Redemption In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

Without an honorable reputation a person is not worthy of respect from others in their society. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the struggle to shake off the past is an underlying theme throughout the novel. Characters in this novel go through their lives struggling with trying to cope with the guilt and shame associated with actions that lost them their honorable reputation. Particularly, Hawthorne shows the lasting effect that sin and guilt has on two of the main characters in the book: Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale.

Hester would sacrifice everything she had for Hester. The importance of Pearl to Hester is expressed when the narrator says “But she named the infant “Pearl,” as being of great price, ---purchased with all she had, --- her mother’s only treasure!” (Hawthorne 82). Hester more importantly wanted to teach Pearl what she learned in her sin. Pearl was the result of her tremendous sin and she saw the beauty in the baby being born while everyone else looked at Pearl as if she were a devil child. Pearl is a representation of the constant guilt and shame that Hester has to continuously live with. This guilt was expressed through public shame and the fact that the first thing that Hester saw when she was born was her mother's Scarlet letter and she would constantly be distracted by the letter and it reminded Hester of the way everybody saw her. Her willingness to do anything for Pearl leads to her giving into her childish demands. Pearl, being born out of her mother’s sin, does not want the scarlet letter to leave her mother. This is expressed in, “The child will not let her mother cast the scarlet letter aside because Pearl herself is emblem of a passion which partook of that same heathen, natural wilderness. ("Hester's Double Providence: The Scarlet Letter and the Green”), which shows how Pearl wants all three of them to stand on the scaffold. Pearl was much focused on the

Hester continues to face conflict, this time with herself. When Hester faces the reality of the unpleasant situation she is faced with, her self conflict begins. Hester’s feelings are expressed when it is stated, “She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast that it sent forth a cry; she turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself the infant and the shame were real” (52). Conflict within Hester’s life continues in mothering her curious child. Pearl’s curiosity is revealed when she asks, ‘ “. . . Mother dear, what does this scarlet letter mean? –and why dost thou wear it on thy bosom?” ’ (161). Hester feels the responsibility of protecting Pearl from knowing her mother’s sinful actions. The constant questioning puts Hester in a contradictory position. Mothering Pearl causes conflict a second time when Pearl is considered an outcast from other

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester has finally been released from prison. After she was released, she was able to leave Boston, but she decided against it. Because of her wrongdoings, the community has shunned her. Even though she is shunned, she still has the means to provide for herself and her daughter, Pearl, by her magnificent sewing skills. Pearl helps her get through all that she is going through. Because Pearl is the result of Hester's sin, everyone treats her differently.

Deception and lies are a big part of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, however accepting the truth of what has happened also plays a role in this story. Two of the three main characters hide behind their pasts while one of them embraces it and tries to make the situation better. The first character is Dimmesdale, his secret is that he is Pearl’s real father but nobody can know because he is the priest. The next character is Chillingworth; he is Hester Prynne’s husband but is in disguise because his wife is shunned because of her crime. The last character is Hester Prynne, she is the only one who does not hide from her past, and she has to wear a red A on her chest because she has committed the crime of adultery.

Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne, and Roger Chillingworth all committed sins that needed forgiveness. Nonetheless , only Hester found what they all sought after. Forgiving themselves and others to receive forgiveness prevails as a major struggle and for Dimmesdale and Chillingworth, that struggle ends in sad deaths. For Hester however, that struggle ends in a righteous redemption from her sin.

“You are free to make whatever choice you want, but you are not free from the consequences of the choice” (Benson). In the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne shows that Hester makes a lot of choices, but she is not free from the consequences of those choices. Pearl is a result of her choice to commit adultery, so Pearl represents many things. Sometimes dealing with Pearl is a continuous struggle for Hester, since in her eyes Pearl is a difficult child. Pearl in some ways represents Hester’s sin, and in others ways shows how the consequences of her choices help Hester to realize to make wiser and better choices.

Guilt and Relief Author Stefan Zweig once brilliantly wrote “No guilt is forgotten so long as the conscience still knows of it.” In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter, pastor Dimmesdale struggles with the guilt that he bears. Though, he tries to fight it and repent for his sins, he is mistaken in his efforts. He will not, however, tell anyone of his sin because he is scared of the possible retaliation from the townspeople. He lives for seven years in this painful state of guilt because he has yet to realize that the only thing that can save him is letting it all out.

Hester faces the shaming of the townspeople, her own guilt and judgment of herself, and the guilt and shame of others. Dimmesdale feels guilt and shame for keeping his sin hidden. Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts the shame and guilt that results from sin through his characters in the Scarlet Letter.

Through Hester Prynne’s captivity of sin, as depicted by the scarlet letter on her chest, Hester is granted freedom to observe and live a life of her own choosing as well as grant that for her illegitimate child, Pearl. Hester Prynne is held physically captive by the scarlet letter which binds her to sin and the town’s public knowledge of her adultery: “Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast […] as the figure, the body, the reality of sin,” (95). Hester is obligated to be both excluded from the community, but to be ridiculed and scorned daily by it as well because of the physical depiction of captivity upon her chest. The scarlet letter, however, is what grants Hester Prynne freedom: “She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness. […] The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread,” (237-238). Hester uses her sin to her advantage and takes her freedom to do right by the community which has thus judged her and becomes a nurse. Hester is also free to disclose at any time

William Shakespeare once said, “Some rise by sin and some by virtue fall.” One may learn from the sins he commits and one may suffer when doing what he believes is right. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter three main adult characters committed sins; such as, adultery and vengeance. These sins develop the respective of Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne makes it clear that sin always has an affect on the sinner and those around as well.

At the scene of Hester’s public shaming, Hawthorne describes Hester’s punishment as vicious and demoralizing. By comparing society’s treatment of Hester to “stings and venomous stabs,” Hawthorne dramatizes the effects of the public shaming on not only Hester’s physical self, but also her mental one. The town’s hurtful actions are meant to torment Hester, and shun her for going against a societal norm. The townspeople’s actions can be described as methodical, since they are all lead astray their own idea of moral righteousness by the imposed common norm that a sinner must be severely punished. Hawthorne conveys to the reader that the punishers and their followers have a utopian idea of society, which is bound to be defied by those, such as Hester, but unlike Dimmesdale, who are unwilling to face torturous punishment to accept the fact that human sin is inevitable.

Sin is the act of disrespecting God’s will and it can be viewed as something that violates the ideal relationship between God and man. Sin has its way of penetrating the soul of a person and changing a human’s personality as well as corrupting the personality of others; blinding them from the truth of the world around them. Such dominance and influence of sin is delineated in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter. In the novel, the blindness and hypocrisy present in the Puritan Society is justly substantiated through Hawthorne’s indirect characterization of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne. From the treatment of the colonists for Arthur Dimmesdale it is evident that Dimmesdale is a highly revered person that everyone

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the unnecessarily severe punishments for committing a sin in a pitiless Puritan society were shown through Hester’s public embarrassment, through Dimmesdale’s internal

Hawthorne’s Display of Forgiveness and Reconciliation in The Scarlet Letter In this passage, Hawthorne introduces the idea that when one displays vulnerability and humility when seeking forgiveness, it leads to an act of reconciliation which can ultimately alter the course of one’s life. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne argues that Pearl’s act of forgiveness towards her parents cause a change in heart in each of them, and a restoration in their relationship. At Dimmesdale’s dying breath, Hawthorne writes, “Pearl kissed his lips. A spell was broken.