Light And Ignorance In The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter submerses the reader in the Puritan’s culture. The story involves the Puritans portrayal of the sins of a young woman. Although a difficult read, the book stirs the reader to obtain a high moral compass. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses the symbols of light and dark to depict good and evil among the characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth.

"Life is for each man," states Eugene O'Neill, "a solitary cell whose walls are mirrors." In other words, one can fool himself, but a mirror reflects only the truth. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, mirrors are used as a literary device to convey a message. Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, Hester, and Pearl each judge themselves with mirrors.  Through the use of mirrors, The Scarlet Letter provides an insight into the faults, or lack thereof, of the four main characters.

Roger Chillingworth is the symbol for evil in this novel with a personal agenda in place of a moral code making him the perfect example of how duplicity is never beneficial. Hawthorne conveys Chillingworth’s deception in the quote, “It seemed to be his wish and purpose to mask this expression with a smile.” Time and again Chillingworth hid his true identity by presenting himself as a gentle friend and preforming good deeds. For example, he insisted on the priest minimizing his workload in order to prevent an early death. Nevertheless, when Roger made the decision to seek revenge on his wife’s lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, he descended into a deep evil derangement becoming somewhat of a heartbroken devil. Consequently, this sealed his own tragic fate. "In a word, old Roger Chillingworth was a striking evidence of man's faculty of transforming himself into a devil, if he will only, for a reasonable space of time, undertake a devil's office." Chillingworth was an extremely learned scholar void of compassion who in the end, was the cause of his own demise. Roger Chillingworth was another character used by Hawthorne to show that deceit and dishonesty can do no good in the long

Hawthorne adds to The Scarlet Letter is when he explains the prison as “the black flower of civilized society” (2). By this Hawthorne means that the prison is a place of evil and a place that conceals the truth, in the event that Hester is being held there with the truth about her adulterous act. Hawthorne also describes Pearl’s eyes as having “another face, in the small black mirror”, instead of holding her mother’s “own miniature portrait” (48). This explains that Pearl’s eyes were empty and filled with sin as she came into life as a result of Hester’s scarlet letter. Another example of how Hawthorne uses the color black, as symbolism, is when Chillingworth states: “Even in the graveyard here at hand, they are new to me. I found them growing on a grave, which bore no tombstone, nor other memorial of the dead man, save these ugly remembrance. They grew out of his heart, and typify, it may be, some hideous secret that was buried with him, and with he had done better to confess during his lifetime” (83). This takes place when Roger Chillingworth brings Arthur Dimmesdale herbs with dark, flabby leaves. By this quote, Hawthorne implies that the herbs that Chillingworth had collected had no meaning but to signify evil that had been growing out of the grave, the remains that were left from the dead man who had been buried there. Another major part of The Scarlet Letter also comes from the symbolism of the color black

In the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne makes many references to the devil and evil’s influence on major characters and on the people in the town. The major characters change the way they act towards one another, and are physically and mentally affected negatively. The evil influence not only affects how the people in the town act towards each other but if affects how different people view the scarlet letter that Hester wears. Hawthorne also tries to convince the reader that Pearl’s existence is evil, but good things can come from evil as well as bad. By describing these instances Hawthorne drives the point that the devil and evil overtime are prominent themes and shape the plot.

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

Secondly, Chillingworth is manipulating Hester Prynne and controlling her thoughts. Lastly, Roger Chillingworth has an overall evil personality in going throughout his life. His evil all starts with Dimmesdale and his actions towards the beloved priest. Roger Chillingworth is slowly killing Dimmesdale. This evil is evident when the townspeople start to connect two and two with Roger coming to town coinciding with Dimmesdale’s health decreasing and to

“We've all got both light and dark inside of us, what matters is the part we choose to act on, that's who we really are.” –Sirius Black. Black’s quote can be applied to most of the situations presented to the characters in Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlett Letter. Many secrets remain held within that truly reveal who the characters are. Nevertheless, there are scenarios in the story that show more than one side to the character. In the book, and just like in many other scenarios, there are two sides to each character, a light side and a darker side. Light and dark imagery, alluding to the larger conflict between good and evil, is present throughout

In my opinion , the sin that is the most significant committed by Roger Chillingworth is the sin of wrath. Wrath is described by Webster Dictionary as “strong, vengeful anger, or indignation, retributory punishment for an offense or a crime”. In seeking revenge against Arthur Dimmesdale for committing adultery with his wife and getting her pregnant, he deliberately and methodically tried to destroy Arthur. When Chillingworth meets with his wife, Hester in jail, where she was taken of the scaffold for adultery, he takes the position of the village physician and is determined on finding Pearl’s

They see how his skills could be helpful to them and their minster. ““We have wronged each other” (Hawthorne 69). Roger shows some sympathy for Hester, after being away for so long. He also admits that he has some fault in the situation. As time went on, the people started to see a different person in him, and how evil he was becoming. “And what of him?” cried Roger Chillingworth, eagerly, as if he loved the topic, and were glad of an opportunity to discuss it with the only person of whom he could make a confidant” (Hawthorne 156). This quote really shows rogers evil side. As well as all the hate he is truly filled

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

Roger Chillingworth’s appearance displays his dark, revengeful character. When Roger is introduced, the reader can use sagacity to identify that Chillingworth is an evil, dark character. An early description of Chillingworth follows: “Again, at the first instant of perceiving that thin visage, and the slight deformity of the figure.” (Hawthorn 8) Chillingworth’s deformity here symbolizes his lack of compassion. Later in the novel, Chillingworth is

Through out the course of history, those who were considered sinners were often out casted from the society. This is much the case with Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. After a public trial, Hester is considered a sinner due to her birthing of a so called “devil child”. Hester is convicted to the life long bearing of a scarlet letter on her chest. The Scarlet Letter that Hester Prynne wears symbolizes the change in perception of sin through out the novel. Due to the revelations of the governor Winthrop and the reverend Dimmesdale, the way sin is perceived changes from one of shame to the idea that every one is a sinner in their own right.

As American-British novelist Mark Lawrence once said, “We’re built of contradictions, all of us. It’s those opposing forces that give us strength, like an arch, each block pressing the next”. The aforementioned contradictions are what lead to conflicts, and in turn growth and acceptance. Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his revolutionary classic The Scarlet Letter, delves into the conflicts that the brave, yet infamous Hester Prynne has to overcome. As Hawthorne unfolds the unfortunate tragedy of Hester and her mysterious lover, the battles Hester has to face are multiple external and internal stimuli that bring about the growth of Hester as a character. The onerous obstacles that Hester must face through her life wear her out mentally, but only then can she truly grow and accept who she is.

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.