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Scarlet Letter Movie Essay

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For the purpose of this assignment, I watched the 1995 version of The Scarlet Letter movie. This was a previous novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The movie tells the story Hester Prynne, a woman who was harassed and antagonized for conceiving a baby through an affair and the struggles she phased living in this new town. The movie was centered around a time where the early Puritans who first came to America founded a colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts during the 17th century. While half of the colonists died that first year, the other half survived and began to make settlement. Over the years, these first settlers were followed by a wave of more Puritans that would arrive every summer by ship. Some settled in an area near present-day Boston …show more content…

They came to America so they could practice their religion as they pleased, since they were being prosecuted by officials in England. This is how the movie began. Hester was arriving to Massachusetts Bay along with hundreds of others with hope they would be able to worship without persecution. Her husband was at war and promised he would meet her once his duty was done. In reality Hester never really loved her husband, because she was technically forced to marry him by her father. Moreover, soon after arriving to the colony she met someone, Reverend Aurthur Dimmesdale, whom she fell in love with. Dimmesdale loved her as well, but they could not be together for she was married and he held a position a very influential position. Further into the story, Hester was sent to jail for adultery, while carrying Dimmesdale’s baby. She had previously received the news that her husband was killed by an attack, so she took the opportunity to do what her heart had been desiring all along. When asked by the government who the father of the baby was she refused to utter the name of Dimmesdale consequently elongating her time in jail. After nine long months of being jail, Hester was finally released into the masses and was forced to wear a big, red “A” for Adulterer on her clothing. …show more content…

Although not much was said about the Indians and their encounters with the English, except for when the Tarrantines attacked an English ship and when they abducted Mr. Prynne, the movie still magnified other components of the Puritans’ lifestyle to help us understand history. Overall I believe the movie’s creators were trying to inform its audience about the past acts of the Puritans and how we came to be who we are today. Also, they wanted to remind us of what they overcame in the past. In conclusion, I really enjoyed watching this movie and imagining the life the people that came before

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