Sin In The Scarlet Letter

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, symbolsim is constantly present in the actual scarlet letter “A” as it is viewed as a symbol of sin and the gradally changes its meanign, guilt is also a mejore symbol, and Pearl’s role in this novel is symbolic as well. The Scarlet Letter includes many profound and crucial symbols. these devices of symbolism are best portayed in the novel, most noticably through the letter “A” best exemplifies the changes in the symbolic meaning throughout the novel.

The themes of sin and revenge in The Scarlet Letter are made prominent and clear, as Hawthorne tends to express every theme in the novel. The two are closely tied together in the case of Roger Chillingworth. In The Scarlet Letter,

One of the main themes in The Scarlet Letter is that of the secret.  The plot of the book is centered on Hester Prynne’s secret sin of adultery.  Nathaniel Hawthorne draws striking parallelism between secrets held and the physical and mental states of those who hold them.  The Scarlet Letter demonstrates that a secret or feeling kept within slowly engulfs and destroys the soul such as Dimmesdale’s sin of hypocrisy and Chillingworth’s sin of vengeance, while a secret made public, such as Prynne’s adultery, can allow a soul to recover and even strengthen.

As with any piece, symbolism plays an important role in representing the main ideas of a novel. The plot in "The Scarlet Letter" revolves around three significant events that describe the development of the story. As both starting point and ending point of the novel, the scaffold scenes hold symbolic meaning.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's bold novel, The Scarlet Letter, revolves around sin and punishment.  The main characters of the novel sharply contrast each other in the way they react to the sin that has been committed

A question that may be asked about The Scarlet Letter is that who committed the greatest sin in the entire novel. The three focal characters in the novel, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth, all committed sins of their own throughout the novel. They are all imperfect people, but the greatest sinner would likely be Chillingworth, as the reason for his sin was revenge, and was more harmful than the other sins.

Hester was isolated from the community because of her sin. All of this negativity she was receiving from the community did not affect her, she held her head high. Dimmesdale never got the opportunity to hold his head high and embrace a scarlet letter. Although, Dimmesdale may have been struggling in his private life, at church, he preached one of his most powerful sermons. Hesters “A” on her bosom now meant “Able” because she was able to continue with her life, even after committing such a sin.

Sin is the act of disrespecting God’s will and it can be viewed as something that violates the ideal relationship between God and man. Sin has its way of penetrating the soul of a person and changing a human’s personality as well as corrupting the personality of others; blinding them from the truth of the world around them. Such dominance and influence of sin is delineated in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter. In the novel, the blindness and hypocrisy present in the Puritan Society is justly substantiated through Hawthorne’s indirect characterization of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne. From the treatment of the colonists for Arthur Dimmesdale it is evident that Dimmesdale is a highly revered person that everyone

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, sin is depicted through the characters Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Each character has committed a sin in the eyes of the world which Hawthorne explicitly displays to correlate with his theme that society itself is evil. The characters have committed another sin which

In the world today, themes and symbolisms have played a major role in the development and presentation of past and present novels. These themes and symbolisms within a novel shape the overall story and often work hand in hand to convey its purpose and meaning. One such novel would include The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne; in this story, along with all his others, he has incorporated his three predominant, driving themes: sin, hypocrisy, and corruption. In The Scarlet Letter,

Hester Prynne’s ability to sustain her stability and strength of spirit is the express result of her public guilt and penance. She was Arthur Dimmesdale’s partner in adultery, but she is used by Hawthorne as a complete foil to his situation. Unlike Dimmesdale, Hester is both strong and honest. Walking out of prison at the beginning of the novel, she decides that she must “sustain and carry” her burden forward “by the ordinary resources of her nature, or sink with it. She could no longer borrow from the future to help her through the present grief” (54). Hester openly acknowledges her sin to the public, and always wears her scarlet letter A. In the forest scene, she explains to Dimmesdale that she has been truthful in all things except in revealing his part in her pregnancy. “A lie is never good, even though death threaten on the other side” (133). Even Dimmesdale himself realizes that Hester’s situation is much healthier than his own when he states, “It must needs be better for the sufferer to be free to show his pain, as this poor woman Hester is, than to cover it all up in his heart” (92-93). This life of public shame and repentance, although bitter, lonely, and difficult, helps Hester retain her true identity while Dimmesdale seems to be losing his.

The Scarlet Letter is a study of the effects of sin on the hearts and

In “The Scarlet Letter,” Hawthorne presents the consequences of sin as an important aspect in the lives of Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingsworth, and Arthur Dimmesdale. The sin committed, adultery, between Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale had resulted in the birth of their innocent little girl, Pearl. This sin ruined the three main characters’ lives completely in different ways. With the sin committed, there were different ways the characters reacted to it: embracing the sin, concealing the sin, and becoming obsessed and consumed with it. With each reaction to the sin there were also different actions of redemption.

"The happiness of the wicked passes away like a torrent!" This quote from Jean Baptiste Racin summarizes The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne in one sentence. The novel's main focus is on three main characters and how the sins they commit affect their lives in the strict Puritan town of Boston around the year 1642. Hawthorne was very knowledgeable of his Puritan ancestry and shows it by incorporating some important thoughts and traditions into this story about sin and confession. Throughout the novel, the physical, social, mental and emotional changes that result from sin in the lives of the characters are never positive and the outcome of their spiritual

The Scarlet Letter is a modern classic of American literature written about controversy and published with controversy. The main topic of the book, adultery, is written in a dark and sad way, as Hawthorne describes injustice, fate or predetermination and conscience ( Van Doren, 1998) . No other American novel of the time has such a controversial theme as Hawthorne's, The Scarlet Letter. The setting of Nathanial Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is the seventeenth century Puritan New England. But Hawthorne's writing for this book is heavily influenced by his own nineteenth century culture. Hawthorne strongly believed in Providence. Hawthorne was descended from the Puritan