hester,’ said he, ‘come hither! Come, my little Pearl!’” (Hawthorne 376), as he declares that he is the father and that he loves them. Pearl grants him the kiss he has been wanting/needing from her, and right after, Dimmesdale collapses on the scaffold and dies. Dimmesdale is buried in a tomb and when Hester dies, she is then placed basically beside him, sharing a headstone to mark their love.

true to the text that it can serve as a substitute for reading the book for

“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