Scarlet Letter Guilt Quotes

Dimmesdale is a symbol of dishonesty and is a self-centered individual; he knows what he must do in order to make it honorable but lacks the courage and confidence to make himself public. In the Scarlet Letter, Hester tells Dimmesdale that the ship for Europe leaves in four days. He is delighted with the matter of being able to "fulfill his public duties" and give his Election Sermon before leaving. Although from this disdainful act, he worries that the congregation may notice the features found in Pearl’s face may be identical to his

“On one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him." Chapter 1, pg. 46

The Scarlet letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850 that follows main character, Hester Prynn, as she endures life in The Massachusetts Bay Colony with her daughter. Hester’s life in this society is mainly focussed around the actions of two characters other than her daughter Pearl. These characters are Roger Chillingworth and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. In the novel, Chillingworth was Hester’s husband when she lived in Europe and Dimmesdale is the local reverend who became the father of Pearl after a love affair with Hester. The two have contrasting roles in The Scarlet Letter but are bound together through their relationships with Hester forming the structure of the novel. With the use of symbolism, imagery, and diction, Hawthorne molds the characters of Roger Chillingworth and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale into representations of the flawed natures of the Puritan colonies in 17th century New England.

The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne stands as one of the most famous works in the history of American literature. Set in Puritan Boston during the mid-1600’s, the renowned tale presents the story of a young, beautiful woman, Hester Prynne, who commits adultery against her husband, Roger Chillingworth, who was presumed dead. Due to her pregnancy, Hester is forced to admit her sin. After giving birth to a daughter, named Pearl, Hester is forced to stand on a scaffold in the center of town for three hours and endure heckling from the townspeople. Furthermore, she must wear a scarlet letter “A” that stands for “Adulteress” for the rest of her life. In the events to follow each major character shows glimpses of an evil nature that drives their stories. In The Scarlet Letter author Nathaniel Hawthorne weaves the theme of evil into the lives of Roger Chillingworth, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Pearl Prynne.

Dimmesdale sees Pearl as freedom of broken law; Hester sees her as the living hieroglyphic of her sin; and the community sees her as the result of the devil's work. Pearl is like a reminder of Hester’s sin. As a reminder of Hester's sin, Pearl is more than a punishment to her mother, she is also a blessing. “See ye not, she is the scarlet letter, only capable of being loved, and so endowed with a million fold the power of retribution for my sin!” (Hawthorne Source 3). Pearl relationship with nature highlight how she rejects by the other members of the society. Pearl gives Hester a reason to live, when she is tempted to give up. She’s also a symbol that ties Hester and Dimmesdale together. “In her was visible the true that united them. She had been offered to the world, these seven years past, as the living hieroglyphic, in which was revealed the secret they darkly sought to hide,...flame! And Pearl was the oneness of their being” (Hawthorne Source 3). Pearl leads Dimmesdale and Hester to their confession and the acceptance of their sins. As Pearl grows older, she harass her mother over the scarlet letter “A” which symbolizes the wreck of Hester’s life; embroidered on her

    The narrator of The Scarlet Letter is an unknown customhouse worker, who is omniscient. He can greatly be compared to Hawthorne, but he should not be taken as a literal embodiment of his opinions. The protagonist of this novel is Hester Prynne. She was sent to Boston by her husband, who was going to join her after he got his affairs in order in Europe. He was captured by indians and she thought he would never return to her. She has an affair and becomes pregnant, the peoplenof the community then realize that she has committed the sin of adultery. She refuses to confess the identity of her baby’s father. Hester is persecuted for committing the sin, and forced to wear a scarlet letter ‘A’ for the rest of her life. Pearl, Hester and Dimmesdale 's love child, lives under the same persecution as her mother during the entire novel. She is moody and mischievous little girl. She is very wise

In the novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the protagonist Hester Prynne has a baby with a man other than her husband. The man that is the father is Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale. The husband is Roger Prynne, but he uses the name Roger Chillingworth because he is presumed dead. The child is named Pearl. Hester is given the Scarlet Letter and has to have it on the outside of her clothing at all times. Throughout the entirety of the story, Chillingworth gets revenge on Dimmesdale by drugging him. The whole story is filled with symbols, imagery, and allegories. Throughout the whole book, you wonder if everything has some deep meaning behind it. The Scarlet Letter is filled with symbols, including the daughter Pearl, Dimmesdale’s aching heart, and the scarlet letter.

Dimmesdale is never involved in Pearl’s childhood for fear of ruining his dignity. In the rare instance when Dimmesdale shows fondness towards Pearl in secrecy of the forest, he bends “forward and impressed [a kiss] on her brow. Hereupon, Pearl broke from her mother, and... bathed her forehead, until the unwelcome kiss was quite washed off, and diffused through a long lapse of the gliding water” (Hawthorne, 194). Pearl’s response to the kiss exemplifies her inability to love; this destruction is caused by Dimmesdale’s incompetence to claim being Pearl’s father. As children who do not receive care from both parents are incapable of blossoming, Pearl’s maturation is halted from a lack of a father figure early on in her childhood. Some may argue that Dimmesdale’s neglect of Pearl both parents. In turn, Hester and Pearl’s mother-daughter relationship is strengthened. This argument is supported from Hester receiving letters from Pearl; this shows the strong long-distance relationship that Pearl and Hester maintain (293). Nevertheless, Pearl is left with no father image. If Dimmesdale truly cared about the relationship with his daughter, he would have fought to live instead of leaving Pearl, one again, abandoned by her

From the very first chapter, the Scarlet Letter guides readers on a journey that explores the darkness of the human heart and redemption from sin. It is in the Massachusetts Bay Colony that we introduced to a trio of characters interconnected by their sins: an adulteress, a minister and a physician. The adulteress is a woman named Hester Prynne who, as punishment for her transgressions, must wear a scarlet "A" on chest and is shunned by her community. Yet, Hester 's eventual acceptance of her sin allows her to embrace her new role in society. The only light in her life, and at times the source of her despair, is her daughter Pearl. Born from the act of adultery, Pearl serves as symbol passion and human nature throughout the Scarlet Letter. Minister Arnold Dimmesdale, a spineless and cowardly man, is seen by the general population as a holy saint. Unbeknownst to the town, Dimmesdale was Hester 's lover and Pearl 's father. It is only though Hester 's encouragement and his imminent death that Dimmesdale finally finds the courage to publicly claim his sin. Seething with a desire for revenge, we have the physician and Hester 's absent husband known to the reader as Roger Chillingworth. After traveling in search for knowledge, Chillingworth returns to the colony to discover his wife 's unfaithfulness. His dream of a family soiled by adultery, Chillingworth 's quest for revenge fuels his search for Hester 's lover and his deteriorating appearance. As readers progresses

Pearl serves as a reflection of reality that allows Hester and Dimmesdale to analyze their own morality in relation to the events taking place in their lives. In the first scaffold scene, Hester presses infant-Pearl to her bosom and touches the letter A on her chest “to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real” (Hawthorne 51). Hawthorne paints Pearl as a physical symbol of Hester’s shame – it is as if Pearl is a living rendition of the scarlet letter. Her presence magnifies Hester’s shame and daunts the mother so much that she begins to question her own reality. Even as an infant with no way of affecting her mother other than existing, Pearl

I think that it's hard for some of us to be able to connect to older books. This novel was written during puritan times. It would be very real to people and society at that time. I do think that Hawthornes way with words can help the reader connect to the characters and make them feel real. Hester Prynne is the main character in this romantic. She is the protagonist and bears her adultery sins in the form of a scarlet “A” hence the reason for the name of the book. She has an affair with the minister of her village after she was lead to believe that her husband has died or left her. Her husband had sent her to America where he was supposed to follow after her but never arrives. Pearl is Hester’s daughter, she is very wise and mature for her age. The uncovers the truth of her mother and the minister while the whole town is oblivious. An Overview of The Scarlet Letter proclaims, “Hawthorne dramatizes the effect of reading most clearly through Pearl. Up until a certain point, she is more a symbol than a character.” I think some would beg to differ but this does make sense as seeing that she is the product of Hester's sin. She is used as a metaphor in the book as being a “real life” letter “A”. The character Roger Chillingworth is Hester's husband concealing his identity throughout the book. It turns out that on his way to America after Hester, he is captured by indians. When he find out about Hester and the minister big

The Scarlet Letter was set in Massachusetts Bay Colony during the 1600’s. This society is built upon with Puritans beliefs and systems, which affects Hester Prynne as she lives in this Puritan society. Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter, exposes Hester Prynne as an adulterer with the Letter A adhered on her chest. The people of the town afflicted and bedeviled Hester. Everyday for her was filled with shame and affliction of her sin, so was her daughter Pearl. Pearl was considered as a sin of her parents actions, which one of them is paying the price. The father of pearl, which happens to be Arthur Dimmesdale, buries his guilt, for the sin he committed, deeper into his heart, which caused him to be insane. In this Puritan society, people are constantly doing actions that gains them their pleasure. They start by harassing and inflicting pain to the people who brought shame to their society, which are Hester and Pearl. Satisfying their sadistic nature, by deriving pleasure to themselves. As a result, women in this society also use their hypocritical ways to gain pleasure by their humiliating conversations.

The lack of beauty of the townswomen displayed in the beginning of the novel symbolizes strong misplaced morality and rejects Puritan ideals. The Scarlet Letter follows the story of a young woman living in Puritan society that is found guilty of adultery. She is branded with a red letter “A” as her punishment, which forces her to battle the town's opinions of her. The town’s moral compass and righteous leader, Reverend Dimmesdale is revealed to be the father of Hester’s illegitimate child. This causes moral dilemmas to arise within Hester and the

“Guilt is to the spirit what is pain to the body.” This quote stated by David A. Bedar is exhibited clearly in the novel The Scarlet Letter. The main character in the novel is forced to live with the letter “A” representing adulteress on her chest. This is affianced to invariably remind her of the guilt she should posses for the crime of adultery. This affects a multitude of people including Hester, the mother of an illegitimate child Pearl, and Dimmesdale, the father of Pearl. Their guilt is apparent while Chillingworth, Hester's husband, is seeking revenge for the tratorious action. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses the display of guilt to show the theme that guilt is an everlasting punishment, which affects Hester and Dimmesdale specifically.

This quote explains how Pearl is bringing great pain and guilt in Hester’s life for committing adultery. As the novel continues, the townspeople see Pearl for nothing but a sin baby. Although her name Pearl meaning pure, purchased with great price, and Hester’s only treasure, she is now only sin and Hester’s guilt. Hester feels guilty that she has brought Pearl into the world because now her baby is known for sin and that’s what the townspeople will forever see Pearl as, a sin baby. Hawthorne explains, “The rumor the townspeople had spread that Pearl was a child of a demon and born out of sin”(Hawthorne 82). This quote shows that the townspeople whisper about her and speak of Pearl being nothing but a sin baby. Pearl being alive is bringing guilt to Hester everyday.