Summary Of The Scarlet Letter By Hester Prynne

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

The Puritans despised Hester and her symbol for her sin, and shunned her for many years even after her prison sentence. Hester could have just lived a depressed, lonely life in seclusion with her daughter Pearl, but she decided to accept her sin and wrong doing to become a mentally stronger woman. During the many years of Hester being in prison and being rejected when she was released, she practiced needlework to provide food for her and her daughter. As the people in Salem recognized her talent of her embroidery and garments, they began respecting her talent, and so the scarlet “A” that stood for “adulterer” slowly began to stand for “able.” Hester started to supply apparel for babies, ceremonies, inaugurations, and funerals. Furthermore, the Scarlet letter has another symbolic meaning. When Pearl went to the seashore, she made a green letter “A” out of seaweed – nature’s color. This was symbolic for Pearl’s sinless life so far because she hasn’t truly been introduced to sin; she still is “green” and “pure”. As for Hester, her scarlet “A” is symbolic of her many sins, for no one can avoid sin as they grow older.

“The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her—so much power to do, and power to sympathize— that many people refused to interpret the scarlet “A” by its original signification. They said that it meant “Able”, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (129). It is ironic how Hester,s quest for true love made her ignore the sin of adultery and then how this same sin became the source of moral and spirtual uplifting of her character.

The narrator remarks, “The scarlet letter had not done its office,” (Hawthorne 163) while speaking of how the experience of wearing the letter has changed Hester and how the community opinion of her has evolved over seven years. While the letter was supposed to make Hester a social pariah, her charitable nature quickly changed how she was viewed. While she may believe that she is isolated from the rest of society by the letter, the community has chosen to view the letter as standing for “Able,” instead of it’s original “Adulterer.” Mentally, she is punishing herself for her sin, but that is her own decision and not an affect of wearing the letter. In fact, she almost feels empowered by it. She “assumed the freedom of speculation, then common

The scarlet letter can be interpreted in many ways. Seven years have passed since Hester’s sin and a lot has changed in her life. The scarlet letter upon her chest has evolved as well. As time has gone on, townsfolk “said that it meant ‘Able’” (Hawthorne, 158) Furthermore, they look at Hester as a woman of good deeds, a woman who is able to do good things for other people. She has helped out the community in many ways and their harsh views have decreased. They even look at her as a person. “who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comforting to the afflicted!” (Hawthorne, 159). The people in the town have looked at Hester in a more positive light and have shown that time has healed wounds. However, Hester’s views of herself have

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne introduces the theme of labels through Hester Prynne, a woman who has just committed adultery. Hester’s Puritan community gives her a scarlet “A” that stands for “Adulteress.” Hester, however, refuses to let her scarlet letter define who she will become. This is shown when, instead of fleeing, Hester stays in “her scene of guilt” ready to face her “earthly punishment,” accepting her sin. (Hawthorne 55). The town starts to acknowledge her “woman’s strength” because she perseveres through the town’s judgment and still humbly does what she wants. Her resilience changes her brand meaning from “Adulteress” to “Able.”

Hester Prynne’s character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter overcomes the punishment of mankind because she follows the Godly path of redemption. The Puritan society wants to brand Hester Prynne as a unfaithful sinner by forcing her to wear an “A” on her chest for the rest of her life and to stand on a scaffold for public shaming (Hawthorne 50). However, she rejects the punishment of mankind by freeing herself from the town-beadle and walks out of the prison door on her own free will (49). To further prove that only God can redeem sins, Hester lives the rest of her life following the four steps of Godly redemption. As her path of Godly redemption continues on, the symbol of the “A” on her chest also changes. The Puritan leaders intend the “A” to be view as a symbol of adultress; however, the townspeople later

The Scarlet Letter written by Nathanial Hawthorne centers on sin, identity and society. The meaning of the A in the Scarlet Letter is meant to mean “Adulterer”. The meaning is not definite, the A meaning rather ambiguous is taken to mean what the person wants it to mean, equivocally it can be said that the meaning(s) of the A mirrors the beliefs and thoughts of its onlookers. The meaning of A as a motif is a recurring concept and idea centering on society and identity. “She had wandered, without rule or guidance, into a moral wilderness... Her intellect and heart had their home, as it were, in desert places, where she roamed as freely as the wild Indian in his woods... The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers—stern and wild ones—and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.” The A was meant to cripple Hester; to be a warning a reminder to others that sin would forever follow till death, as this was puritan belief. Hester though lonely

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the “A” is much more than a tattered patch of crimson with loose gold stitchery. As the years pass, the Puritanical society associates Hester Prynne’s identity with the embattled patch from an “adulteress,” to a woman who’s “able,” and finally, into an “angel.” Hester is a fallen woman in the beginning as she is publically shamed and shunned, causing her to suffer greatly. She internally struggles to comprehend the letter’s symbolic meaning only to come out as a stronger woman in the end. “Symbols are a means of complex communication that often can have multiple levels of meaning.”(Womack, P125) Hester gains a unique understanding of humanity and the struggles of other

Even though he gives positive diction such as able and elaborate to describe the scarlet letter, Hawthorne still reminds the reader that ‘A ' means adultery and that is Hester 's major appearance. In the Governor 's house, Hawthorne depicts reflection of Hester and the scarlet letter in the large and curved mirror as "exaggerated and gigantic proportions", and adds more information that the scarlet letter is "most prominent feature of her appearance," bringing all the readers back to reality that it does not mean that she is not a sinner because now ‘A ' stood for Able to Hester (Hawthorne 57). Throughout the story, Hawthorne uses ‘A ' to characterize Hester explaining how other people treat Hester and how she interpret the ‘A ' as.

First, The scarlet letter made her hated and looked down on by the world. Hawthorne says, “It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of ordinary relations with humanity, enclosing her in a sphere by herself”(Hawthorne 46). This says that when Hester wears the letter A she is looked as a sinner to the world and set aside from humanity. The A changes to able to the townspeople. It states in the book that “They said that it meant able”(Hawthorne 127). Hester does many things to change the letter A into able she brings food to the doors of the poor, she nurses the sick, and she is a source of aid in times of trouble. She is still frequently made an object of scorn, but more people are beginning to interpret the “A” on her chest as meaning “Able”. Finally, the scarlet letter changed from a curse to something that should be respected. Hawthorne says that “The scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world’s scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too”(Hawthorne 204). This says that the scarlet letter has changed throughout the book as something looked upon as a symbol of sin to something to be

Even though Hester was ostracized by her sin, she was able to retain her inner strength and compassion throughout her trials and even becomes known for her charitable deeds toward her community and the poor. In spite of the harsh treatment on Hester and her child, she was able to continue showing kindness to her tormentors even after her solitude and internal suffering. In the end, Hester’s acceptance of herself and her kind actions to her fellow townspeople throughout the years allowed her to become a well-respected figure that many called an angel of mercy (). The scarlet letter on Hester’s breast that was supposed to be a symbol of shame instead became known as a symbol of empathy and

The novel is set in Puritan community where the purification of society is viewed by strict Christian gospel. Having sex before marriage is often looked down upon in many cultures and back then was punishable by jail time and public humiliation. Hester Prynne is a woman forced to raise a child on her own and wear a scarlet letter ‘A’ for the rest of her life to show everyone of the crime she has committed.

The Scarlet Letter is solely revolved around this red letter that the main character Hester wears. The letter “A” that is pinned to Hester Prynne originally stands for adultery, but as Hester becomes more involved in the community, much of the town forgets Hester's original crimes and claims that it stands for angel instead. Everyone has their own take on Hester and her letter. The letter “A” has different connotations for different characters and evolves through the novel.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hester defies the status society has given to her by embracing her sin and digressing from a typical Puritan woman. Hester was ridiculed on the stand in front of her peers for having an affair while her husband was away, resulting in a child. Located in 16th Century Puritan colony, Hester’s punishment for adultery would have been immediate execution. Instead, after being humiliated and casted aside as an adulteress, Hester was branded with an A on her chest and forced to live on the outskirts of the colony in exile. Despite the pessimistic future that Hester beholds, Hester attempts to cope with the isolation, even though “lonely as was Hester’s situation, and without a friend on earth who dared to show himself, she,