Self Blame In The Scarlett Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Revenge is the act of retaliating in order to get even with someone for the wrongs they have done. In the novel “The Scarlet Letter,” the author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, uses Roger Chillingworth to reap revenge on Arthur Dimmesdale for his affair with his wife, Hester Prynne. Chillingworth becomes so devoted to revenge that is all his life revolves around. Chillingworth then devotes the rest of his life to taking revenge on Dimmesdale.

Do you act differently around certain people? Are your actions different because you want to impress a girl, the popular kids, or your teacher you want a letter of recommendation from? All around the world, people try to disguise their true self, just so they can fit in and be someone they are not. In The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale had been living behind a mask for seven excruciating years, as he remained unwilling to face the repercussions of society for his adulterous affair with Hester Prynne. If Dimmesdale was his honest and true self, he would have escaped death. While the epic is exaggerated through paranormal and supernatural occurrences, many of the punishments inflicted and morals questioned are quite topical today. Nathaniel Hawthorne encourages the readers to ‘show freely to the world’, no matter how daunting that personality may be (410). Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale’s downfall affirms the damaging effects of falsifying one’s disposition in The Scarlet Letter and today’s society.

‘Honesty is the best policy’; ‘Always be yourself”, are common phrases many parents tell their children and as common as they may be, being honest and being true yourself contributes to individual happiness and contentness. ‘The Scarlet Letter’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a novel that dives deep into these key themes of honesty and integrity and the consequences of doing the opposite action. One of the main characters, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is a minister in 17th century Puritan New England who has deteriorating health because of his lies and guilt. Dimmesdale commits adultery with a beautiful woman in the town, Hester Prynne, whose husband, Roger Chillingworth, returns from Europe later on. Pearl, who is a product of Hester and

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne was written amidst the 1800’s. Hawthorne was a famous American author during that time frame. He is a relative to a judge from the Salem Witch Trials, which was his Great-Great Grandfather John Hathorne. Hathorne was the only judge who did not express atonement for his crimes, which led people to dislike all the Hathorne’s. This sparked Nathaniel Hawthorne's interest in the Puritan times, which resulted in the Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne delineates Puritan standards religiously and culturally in an outstanding way. He was also an Anti-Transcendentalist which means that he believed that all humans were evil. In his novel, the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbols of the scarlet letter, Reverend Dimmesdale, and burrs to add onto the overall theme of guilt.

Guilt can be defined as neglected anger that we direct towards ourselves. Often times we choose to keep living in the past and we will never have a future. Our past affects the choices and consequences we have in our future. Consequences often lead to a transformation through guilt and suffering. Guilt can not only manipulate how we perceives other's, but it's also alters the perception of ourselves, and what actions we take because of that perception.

Guilt and shame represent two of the major consequences that come from sin. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter shows the plight of a Puritan woman named Hester Prynne who has committed adultery. The Scarlet Letter gives insight into the journey of Hester as she and other characters battle with their shame and guilt resulting from the sin of adultery. Throughout the Scarlet Letter the reader does not know who the father of Pearl, the result of the adulterous relationship, could possibly be. It is later discovered that the town minister, Dimmesdale, is the father of Pearl. In the conclusion of the book Dimmesdale dies but not before he can confess his sin to the town upon the scaffold where Hester faced her initial punishment. During the whole of the book

Often in society people are criticized, punished and despised for their individual choices and flaws. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author uses Hester Prynne to symbolize that those who challenge social conformities can benefit society as a whole. Though she has been banished for committing adultery, she sees that the community needs her. Through her generous accomplishments the community realizes she is a person who, regardless of her sin, can affect the community in a positive way.

It’s easy to commit a sin, but it’s not so simple living with a guilty conscience. The courage to admit one’s sins is necessary for salvation from guilt. As soon as remorse fills a person’s heart, it will leave a permanent mark, and he or she will never forget that agony. Nathaniel Hawthorne exemplifies that sole truth in the Scarlet Letter, “And be the stern and sad truth spoken, that the breach which guilt has once made into the human soul is never, in this mortal state, repaired. It may be watched and guarded; so that the enemy shall not force his way again into the citadel, and might even, in his subsequent assaults, select some other avenue, in preference to that where he had formerly succeeded. But there is still the ruined wall, and,

Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the constant theme of guilt, resentment, and revenge is mirrored through various scenes and characters. Hester Prynne commits the cursed sin, adultery, leading to her wearing of the notorious scarlet letter “A”. Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne’s adulterer, struggles with the crushing burden of guilt; as the respected pastor of the Puritan community, Dimmesdale must keep the heavy weight of sin to himself. Hawthorne most clearly depicts the subject of guilt through Dimmesdale, a respected reverend who ironically commits an unforgivable crime of passion. He is exemplary in performing his duties as a Puritan minister, a sign in which he was one of the chosen disciples of God, but he would not forget his sin and considers himself as a hypocrite. With the guilt

The guilt brought forth by sin is hoped to be blotted out once redemption is reached and faith is reconnected by repentance. The human nature of sin is linked with guilt that is freed by finding humility which brings redemption. Hester is weighed down by the guilt of adultery and lives in darkness as the sun avoids her due to her sin. Hester reaches humility once she becomes true to herself and her actions, she no longer lives in guilt of her sin and is brought into the sun. Dimmesdale struggles with the guilt of concealing his sin. Revealing himself as the sinner of the world shows his humility and reconnects him to God.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the topic of guilt is a reoccurring. Guilt is portrayed throughout the novel as causing immense amounts suffering. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, symbols throughout the novel examine how guilt is an everlasting punishment.

“Out of the mouths of babes” often times comes the purest. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the young characters embrace the truth and old characters express themselves through lies. In the rigid Puritan society of the 1690s, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale have broken one of the most egregious sin--adultery. Hester, who is married to old Roger Chillingworth, becomes pregnant with Dimmesdale’s child, Pearl. To shame her for her penance, Hester is sentenced to wear a scarlet letter upon her chest. Although all these adults live vastly different lives, they all share a mutual crime-- sin. Hawthorne illustrates a motif between young and old characters. One interesting aspect of this motif is that as the characters increase in age,

To conclude, The Scarlet Letter is a novel of how confession is the only remedy for the guilt that comes with committing a sin. In this respect, both The Scarlet Letter and the King James Proverb are in complete agreement as to that confession leads to redemption. While the proverb only states this concept, The Scarlet Letter, by contrast, detailed an elaborate story portraying how confession gave the characters of Hester and eventually Dimmesdale their own salvation. Hester’s salvation came in the form of the change of the public perception of the scarlet letter. Many citizens after Hester’s confession and performance of good deeds began to believe that the scarlet letter now stood for “Able”, and some even believing that the letter be removed

Living in an atrocious world that punishes a woman for a sin as adultery, that even the innocent child is punished with its mother, was something that was common in the lives of the immaculate Puritans. The Puritans were very harsh and strict on their religion and the how they follow it which also brought to the rigid consequences for their actions just like Hester and her daughter were. Although the rose bush seems to be mainly about either hope and sorrow, the rose bush is ambiguous and can also be the outcome that Hester could bring upon herself, but mostly now her daughter as she could also be interpreted as her power of strength to bring them both out of the sin and towards being accepted into society again.

The Scarlett Letter was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. The story is set in the 17th century Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony. It follows the hard circumstances of a young woman named Hester Prynne and her dealings with her own sin. She commits adultery while her husband is away and becomes pregnant with her daughter, Pearl. She is tried and is given the cruel punishment of wearing a scarlet letter “A” on her chest as a sign that she is an adulterer. Hester is the protagonist in the story. The antagonist happens to be her aliased husband, Roger Chillingworth, whom she has committed adultery against. The other crucial characters in the story include Pearl, Hester Prynne’s illegitimate daughter, and Reverend Dimmesdale, the man whom she committed adultery with. Each of these characters have symbolic value. Hester symbolizes the sinner who has a desire to change their own life. Roger Chillingworth represents the uncompassionate people of the town and the overall theme of revenge in the story. Pearl represents sin, but more specifically, the product of sin. Reverend Dimmesdale is symbolize the sinner who lives in concealed guilt. He acknowledges what he has done wrong, like Hester, but he cannot bear to reveal his iniquity. Another character, who acts as a sort of foil to the story’s plot is Governor Bellingham. Bellingham represents the law, and judgement of sin.