Scarlet Letter Identity Quotes

Tony Robbins, author, life coach, and motivational speaker said that “Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.” (Robbins) In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne reveals Boston, Massachusetts in the middle of the 17th century. Littered with Puritans in Boston during that time and their principles taking over much of the social order itself, it is safe to say that today’s Christian views are not nearly strongly represented as a whole in the general public. Furthermore,

Once Hester received the scarlet letter, she decided to stay in Boston to show her strength as a woman and to provide for her daughter Pearl. Being guilty of her sin she believed that it was right of her to remain in Boston, also, for her love for Reverend Dimmesdale who is the father of Pearl. “Free to return to her birthplace, or to any other European land, and there hide her character and identity under a new exterior, as completely as if emerging into another state of being” (Pg.54). Hester could've gone to Europe leaving her sin and guilt behind by leaving her past life and becoming an entirely new person there. Hester’s strength as a woman to continue to live in Boston after she is released in prison when having the option to flee the colony, is a clear example of how her strength as a character defines the fanciful role she fulfilled that women of her time wanted.

I believe that Hester returns to Boston because, chooses to settle in an abandoned cabin on the edge of town, where she serves as an

“Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast,- at her, the child of honorable parents,- at her, the mother of a babe, that would hereafter be a woman,- at her, who had once been innocent,- as the figure, the body, the reality of sin” (Hawthorne 66-67). This quote explains how Hester Prynne, who committed adultery, would always be remembered for her sins. Because of this, Hester felt very guilty about what she had done. However, this is not the only example of sin and guilt in the novel. Most of the main characters committed sins and felt guilty afterwards.

Is the story about frustration of revenge or victory over shame? This story could go either way. It could be all about Roger Chillingworth’s revenge and hate towards Arthur Dimmesdale or it also could be about Hester Prynne and Dimmesdale, about how they overcome their fear of shame and take responsibility for their sins. Even though both play a huge roll in this story it is mainly about the victory over the shame of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale.

Life is constantly putting everyone through trials that test our perspective on what is right or wrong in society; some people view it as a straight line that divides right and wrong, while others believe there is no line, only a blur. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s,” The Scarlet Letter”, tells the tale of the adulterous, Hester Prynne, ( the main character ) who struggles to find out what is right and what is wrong throughout the struggle of being seen as a living punishment of adultery.In "The Scarlett Letter", a rosebush is used to depict Hester's morality and the way she tries to develop a balance between keeping secret the father of her child and accepting the way society portrays her. The townspeople always denunciate her and go as far as calling her "The spawn of satan"(51).

Pearl is the one in control of the scarlet letter, through the novel. She has a fixation on the letter since she was a baby and carries it through the book, causing there to be no escape from the symbol for her mother. She is also a living representation of the scarlet letter, through her fixation and her physical appearance. She is one of the aspects controlling the stigma of the letter. Pearl is the scarlet letter shown through her fascination, appearance, and control.

Set in seventeenth-century Boston, “The Scarlett Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story of principal human values and the consequences if said values are replaced with deceit and falsehood. Sincerity and honesty are indirectly pinned as requisites by Hawthorne in order to be a genuine and sane person in society. This is best expressed in the line, "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 true.” Hawthorne continued his claim by recounting the stories of Pearl, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth who all went about deceit differently or not at all.

"Her sex, her youth, and the whole richness of her beauty, came back from what men call the irrevocable past"(Hawthorne 304 ) I decided to pick this quote because that's how Hester feels towards the end of the book. That was said right after Hester took of the scarlet letter in the forest. She feels great again, she's comfortable with her self and she's free from being judged by any one because there's no one there to judge her. In the beginning of the story Hester isn't comfortable with her self, she doesn't like what she's become. Hester's personality changes as the story continues and as it progresses to different "When the young women - the mother of this child- stood fully revealed before the crowd, it seemed to be her first impulse to clasp the child to her bosom… she took the baby with a burning blush and yet, a haughty smile" (Hawthorn

We can see these themes in our main characters. I believe we can see pride in Mrs. Chillingsworth. It may not be the first thing you think of when reading or seeing him but i think we can see it in him. We can see his pride when he takes it upon himself to torture Dimmesdale and he does it so with a passion unlike anything besides pride.

“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

     After her horrible ordeal, and her release from prison, Hester and Pearl reside for the next few years in a hut by the sea. Hester tries to keep her distance from the Puritans. She does not want them to influence Pearl. Hester wants to raise Pearl, and find peace within herself. Pearl, however,

After Hester is released from prison Hawthorne leaves us wondering if her choice to stay in Boston was even a choice she could make. Chapter five opens with Hester coming into the light and leaving the cell in which she had been punished in for so long. However, once she is out, she decides to stay in Massachusetts, in the same community which has shamed her for so long. Hawthorne describes the decision when he writes, “it may seem marvelous, that this woman should still call that place her home… But there is a fatality… which almost invariably compels human beings to linger … the spot where some great and marked event has given the color to their lifetime” (71). In this quote Hawthorne is not only speaking of Hester, he is speaking of

Her initial marriage with Mr. Chillingworth did not work out for her, leading her to look elsewhere for satisfaction and love. She found Dimmesdale and became passionate about each other, but in doing so, Hester is publicly shamed as an adulterer. She refuses to let out the identity of her partner in crime, wanting to deal everything out by herself staying resolute and independent (Hawthorne, 58). Hester shows a desire to work towards the betterment of society, demonstrating that she is not affected by the townspeople and that she does what she wants. Her decision to bring all of the suffering unto herself is a result of her love for Dimmesdale and her will to support him.

Isolation is an individual or place being separated, to be or remain alone or apart from others. In “The Scarlet Letter,” by Nathaniel Hawthorn, Reverend Dimmsdale and Hester Prynne committed an unacceptable sin during the prutain times, adultery. The major punishment Hester had to face was to serve many months in prison, attach a scarlet letter, “A” on her chest, and stand on the scaffold for couple of hours under public scrutiny. "Thus the young and the pure would be taught to look at her, with the letter flaming on her chest…. as the figure, the body and the reality of sin"(73). Holding onto the sins you’ve committed can lead to isolation and alienation.