Society's Sin In The Scarlet Letter

In The Scarlet Letter Hypocrisy is evident everywhere. The characters of Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and the very society that the characters lived in, were steeped in hypocrisy. Hawthorne was not subtle in his portrayal of the terrible sin of hypocrisy; he made sure it was easy to see the sin at work , at the same time however, parallels can be drawn between the characters of The Scarlet Letter and of today’s society.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, is a compassionate yet riveting piece of English literature that supports the movement for equality of suppressed women during a most tumultuous time during the 1800’s. Hawthorne’s use of emotional diction and imagery throughout his novel employs a deplorable tone upon the story. It serves as a stark representation of an imaginative yet realistic example of the indifference of men and women during these changing times. Deeply held Puritanical beliefs led countless of people to believe that individuals, especially women, who committed sins of any type would never reach heaven upon their passing. Men, on the other hand, were judged less severely if accused of a crime. Hester Prynne, the

In the nineteenth century novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes different origins of allusions and archetypes to emphasize how individuals in order to encourage individuals to forgive sins and work towards redemption.

Almost immediately, we start to recognize the true pit that has been dug by Hester and her decision to fornicate with Arthur Dimmesdale, the town priest. She is set up for failure and disaster when Hawthorne describes the trials she will have to endure in her everyday life. He depicts a life where “tomorrow would bring its own trial and yet the same that was now so unutterably grievous to be borne.” (54). He seems to put her on display as a case of ultimate failure that not only will last for days and months but “ for the accumulating, and added years, would pile up their misery upon the heap of shame.” (54). Though her life seems miserable at the moment, she stays in her town that she 's always been a part of. The author is trying to show how those who are the closest to you and may have known you the longest can turn on you once you do commit sin. The “A” she has sewn upon her chest will remain even if removed because of her public humiliation by the Puritan townsfolk. She becomes the actual embodiment of a ruined future and a ruined life for those in her family or associate with her. For it isn’t only

The first symbolism in the novel is how the letter “A” represents adultery. Julian Hawthorne stated, “it burns upon its wearer's breast, it casts a lurid glow along her pathway, it isolates her among mankind,” The letter “A” became part of Hester. It made her have her own glow and made her an outcast from society due to her independence and rebellious mindset. Hawthorne symbolizes the letter to represent Hester Prynne’s sin throughout the book. She,“ turned her eyes downward at the scarlet, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real,” (Hawthorne,5). Hester Prynne’s sin has brought her shame because the puritans believed that humanity should live life by the bible. Additionally, in the bible it is a sin for humans to have

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a brilliant writer of the 19th century. Hawthorne created a novel that reflected the time period of the Puritans in New England. The Scarlet Letter contains a representation of the people during that time period but can also be related to the reader’s time period. Originally, God created the world with complete perfection until man fell, and sin entered the world. In the eyes of God, a sin is a sin. There is no worse sin that one can commit. Man is the one that decided that one sin could be more harshly judged than another. Hawthorne uses the theme of sin to show the importance of one’s faith and conviction and how those principles relate to fallen sinners.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist who wrote many novels and short stories who was born on July 4th, 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. He originally had his last name as Hathorne - without the ‘w’ – but changed it due to not wanting to draw attention from his ancestor John Hathorne who was the only judge involved in the Salem witch trials. Nathaniel Hawthorne married Sophia Peabody in 1842 and had three kids. They ended up moving all around Massachusetts but then they finally decided that they’d settle in Concord, Massachusetts. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s first novel written is called Fanshawe in 1837. Hawthorne wasn’t sure how he felt about it, so he published it anonymously. Unfortunately, as it turned out, the novel was criticized heavily

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

Through the characterization of the beadle as a man with an aura of misery, Hawthorne illustrates the “dismal severity” of Puritan society and the lives it creates for those who follow its policies. With its multitudes of rules, punishment and humiliation naturally manifest as the “business” of Puritan society; instead of focusing on helping others, the Puritans spend all their time trying to condemn anyone who can fill the ever-present role of the “offender,” who they then subject to their harsh penalties for daring to step out of line. Hawthorne characterizes the beadle as the primary enforcer of these rules, dominating and draining the pleasure from their lives. However, Hawthorne characterizes Hester as an exception to the obedient Puritan citizens. When the beadle pulls Hester out of the jail, “she repelled him, by an action marked with natural dignity and force of character, and stepped into the open air, as if by her own free will” (Hawthorne 50). By “repell[ing]” the beadle, Hester resists Puritan society as a whole, choosing instead to follow “her own free will” rather than the laws and customs of society. Instead of choosing to suppress her individuality, she chooses the most “natural” option when she refused to have Puritan society control her actions. But despite her insubordination, Hester has “dignity”: her actions do not strip her of her grace, rather they amplify it. By characterizing Hester as someone with “force of character,” Hawthorne

develops the theme of the destructiveness of guilt and unconfessed sin to a person’s body and

Prompt: How does Hawthorne develop his themes of sin, hypocrisy, and corruption in the Puritan society through the occurrences of the scarlet letter, the scaffold, the Puritans, the prison, and the forest in the story?

To make a decision, one weighs the benefits and the downfalls, and concludes by judging the factors of each alternative. One's choice of whether to conform to society's demands or submit to personal impulses is difficult, especially under strenuous circumstances. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is a profound romance in which the characters must make such a decision. A reconciliation of the two forces is not seemingly feasible. Reliance of self consumes Hester Prynne, while denial of self engrosses her partner in the crime of adultery, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. The roles of Hester's daughter, Pearl, and her estranged husband, Roger Chillingworth, as individual beings are less evident than that of their impact on Hester and

“The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison,” - Nathaniel Hawthorne. There has been a question that may always plague the human mind since Thomas Moore coined the term in 1516. What is a utopian society and what would its core values be?

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 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