Deception In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

The main characters whose lies devastate the characters in the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, are Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and Hester. Each character has once told a lie either about their character or identity. First, Dimmesdale is well-known in the community as a minister who gives sermons. But the townspeople do not know about the affair between him and Hester. He lies because he does not want to give up his reputation as a minister. The effect of him lying is that he has a guilty conscience, thinks that he “sold himself to the devil”, and ironically, people view him as a saint. (Hawthorne 193). Next, Chillingworth is an old man who is well-known in the community as the town doctor who makes medicine and takes

This quote shows how even though nobody knew of anything he had done, the burden of his sin had still caused his mental health to deteriorate so much that it was as if he was diseased.

“Reality is easy. Deception that's the hard the hard work” -Lauryn Hill. In the novel the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses literary elements such as symbolism, irony and conflict to show deception and secrecy can lead to self-destruction. This relates to the Scarlet Letter because in the book the protagonist character commits an act of sin that was more than just frowned upon. Not only does the community gossip and turn their cheek to the sinner but a sickness comes along from keeping a secret from the community.

‘Honesty is the best policy’; ‘Always be yourself”, are common phrases many parents tell their children and as common as they may be, being honest and being true yourself contributes to individual happiness and contentness. ‘The Scarlet Letter’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a novel that dives deep into these key themes of honesty and integrity and the consequences of doing the opposite action. One of the main characters, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is a minister in 17th century Puritan New England who has deteriorating health because of his lies and guilt. Dimmesdale commits adultery with a beautiful woman in the town, Hester Prynne, whose husband, Roger Chillingworth, returns from Europe later on. Pearl, who is a product of Hester and

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist who wrote many novels and short stories who was born on July 4th, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. He originally had his last name as Hathorne - without the ‘w’ – but changed it due to not wanting to draw attention from his ancestor John Hathorne who was the only judge involved in the Salem witch trials. Nathaniel Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody in 1842 and had three kids. They ended up moving all around Massachusetts but then they finally decided that they’d settle in Concord, Massachusetts. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s first novel written is called Fanshawe in 1837. Hawthorne wasn’t sure how he felt about it, so he published it anonymously. Unfortunately, as it turned out, the novel was criticized heavily

Secrets can destroy even the most respected people. Sometimes is not the secret itself that drives people into exhaustion, but the emotional baggage that comes with it. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Dimmesdale physically deteriorates because of his guilt caused by a dishonorable sin. The Puritan society in which the story is set discourages the idea of the private self, which Hawthorne shows by creating distinctions between the characters’ private and public lives, specifically Dimmesdale’s.

Conflict can take on many forms in one’s life, such as conflict with self, with society, with religion and with others. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, develops the theme of conflict through the moral sin of Hester Prynne. Conflict is observed through Hester’s difficulties with the townspeople, challenges with the Puritan way of life, struggles with herself and tensions with Roger Chillingworth. Committing sin in the Puritan society leads to a great deal of conflicts.

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

According to the Urban Online Dictionary, Moral Ambiguity can be defined as “Lack of clarity in ethical decision-making. That is, when an issue, situation, or question has moral dimensions or implications, but the decidedly “moral” action to take are unclear, either due to conflicting principles, ethical systems, or situational perspectives.

In the excerpt, I admire the value of dignity and confidence Hester possesses, due to she doesn't give into society and let them establish her identity as ignominious, rather instead she makes her own identity, through the values she possesses. Furthermore, she states if she is virtuous it will fall naturally, therefore it shows her value of confidence and dignity about herself, through showing no denial about the sin she has committed. In addition, she states it is not up to the high authorities to determine the removal of the scarlet letter, which elicits her value of dignity, by not letting her identity be determined as ignominious by society, and rather choosing to reside the scarlet letter on her chest and declare her own identity as someone confident.

You cannot know who you are, and you never will. Some people think they know a lot about who they are, but that person is forever changing, that thing they are. Saying you know who you are can affect the way you act, because you try to be what you think is yourself, instead of the forever changing you. This can go on to affect you both mentally and relationally, both looping back and forth.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, the main characters struggle to overcome sin, guilt, and public humiliation in a Puritan New England society. In the beginning of the novel, Hester Prynne is led to the scaffold to serve her punishment for committing adultery, a crime and a sin in Puritan culture. In addition to standing on the scaffold to be publicly embrassed, Hester also must wear a scarlet letter "A" to show her sin of adultery. The townspeople, including Hester's werid husband Roger Chillingworth, seek to find the true identity of Hester's lover and the father of her illegitimate child, Pearl. Hester refuses to publicly admit that Pearl's father is Arthur Dimmesdale, the town minister; because she wants to protecting him

Society has placed a high standard on criminals and judging criminals in a way that might not be fair to everyone who has committed a crime. Judging people by the crimes they have committed should be acceptable to a certain extent. In today’s society, if a crime has been committed by someone, they’re deemed to be a bad person or a criminal depending on the crime that has been committed. The level of the crime should have a factor in how the person is punished after, and how he or she is viewed as a person. Today people are either viewed as a criminal with no hope to get better or a saint, who is perfect. Scarlet Letter Laws are valid; however, consideration must be given to the type and nature of the

When you were younger, did you sometimes lie to deflate your punishment, but discovered how the truth became known eventually. In all reality, regardless of who you collaborate with, the number of internal good intentions you had for yourself, or how good it sounded to yourself; the truth was exposed in due time. The Scarlet Letter showed many failed attempts of these methods to only conclude the truth to be known at some point.

As American-British novelist Mark Lawrence once said, “We’re built of contradictions, all of us. It’s those opposing forces that give us strength, like an arch, each block pressing the next”. The aforementioned contradictions are what lead to conflicts, and in turn growth and acceptance. Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his revolutionary classic The Scarlet Letter, delves into the conflicts that the brave, yet infamous Hester Prynne has to overcome. As Hawthorne unfolds the unfortunate tragedy of Hester and her mysterious lover, the battles Hester has to face are multiple external and internal stimuli that bring about the growth of Hester as a character. The onerous obstacles that Hester must face through her life wear her out mentally, but only then can she truly grow and accept who she is.