Rip Van Winkle Journal
In Rip Van Winkle, it portrays a stereotypical marriage where the woman is constantly nagging her husband to do the things that she wants him to do. This story has a lot of derogatory language towards Rip Van Winkle’s wife, Dame Van Winkle and marriage in general. The narrator says that Rip Van Winkle after a fight would “take to the outside of the house – the only side which, in truth, belongs to a hen-pecked husband” (47).
Rip Van Winkle is described as a man who “was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound” (46). He was a stubborn man
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Hester ends up becoming pregnant from this encounter. She has her daughter Pearl from it. Hester is forced to wear a letter A on her chest at all times because of this. This shows that in this time period, people were very limited when it came to marriage and sex. She was unable to deal with the matter privately because the church is what ruled the law in that time. The 10 commandments were laws to them. Hester ends up being in prison for becoming pregnant and isn’t release for a while. After she was released, she was forced to wear the big, red A that was supposed to symbolize the fact that she had an affair. She was the image of the fallen for the …show more content…
They damned Hester because of the fact her child was not from a marriage. They wanted someone to “stand on the scaffold by her side” (44). Which shows that they didn’t really want to condemn her just because she is a woman, but they still want her to be brought to moral justice because having extramarital affairs is bad. Arthur Dimmesdale, who admits to being Pearl’s father, may not have experienced the same public ridicule as Hester did, but he did put himself through a great amount of grief. The sexual experience between the two of them really had a negative impact on their lives. Hester was publicly embarrassed and is forced to wear the A for the rest of her life and Dimmesdale feels immense guilt because he never faced his sins. He ends up physically destroying himself due to the guilt. He was never put through the same experience as Hester, but he put himself through a large amount of punishment as
1. This quote shows unusual behavior for the time period present. In the Victorian times, it was the man’s duty to take care of the wife and children, or in other words- to take charge of the family in general. It was a sign of strength for men. Since Mrs. Joe is the one taking care of the family, which was commonly the husband’s job in this era, Joe is considered a weakness to his society and to his wife. This is because he is not taking charge for his family. The determination and strength coming from Mrs. Joe was also not very common either for women of the time. (109 words)
Hester displays acts of courage that portray her as a heroic character. Hester clearly suffers from her punishment of having to wear the scarlet letter ‘A’ in public as she attempts to maintain
The Puritans despised Hester and her symbol for her sin, and shunned her for many years even after her prison sentence. Hester could have just lived a depressed, lonely life in seclusion with her daughter Pearl, but she decided to accept her sin and wrong doing to become a mentally stronger woman. During the many years of Hester being in prison and being rejected when she was released, she practiced needlework to provide food for her and her daughter. As the people in Salem recognized her talent of her embroidery and garments, they began respecting her talent, and so the scarlet “A” that stood for “adulterer” slowly began to stand for “able.” Hester started to supply apparel for babies, ceremonies, inaugurations, and funerals. Furthermore, the Scarlet letter has another symbolic meaning. When Pearl went to the seashore, she made a green letter “A” out of seaweed – nature’s color. This was symbolic for Pearl’s sinless life so far because she hasn’t truly been introduced to sin; she still is “green” and “pure”. As for Hester, her scarlet “A” is symbolic of her many sins, for no one can avoid sin as they grow older.
From the beginning, we see that Hester Prynne is a young and beautiful woman who has brought a child into the world with an unknown father. She is punished by Puritan society by wearing the scarlet letter A on the bosom of her dress and standing on the scaffold for three hours. The scaffold is a painful task to bear; the townspeople gathered around to gossip and stare at Hester and her newborn child, whom she suitably named Pearl, named because of her extreme value to her mother. Her subjection to the crowd of
Throughout the book many symbols were shown, the main symbol being the Scarlet Letter forced upon Hester Prynne for committing adultery. When the scarlet letter was forced onto Hester Prynne the community thought she deserved more than just having to wear a cloth on her. Though she tried to hide the gold embroidered A, the community began gossiping loudly and even said that she deserved to be stoned. Hester Prynne kept her adultery a secret and in the end the sin back fired and hurt her more than she expected it to.
Rip Van Winkle knew how to make the most out of his freedom and this aura about him led other people to follow
In the beginning of the novel, Hester refuses to let her sin define her, which her subtle, beautiful, yet defiant nature displays. With all eyes on her as she walks out of the jail, the townspeople notice “On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A” (Hawthorne 46). This embroidered A serves as a punishment of her sin and is supposed to be a disgraceful, ugly reminder to her and everyone around her. If she had succumbed to her punishment and the persona that went with it, then it would be an ugly A, but she makes
First of all, the scarlet letter stands for Hester's sin. By forcing Hester to wear the letter A on her bosom, the Puritan community not only punishes this weak young woman for her adultery but labels her identity as an adulteress and immoral human being as well. "Thus the young and the pure would be taught to look at her, with the letter flaming on her chest", also "as the figure, the body and the reality of sin." And the day Hester began to wear the scarlet A on her bosom is the opening of her darkness. From that moment, people, who look at her, must notice the letter A manifest itself in the red color covering not only her bosom, but her own character. The Puritans now only see the letter A, the representation of sin, scorn and hate
In the novel Hester’s sin of adultery follows her everywhere.With the “A” on her chest, and all the negative comments the townspeople
Which is what the book revolves around. Hester’s sin is her act of adultery that she committed with Dimmesdale. But, as punishment she has to wear a Scarlet Letter. But as the story moves along the scarlet letter becomes less of a symbol of shame, and more of a symbol of strength. Because of the “A” Hester becomes stronger both emotionally and mentally. The punishment ultimately teaches Hester that strength and individuality are not gained by wearing noticeable clothing. But by quiet self-assertion and a self-reconfiguration, of one’s assigned
During this scene, Hester begins to realize she is now only recognized as the scarlet letter, therefore the town no longer views her as an equal part. Thus making her agnise that she is no longer a part of the Puritan society like she once was. Another example, is when standing upon the scaffolding in the marketplace at the beginning of the novel, Hester “turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that… the shame were real” (12). In other words, this shows that she has been set as an outcast, forcing her to move to the outskirts of town and wear the scarlet letter upon her chest as people whispered, stared, and pointed as the human hidden behind the scarlet letter strode by. These occurrences irked her, as she knew that the people of the society who were judging her were not sin free themselves, they had all committed a wrongdoing and were hypocritical and far from pure, they were merely keeping their sins a secret.
In the beginning of the story, Hester is being punished for adultery, and is forced to wear the letter A on her bosom. It is shown so that people will know her as an
As Hester settled into her new home she befriended a young man, Reverend Dimmesdale. They developed a companionship over a period of two years after Hester had arrived in the new country. This union turned into an affair, which left Hester pregnant without anyone knowing the father’s identity. Hester’s husband was “lost at sea” so everyone knew that Hester’s affair was out of infidelity. The town turned against Hester and accused Hester of adultery. Hester lived in a community of Puritans who had very strick rules. Adultry was a very big sin that when committed could be resolved in death. For Hester's punishment she was lead up on the schfold in front of the whole town. It was as if she was in a trile but had nobody defending her. As she had her baby Pearl in her arms she was asked who the father was, but she would not say. Soon the reader finds out that the father is Reven Dimmesdale. During Hester's trile her was very nervous that she would tell. If she would have told he would have been sentenced to death. To the end of her trile she did not say who was the father but she could only live because of her baby and she has to wear a letter A on her cloths for now
‘The Scarlet letter’ is meant to be a symbol of shame for Hester, and instead it becomes a symbol of identity. As Hester’s character develops the Letter ‘matures” along side her . As it ages, it shifts from meaning “Adulterer” to stand for “ Able”.. Hester bonds to the letter as much as she bonds to little Pearl, by choosing to keep them both. She could have given Pearl to the minister and she could have fled New England and left the letter far behind her and moved on with her life, instead she chooses to embrace her punishments. The letter is almost insignificant beside Pearl as a symbol of the sinful act commited by Hester, and helps to point out the meaninglessness of the community’s system of judgment and punishment. The ineffectiveness of this course of action is reinforced in chapter seven “...and the bond-servant, perhaps judging from the decision of her air and the glittering symbol in her bosom, that she was a great lady in the land, offered no opposition.”
In the beginning of Rip Van Winkle, Rip is portrayed as lazy husband who would do anything for others except his own husbandly duties. Rip Van Winkle’s wife, Dame Winkle, who is nothing like her husband goes around doing her wifely duties, as a wife and mother, regardless whether her husband Rip meets her needs. Despite been such a likeable person to his friends and neighbors, Winkle makes his wife’s life complicated. Dame Van Winkle is the typical wife that takes care of the obligations she has at home while Rip refuses to be productive around the house. The story emphasis’s how relentlessly Dame nags Rip. However if Rip had assumed his share of household responsibilities perhaps Rip might not have felt an impact. Dame’s life is further complicated by the absence of 20 years of her husband. When Rip returns Dame is dead and he is taken in by his daughter who replaces the maternal role that his wife (dame) had