Hawthorne And Hester Prynne In The Scarlett Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

  "What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us," stated Oliver Wendell Holmes. This eventually proves to be especially true for Hester Prynne, the main character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne, a fair young maiden whose husband had disappeared two years prior to the opening of the novel, has an affair with the pastor of her Puritan church, resulting in the birth of her child Pearl. Because of this act of adultery, Hester Prynne is branded by the scarlet letter "A," which she is forced to forever wear upon her attire. The plot thickens as Hester's former husband returns to New England and becomes

TRUTH-We can not escape the truth it is better to face the truth head on and deal with it.

Hester Prynne from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter is a unique character. She shows a lot of strength. Hawthorne creates a Puritan Society who isolates Hester, which made her a character of her own uniqueness. Hester is a woman of strength, compassion, and honesty.

Not one group of people took sin more seriously than the Puritans, as they took strong conviction into the belief that everyone is a sinner and that sin is deplorable and unacceptable. With a deep passion for the Bible and its teachings, they believed that the wickedness of mankind was plaguing humans and was worthy of harsh punishments, such as public humiliation, whippings, and brandings. Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, there is a large emphasis set on the effects of sin on the characters of the book, primarily, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Though these two individuals’ most prominent sin is virtually alike, the two are affected by their act of adultery in entirely different ways. While Hester, being forced

Actions played out in front of society, whether they are good or bad, receive commentary. People can get hurt or suffer from societal scrutiny, which can alter a person’s life. Hester Prynne, the protagonist in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, undergoes a traumatic transformation in society after being accused of adultery, which is highly denounced in the Puritan community. Similarly, Kim Kardashian-West received public scrutiny after the accidental release of her sex tape in 2007. Both women, scorned for their momentary lapse of judgement and indiscretion, spend their time dealing with the guilt and try to make up for their mistakes for themselves and their families.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne commits a crime and she must wear a scarlet letter A as a punishment. The letter is placed upon her chest to be a constant reminder, to her and the town’s people, of the sin Hester committed. Because Hester has to wear the letter she is ostracized by the town, leaving her and her daughter Pearl on their own most of the time. To Hester, the letter stands for more than just adultery, the sin Hester committed. The scarlet letter represents Hester’s identity—the way society sees her and who she really is.

The townspeople are stern and unforgiving to anyone who breaks their strict rules; furthermore, Hester Prynne committed an outrageous ignominious sin for which they shun her from their society. In fact, “ [...] with all the townspeople assembled and leveling their stern regards at Hester [...] who stood on the scaffold.” In the event of Hester, the town felt betrayed by their Reverend, Dimmesdale, since he took on the sin of Hester, which many many individuals had mixed feelings about. The townspeople loathed the fact that Hester had committed adultery since now they would be impure in the eyes of God. In the event of Hester, the town feels betrayed by Dimmesdale, since he embraced the sin of Hester, which many many individuals in town had

Hester Prynne is described as a beautiful, young sinner who develops into a passionate, strong, and caring women due to her isolation from a Puritan Society. Roger Chillingworth says to Hester, “I pity thee for the good that has been wasted in thy nature”(Hawthorne 113), he describes the transformation that Hester has gone through as a waste of time because the path that she is headed leads to no good and she recognizes it as well. Although Heter becomes more like those who shunned her, she is able to gain respect within her community and grow into a strong woman who defeats the punishments set to ruin her image. Roger Chillingworth describes the values of Hester as “wasted” because he is blinded by the Hester Prynne that once existed, he

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne the characters who condemn Hester Prynne are hypocrites because they too go against many Puritan beliefs. Puritans are supposed to live conservatively, yet Governor Bellingham himself decorates house lavishly and Hester Prynne makes her living embroidering people's clothes to make them more fanciful. Both of those things show the puritan community not following its own strict laws, but not having any punishment. Lying is also a sin in the bible, yet Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale never says that he is the father of Pearl and therefore never ostracized by the community like Hester Prynne. He does receive his punishment from Roger Chillingworth who torments Dimmesdale until Dimmesdale's death. It is hypocrisy

It was said that “thou shall not commit adultery” and she did.The punishment was too lenient. To what the biblical and legal punishments that were available at the time.Hester Prynne is guilty of more than one crime. Hester refused to do a lot of things that were ordered from the judge, and decided to do it her own way, and that was what caused her to be guilty and now she’s waiting to get her punishments for all the crimes committed. Hester Prynne is guilty of defying the judge, she’s also guilty of committing adultery and disrespecting the punishments that were given to her.

“Stand any here that questions God’s judgment on a sinner. Behold! Behold, a dreadful witness of it” (pg.198). Do we all not sin for the wrong reason? In the book the Scarlett letter Hawthorne speaks about a lady name Hester Prynne.

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is an intriguing story which demonstrates how sin changes the way the sinner lives. The story begins when a woman called Hester Prynne is sent by her husband to Boston. Her husband was supposed to come soon after she arrived but, when he never came, it was decided that his ship was lost at sea. Presently, Hester commits adultery with a theologian named Dimmesdale. Once convicted, Hester is forced to wear a scarlet colored “A”. Although everyone believed Hester’s husband had died, he was, in fact, alive. When Hester’s husband, Chillingworth, notices the scarlet letter upon his wife’s clothes, he seeks revenge on the man who slept with her. The sins Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth committed changed their lives forever.

Hester Hester Prynne, the protagonist of the novel, is an England born lady who moved to Salem ahead of her husband, Roger Chillingworth and has an affair with Arthur Dimmesdale. She is described as a woman with a “burning blush” and “a haughty smile” (101). Hester Prynne, though she is described as a “tall woman, with a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale,” (101) was highly disliked by the townspeople of New England. She is said to have “brought shame to all of [them] and ought to die” (98). Hester Prynne is indirectly introduced by the words of the town gossips, but is formally introduced while emerging from the prison doors with a “baby on her arm” and “on the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth” “appeared the letter A” (101).

Nevertheless, not every person in the town thinks that Hester is deserved of a lifetime of public humiliation. One woman in the town feels as if Hester should be able to cover up the mark anyway she feels like, because no matter what she will always feel the pain of her sin in her heart. (33; Ch. 2) Notwithstanding, as time goes on and Hester’s baby begins to grow up into a young adolescent near the forest, people begin to forget what the “A” stands for on Hester’s breast. Hester begins to help the sick and poor in the town to help try and compensate for her sin that she has perpetrated, so she can still have an opportunity to ascend to heaven. The villagers in Boston start to see her as their own care taker and establish the letter as an indication

In his essay On The Scarlet Letter, D.H. Lawrence contradicts Hawthorne’s portrayal of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne respects Hester and portrays her as a victim, whereas Lawrence argues that she is one of the main sinners in the novel. D.H. Lawrence establishes and supports his claim that Hester Prynne is unworthy of Hawthorne’s praise by effectively utilizing concise syntax, frequent repetition, and strong biblical allusions.