Hester’s extravagant metamorphosis In Puritan society, people live by a heavily strict code that does not tolerate any form of sin and would scorn and despise those who are dishonest and deceitful. Hester Prynne is a crucial character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter which takes place during the 16th century in Boston, Massachusetts. Hester is found guilty of the sin of adultery after giving birth to her child that was not of her husband and is shamed upon by the people of society. Hester Prynne goes through a significant change throughout the course of the novel. She develops from a shamed upon young adult who had no plan set for herself to a strong, perseverant woman who uses the alienation and shame formed against her as inspiration. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses direct and indirect characterization along with figurative language to develop Hester throughout the novel. Hester Prynne is constantly alienated and shamed upon throughout the novel for her actions, however, she uses the negativity around her to form into a mature adult. After Hester Prynne was found guilty of the sin of adultery, she was prompted to wear a scarlet letter, A, which she made herself that was intended to resemble guilt, shame, and her evil actions. Hawthorne describes the letter as, “that SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by
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
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
Hester Prynne of Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter defies the Puritan belief system through her rebellion and compassion. Hester defies the Puritan belief system through her rebellion. Hester Prynne, while in Boston waiting for her husband to come from Amsterdam, commits the crime of adultery and gives birth to a child, causing her to be punished. Hawthorne describes her crime in dialogue between Hester’s husband, who has just arrived in Boston and is unaware of Hester’s circumstances, and a towns member who infers as to what she has done and how much of an uproar it has caused, during her public punishment, in the government forces her to stand on a scaffold for three hours and condemned to wear an A on her chest
Edward Said, literary critic, has described exile as something “strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience,” and as something that can be “potent, even enriching.” In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne experiences an exile after being marked as an adulteress which intrigues the reader because of its ability to change her substantially throughout the novel. Hester’s exile is intriguing because she often is near other people, but she remains on the outskirts of the town, and of society. Through the years, this exile leads to Hester’s complete transformation proves her incredible strength, even when faced with such tragedy.
In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne is portrayed as an adulterous woman, having a child out of wedlock. She is forced to display her terrible sin publicly by wearing a letter A the color of scarlet. Though she is seen by the Puritans as sinful, she displays many of the virtues stated in Proverbs 31. Hester Prynne shows moral excellence as well as righteousness and goodness despite being wrought with sin.
In The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne is more than a literary figure in a classic novel, she is known by some people to be one of the earliest American Hero’s. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne Hester commits adultery and has a child that she must care for all alone. She is forced to wear a powerful, attention grabbing “Scarlet A” on her chest while she must try to make a living to support her and her child, Pearl. Even though she must face all the harsh judgment and stares she does not allow her sin to stop her from living a successful life. She looks past the Letter as a symbol of sin and turns it into a sign of approval. Hester
In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the idolization of Arthur Dimmesdale, and the demonization of Hester Prynne and her eventual adoration to claim that viewing people in divine terms is necessary for society to justify its own morality. The Puritans use their initial revilement of Hester Prynne and their later reverence of her to justify their own misguided righteousness. In Hawthorne’s novel, Hester Prynne commits the ignominious sin of adultery, yet as the novel progresses, the Puritans that once coldly shunned her instead welcome her kind character with a warm embrace. Her formerly scorned “A” —meant to stand as a moral executioner’s blade on her heart— becomes a symbol of the community’s pride in her.
Imagine yourself on display in front of your whole town, being punished for cheating on your husband or wife. Today adultery is looked down on, but in reality nobody makes a huge deal out of it. Sin can affect a person in many ways, but whether it’s good or bad only time can tell. In the old days, religion and law were looked at as one, and Hester Prynne just so happened to sin, which in turn caused her to break the law. In the novel, Hester displays that how a person deals with sin has a lasting impact on the people around her, and most importantly those that are the closest to her.
Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the ideology of Puritan society in the novel the Scarlet Letter; however reader also get to witness his characters being an illustration of hypocrisy and victims to their own guilt. In the Scarlet Letter, as in many of Hawthorne’s shorter works, he makes profuse use of the Puritan past: its odd exclusionary belief, its harsh code of ruling, its concern with sex and witchcraft. The Scarlet Letter is a story that is embellished but yet simple. Many readers may view this novel as a soap opera due to the way Hawthorne conveys this Puritan society’s sense of strictness and inability to express true emotion along with the secrecy and how deceiving the characters are being. As the story unfolds the main character Hester Prynne is bounded in marriage at an early age. She engages in an adulterous affair with an unknown member of their small village. Hester soon becomes pregnant and with her husband’s absence the chances of this child belonging to her husband are slim. The towns’ people know that she has committed a sin and imprisons her for her crime.
Hester Prynne, the main protagonist in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, was a young Puritan who came to Massachusetts and experienced many hardships. Although Hester was very young and strikingly beautiful, she was married to a much older man; while Hester’s husband sent her ahead of him to
Hester Prynne is a protagonist in the novel " The Scarlet Letter" She is described as a young tall women, with dark and glossy hair. So beautiful that "her beauty shone out, and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped." Hester Prynne suffers public humiliation, forced to wear the scarlet letter for the sin she has done. She then hides her beauty and sin underneath a cap for seven years. All the people who surround her look down on her and shame her, but after a long while. People begin to feel bad for her, telling her to remove the scarlet letter. Though, Hester disagrees and keeps the scarlet letter on. Leaving her with a burden on her back reminding her and the people for what she did. Hester continues with her
Chris Stanek AP Literature August 20th, 2014 The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, set in the seventeenth-century Puritan New England deals with several issues which are mirrored and relevant in our modern society. Despite the fact that Hester Prynne is a fictional character from the1800’s, with different background and culture, she is a character that I could easily relate to and understand her actions and emotions. Hester felt strongly about the injustices within her society.
Hester Prynne lived the unimaginable through colonial times. In this novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, Hester was forced to live out the consequences for committing adultery in the Puritan community. Prynne, a young, and beautiful woman had been living by herself in New England for two years and during this desolate period Prynne committed adultery. The beliefs of the townspeople had a strict, social and moral structure. Thus once the townspeople heard about this endeavor, they jailed Prynne to punish her for the crime. Amid these times all the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay Colony were Puritans. In addition, she wore an elaborately embroidered, in fine red cloth the letter A on the chest of her bosom to represent adultery. Nathaniel Hawthorne felt guilty about his Puritan ancestors, one of whom partook action in the Salem witch trials. This was his inspiration for creating the long hours to develop his masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter. Despite suffering from unpleasant judgment and deplorable criticism she maintained a strong, proud, and honest character.
The character of Hester Prynne changed significantly throughout the novel "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hester Prynne, through the eyes of the Puritans, is an extreme sinner; she has gone against the Puritan ways, committing adultery. For this irrevocably harsh sin, she must wear a symbol of shame for the rest of her life.
Hester Prynne 's guilt is the result of her committing adultery, which has a profound effect on her life. Hester is publicly seen with the scarlet letter when she first emerges out of the cold dark prison. "It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and enclosing her in a sphere by herself " (Hawthorne 49). The spell that is mentioned is the scarlet letter, "so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom" (Hawthorne 49). The scarlet letter is what isolates her from everyone else because it symbolizes sin. Hester is in her very own sphere, a world of her own where her sin effects her livelihood and has completely isolated her from the world. Her entrance into the sphere marks the beginning of her guilt, it occurs when she is "in the prison after her first exposure to the crowd-her "moral agony" reflected in the convolutions that have seized the child; her pride, her daring" (Bloom 34). The prison