Isolation in The Scarlet Letter Essay

Hester's shame does become very influential in her life making her unable to express herself freely. "Hester Prynne might have repaid them all with a bitter and disdainful smile. But under the leaden infliction which it was her doom to endure, she felt at moments as if she must needs to shriek" (52-53). Hester's guilt has surfaced fully because when she wants to simply express herself, she is prevented from doing so due to her guilty conscience. She wants to take revenge on everyone that has passed judgment on her by giving them a disdainful smile, but she is fearful that she might start feeling guilty for doing such a thing. It seems Hester can live without any consequences of sin if she is able to suppress her anger, but she is actually being slowly isolated from the world. Living peacefully for Hester is slowly isolating her because she acts kind to others to avoid confrontations, which shows that she is afraid of the world and is actually trying to hide from it. Guilt is still the consequence that causes Hester to become isolated from the world around her, but there is another larger consequence which she is reminded of everyday.

The settings in The Scarlet Letter are very important in displaying the themes of the novel. The settings in this novel are almost characters, for they are an important part in developing the story. The scaffold, the forest, the prison, and Hester’s cottage are settings that show sin and its consequences result in shame and suffering.

Isolation is an individual or place being separated, to be or remain alone or apart from others. In “The Scarlet Letter,” by Nathaniel Hawthorn, Reverend Dimmsdale and Hester Prynne committed an unacceptable sin during the prutain times, adultery. The major punishment Hester had to face was to serve many months in prison, attach a scarlet letter, “A” on her chest, and stand on the scaffold for couple of hours under public scrutiny. "Thus the young and the pure would be taught to look at her, with the letter flaming on her chest…. as the figure, the body and the reality of sin"(73). Holding onto the sins you’ve committed can lead to isolation and alienation.

Hester’s true physiognomy is overtaken by the branding of her sinful actions through the scarlet letter, as society attempts to place guilt upon her. Hester does not want to accept such guilt placed by society, but is unafraid to face it when it is the cost she must pay for her love. She is initially shown in the public stands with, “dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam; and a face [with] a marked brow and deep black eyes... ”(Hawthorne 37). Her hair “throwing off the sunshine” highlights the idea that even a strong force of energy like the sun is unable to directly touch Hester because her beauty is so much brighter.

The Scarlet Letter Introduction The Scarlet Letter is a classic tale of sin, punishment, and revenge. It was written in 1850 by the famous American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. It documents the lives of three tragic characters, each of whom suffer greatly because of his or her sins. Shot Plot The story begins with Hester Prynne, a resident of a small Puritan community, being led from the town jailhouse to a public scaffold where she must stand for three hours as punishment for adultery. She must also wear a scarlet A on her dress for the rest of her life as part of her punishment. As she is led to the scaffold, many of the women in the crowd complain that

Hester Prynne. Hester is shamed publicly for her sin of adultery, for which she bears the mark of

While standing on the platform, Hester recognizes a man in the crowd who is accompanied by an Indian. This man inquires about her and why she is there. This is where we learn that she has committed adultery (the scarlet letter “A” is for adultery).

In part one of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the reader is introduced to Scout, the narrator of the book, her family and other members of the community in which she lives. Scout and her older brother Jem are the children of Atticus Finch, a lawyer in Maycomb County, Alabama during the Great Depression. Scout and Jem meet Dill, a boy spending the summer with his Aunt Rachel. He is between Scout and Jem’s age and becomes a great friend and playmate. He, like Scout and Jem are enjoying the freedom of no school, using their imagination inventing, and playing games throughout the summer. Next door to Scout and Jem, lives a very curious individual whom they have never seen but heard rumors about. This individual has been kept isolated by his father because of some innocent pranks he was involved in over fifteen years ago. Arthur “Boo” Radley is a young man rumored to be root of all evil in the small town of Maycomb. Curiosity is a theme repeated throughout part one as the Scout, Jem, and Dill desire to know or learn more about life and Boo Radley.

As it says in the book, “ If she entered a church, trusting to share the Sabbath smile of the Universal Father, it was often her mishap to find herself the text of the discourse.” (Hawthorne 95) Hester Prynne had to teach herself to be independent and the first step to that was forgiving herself, earning forgiveness of others, and earning God’s forgiveness. As the years passed, Hester’s kind acts she does for the town allowed them to forgive and forget her sins. She would always give clothing she made to the poor and that contributed to them forgiving her. Hester’s own self conscious was another factor she needed in her path to full forgiveness. She always believed she needed to wear her Scarlet Letter, this was her reminder of her sin everyday and it wasn’t till later in the novel where she doesn’t want to wear it anymore. Also, in the beginning of the novel Hester refused to leave the town because she believed she needed to be in the place her sin took place. In a way, Hester had found forgiveness in herself but on the other hand her actions show that she might still be in the process of completely forgiving. Hester’s actions in earning God’s forgiveness were very similar to the ones she completely when forgiving herself. She once again wouldn 't take off her Scarlet Letter and said that it would come off by itself when God wanted it to.

disgrace, contrasts with the pastor’s silent sin of adultery. When Hester became a symbol of sin

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne was written in 1849. This novel won him much fame and a good reputation as a writer. In writing The Scarlet Letter, Hawethorne was creating a form of fiction he called the psychological romance. A psychological romance is a story that contains all of the conventional trappings of a typical romance, but deeply portrays humans in conflict with themselves. The Scarlet Letter won Hawthorne great critical acclaim, and even today the book remains on the best seller list. The Scarlet Letter is so popular maybe because generations of readers can interpret it and see subtle meanings that somewhat reflect their own lives. Each of us, has

There has been a constant dispute over whether people should be governed by determinism or free will. Determinism is the idea that our actions and fate are predetermined and every occurrence can be explained or has a reason for happening; free will, in contrast, is the idea that we have the ability to act independently of external restraints. In the 17th century, Puritan society arose in New England as one that was governed by its religious views, and thus was a deterministic one. Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates this in his novel The Scarlet Letter, in which the characters Hester, Dimmesdale, Pearl, and Chillingworth are alienated by society. Although

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.

In the stories of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the antagonist characters display parallel story lines through their searches for the enemy. Roger Chillingworth, the former husband of Hester Prynne and the antagonist of The Scarlet Letter, works against his wife in order to find her untold second lover. Frankenstein is a contrasting story in which an unnamed monster is the antagonist towards his human creator, Dr. Frankenstein. Yet despite quite different story lines, the two characters possess traits that exibit parallels between them. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth displays the startling passionate characteristics of an unwavering drive to seek out his foe, madness as his focus on his search takes over his entire being, and terrible anguish when his task is unexpectedly over, all of which are reflected in the daemon created at the hand of Dr. Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley 's novel Frankenstein.

The theme of isolation is highly present in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter.” Isolation Plays a very important role in the novel. Every main character finds themselves isolated in one way or another, but while some are absolutely and thoroughly destroyed by it, others gain loads of power. Characters Hester Prynne, Chillingworth, and Arthur Dimmesdale are all victims of isolation in the Puritan town of Boston, due to a different reasons such as Adultery, upbringing, and their past.