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.
In The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne committed adultery which led people to shame her. In the 1850’s adultery was a big sin and it wasn’t something done often. As well as in Chicago, Roxie Hart committed adultery during the roaring twenties and she even killed her lover, Fred Casely, because she didn’t get what she wanted from him. Both the novel and film are similar in the way that adultery is the big factor in the stories. Hester and Roxie were the adulterous but both husbands reacted in different ways. Hester and Roxie both committed sins.
In The Scarlet Letter Roger Chillingworth was Hester Prynne’s husband who had been gone and hadn’t been home for a very long time. During that time, Hester Prynne committed
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He never returned home so she thought that he was dead. She says that she was young and not necessarily ready to marry Roger when she did. She loved him but she wasn't in love with him. She did care about Roger because he asked her not to tell anyone that he was her husband and she didn't tell anyone. She respected what he wanted done and if she didn't care about him at all then she would have told everyone that he was her husband. She was in love with Arthur but could never confess that to anyone else besides him because she didn't want anything to go wrong for Arthur. Arthur was supposed to set a good example about how to deal with life and not to commit sins because he was the minister of the church in their city. Little did everyone know that he was the adulterous. No one ever suspected him of it because no know would've thought that a minister would do
Hester Prynne's guilt is the result of her committing adultery, which has a significant effect on her life. Hester is publicly seen with the scarlet letter when she first emerges out of the cold
Roger Chillingworth is a vile man who hides his disgrace of having a disloyal wife and finds pleasure in tormenting the poor Arthur Dimmesdale. When he comes to town at the beginning of The Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth makes Hester promise not to tell anyone that he is her real husband.“ ‘Breath not, to any human soul, that thou didst ever call me husband!’…’because I will not encounter the dishonor that besmirches the husband of a faithless woman…’”(Hawthorne 52-53).
In the novel “The Scarlet Letter” and the musical “Chicago”, we are able to see many ideas and events that are similar, but there are also occasions where the actions that the characters take, differentiate. Both the novel and the musical’s main storyline is about a woman that committed adultery and have to face the consequences and criticism for what they did.
Roger Chillingsworth is The Scarlet Letter's equlivilant to Temple's Belacour. He is the mastermind behind his wife Hester's demise, and intentionally seeks harm on her. In the beginning of the novel, he goes to visit her in jail. He tells her, "Live, therefore, and bear about they doom with thee, in the eyes of men and women - in the eyes of him whom thou didst call thy husband - in the eyes of yonder child!" (Letter, 70). All he wants is revenge and his mission changes from making Hester's life miserable, to finding out the identity of Pearl's father.
Today adultery “in most states is a misdemeanor” (Source B) this shows that it is not viewed nearly as bad today as it was in colonial Puritan society. Even important public figure such as the director of the C.I.A. just gets pressured to resign. According to the Supreme Court adultery is “When one spouse rejects the other” if even the sup ream court says something then that is the law. This shows that adultery is not viewed as bad inn today’s society as it is in Scarlet letter. When Hester was on the scaffold for the first time in the beginning of the book a few women wanted a far worse punishment for Hester. “We talk of marks and brands, whether on bodice of her gown, or the flesh of her forehead” (Source A)some of these women want to brand the letter A on her forehead instead of making her wear it on her cloths for the rest of her life which is a far worse punishment than wearing it. What would you prefer to wear a letter A on your shirt for the rest of your life or have it branded on your forehead, which sounds a lot more painful than just wearing it? It is not only America that does not follow Puritan history, “the entire rest of the industrialized world, adultery is not covered by the criminal code.” (Source B) this proves that many countries do not follow puritan
Both Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome provide an insight into the moral ideas that have shaped New England. One major theme of The Scarlet Letter that helps to portray this is the theme of Puritanism. The religious nature of the morality shaped the society’s reaction to Hester’s affair. A major theme of Ethan Frome that helps to portray this is the theme of duty and morality vs. desire. Ethan feels he has a moral duty to remain with his wife, Zeena, even though he truly desires to run away with Mattie. The ideas of morality presented in The Scarlet Letter and Ethan Frome are similar in that they both portray adultery as greatly immoral; however, they differ in the reason behind these ideas of morality.
Though she suffers for seven long years, she never actually repents, but falls into adultery once again. She is defiant to the Puritan way and the commandment forbidding adultery, not only physically but in her heart as well. By the end of the book, a reader can observe that she never repents, but liberally deceives herself and society. In contrast, Dimmesdale eventually realizes that confession is necessary to repentance, in addition to denying himself any adulteress thoughts or acts.
In the novel, the Scarlet Letter, there are four main characters, Hester Prynne, Pearl Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Prynne Chillingworth. The story goes; Hester Prynne committed the sin of adultery with the minister of their Puritan Community, Arthur Dimmesdale, the community then condemning her to wear the scarlet letter “A” for the rest of her natural life. Pearl Prynne being the product of the two sinners. In the moment, when Hester is completing the first part of her punishment, her long lost husband, Roger Prynne Chillingworth, arrives. Not wanting his arrival acknowledge Roger replaces his maiden name for Chillingworth. This situation creates a whole plot of conflicts both
In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne’s act of adultery with Arthur Dimmesdale (Hawthorne 231) ultimately leads to negative and positive impacts on her life, including being isolated from everyone in town, being mocked and gossiped about, being more mature, and being more compassionate. One of the negative
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
In the book, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the character Roger Chillingworth is portrayed as a dark and mysterious person whom no one knows his identity except for his wife Hester Prynne. When he arrives in the Puritan colony after being captured by natives, Chillingworth finds his wife standing on a scaffold with the letter A on her chest. He discovers that his wife has committed adultery and has to bear the scarlet letter on her chest for the rest of her life. He is enraged by this and sets out to find her lover who would not show himself and face his punishment. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne strengthens the theme of jealousy through Chillingworth.
In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne exhibits how three very unique characters are evidently brought together by the sins that they have perpetrated and how they manage to perform acts of atonement in the puritanical Boston society. Hester Prynne sins by committing the shocking transgression of adultery. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, who as well engages in adultery with Hester, abandons her and their daugher because of his own cowardice and hypocrisy. Roger Chillingworth grows to become a maleficent being who tries to corrupt the very soul of Reverend Dimmesdale. Although Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale do sin greatly, it is Roger Chillingworth who sins to the most ferocious degree.
In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne analyzes Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. In the story, Hester is the main character of the story and was called Mistress Prynne (Hawthorne 70). Dimmesdale, in the story was referred to as Reverend Dimmesdale (Hawthorne 90). Chillingworth was originally named, Roger Prynne but later in the story he changed his name to Roger Chillingworth. In the story, Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale against Chillingworth and in the beginning she got punished and sent to prison and later she got to get out of prison but with the exception of having to wear the letter A on her breast every time she went out in to town.
In The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth changes from a freelance intellectual to an estranged physician as feelings of revenge control his life. Chillingworth neglected his marriage with Hester and the consequences ended up having an effect on both of their identities. In Chapter 15, Hester states her opinion on Chillingworth: “He betrayed me! He has done me worse wrong than I did him!” (159). In Hester's eyes, Chillingworth's actions changed her perspective on life as he is the sole reason she sinned in the first place. Hester coped with a life change while Chillingworth coped with revenge as a general effect of Chillingworth's neglect. Roger Chillingworth was physically and emotionally consumed by his years long plans for revenge on Reverend Dimmesdale. In Chapter 14, Roger Chillingworth says this of the Reverend to Hester: “Yea...better had he died...to be tortured with frightful dreams...perpetual poison of the direst revenge!” (155). In this quote, we see that Chillingworth's anger has turned his vile actions into words as he discusses the poisoning and brainwashing he forces Dimmesdale to endure on a daily basis. Chillingworth allowed jealousy and guilt control his life until it eventually ended. Chillingworth's’ revenge ended up killing him in the end since his plans worked and Dimmesdale died on the scaffold in which Hester lived out her daily punishments. Roger was ultimately responsible for the destruction of the lives of Hester, Dimmesdale and himself.
Jay Gatsby and Hester Prynne both show superior moral decency in choosing to protect those they have affairs with even though it results in further shame and suffering for them. In both The Scarlet Letter and The Great Gatsby, the theme of adultery is used to examine the moral integrity of the characters. Both Hester