Essay about Hypocrisy Of The Scarlet Letter

As a misogynist himself, Nathaniel Hawthorne easily incorporated his own sexist views into his novel, The Scarlet Letter, through the representation and comparison of the sexes. Considering the time period in which Hawthorne wrote the piece, feminism was still a movement in the making, so nobody really thought twice about the author’s demeaning text. However, his cruel treatment of women on and off paper is so foul, it cannot go unnoticed. In an unfair contrast to the female characters, Hawthorne grants the men with power and sympathy, leaving the women to suffer.

Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter conveys the war between passion and responsibility, and how it concerns moral duty. Conflicts which Reverend Dimmesdale faces show readers how difficult it can be to come forward and reveal your sins. The circumstances which victimized Dimmesdale made it harder for him to accept responsibility publicly, which is the foundation of much of this novel. Hawthorne uses Dimmesdale’s character to convey the true struggle between passion and responsibility in The Scarlet Letter. While Dimmesdale yearned to face his sins, his passion overpowered him and took over the

Secrets can destroy even the most respected people. Sometimes is not the secret itself that drives people into exhaustion, but the emotional baggage that comes with it. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Dimmesdale physically deteriorates because of his guilt caused by a dishonorable sin. The Puritan society in which the story is set discourages the idea of the private self, which Hawthorne shows by creating distinctions between the characters’ private and public lives, specifically Dimmesdale’s.

One way Hawthorne displayed hypocrisy was through Hester Prynne. Hester was not only guilty of adultery, but was also guilty of hypocrisy. Hester claims that she loves Dimmesdale, but she lets him suffer for seven years. She kept Chillingworth’s identity a secret from Dimmesdale and allowed Chillingworth to continually torture him. Hester knows that Chillingworth 's torturing is slowly weakening Dimmesdale mentally and physically, yet she does nothing to put an end Chillingworth’s or to help Dimmesdale. “Take heed how thou clentiest to him -- who, perchance, hath not the courage to grasp it for himself -- the bitter, but wholesome cup that is how presented to thy lips!” (Hawthorne 47). If Hester had told the truth, everything would have been better. Hester was also hypocritical in how she shows her love for pearl. She loves Pearl enough to clothe, feed and care for her, but she does not lover Pearl enough to tell her that Dimmesdale is her father. She does not love Pearl enough to give her a father.

In the novel The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author composes a story that focuses on the idea of sin from an action of adultery through the perspective of Hester Prynne. The act of Hester’s infidelity endures a pessimistic influence on a character named Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, who is a Puritan minister. Yet, Hawthorne portrays to the readers a transformation in Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale in personality and how the theme of guilt can be influential which embodies a destructive cleanse at the end of the novel.

Guilt is like a termite; it eats away a man’s soul in the same way a termite eats away at a house’s foundation. In his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne covers this undeniable reality through his character, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. The greatly revered Puritan minister, who has the “earnest of high eminence in his profession,”(50) broke the laws that he represents by committing the great sin of adultery and even having a child with his partner-in-sin, Hester Prynne, who is married to the missing scholar Roger Chillingworth. These sins, though, pale in comparison to his greatest sin: Dimmesdale did not admit to his sins like Prynne; Dimmesdale tries to evade the dagger or guilt, which turns out to only pierce his heart all

What know I of the minister’s heart? And as for the scarlet letter, I wear it for the sake of its gold thread!”(Hawthorne 549). In relation to this quote, Hester is being a hypocrite in two ways. The first way is that she is purposely holding back from telling Pearl who her real father is. If Hester sincerely loves Pearl, why can she not tell her the truth? Why can she not provide Pearl with a real answer? Hester is ignoring Pearl’s questions. The second way Hester shows hypocrisy in this quote is that she lies about the reason she wears the scarlet letter. She does not actually wear the scarlet letter just because of the gold threading. Hester wears it because she has committed a crime in the Puritan community which, consequently, requires her to have public humiliation. Once again, Hester withholds the true information that Pearl keeps questioning. Hester also does not truly believe that she had committed the sin of adultery because she did not believe she was truly in love with Chillingworth. How could this be? When you are married to someone you are married to them until divorced. Was she just looking for an excuse to justify her wrong doing of having an affair? Hester should have told her community how she truly felt about Dimmesdale and how sorry she was for her sin and asked for forgiveness. If the Puritans are such a religious and holy society than they would forgive her like God tells us to forgive people.

The imorialty that is betrayed in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book “ The Scarlet Letter” is very descriptive. The characters Hester and Reverend Dimmesdale commit adultery. They both end up paying for their sin but in to very different ways. Hester is open with hers while Dimmesdale tries to hide the truth. As the story goes on the character change and they have two very different views on the sin that they have both committed together.

This interpretation showcases additional hypocrisy within society: as stated before, Dimmesdale does not face the same consequences as a result of his gender and position in society, even when he committed the same crime as Hester. Through the use of symbolism, Hawthorne depicts oppression and hypocrisy within

The Puritan society lived strictly by the laws of God, as depicted in the Bible. If one was to break a law, in their minds, one had disobeyed the word of God. They believed they were ‘pure’ people that could not succumb to such blasphemy as other people may have. They were often self-righteous in condemning the people they considered to be sinners, as they were in fact sinners themselves. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the hypocrisy of the Puritan society is exemplified through the actions of Dimmesdale, and the society’s interactions with Hester and Mistress Hibbins.

A major universal idea that touches upon every part of The Scarlet Letter is the feeling of hypocrisy. Displayed on the board is a black mask, which represents how characters had two sides throughout the story. Not only were characters such as Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and Hester hiding a secret from others in the novel, but dramatic irony happened various times. The three clothespins in the middle of the board have a baby invitation, a heart, and a cross hanging which represents how everything could quickly be dropped and changed for the worse within the blink of an eye, The baby invitation that says “Welcome to the world baby Pearl” which symbolizes how Pearl being born proves that Dimmesdale is a hypocrite. The heart symbolizes how Hester

The main character Hester Prynne committed both adultery and hypocrisy. Hester claims to be in love with Reverend Dimmesdale, although for the seven years that Dimmesdale is torturing himself Hester does not say or do anything. Hester felt a love so strong that she broke her wedding vows. Hester was publicly

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter emphasises the behavior of the characters to propose that hypocrisy creates a culture that solely relies on appearance and conformity, while effacing genuity in society.

Hypocrisy is present everywhere in society, whether people want to admit it or not. Human nature is a fickle thing; people tend to judge others harshly for their actions while being less strict on themselves. The theme of hypocrisy is present throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Many of the townspeople are presented as hypocrites who shun Hester and treat her with contempt because of her crime, yet choose to ignore the sins of their fellow townspeople and never suspect their minister, Dimmesdale, of being an adulterer. Through Hawthorne’s use of irony, he was able to convey his contempt for the hypocritical attitudes of the Puritans whose strict moral code only applied to those whose sins were exposed, blinding them to the

Hawthorne artfully demonstrates the difference between external and internal portrayals of shame and the consequences of both, by using the characters of Hester Prynne and the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. By examining Hester and Dimmesdale’s way of dealing with the repercussions of their indiscretion and analyzing Benjamin Kilborne’s critique Shame Conflicts and Tragedies in The Scarlet Letter, one can see if, or by what measure, if either Hester’s or Dimmesdale’s shame is worse than the other. I believe Dimmesdale’s internal battle with his shame is far worse than Hester’s outward shame because it is “unbearable,” as mentioned by Kilborne.