Hester Prynne Symbolism In Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter is set in modern day Boston, during the 1630s. The protagonist, Hester Prynne, is in a lot of trouble for committing adultery. She is put on the scaffold in front of the whole town and was publically humiliated. Not only was she publically humiliated, but she has to wear a letter A on her chest for the rest of her life. Many thought this punishment was not enough, for example they wanted her to be killed for this sin. The reason for Hester committing adultery is because her husband has been missing for two years. And she has lost her ‘love’ for Chillingworth, Hester’s husband. Pearl, Hester’s daughter, is the symbol of Hester’s sin in the

In The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne is more than a literary figure in a classic novel, she is known by some people to be one of the earliest American Hero’s. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Hester commits adultery and has a child that she must care for all alone. She is forced to wear a powerful, attention grabbing “Scarlet A” on her chest while she must try to make a living to support her and her child, Pearl. Even though she must face all the harsh judgment and stares she does not allow her sin to stop her from living a successful life. She looks past the Letter as a symbol of sin and turns it into a sign of approval. Hester

Hester Prynne, the main character of the book "The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, commits adultery, is considered a hussy, and has a child as the result of her sin. She cheats on her husband while he is absent from town and receives a harsh punishment for her behavior already. Hester is forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her bosom for the rest of her life. It is now on debate on whether or not Pearl should be taken away from her mother’s guidance. This is due to the fact that she is a sinner and might not be a qualified mother for her child.It is true, that no matter what you did in the past, a child is a blessing and parents change due to the love they have for their children. Therefore, Hester

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote the fictional story of Hester Prynne and her public humiliation as she is forced to wear the letter A on her chest due to her having a child with someone else other than her husband. The scarlet letter “A” stands for many things in the book but the initial meaning is that of adultery. The baby is Pearl and the name itself is given to her because she is worth so much to Prynne as in “her mother’s only treasure!” The beginning of the story sets the stage to what Prynne and Pearl will go through this tale, setting up the state of puritan utopia and why Prynne holds Pearl so close to her. The scarlet

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne focuses more on the symbolic meaning than on characterization. The Scarlet Letter revolves around the themes of sin, guilt and redemption, which are conceptualized through an adulterous life story in Massachusetts. Adultery is expressed in a means, which is not only psychologically disturbing but also reflects upon understanding of the human heart. Hester Prynne is an adulteress who is forced to wear a scarlet letter A on her gown according to Puritan practices. Arthur Dimmesdale, struggles in the background with guilt for fathering her secret child, Pearl yet the woman gets to be castigated independently. Furthermore, Dimmesdale is a cleric and Chillingworth who is Hester’s husband, from

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is set in the 17th century puritan Boston, Massachusetts, it tells the story of Hester Prynne who has a daughter named Pearl out of an affair and struggles to live her life a new and with dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores the themes of sin, guilt, and revenge. The Puritan town of Boston had gathered around to witness Hester's punishment for her crime of adultery. She was required to wear a scarlet “A” on her dress to shame her. She walks down the scaffold with dignity and takes this punishment and makes the best of it. She owns wearing the scarlet “A” by personalizing it with embroidery and making it beautiful. The women on the street are angered of how graceful and beautifully she

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne follows the story of Hester Prynne in seventeenth-century Boston and her journey as the ashamed town outcast and sinner. On this journey readers are introduced to Hester’s daughter, Pearl, her lover, Dimmesdale, and her former husband, Chillingworth. The story starts off with Hester and her young child Pearl walking out into the town to climb atop the scaffold where they are to be ridiculed for Hester’s sin of adultery. Hester is identified with a scarlet “A” on her chest resembling the sin she committed and to mark that she should be alienated throughout the town. But, when townspeople see Hester they are mesmerized by her beauty, “The young woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale. She had dark and

As the novel progresses, readers watch Hester transform herself from once adulterer to selfless civilian. In the beginning, readers learn quickly of Hester’s egregious sins. She cannot conceal her sin of adultery from her town as she has a child named Pearl as a result. She is publicly punished by being forced “…to stand only a space of three hours on the platform of the pillory, and then and thereafter, for the remainder of her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom” (Hawthorne 56). Hester must wear a scarlet letter ‘A’, which symbolizes adulterer, on her chest so that every person that comes upon her knows of the sin she has committed. Initially, Hester is mortified of the public symbol of sin she is made out to be and feels an immense amount of shame because of the callous stares from villagers. Eventually, she and Pearl move to the outskirts of town to try to move on with their lives while the indignity of the letter “A” follows. Over time, Hester begins to be a valuable aspect of society in that she sews clothes for the community and delivers food to the poor among many other good deeds. The townspeople begin to view Hester as a hard worker and her past slowly begins to fade. The once infamous letter becomes “…the symbol of her calling” and “… many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original

After going through suffering and embarrassment because of her crime, Hester realized that she was not enemy, but society was. With the shameful thoughts towards the scarlet letter on her clothing drifting away, the “A” had transformed into a symbol of independence, growth, and how Hester became to be the person she was when she had finally

The Scarlet Letter (1850), written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, reveals the life of Hester Pryne. She is a single mother who had been isolated by her community for having a bastard child. She was very independent and had a strong personality. In these religious times it was frowned upon to have sexual relations while being unwed. Having felt abandoned by her husband, she did so anyways. To show her shame, she was forced to wear a scarlet “A” on her chest whenever she went out in public. That scarlet letter stood for adultery. Out of respect Hester never revealed who the father was, so she bared the punishment with her daughter Pearl.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story set in a mid 17th Century Puritan settlement in the Massachusetts Bay Colony that followed Hester Prynne, a woman being punished by society for adultery by having her wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest. Dimmesdale, the unidentified man who impregnated Hester felt his inner torment heighten. Conversely, Hester rose above society’s speculations pertaining to her sin and punishment, such that the narrator claimed “the scarlet letter had not done its office,” meaning that it had not fulfilled its purpose. The intention of the scarlet letter was to torture Hester by continually reminding her of her crime, to isolate her in society, and teach others around her not to sin. One can also suppose

“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.” (40) Every aspect of the story of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter, whether it be major or minor, stems from this line. From beginning to end, the scarlet letter has a major bearing on the unfolding of the plot. Hester Prynne, an adulteress, has been spared death for her sin, but she must wear a scarlet letter “A” for the rest of her life. Her husband, who has been living with Native Americans for the past two years, arrives in town just in time to see her holding a baby and being publicly humiliated for the crime of adultery and vows to get revenge. As the story unfolds, Hester and Pearl continue with their day to day lives while Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, Pearl’s father, struggles with the sin that he has committed. It later becomes public knowledge that Pearl, Hester’s daughter is the child of the beloved reverend. Hawthorne uses the themes of adversity resulting in joyfulness, presenting to the reader that even though everything at the present may be hopeless, there is something that will come about and make all the suffering seem petty, and freedom from captivity, allowing the reader to consider that while a burden may not seem like such, once it is removed, the effect is similar to that of a bird being set free from a cage. These lead to the production of the novel that is

The Scarlet Letter: a well-known novel throughout the world. A wife waiting for her husband to come back home. A woman who commits adultery. A woman who, as a result of her adultery, gives birth to a child. This woman, known as Hester Prynne, pays the price and must wear an embroidered scarlet letter ‘A’ on her bosom for life. The consequence Hester must pay haunts her for life. In the beginning of the novel it becomes clear to readers the reason the novel acquired the title The Scarlet Letter. All of the events that take place throughout the entirety of the novel are a result of Hester’s adulterous behavior. If Hester’s adulterous behaviors were nonexistent, Pearl would not have been born and Arthur Dimmesdale would not suffer or feel guilty

The blossoming roses (Pearl) and the treacherous thorns (Hester) present on the rose bush symbolize the dark isolation they both face from society. Hester tries to provide the best for her precious daughter by suiting her with the “richest tissues” (80) in order to prove that her daughter is not “clad in rustic weeds” (80) in the attempt to show the value and purity that she sees in Pearl, much like roses. Dressing Pearl up to resemble beautifulness and riches, like the roses she symbolizes, is done to distinguish between the sinner and the gift from God. Yet as one had to forever live amongst the sins and shame, the other was able to break free from the strict and judging Puritan society. Pearls ability to do so supports the idea that she

Though Hawthorne was a Puritan but “he disdain the puritan morality, pride and prejudice which led him to write The Scarlet Letter by showing of a unique character, plot and allegory on the Puritan Society” (Madden, 1990, p239). Puritan believes in punishing sinners by giving a death sentence to an individual who commits adultery, so that no one would dare to make the same mistake again in the future. However, in Hawthorne’s novel - although it was written in the 17th century, which is a puritan era - Hester was made to live, but had to bear a scarlet letter on her bosom for her entire life until death claimed her. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is the heroine and I strongly disagree that it is impossible to fully sympathize and identify with her