Scarlet Letter Light Vs Dark Essay

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a study of the effects of sin on the hearts and minds of the main characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. Sin strengthens Hester, humanizes Dimmesdale, and turns Chillingworth into a demon.

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.

Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the ideology of Puritan society in the novel the Scarlet Letter; however reader also get to witness his characters being an illustration of hypocrisy and victims to their own guilt. In the Scarlet Letter, as in many of Hawthorne’s shorter works, he makes profuse use of the Puritan past: its odd exclusionary belief, its harsh code of ruling, its concern with sex and witchcraft. The Scarlet Letter is a story that is embellished but yet simple. Many readers may view this novel as a soap opera due to the way Hawthorne conveys this Puritan society’s sense of strictness and inability to express true emotion along with the secrecy and how deceiving the characters are being. As the story unfolds the main character Hester Prynne is bounded in marriage at an early age. She engages in an adulterous affair with an unknown member of their small village. Hester soon becomes pregnant and with her husband’s absence the chances of this child belonging to her husband are slim. The towns’ people know that she has committed a sin and imprisons her for her crime.

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

Hester’s true physiognomy is overtaken by the branding of her sinful actions through the scarlet letter, as society attempts to place guilt upon her. Hester does not want to accept such guilt placed by society, but is unafraid to face it when it is the cost she must pay for her love. She is initially shown in the public stands with, “dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam; and a face [with] a marked brow and deep black eyes... ”(Hawthorne 37). Her hair “throwing off the sunshine” highlights the idea that even a strong force of energy like the sun is unable to directly touch Hester because her beauty is so much brighter.

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.

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne develops the dynamic characterization of Hester Prynne from a beautiful, innocent girl into a somber, hardened women to showcase the evils and hypocrisy of Puritan New England’s culture of shaming. Hawthorne employs rhetorical devices such as metaphor and juxtaposition to further develop the characterization and his critique of Puritan society. When initially describing Hester, Hawthorne emphasizes her incredible beauty, and juxtaposes this with the other ugly, judging Puritan women, adding to the hypocrisy of her being shamed for sinning. Hawthorne emphasizes the verbal assault on Hester by employing metaphor and imagery in its description. After the community shuns and shames Hester for years, Hawthorne uses metaphor again to show how Hester’s body and character changes for the worst, emphasizes the malice and evil of public shame.

Throughout, “The Scarlet Letter,” Hawthorne is able to enhance the plot by intricately incorporating symbols which represent a deeper meaning. One of which, is the infamous, and ambiguous, scarlet letter that lays upon the bosom of Hester Prynne. In the beginning of the book, the audience is immediately introduced to the scarlet letter as a symbol of shame and adultery. The narrator describes the Puritan society as very judgemental and harsh. Comments like, “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die,” creates this negative and unwelcoming atmosphere which surrounds Hester for a majority of the book. From then on, the Puritans constantly refer to the

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

Hester shows some good examples of light and dark. She is known for her beauty and her wonderful needlework. The towns people may despise her for the sin she has committed, but that doesn’t stop them from seeing all the beauty and skill she has, plus the devotion she has for using those skills to help other people. “Except for the small expenditure in the decorations of her infant, Hester bestowed all her superfluous means in charity, on wretches less miserable than herself, and who not unfrequently insulted the hand that fed them” (Hawthorne 77). The quote explains the true person Hester really is. Also how unselfish she has become through her situation. To become the women, she was, Hester went through some very dark times to become the person she became. At the beginning, the people of the town

Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter explores the negative sense of identity that is received from societal labels. Through the author’s choice of character development and behavior, he reveals that these labels should be overcome and that they are not always true. When Hester Prynne is first introduced into the novel, she is a shy and unstable wreck.

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays a Puritan society plagued with guilt and corruption. Throughout the novel, characters are punished for their hypocrisy and Hawthorne shows the flaws in Puritan societies. Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale and Robert Chillingworth in The Scarlet Letter become so consumed in their ambitions that they are unable to discern the hypocrisy of their beliefs, and as a result, Hawthorne critics and punishes these members of the Puritan society.

Characters Evolve The Scarlet Letter was a challenging book to read. The book was hard for me to understand until I got half way into the book. While reading this book, I learned of many lifelong lessons that these characters experience. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses the symbols of light and dark to depict good and evil among the characters Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth.

With the given opportunity she started to help others and her consequence was rectified and changed to a new meaning, Abel. “They said that it meant Abel, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength. It was only the darkened house that could contain her” (242). Surprisingly after the positive description of Hester she is still bound to her one sinful badge. Yet this must not be looked at negatively because it shows the switch Hawthorne created of the meaning of light and dark. Society still does not accept her blemish and only darkness invites her true self, tenderness, warmth, and kindness. So then what does light welcome

When addressing his lover, Hester, at her public trial, he implores her passionately to reveal the identity of her lover, well knowing that it is himself. “Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him…through he were to step down from a high place” (63). While Hawthorne has the minister committing a sin in and of itself by requesting Hester to reveal the identity of the lover, the minister is also forcing Hester to commit another sin because of her knowledge—lying. The knowledge between the lovers results in undeniable sin for the both of them. Yet, Dimmesdale’s sin with Hester gives him insight into how to connect with his congregation. As the narrator states, “this very burden it was that gave him sympathies so intimate with the sinful brotherhood of mankind, so that his heart vibrated in unison with theirs.” (129). Hawthorne utilizes the paradox of a sinful minister to highlight Dimmesdale’s inner sin. Yet, Dimmesdale becomes a better preacher and arguably a better person through his fall into sin. He can relate to the masses, instead of being held up on his own pedestal. As such, Dimmesdale’s sin brings him knowledge.