How To Write A Speech On The Scarlet Letter

What is the significance of the scarlet letter A which is embroidered on Hester’s gown?

In The Scarlet Letter Hypocrisy is evident everywhere. The characters of Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and the very society that the characters lived in, were steeped in hypocrisy. Hawthorne was not subtle in his portrayal of the terrible sin of hypocrisy; he made sure it was easy to see the sin at work , at the same time however, parallels can be drawn between the characters of The Scarlet Letter and of today’s society.

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.

The settings in The Scarlet Letter are very important in displaying the themes of the novel. The settings in this novel are almost characters, for they are an important part in developing the story. The scaffold, the forest, the prison, and Hester’s cottage are settings that show sin and its consequences result in shame and suffering.

The character of Roger Chillingworth in Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter is one of many different faces. Hawthorne changes the character of Chillingworth during different periods of the novel. As Chillingworth's actions and his motives change, so in turn does the reader's opinion of him, which ranges from compassion to antipathy. Hawthorne keeps the character of Chillingworth an enigma, and Hawthorne uses his narrative to shed light on the true feelings of Chillingworth, as well through the good doctor's interaction with other characters, especially Hester, Pearl, and Dimmesdale. As we watch the plot evolve, and the reader observes Chillingworth's actions,

The novel The Scarlet Letter and the film Chicago have many similarities and differences. Within time the values of a person have changed and not in all cases do things get serious. Time periods have changed and now adultery is not as serious as it used to be. In the 1850’s and 1920’s nothing was easy to get away with at all.

He was Hester's husband and he never returned to her, which was shamed in the Puritan society. He didn't want anyone knowing his true identity, so he assumed the name Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth is known as the greatest doctor in their town, and in many of the surrounding towns. He lives this life kind of to forget his previous sins and to keep others from finding out. Roger Chillingworth wanted to keep this secret forever and the name he had before "should never more be spoken."(Hawthorn 237). He also disclosed to Hester that he was trying to kill the priest. He described him as being a "miserable priest" (Hawthorn 343) and he tells Hester that he was dying "in the sight of his worst enemy." Hawthorn (344). He is angered that Hester had an affair and had Pearl with Dimmesdale and he seeks the worst revenge possible. These issues progress the piece because they make the it more complicated and the characters, as well. Freud states that people's actions are "influenced by their unconscious" and this is especially true in the Scarlet Letter.

A dark figure of a man watches from the background as a serene Puritan village cast their eyes upon the adulterer and her child being publicly punished. His dark, cold and divisive eyes flicker to the adulterer, the woman whom he calls his wife and devices an utter plan of cold, ghastly revenge with the motive of pure destruction. Chillingworth; a character devised from the intelligent mind of Nathaniel Hawthorne is a symbol of the evolution of one whose mind is obsessed with the revenge of others. In the Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth is quite the odd one. Escaping from an Indian village where he was once held captive, Chillingworth returns to the village, only to be greeted by the sight of his wife being publicly shamed for the sin of adultery. Chillingworth, gravely distorted by the news, seeks revenge against his wife and her secret lover. As shown in Chillingworth, the contrived desire for revenge against others reveals a hidden monstrosity.

In the book “The Scarlet Letter,” Hester’s silence gives power over both Reverend Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. Battista’s article shows that Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth play a vital role in analyzing the novel’s worth.

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

The Scarlet letter takes place in a puritan society. Where the town revolves around punishment. They do not believe in pleasure and believe that humans are mostly evil. These people are Anti-transcedentalist. The main characters, Hester, Dimmesdale, Pearl and chillingworth support this theory that the citizens believe. Hester is a beautiful women and she has a kind her. She enjoye sewing and she gives all the only she makes from sewing to charity, while donating clothes to them also. Hower, Hester and Dimmesdale committed the sin of adultery and created Pearl. Chillingworth is Hester’s husband but not the father of her daughter. In his novel “The Scarlet letter” , Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of Pearl, the burrs and sunlight to

Unlike Hester’s sin of adultery, which she redeemed through charitable and amicable behavior, Chillingworth’s misdeed is one of malice and remains largely unredeemed at the end of The Scarlet Letter. At the beginning of the novel, Chillingworth makes a point of befriending Dimmesdale only so that he may gradually siphon away the minister’s liveliness and vigor, a phenomenon that Hawthorne alludes to by comparing Chillingworth to a blood-sucking leech. As his hatred develops further, Chillingworth “[grows] emaciated, his voice… [becoming] a certain melancholy prophecy of decay” (9). This consequence of Chillingworth’s spite, which haunts him physically so that he becomes a gaunter, more harrowed and wretched version of himself, becomes increasingly

Demi Moore's portrayal of Hester in the movie The Scarlet Letter proved her worth as a feminist actress, which led her to other, more modern female empowerment roles ranging from Striptease to GI Jane.  But in the moviemakers 'attempt to give the story what they might think is a little modern flavor, they barbarously misconstrued the theme, and thus the importance, of a timeless story.  In the novel, there can be little doubt that Hester is a strong person, but the movie made her out to be a martyr for women's rights.  The female empowerment theme of the movie also inevitably led to the characterization of Christians and their ethics as tyrannical and oppressive because the feminist

        Chillingworth and his connection to the scarlet letter may be the worst of all in the Puritan community. He, in some way, is always identified as the devil’s missionary or the devil himself, this trait shown from the moment he finds the wound on Dimmesdale’s bosom. “But what distinguished the physician’s ecstasy from Satan’s was the trait of wonder in it” (126). Pearl sees him first as a devilish figure; then, before him and Hester’s last confrontation before her confessing to Dimmesdale who he is, she sees him in the form of a satanic figure, a bat. “Chillingworth’s character displays the evilness of heart, if there is heart in him” (Ryskamp). His deformity of body finally represents a deformity of character which heart and soul play little part. His “A” could also stand for alchemist or artist, since he is both. His art, contrasting much from Hester’s creative art, is black art or black magic. In the end, though, bent over on the ground, he looks more along the lines of a snake than he does a human.

The setting of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet letter” is crucial to the understanding of the event that takes place in the story. The setting of the story is in Salem, Massachusetts during the Puritan era. During the Puritan era, adultery was taken as a very serious sin, and this is what Hester and Dimmesdale committ with each other. Because of the sin, their lives change, Hester has to walk around in public with a Scarlet Letter “A” which stands for adultery, and she is constantly being tortured and is thought of as less than a person. Dimmesdale walks around with his sin kept as secret, because he never admits his sin, his mental state is changing, and the sin degrades his well-being. Chillingworth