Scarlet Letter Symbolism

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

In The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne is more than a literary figure in a classic novel, she is known by some people to be one of the earliest American Hero’s. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Hester commits adultery and has a child that she must care for all alone. She is forced to wear a powerful, attention grabbing “Scarlet A” on her chest while she must try to make a living to support her and her child, Pearl. Even though she must face all the harsh judgment and stares she does not allow her sin to stop her from living a successful life. She looks past the Letter as a symbol of sin and turns it into a sign of approval. Hester

Hawthorne uses diction and similes of darkness to depict Hester's reputation in a Puritan society. Hester and Pearl converse with Dimmesdale in the forest when suddenly, Hester removes the scarlet letter from her chest. Pearl, who has never witnessed her mother without the scarlet letter, forces her to put the scarlet letter back on. The narrator describes, "her beauty, the warmth and richness of her womanhood, departed, like fading sunshine; and a grey shadow seemed to fall across her" (Hawthorne 166). Hawthorne uses a simile to compare Hester's beauty to fading sunshine.

The character of Hester Prynne changed significantly throughout the novel "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hester Prynne, through the eyes of the Puritans, is an extreme sinner; she has gone against the Puritan ways, committing adultery. For this irrevocably harsh sin, she must wear a symbol of shame for the rest of her life.

In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne is portrayed as an adulterous woman, having a child out of wedlock. She is forced to display her terrible sin publicly by wearing a letter A the color of scarlet. Though she is seen by the Puritans as sinful, she displays many of the virtues stated in Proverbs 31. Hester Prynne shows moral excellence as well as righteousness and goodness despite being wrought with sin.

With all the chaos present in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, there is a central point at which the novel revolves around: Hester Prynne’s sin. Because of her adulterous actions, she is mocked by both modern and Puritan society. It is through her character as an adulteress that D.H. Lawrence scorns and evaluates Hester Prynne’s flaws through his use of brief diction, sarcastic tone, and biblical allusions.

In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne narrates the story of Hester Prynne, an adulteress living in Boston during the seventeenth century. His purpose in this passage is to detail the change that overcame Hester after she had been subjected to her punishment of constant ignominy. Hawthorne adopts a sympathetic tone towards Hester, revealing that he believes women need to be delicate and tender in order to retain their feminine appeal.

Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is describe as a vigorous, beautiful, lively, and proud woman. When first introduced in the story, Hester was known as a sinner of adultery and the townspeople degraded her, but yet she held her head high. Hester’s first description describes her natural confidence and mentions the strong glance that reveals no embarrassment of her difficult situation. The readers view her as most admirable because of her strength, selflessness, and her seek of remorse. Hester Prynne’s strength as a character is what makes her so remarkable.

Through the book her punishments for this sin continually push her to become a stronger person. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses certain characters to show and demonstrate the effects that guilt can have on someone. Hester Prynne is the protagonist this this novel about the sin of adultery and its punishments in a Puritan society. Hester seems to accept her punishments and own up to what she was guilty for. As punishment

Nathaniel Hawthorne published The Scarlet Letter in 1850, and it’s considered his most influential work. The gothic romance explores the themes of sin, Puritan legalism, and guilt, and incorporates a heavy use of symbolism. One of the most important symbols in the book, along with Pearl and the Black Man, is the scarlet letter donned by the story’s protagonist, Hester Prynne. In the very beginning of the book, the scarlet letter means that she is “Animal”, an inhuman creature to marvel at and ridicule as it stands upon the scaffold. In the early stages of the plot, the scarlet letter meant simply “Adulteress”, a cold reminder of her sin. As the story progresses, the letter she wears upon her bosom develops a second meaning equally central to Hester’s pain and development: “Alone.” Hester works diligently over the course of years to repent for her sin and improve her reputation, and her hard work and improved reputation gain her the title of “Able”, even though she’s still considered an impure sinner. At the end of the book, when Hester returns to Boston and becomes a trusted advisor and helper to the women of the

In the novel, “ the scarlet letter”, Hester was being criticized by other women in her town. The people in Hester’s town believed that she had an affair with another man while she was in a relationship with her spouse and she was accused for being unfaithful and committed adultery with that man.

Symbolism has many different meanings, and the Scarlet ‘A’ in “The Scarlet Letter” has many different meanings as well. Hester Prynne is the main character who is forced to wear the scarlet letter as remembrance for the crime and the sin that she has committed. This letter completely ruined her reputation in her community. How could a small piece of fabric do so much harm? This letter was a representation of something much greater than the letter ‘A’. This letter was originally made to stand for adulteress, as physical reminder of her sins. The vibrant scarlet red is meant to shame Hester, to make her feel sorry for her mistakes. Most importantly it was a symbol for change and an emblem of identity. In short, the scarlet letter meant much more than a letter of shame, it was simply a piece of fabric with meaning that could easily change.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne explores the themes of right and wrong and who determines what actions are moral and immoral. The character Hester Prynne exemplifies how Puritan society views actions as being honorable or sinful; her act of adultery is deemed to be wrong but she eventually is recognized for more than her sin and transforms into a symbol of hope. Hester is self-sufficient and compassionate, which attributes to her being viewed as able towards the end of the novel. Hester proves to be self-sufficient in many ways.

Throughout the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne displays powerful feminist ideas and behaviors present in many of the novel’s characters especially Hester Prynne. As the personalities and beliefs of the characters in The Scarlet Letter develop, rebellious acts against the traditional ways of Puritanical life unfold. Hawthorne depicts the rebellious nature of Hester, her daughter Pearl, and a few others to demonstrate the severe impacts these individuals have on the oppressing Puritan society, as well as the importance of breaking free from the strict and harsh Puritan lifestyle. Hawthorne reveals his bias mainly through Hester Prynne, the defiant anarchist and main character in the novel. By making Hester society’s antagonist,