The Scarlet Letter involves multiple themes throughout the story: the role of god, guiltiness, and sin. Society made these themes so apparent in Boston at the time, and if the same sin was committed today, the consequences would be much, much different. The Scarlet Letter has such a great amount of themes, and the themes themselves come in the perfect order, making the book so well written. In The Scarlet Letter multiple characters tried (some failed, some succeeded) to act as god, somewhat in a symbolic form. One example in The Scarlet Letter would be the townspeople and how they made such great judgments over a crime/sin that really didn't effect their everyday lives, and believing it was perfectly fine to judge Hester so harshly. Another example would be how largely God played a role in the lives of such a highly Puritan populated town. All of the characters lives were greatly centered around their religious beliefs, which is a huge reason as to why Hester was so frowned upon. They thought that her cheating on her husband was an offensive sin and crime, and she was punished in the social sense every day for her acts. All because they thought it was God’s path for her to take after she …show more content…
There were different interpretations of how to react and how to respond to Hester’s sin committed. Additionally, different characters dealt with their own sins in different ways. Hester payed hers publicly, she stood on the scaffold with her young daughter and wore the “A” everyday, without ever complaining. However, on the other hand, Dimmesdale kept his sin secret until the last little section of the book. He dealt with them privately, by hurting himself physically and going through so much emotional pain. Also, sins were considered much more of a legal problem in their society compared to today. In the modern world, adultery isn't considered a crime in America, but still not a good
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.
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne there are many symbols and motifs. A motif is a recurring image that helps develop the theme. The first motif is civilization versus wilderness. In the book the puritan town is civilization, and it is a place where everything anyone does is on display. There is no hiding from your sins and everyone knows about them, you can and will be quickly punished. In the wilderness there is only natural authority and society's rules do not apply. The next motif in the book is night versus day. Night conceals and enables your actions so no one will catch you. During the day you are more vulnerable to punishment and you have to abide by the rules or you will get caught. Hawthorne uses day and night to show good
In the nineteenth century novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes different origins of allusions and archetypes to emphasize how individuals in order to encourage individuals to forgive sins and work towards redemption.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter provides a window into the puritanical mind through his character Reverend Dimmesdale. Reverend Dimmesdale comes to understand that one's relationship with God supersedes any other relationship one has, whether it's with one's beloved, one's children, or one's social circle. He expresses it publicly on the scaffold in a dramatic sequence in a passage in chapter 23. Throughout the story Dimmesdale is supposed to be an example of upright godly behavior but he's lying everyday, all the time, in every relationship because he had an affair with Hester. While adultery was illegal, it was also against one of God's Ten Commandments.
Hawthorne’s use of diction in the novel suggest his disapproval toward the Puritan way of life. Hawthorne begins the novel describing the site of a prison. The Puritans had made it a priority to “allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery and another portion as the cite of a prison” (41). The use of the words “virgin soil” he depicts the land as new and innocent. However, by introducing the prison and cemetery it presents a bleak view of the Puritan society. This contrasts the view that the puritans had created the perfect society when they had that much distrust in mankind. This view continues with the description of the jail “already marked with weather-stains” giving it “a yet darker aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy front” (41).
One of the most obvious and insidious symbols that Nathaniel Hawthorne includes, hence the name “The Scarlet Letter”, is the scarlet letter “A” that is placed upon Hester’s chest. However, the majority of symbolism that Hawthorne includes, is not as prominent as that of the scarlet letter. Hawthorne includes a copious amount of symbolic meanings in his famous novel The Scarlet Letter that gives each chapter a deeper meaning.
It took Dimmesdale a while to admit to his sin to the Puritans. There is a lot to compare and contrast between the two especially how they handled the committed the adultery. Hester’s scarlet letter was on a piece of her clothing while Dimmesdale’s was carved into his chest. They did have a similar “way out” by escaping to Europe from there problems. Hester planned on taking off the letter and never wearing it again which was a controversial move. Both characters showed an equal amount of fear in public. They both didn’t want anybody to know because they cared about how they were going to be
In the Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, he explored the distress of going against law and order in Puritan society. Hawthorne showed how the actions one does affects the rest of their life. This could be seen through one of the characters in this novel, Arthur Dimmesdale, a preacher, eaten away by his sin. Hawthorne shows how Dimmesdale is the one to go against Puritan ideals through the symbols in this novel, style and literary techniques.
The Scarlet Letter invokes a lot of thought about morals even though the story itself was made up. Nathaniel Hawthorne used his knowledge of the real Puritans’ lifestyles of simplicity, strict punishment, and a strong focus on God to impact his characters in a way that hurt them rather than helped them. The Puritans described themselves as being zealous for God, but in reality, they used that as an excuse to inflict shame on others. What Hester and Mr. Dimmesdale did was wrong, but the Puritans caused much more pain to the “family” of Hester, Pearl, and Mr. Dimmesdale than was
Many of the events of The Scarlet Letter involve religion. The Puritans were strict Protestants who made the mighty voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas, and settled in New England. When the Puritans landed on the shores of New England in 1620, other than the lose kinship ties of Native Americans, the religion they carried with them was the only source of organization in what became New England ("Puritanism"). As a result, everything was built off a foundation of religion. From what is clearly visible in The Scarlet Letter, the Protestant religion shaped all aspects of society. As a result, a theocracy was naturally put in place in the Puritan colonies. This resulted in a society where every political, social or economic action
Through his communication with God, he is forgiven, as are the other members of the elect.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter expresses various themes of dark romanticism using symbolism. One of the more obvious symbols is that of the scaffold, which is present throughout the story. Upon in-depth exploration, I discovered this use of symbolism relates both literally and metaphorically to the dark romantic themes present in Hawthorne’s tale. First, let me discuss the scaffold and its constant presence in the story. The townspeople, Hester, and Dimmesdale use the scaffold on numerous occasions; most often, its use is to shame, harass, and isolate Hester Prynne so that she will confess the name of her child’s father. However, at times, the scaffold is used as a sanctuary and a confessional for others.
In The Scarlet Letter, author Nathanial Hawthorne utilizes an intricate combination of history and fiction, to depict the events that occurred in seventeenth-century Massachusetts Bay Colony. During this period of time, the Anglican Church of England had an altercation with the other religious sects, so they decided to flee to the Boston Colony, in an effort to establish religious freedom. The Puritans were immensely religious, and lived by a stringent code of ethics. In addition, their relationship with God was based upon theocracy, predestination, the Bible, and sin. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne incorporates the Puritans’ strict code into a fictional story, detailing the trials and tribulations of a Puritan woman named Hester Prynne.
As far as the townspeople know, Hester is the lone sufferer for one sin committed by two people. No one would ever guess that their minister, alone, is guilty of three major crimes: adultery, hypocrisy, and neglecting confession. His heart becomes so heavy with guilt, remorse, and sorrow that he punishes himself by fasting for days, whipping his own back. Some believe that this is what caused the scarlet "A" to mysteriously appear on his chest. The guilt that is a direct result of concealing his terrible sins is literally destroying him. Hawthorne writes, "No man, for any considerable period can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true." (196) Dimmesdale is learning this lesson the hard way. His inner-conscience longs to confess, but he has too much worldly wealth at stake. He successfully keeps his secret from the town until he realizes it has already killed him.
Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the most prolific symbolists in American literature, and a study of his symbols is necessary to understanding his novels. Generally speaking, a symbol is something used to stand for something else. In literature, a symbol is most often a concrete object used to represent an idea more abstract and broader in scope and meaning. The Puritans translated such rituals into moral and repressive exercises, Hawthorne turns their interpretations around in The Scarlet Letter. The Puritan community sees Hester as a fallen woman, Dimmesdale as a saint, and would have seen the disguised Chillingworth as a victim — a husband betrayed. Instead, Hawthorne ultimately presents Hester as a woman who represents a sensitive human being with a heart and emotions; Dimmesdale as a minister who is not very saint-like in private but, instead, morally weak and unable to confess his hidden sin; and Chillingworth as a husband who is the worst possible offender of humanity and single-mindedly pursuing an evil goal. The time period in which this story is set holds a great deal of importance. While adultery is a devious act no matter how you look at it, it was especially devilish in this time period of Colonia America. In a 1996 talk given by Sacvan Bercovitch in Salem, Massachusetts titled “The Scarlet Letter: A Twice-Told Tale,” he explains that part of the reason this sin is so taxing on the both of them is because of the weight that their society places