How Does the Scarlet Letter Comment on Religion in America? Essay

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

The Scarlet Letter has a recurring theme of shame and guilt throughout the novel, Hester’s character is introduced shamed and outcast from society, and Dimmesdale’s character develops through his decay from guilt. Hawthorne introduces Hester Prynne emerging from a prison door to stand on a scaffold in the market square to face public shame for her crime, adultery. She is forced to wear a scarlet letter, a symbol of shame. After departing from the prison and standing before the crowd, hester begins to feel the burning sensation of shame. She is described as walking out “as if with her own free will” indicating individualism, strength, and a jab to the rigid judgment of society; but quickly she becomes embarrassed attempting to hide her mark of shame with her immediate reaction to clutch her baby, pearl, to her chest “not so much by an impulse of motherly affection, as that she might thereby conceal a certain token” revealing fear of judgment of others which is the cause of shame (Hawthorne). The Puritans were harsh in punishment for sins, especially one as great as adultery, but Hester is merely made to wear a scalert letter, of which she embroiders beautifully, the other women expect more to be done as punishment “At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne's forehead” in

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

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

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, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, consists of multiple characters that are all important to the novel: Hester Prynne, Pearl Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester Prynne is the protagonist who has a affair with Reverend Dimmesdale behind her husband’s, Roger Chillingworth, back thus creating Pearl Prynne, the outcome of Hester and Dimmesdale’s affair. Since Hester was pregnant, she was charged for committing adultery, and her punishment is to wear a Scarlet Letter on her bosom. Though, the whole novel surrounds that idea of who the father is, because Hester and Dimmesdale won't reveal their sin, which creates conflict and tension between all the characters. Though Dimmesdale, in particular, caused chaos

Nathaniel Hawthorne's bold novel, The Scarlet Letter, revolves around sin and punishment.  The main characters of the novel sharply contrast each other in the way they react to the sin that has been committed

Deception and lies are a big part of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, however accepting the truth of what has happened also plays a role in this story. Two of the three main characters hide behind their pasts while one of them embraces it and tries to make the situation better. The first character is Dimmesdale, his secret is that he is Pearl’s real father but nobody can know because he is the priest. The next character is Chillingworth; he is Hester Prynne’s husband but is in disguise because his wife is shunned because of her crime. The last character is Hester Prynne, she is the only one who does not hide from her past, and she has to wear a red A on her chest because she has committed the crime of adultery.

Opposing Puritan Society Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a novel depicting a theocratic Puritan society and a woman buried in secrets and sin. The Puritan society described in The Scarlet Letter believes that religion is law. Hester Prynne, the novel’s protagonist, is accused of adultery and is forced to wear the letter A over her breast as a warning for all Puritans to abstain from sin. Hester Prynne’s adultery resulted in the birth of Pearl, who is often described as beautiful but demon-like.

Sinning is something everybody does; it is human nature. Sometimes the consequences are too excessive to abide by. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne commits a sin by sleeping with the town’s minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. At first, Hester's daughter, Pearl, acts as a constant reminder of her sin. Later, Pearl is transformed into a symbol of innocence. Finally, Pearl redeems Hester from her sin. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter, Pearl is recognized as a symbol of sin, innocence, and redemption.

Mrs. Beverly December 2nd 2014 2nd block Celeste Benjamin Essay In the Scarlet Letter, Pearl is the daughter of the main character Hester. Pearl is the evidence of Hester having to live with the punishment of wearing the scarlet letter “A” that stands for adultery. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author, makes a comment in the novel as Pearl dances by, “It was the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed with life. ”(Hawthorne).

In the Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is committed of adultery and has a baby as a result. Throughout the story she refuses to give the name of her lover, Reverend Dimmesdale. Temptation got the best of both of them and a child was created, Pearl. Although Hester was married to Roger Chillingworth from the beginning, she felt no love since he left her in New England. The main traits Hester displays are: proudness, honesty, and compassion. She is a strong, independent woman who needs no man to support her and a child.

‘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.”

The scarlet letter is the Puritan’s method of broadcasting Hester’s sin to the world, but it also has an internal effect on Dimmesdale. Puritanism is a strict religion where pleasure is strictly forbidden and is punishable. When Hester Prynne is discovered to have committed adultery, she is forced to wear a scarlet A, which is short for ‘adultery’. When this is first revealed, Hester stands in the jail carrying baby Pearl and, with the people jeering, is asked by Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale if she would tell the world who the Pearl’s father is; Dimmesdale is relieved when the answer is ‘no’– and it is later revealed that Dimmesdale is the father. Over the course of the novel, Dimmesdale’s

The Scarlet Letter is a modern classic of American literature written about controversy and published with controversy. The main topic of the book, adultery, is written in a dark and sad way, as Hawthorne describes injustice, fate or predetermination and conscience ( Van Doren, 1998) . No other American novel of the time has such a controversial theme as Hawthorne's, The Scarlet Letter. The setting of Nathanial Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is the seventeenth century Puritan New England. But Hawthorne's writing for this book is heavily influenced by his own nineteenth century culture. Hawthorne strongly believed in Providence. Hawthorne was descended from the Puritan