Scarlet Letter Light Quotes

“They averred that the symbol was not mere scarlet cloth tinged in an earthly depot, but was red-hot with infernal fire, and could be seen glowing all alight whenever Hester Prynne walked abroad in the nighttime. And we must needs say it seared Hester’s bosom so deeply,” Chapter 5, pg. 73

Arthur Dimmesdale can be identified as the priest of a small town in Boston Massachusetts. The townspeople admire Dimmesdale and think of him as one of the purest members of their small puritan community. Contradicting these assumptions made by the Puritans, Dimmesdale commits sexual acts with a woman named Hester Prynne. To others, they committed adultery because even though Hester’s husband has disappeared, they still classify as married because they never filed a divorce, therefore a married woman. As he did this, he became prey to the moral consequences that followed. Pearl, or

The Scarlet Letter displays a theme of sin throughout the novel through multiple major events. To start off, in chapter seven, “The Governor’s Hall”, Hester observes herself in a convex shaped mirror, and realizes that the scarlet letter was exaggerated in size. The second major event is the entrance of Roger Chillingworth. He was quickly accepted into the Puritan society as an excellent physician, but as time passed, a few puritans started to suspect Chillingworth of using the skill of black art from the Indians. Hester also starts to realize a change, which goes into another major event to display the theme of sin. As Hester and Chillingworth were talking, she started to recognize a change in him, similar to a demon that had possessed him. But Hester wasn’t the only one to notice, Chillingworth noticed himself. In chapter nine and ten, Chillingworth is given the opportunity to cure Mr. Dimmesdale and to discover all of Dimmesdale’s hidden secrets. The final major event to represent sin is in chapter fifteen, “Hester and Pearl”, when Hester rids herself of the scarlet letter and realizes the freedom from the weight of her sin and shame. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses appearance versus reality to illustrate sin.

Hawthorne's Hester Prynne is the underdog protagonist that the reader cannot help but want to succeed. She is flawed but her flaws are outshone by her good heart and spirit. This shamed and humiliated woman is the one the reader, with the help of Hawthorne’s descriptions, wants to support. This sinful woman, with a child from wedlock, a diabolical “husband”, and a secretive lover is the motivating force that drives the reader to continue on with The Scarlet Letter. The language, descriptions, and plot of The Scarlet Letter show that Hawthorne believes the reader should look past gender stereotypes because not everything is what is

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.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne presents the reader with the harsh, life changing conflicts of three Puritan characters during the 17th century. Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Robert Chillingworth must endure their different, yet surprisingly similar struggles as the novel progresses. Despite their similarities, Hawthorne shows these individuals deal with their conflicts differently, and in the end, only one prevails. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s intricately critical diction helps determine his didactic tone; during the course of The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne reveals that happiness can be harnessed through one’s perseverance.

There are many forms of symbolism found in The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne, the author uses his many forms of symbolism to project a lesson or moral created throughout the story. Even each of the main characters has a different moral representation. Guilt, repentance, purity, and strength each are shown through the eyes of a different character. Pear, Hester Prynne, Chillingworth, and Reverend Dimmesdale are main characters that are used to show that you should “Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!”(Hawthorne286)

Throughout the novel of the Scarlet letter, Hawthorne expresses many themes such as guilt, isolation, and pride all within the characters. Although, many of the same characters share the same themes with each other. In my opinion, Dimmesdale, clearly shows the most guilt within himself about Hester. He constantly struggles with the fact that he’s the father of her child, and what gravely sin he has committed. With his battle of himself, including his cowardice, he punishes himself over his guilty consciences about Hester. He battles with the fact that he is a known Reverend and high up in the community: and knows that people will leave, punish, and lose all respect for him. Going back to his guilt with himself, he severely punishes himself as shown in chapter 11.

He sees his former wife being shamed by the town for her sin of adultery and from that point on he is set on finding the man which whom had sinned and committed the same terrible crime as Hester Prynne. He later has a sense that it is reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. He furthers his investigation on Dimmesdale and becomes more and more evil by the day. Later on he persuades Dimmesdale to move in with him to help him as he is getting sick. At least that’s what he told him. In Roger Chillingworth’s head this is the perfect opportunity to finally find out if he is right about Dimmesdale being the father of Pearl. The shame and guilt held within Arthur Dimmesdale has made him grow very ill and he does not sleep very often because the sin of adultery keeps him awake in the late hours of the night. However, one night he slips up. He falls asleep and Roger Chillingworth takes advantage of this. He opens the shirt of sir Dimmesdale and sees what we can only assume is a scarlet letter “A” over his heart. Throughout all of Chillingworth’s mental torture and studies he does on the reverend he has been giving him medicine. Nobody knows if the medicine given to Arthur is helping him stay alive or if it’s slowly killing him inside and

She is someone who didn’t let a mistake completely ruin her life. She instead use her misfortune to encourage, motivate and help others. She became a seamstress which helped to symbolize Hester's need in the community. The scarlet letter is meant to symbolize shame but instead becomes a symbol of identity to Hester and to the rest of the people. The letter A is originally intended to mean adulterer but as time passes it comes to mean able and later angel. On her grave stone it is written “ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER A. GULES” (Hawthorne 246).

Nathaniel Hawthorne, a well-know Dark Romantic, employs the issues prevalent in Dark Romanticism in his novel The Scarlet Letter. These include the concepts of: guilt and sin, good and evil, and madness in the human psyche. Guilt and sin are heavily addressed in the novel, focusing on Hester’s outward versus Dimmesdale’s hidden guilt, and the sins committed by the adulterous couple and the revenge-driven Roger Chillingworth. The idea of what good and evil are is questioned in the novel. For example, the reader is led to question if Hester was right in not revealing Dimmesdale, and in turn if both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth were

Dimmesdale's choice to keep his sin inside himself and the consequences that follow show exactly how differently he deals with his guilt. Scheef explains that Dimmesdale’s reaction to guilt is because of his self-esteem as well, “Shame occurs when a person feels the self negatively evaluated, either by self or other” (Scheff 401). In this case, he has low self-esteem because inside Dimmesdale knows what he has done is wrong, but lacks confessing until the end, causing him to beat himself up. Considering his lack of confessing his guilt, Arthur’s shame destroys him and breaks him apart. Dimmesdale’s failure to confess at the beginning shows another type of reaction that is procured from an individual

Again near the end of the novel Hawthorne continues to further portray Hester as an able- bodied human being rather than the adulteress she is originally seen as by the townspeople. The letter further develops its meaning and creates a new importance even stronger than the significance before. Hester begins to find her true self before the scar of the letter was placed onto her clothing and to her esteem continues to change along with the meaning of the "A" that adorns her clothing. Hester realizes then that, "the angel and apostle of the coming must be a woman, indeed, but lofty pure and beautiful, and wise moreover, not through dusky grief, but the ethereal medium of joy" as she "glanced her eyes downward at the scarlet letter. And after many years a new grave was delved after a sunken one..." Yet again we see that the letter further changes its meaning and proves to be not a shameful one, but one that allows her to see herself as a positive influence in the community again.

Hester was demanded to admit the father’s name of her child, and promised she wouldn’t have to keep the scarlet ‘A’ branded upon her bosom. But she still refuses to confess a name, announcing she will take the father’s punishment as well as hers. Hawthorne uses the dialogue to issue an intense scene to the readers, allowing them to imagine what is occurring. Also, Hawthorne uses the letter and Hester’s daughter Pearl to symbolize the sin Hester committed and the outcome she traded everything for.

In the beginning of the novel, the reader is presented with a physical appearance of Hester that is pleasing to the visual eye. It is Hawthorne describes his heroine of the book by