Nathaniel Hawthorne 's The Scarlet Letter

In a surface examination of the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne, it is quickly evident that no good things come from the wilderness. Therein, the wilderness is often associated with the savages and the devil. In his work The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne finds herself exiled by society for having an adulterous affair with the town reverend which brought forth the child known as Pearl. Pearl is quickly established as the child of the wilderness: wild, capricious, and thought by the town to be a demon-child. She represents several entities in the novel just by her being, but when her morality is delved into, much more of the nature of the story can be revealed. Pearl’s role is often overlooked as a formative force in the novel. Some scholars have gone as far as to denounce her as unnecessary to the story’s makeup. Upon close examination, it can be determined that Pearl is indeed a necessary element. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Pearl presents themes of morality, both personal and cultural, as well as the divide between society and nature, through her interactions with Hester, Reverend Dimmesdale, and the scarlet letter itself.

The children In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter play a major role in the Puritan society. With their honest opinions of Hester and Pearl, the children are presented as more perceptive and more honest than adults. Due to their innocence, children are capable of expressing themselves without constraints; there are no laws or regulations that they are bounded by. As an adolescent go through the stages of life and grow older, they begin to be more conscious of the how they act as they are more aware of society and the things that are occurring in the world, creating a filter for their actions. When they remain as the children, on the other hand, are adventurous; they are still exploring the universe that seems to fill with mysteries that are bound to be solved. They tend to attach to the truth and they are not afraid to speak it freely. Children differ from adults in their potential for expressing these perceptions. With their obliviousness to the things that are actually going on around the town, children therefore react differently compared to the adults, who are more knowledgeable. Perceived to be immature, young children are presented as more perceptive and more honest than adults due to their innocence, how they are unaware of the reality and the crimes that are presented in society by the adults enables them to be blithe and not afraid of saying what they feel like. Due to their naivety, when they express what they perceive to be true, they do not get punished,

When considering this further, the burden, which the scarlet letter and its separate culpabilities imply, reveals how the character Dimmesdale feels shame in his inability

As great effect as emotions can have on someone, even greater is the effect of how one reacts to his emotions. Arguably the two most influential of these emotions are guilt and anger. They can drive a man to madness or encourage actions of vindication. Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale are subject to this very notion in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's The Scarlet Letter. Hester simply accepted that what she had done was wrong, whereas Dimmesdale, being a man of high regard, did not want to accept the reality of what he did. Similar to Hester and Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth allows his emotions to influence his life; however, his influence came as the result of his anger. Throughout the book, Hawthorne documents how Dimmesdale and Hester 's

Why is sin important? It is believed that sin is important to people because their deity places guilt on their wrongdoings to show that those actions are not to be repeated. In contrary to this belief, there are people with religious views that hold no importance with sin. Depending on the individual’s religious views, sin can be a conflict between oneself and a “higher” being or it can not affect the individual at all. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Arthur Dimmesdale is an ordained Puritan priest that had committed a grave sin in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He had committed adultery with a married woman, Hester, the woman that is married to Roger Chillingworth. After Chillingworth has heard about this news, he seeks

All of the major characters in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne are dynamic and go through some form of character development. Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, who are at the forefront of the central conflict in the plot of the novel, are no exception. While their respective evolutions in character were noticeably different, each was emphasized by the three scaffold scenes. The differences of Hester and Dimmesdale’s respective character developments are highlighted and emphasized by the three scaffold scenes in the novel.

The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne was set during the 1600s in a New England town during what is now known as the Puritan past of America. In the novel, the Puritan religion was not only observed but criticized as well. During this time, the Puritans were an extremely religious group of Protestants that were known for their intolerance of other religions and their strict guidelines for a righteous lifestyle that often lead to violence or cruel forms of punishment. Nathaniel Hawthorne is a perfect portrayal of a Puritan historian because he himself was born as a Puritan and witnessed first-hand the extreme pressures associated with the Puritan religion to include arguments about the Puritan society and the treatment endured within the religion. Although The Scarlet Letter was set in the 1600s, the novel was written in the 1840s and dealt with issues during the Antebellum Era specifically when it came to the Women’s Movement and the Second Great Awakening.

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.

Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, behaves in an unforgivable, yet understandable manner. When Hester Prynne is in prison for having an affair, proven by the resulting child, Dimmesdale does not confess to his sin nor stand with Hester during her shameful punishment. Throughout the novel, Dimmesdale is being torn apart by the gnawing guilt growing inside of him while Hester is constantly a scornful object in the public’s eye.

because of the dark secret he keeps hidden in what his parishioners think to be a miraculous white soul. Day after day his thoughts are taken over by his feelings of guilt and hypocrisy. "He longed to speak out, from his own pulpit, at the full height of his voice, and tell the people what he was. 'I, your pastor, whom you so reverence and trust, am utterly a pollution and a lie'" (Hawthorne 142). At this point it may seem that the Reverend might have an easier life if he, like Hester Prynne, bore a scarlet letter for all to see. Reverend Dimmesdale does in fact wear a scarlet letter on his chest, but it is hidden, just as the truth of his sin is hidden, from the eyes of the public.

Nathaniel Hawthorne constructs the plot of his novel The Scarlet Letter around two sinners and traces their journeys towards acceptance and belonging as they experience the effects of sin and guilt their individual ways, especially Arthur Dimmesdale who becomes increasingly guilt wrought throughout the novel. Dimmesdale’s steep decline under the weight of his sin essentially causes him to become trapped in a prison of guilt, his own “desert places,” that he spends the majority of the novel attempting to escape. As Dimmesdale attempts to gauge the advantages and disadvantages of a full confession he finds himself in the midst of an intense internal battle over between his immense guilt and his crippling cowardice. On one hand, confessing would allow Dimmesdale to be freed from his guilt and be authentic with his actions, but on the other hand, confessing would also destroy his reputation among the strict Puritans. Hawthorne follows Dimmesdale’s path as he attempts battle his guilt and transitions from a stance of passivity, his indecision, to an attitude of action with his final decision to confess. In The Scarlet Letter, Arthur Dimmesdale is trapped between his cowardice and his guilt, his “desert places,” which ultimately leads to his downfall.

Children encompass parents’ lives from the day they are born into this world, often altering their plans for the future and their desired outcomes for life. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the most seemingly complex and misinterpreted of characters is Pearl, the illegitimate daughter of Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. The deviations in Pearl’s temperament, conduct, and character in the progression of the plot are a guide to the varying moral statuses of Hester and Dimmesdale. Performing the role of a compelling, rather than static force within the novel, Pearl saves both Hester and Dimmesdale, even motivating Dimmesdale to confess publically his sins and reminding Hester of her sin. As a result, Pearl serves as a moral guide to both her mother and father throughout the entirety of the novel.

Throughout history, Puritans have been known for extremely strict views towards other religions and people of other religions. Because they “deeply and fervently believed that they were doing the work of God”, Puritans often punished and shunned those who did not follow their rules or share their same views (Collier 62). In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne presents these popular ideas and truths about the Puritan way of living in a symbolic story of submissive defiance. He creates a strong feminist that contradicts the majority of the Puritan views on feminism. This rebellious main character, Hester Prynne, greatly sins and, thus, the town punishes her and shuns her in hope that she will repent and take on her proper duties once more. However, Hester shows the strength of a woman through this public humiliation, and takes on the role of a feminist by showing this feminine strength. Despite the attempts from society to force Hester into their Puritan ways, Hester Prynne fulfills the notion of a feminist through her rebellious qualities and actions, and she proves to be a contrast by assimilating into the role of a Puritan woman and thriving in this role despite her public humiliation.

Nothing is more powerful than the feeling one gets when they have committed a wrong doing in their life. Sometimes, guilt can cause a person to suffer so terribly that they end up doing things that they usually would not do. Guilt has an enormous effect on a person, and could change their life forever. Committing a sin causes the feeling of guilt inside a person. The person usually feels as if they deserve to be punished for what they did. The punishment for guilt could be shown either privately or publicly. Nathaniel Hawthorne shows these different punishments and how either private or public punishment affects the characters. Guilt can change a person by making them hate themselves and believe that they are at fault. In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, guilt is illustrated throughout Roger Chillingworth, Hester Prynne, and Arthur Dimmesdale, making these character suffer from guilt, which shows the powerful effect of guilt.

The scaffold is a symbol of isolation and guilt throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. All three of the scenes that take place on the scaffold show major character development that deal with the realities of being alone in suffering, punishment, and guilt. All the scenes have at least the four main Characters: Hester, Pearl, Rev. Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth is Hester’s husband’s pseudo name to protect his identity while he exacts revenge. Since the scaffold scenes are such major parts of Hawthorne’s story, I believe that they also directly impact the overall theme.