Scarlet Letter Pride 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,

Hawthorne develops Dimmesdale’s character to exemplify the destructive power of guilt, which Chillingworth’s vengeful nature furthers. Hawthorne shows both the destruction that guilt causes and the intensity of Chillingworth’s revenge through diction and setting.

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.

"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

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.

People today can hardly imagine the stigma which once surrounded illegitimate children and the life that they once lived in times that were not as accepting as now. Puritan times were not a safe place for illegitimate. Most were outcasts their entire lives, shunned from society. Many were chastised because of mistakes made before they came. All suffered because of the horrible stigma which surrounded them.

Many people have contemplated revenge, but what happens to the few that proceed with their plan? Their lives and the lives of those around them change. This is exhibited in “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne when Roger Chillingworth takes revenge upon both Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale for their sins. Chillingworth’s revenge affects both of their laws. Hawthorne explores the idea that revenge changes many of the people who it touches, including the person who is trying to commit revenge, the victim, and the accomplice in different ways.

Arthur Dimmesdale, a character of high reputation, overwhelmed by guilt, torn apart by his own wrongdoing, makes his entrance into history as the tragic hero whose life becomes a montage of pain and agony because of his mistakes. The themes leading to Dimmesdale’s becoming a tragic hero are his guilt from his sin, and his reluctance to tarnish his reputation in the town. Guilt plays a huge role in defining Dimmesdale as a tragic hero. Dimmesdale has understood that by not revealing his sin, he has doomed himself. This also connects with the constant struggle with Chillingworth. The mysteries of Dimmesdale’s guilty heart entice Chillingworth to delve into his soul and reveal what has been hidden, causing Dimmesdale great pain and

Guilt noun: the fact of having committed a specified or implied offense or crime. Being guilty, or feeling guilt, does not have to mean that one has been caught committing a crime. The feeling of guilt is actually very important because it comes from the conscience of a person and it means one did something wrong that one knows one shouldn't have. A common word that can be mistaken for guilt is regret. Regret is wishing he/

As Chillingworth continues on his path of avenging his honor and punishing the man who got away from the whole affair unscathed, a very obvious change begins to occur in him as his character begins to deteriorate. It is asserted that, after many years of being obsessed over the retribution of his honor,“[his] intellect has now a sufficiently plain path before it... Calm, gentle, passionless, as he appears, there is yet... a quiet depth of malice...which leads him to imagine a more intimate revenge than any mortal had ever wreaked...” (128).

Chillingworth made Dimmesdale suffer by exaggerating his illness, and humiliating him with guilt of his sin “a bodily disease which we look upon as whole and entire within itself, may, after all, be but an ailment in the spiritual part”. the fragility and susceptibility of Dimmesdale states clearly his weakness, moreover.

“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

According to Sigmund Freud, incidents occurring in our childhood affects our subconsciousness, including creating connections with family and the urge for happiness and aspiration, but also creating anxiety over loss and oppression, according to critic Lois Tyson (qtd. In Brizee et. al.). To control these emotions, our mind separates into three areas, clashing and fighting for dominance (Brizee et. al.).

He replied that Dimmesdale would have been better had he died, than endure seven years of vengeance. Hester says to Chillingworth,“You search his thoughts. You burrow and rankle in his heart! Your clutch is on his life, and you cause him to die daily a living death; and still he knows you not.” (chapter 14)

In the 1850’s, America was undergoing a massive internal changes via the industrial revolution. With this new era, American culture was drastically changed as women started to take a more prominent role in American society. In his novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne attempts to stimulate this change by illustrating the positive influence of a strong female character in a Puritanical society through his heroine, Hester Prynne, by putting her in a scandalous situation capable of drawing out the worst in people.