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.

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

In the Scarlet Letter there are characters that are important to the novel; however there is one specific character that relates to the topic of the story is Arthur Dimmesdale. The character Arthur Dimmesdale is a respected minster in Boston. However even though, Arthur Dimmesdale is a minister and preaches against sin to his congregation, he commits the ultimate sin with a young married woman named Hester Pryne. For punishment Hester Pryne becomes pregnant and shunned from public society, Dimmesdale is forced to live with guilt and later in the novel dies from the same sin within his body. Critics that have read the Scarlet letter would argue that Dimmesdale is a weak or ennobled character because he didn’t tell the community of his sinful crime. Another characteristic that critics would agree on is that Dimmesdale was a hypocrite. Arthur Dimmesdale is a character that is weak and hypocritical to his own belief.

The clockwork of Nature does not stop for any Man. In the classic novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Arthur Dimmesdale conceals an abominable truth. Avoiding subjugation to the conservative Puritan's Society rule, the reverend feigned obliviousness all the while Hester, the person he committed adultery with, fearlessly bared her shame upon her bosom. The society held Dimmesdale to a higher standard; as a result, their influences hindered his ability to take responsibility for his actions. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne manipulates complementary diction, parallel juxtapositions, guilt-ridden indirect characterizations, and enlightening dialogues to interpret how the society symbolized the prison bars cemented by incarceration, cannot bring to naught the natural order of humanity.

“let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart.” (Hawthorne 92)

And now the story of a woman; a woman whose story is repeated so often - it ingrained on our collective imagination. She 's an archetype. She is Eve. She 's Juno. She the good woman gone bad. She is Hester Prynne.

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.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s personal isolation originated in his early childhood and later developed the theme for his most renowned literary novel, The Scarlet Letter. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne emphasized the impact that societal isolation can have on individuals. Several of the victims inflicted with isolation throughout the novel were ultimately met with their inevitable downfalls. One particular character, Hester Prynne, was selected to undergo a struggle comparable to Hawthorne’s own. Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter centered its characters on a theme of both physical and psychological isolation.

When considering the underlying aspects of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the most common themes that arise include the faulty utopian disposition Puritans had upon themselves and how the devious behavior of one woman can lead those same individuals to chastise and dehumanize the very character that is Hester Prynne. However, one of the many subjects that are more often than not left out of most debate is whether the judgment of others or the judgment of one’s self is more inflicting on an individual. Now throughout the duration of this novel we see the transformation of two polar opposite characters in Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale as both share the same crime of adultery. To pursue this further, Prynne who is publically reprimanded for her wrongdoings handles her precarious situation with a rather graceful and oblivious attitude. Hence this is where the two passionate lovers greatly differ as Dimmesdale (a high-standing priest in Puritan Society) is crippled by his nefarious act and as we indulge deeper into the premise of the story, he eventually pays the piper and meets his inevitable maker. Both individuals faced rather sadistic judgment for the duration of the story but the one question that lingers in the audiences’ minds are just what kind of judgment proved to be the most impactful upon the characters. Societal or self-judgment?

“Her attire, which, indeed, she had wrought for the occasion, in prison…seemed to express the attitude of her spirit” (Hawthorne 51). The Scarlet Letter explores the strict relationship between religion and law. By the mid 1630’s many Puritans settled in Boston, Massachusetts, from England. The villages where they settled often included houses, a community garden and a meetinghouse where church services were held. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter utilizes the late 1600’s to reflect on how the church would deal with serious issues including adultery. This raises the question: how does Hawthorne develop characters to express the corruption of the 1600s and the relationship between church and government? Through the developing of key

Throughout the literary work of art, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the characters that he created to express the dysfunctionality of the Puritan society’s process of punishment for sins. The Scarlet Letter was written in 1840 and published in 1850 by Ticknor and Fields. Hawthorne portrays themes of sin and redemption through The Scarlet Letter’s intricate narrative of how a woman, Hesther Prynne, commits adultery with a highly respected religious figure within the Puritan society, whose name is Arthur Dimmesdale, while the woman’s former husband seeks for justice. Hawthorne also incorporates his own story into The Scarlet Letter, using his experience as an ancestor of John Hathorne, a vicious judge for The Salem Witch Trials, which took place in Salem, MA 1692-1693. Hesther, the adulterer, was punished by the Puritan society and was sentenced to wear a scarlet letter “A” upon the chest of gown for the remainder of her days whereas, her partner, Dimmesdale was not initially revealed to the society as Hesther’s lover. Hesther’s former husband Roger Prynne, soon to be named Chillingworth because of his embarrassment of his affiliation with Hester, was seeking to bring the partner of Hesther’s affair to justice in the light of God’s punishment. Hawthorne argues the difficulties of how sin and redemption causes a ripple effect in which it not only affects the sinners, but all those around them.

Hawthorne uses Hester as an expression of rebellion of Puritan ways by how she is forced to wear the letter on her chest which gives her the feeling of redemption although it doesn’t spiritually redeem her. Hester felt like she was alone in the book because the letter “Had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere by herself.” (Hawthorne 37). The letter made her feel alone so by the end of the book she felt like she served her time and when the letter went from meaning “Adulterer” to “Able” and she felt redeemed for it although she wasn’t actually redeemed spiritually. Hester wore the letter on her bosom however “The scarlet letter had not done its office” (114) because it didn’t actually redeem her it just made her feel better about what she had done. In her eyes she didn’t feel like she had done anything wrong although the definition of redeem is compensation for the faults of something or someone. She

People are constantly changing. They are constantly using their past mistakes to make for themselves a better future. Life is a constant process of living and learning. This is what author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, has the character Hester Prynne do in his novel The Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne, the main protagonist, causes great havoc in her society for committing adultery. The novel tells the story of Hester and how she is shut out from her world for what she has done, and exemplifies the affect of her sin on those around her and those closest to her. These people including Reverend Dimmesdale who dissipates from his own guilt, Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband who was assumed to be dead, who becomes a very vengeful and spiteful man, and also her own daughter Pearl who is an outcast of the children because she is a child of sin. Hester’s development throughout the novel is truly remarkable as are the effects other characters have on her. She grows from being ashamed and defiant to at peace with herself and her sin while remaining the same protective mother of her daughter, Pearl. She becomes confident and free, not letting the Puritan society control or define her.

When this book was given out, many people probably could not wait for it to be over. Friends, parents, even teachers talked about how hard it is to get through. In fact, the majority of people, including myself, wondered how teenagers living in the 21st century could possibly connect to this story. The typical teenager’s daily life revolves around getting lunch at Panera, studying for many tests in one day, and competing for the most amount of likes on Instagram. So how could a book about a girl who commits adultery and is ridiculed by her whole community for her actions possibly be related to? Believe it or not, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne has many themes that are still portrayed in today’s modern society. Some of these themes include acceptance within society, reputation based on previous actions, and how closely related revenge and guilt are to one another.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an Anti-Transcendentalist, which means that he thought the world and the people in it were evil. He also believed that society is good and we need it to survive. His distant uncle was John Hathorne, who was a judge during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote about Puritan societies, such as the one that his very distant uncle was a part of. The Scarlet Letter takes place in a 1600s Puritan society in the New England Colonies. In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of the Scarlet Letter, Pearl and Burrs to contribute to the overall theme of secret sin.