Hester Prynne In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

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

Hester Prynne's guilt is the result of her committing adultery, which has a significant effect on her life. Hester is publicly seen with the scarlet letter when she first emerges out of the cold

Even though the Bible states that “You shall not commit adultery” (New American Bible, Exodus Chapter 20), Hester Prynne obviously did not want to follow this commandment. The Scarlet Letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and is about desires, rule breaking, and being secretive about one's actions. during the story you are shown Hester's point of view as a misunderstood hero with a villainous husband that just wants revenge. However, through her actions it is clearly shown that Hester Prynne is villain and not a hero because of the fact that she cheated on her husband, had a child with another man, and is just downright mean to chillingworth

After Hester Prynne leaves prison, she is still treated like a criminal in the streets. She is surrounded by people, but at the same time she is alone, “she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart has been flung in the street for them all to spurn and trample upon” (2.17). She has to serve many months in prison, stand on the scaffold for three hours under public scrutiny, and attach a scarlet letter, "A" on her chest every day as long as she remained in the town of Boston. The letter "A" was to identify Hester Prynne as an adulteress and as an immoral human being.

  "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

In the life of Hester Prynne, she is viewed as an adulterer. During her sentencing on the scaffold, people enjoyed seeing her be humiliated and punished for her reckless actions. The self-righteous society views her as an outcast: “Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast,—at her, the child of honorable parents,—at her, the mother of a babe, that would hereafter be a woman, —at her, who had once been innocent, —as the figure, the body, the reality of sin” (Hawthorne 76). Because she broke the strict Puritan laws,

Why was Hester the only one punished? Would her punishment be different in some other country? Is this punishment still taking place today? A sin is a sin regardless of what sin it may be and they all should be handled in different punishments. But never should you over look someone else’s sin and just punish one for what took place.

Hester receives forgiveness for her sin because she has the ability to forgive others and accepted her sin in the end. Rather than running from the consequences that came with her crime, she accepted them and allowed them to make her strong. Embracing her crime, she declares “It lies not in the pleasure of the magistrates to take

Similarly, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the protagonist Hester Prynne is defined by a scarlet A. The scarlet letter accomplishes the Puritan’s intended office of stripping Hester of her humanity by shaming her and also instills fear of disobeying in the townspeople, thus exposing the Puritans as puppets to their magistrates. The scarlet letter’s intended office is to shame Hester.

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

Imagine yourself on display in front of your whole town, being punished for cheating on your husband or wife. Today adultery is looked down on, but in reality nobody makes a huge deal out of it. Sin can affect a person in many ways, but whether it’s good or bad only time can tell. In the old days, religion and law were looked at as one, and Hester Prynne just so happened to sin, which in turn caused her to break the law. In the novel, Hester displays that how a person deals with sin has a lasting impact on the people around her, and most importantly those that are the closest to her.

However, since Hester has chosen to go about this alone they gossip are so much more hateful towards her. Enough so they said, “This woman had brought shame upon us all, and ought to die; is there not law for it? Truly, there is, both in the Scripture and the statute-book”(31). Luckily, the magistrates did not have the same mindset as the gossips. That would be very extreme if they had, because I’m sure there were instances of people doing the same thing and possibly worse.

 Hester all the while was in pursuit of creating a happy home with a loving husband and a dotting child. That was the reason she ventured outside her marital boundaries. Hester’s progression from passion to thought leads her to conclude that the adultery was not evil but beautiful, therefore there was no reason for her to feel guilty any

In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne published his book The Scarlet Letter. When writing anything one goes through many things; writer’s block, imagination or lack thereof, language, and many other things. The time period one is living in impacts the writing as well. Hawthorne was an aspiring writer, however he worked in a dull place with dull men. Additionally, in the 1850’s women were not of much importance. So, why did so many find Hester Prynne’s sin and her story so compelling? Was it because the Puritan background of Hawthorne and his compelling story or was it because the protagonist was heroine, Hester Prynne?

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.