Keeping Secrets: Direct Effect On The Mind

Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne relays the theme of guilt using symbolism that is portrayed in the scarlet letter itself and in the main character’s daughter. The story follows the protagonist, Hester Prynne, who commits adultery with the town minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, producing the child she raises on her own named Pearl. Guilt is a common theme for the duration of the novel which covers all aspects of the shame each character feels. These particular dimensions of shame come specifically from different objects in the novel and what they represent.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale has an affair with Hester Prynne. Unfortunately for the two of them, Hester becomes pregnant. This makes the two lover’s actions obvious to the public; therefore, creating a chain of events that puts both of them in utterly miserable states.

The classic novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story of guilt and love. The main character, Hester Prynne, has an affair with the minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester then gives birth to her child, Pearl, after which she is then forced to wear an “A” on her chest for adultery. While this story focuses on the story of Hester, there is a deeper meaning behind the relationship between her and Dimmesdale. He displays great character development throughout the novel. He gives the reader a deeper meaning of how to conform to society while creating boundaries for self-exploration. Dimmesdale experience foreshadows the entire story when questioning Hester at the scaffold at the novel’s beginning. As the

"One token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another." (Hawthorne, 2) Guilt and shame are two of the most devastating feelings that can haunt and eat people alive for the rest of their lives. Everyone has experienced either guilt or shame in their lifetime, especially the two main characters in this book called The Scarlet Letter. Although Arthur Dimmesdale is not married, he still commits a sin with Hester Prynne, which is fornication and separating Hester and her husband, Roger Chillingworth. Hester, on the other hand, only commits adultery because she is married to Chillingworth and is sleeping with Dimmesdale who is not her husband. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, both Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne commit

Nathaniel Hawthorne shows the outcome stemming from the guilt of concealing a crime through Arthur Dimmesdale’s decaying mental and physical state in his novel The Scarlet Letter. Dimmesdale, the clergyman who all the townspeople thought so highly of, was the man who impregnated Hester Prynne, forcing her to wear the dreaded Scarlet Letter that signified her sin of adultery. The preacher managed to evade any ramifications from the law, but his soul was continually tortured as punishment, severely weakening him, both physically and mentally. Although he knows that he would never do so, as the weight of the sin was too much to bear, Dimmesdale remarks that standing beside Hester “on thy [Hester’s] pedestal of shame” would be a more desirable

The Scarlet Letter is a classic novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne which entangles the lives of two characters Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale together through an unpardonable sin-adultery. With two different lifestyles, this act of adultery affects each of them differently. Hester is an average female citizen who is married to a Roger Chillingworth from Europe while Dimmesdale is a Puritan minister from England (61). Along the course of time after the act of adultery had happened, Hester could not hide the fact that she was bearing a child that was not of her husband, but from another man. She never reveals that this man is in fact Arthur Dimmesdale, and so only she receives the punishment of prison. Although it is Hester who

In the Dark Romantic novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne reveals that the truth will unleash its dominance over the soul through broken barriers of secrecy of a character. Arthur Dimmesdale, was a respected and dignified man in the Puritan town because of his reputation as a minister. Dimmsdale soon found his paramour, Hester Prynne and both of them committed the sin of adultery together. Hester confessed her sin of adultery and paid the price for it; unlike Dimmesdale, he waited seven years to confess to his crime of impregnating Hester. After years of waiting, the truth consumed his soul and began to unleash out into the Puritan town. When Dimmesdale confessed he stated, “ye, that have loved me!—ye, that have deemed me holy!—behold

Dimmesdale, who keeps his sin discrete, continuously grows more ill as the book progresses. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the characters’ experiences with different forms of tangible sin contradict present day’s form of dealing with sin. Hester is considered

The Novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about a woman named Hester Prynne who is married to an older man, but not for love. Mrs. Pryne has an affair with another man named Arthur Dimmsdale and is completely ostracized by the community. It is revealed that because of this affair she gave birth to a daughter, Pearl. The main conflict Is external with Hester, but internal with her lover, Arthur. It is later revealed, Hester had taken full blame for the affair, but that is eating away at Dimmsdale’s conscience. Arthur’s health is slowly deteriorating. The climax is when Dimmsdale becomes an idol in the town after preaching powerful and influential sermons. Arthur would love nothing more than to confess, but such

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne describes the life of Hester Prynne as a struggle with society, forced to wear a scarlet "A" as a public reminder and shaming of the adultery she has committed. However, her lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, must only live with the guilt of the deed, rather than being shamed by the Puritan world. Indeed, the novel demonstrates the strength of the oppressed against the weakness of the privileged when both are plagued with shame or guilt.

The Scarlet Letter is a tale that revolves around the idea of penance for sins and adultery, but no other character has paid for her sins more in this novel than Hester Prynne, the woman branded for a prohibited love with a man named Dimmesdale. Throughout the story, Hester Prynne must manage her sin and its production, her daughter Pearl, as well as deal with the consequences that follow.

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote in 1850 the book “The Scarlet Letter”. After a depressing season in his life, his emotions sparked a flame that has, since his death, spread across the country. The book's main character, Hester Prynne, is the wearer of the scarlet letter and the novel is written about her and her life after a terrible sin that occurred in in Puritan New England. Although the novel fails to describe in detail characters other than - Hester, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth and Pearl- minor characters such as Mistress Hibbins, cannot be left out. The role that they play is trivial part of the story of the Scarlet Letter.

The Scarlet Letter was a love story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The book tells the story of Hester Prynne, who portrays the effect of punishment on sensitivity and human nature. She is seen as a person who deserves the embarrassment of her bad choice. She had a rough time with her recognition of the letter's meaning. Over the 7 years of her punishment, Hester's inner struggle changes from a victim of Puritan branding to a decisive woman in tune with human nature. In time, though the Puritan people look at the letter as a meaning of "Angel." Her sensitivity with society's victims makes her symbolic meaning turn into a person whose life was originally oppressed to a strong and sensitive woman with respect for others. In her last few years

    The narrator of The Scarlet Letter is an unknown customhouse worker, who is omniscient. He can greatly be compared to Hawthorne, but he should not be taken as a literal embodiment of his opinions. The protagonist of this novel is Hester Prynne. She was sent to Boston by her husband, who was going to join her after he got his affairs in order in Europe. He was captured by indians and she thought he would never return to her. She has an affair and becomes pregnant, the peoplenof the community then realize that she has committed the sin of adultery. She refuses to confess the identity of her baby’s father. Hester is persecuted for committing the sin, and forced to wear a scarlet letter ‘A’ for the rest of her life. Pearl, Hester and Dimmesdale 's love child, lives under the same persecution as her mother during the entire novel. She is moody and mischievous little girl. She is very wise

The Scarlet letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850 that follows main character, Hester Prynn, as she endures life in The Massachusetts Bay Colony with her daughter. Hester’s life in this society is mainly focussed around the actions of two characters other than her daughter Pearl. These characters are Roger Chillingworth and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. In the novel, Chillingworth was Hester’s husband when she lived in Europe and Dimmesdale is the local reverend who became the father of Pearl after a love affair with Hester. The two have contrasting roles in The Scarlet Letter but are bound together through their relationships with Hester forming the structure of the novel. With the use of symbolism, imagery, and diction, Hawthorne molds the characters of Roger Chillingworth and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale into representations of the flawed natures of the Puritan colonies in 17th century New England.