Summary Of ' The Scarlet Letter '

1. As the story opens a throng is gathered.  Who are these people?  Where and why are they gathered?

The characters in the Scarlet Letter are judged greatly through how and who they are able and unable to forgive. Such as the main female lead, Hester Prynne, and her struggle for the town to forgive her, finding the will to forgive herself and having God forgive her. Although, this was hard because every day she had to live with the scarlet letter upon her chest as a reminder of her sin. Another character that had one of the roughest times in the novel was Arthur Dimmesdale. This man kept a sin hidden for most of the novel and let it eat him away. The person that Dimmesdale needed to forgivehim the most was Pearl. He spent most of the novel trying to earn her beloved trust. Pearl would ask him favors to go into town with her but it

In chapter 16, how does Pearl show that she is different from the rest of the citizens of the community?

Throughout history, Puritans have been known for extremely strict views towards other religions and people of other religions. Because they “deeply and fervently believed that they were doing the work of God”, Puritans often punished and shunned those who did not follow their rules or share their same views (Collier 62). In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne presents these popular ideas and truths about the Puritan way of living in a symbolic story of submissive defiance. He creates a strong feminist that contradicts the majority of the Puritan views on feminism. This rebellious main character, Hester Prynne, greatly sins and, thus, the town punishes her and shuns her in hope that she will repent and take on her proper duties once more. However, Hester shows the strength of a woman through this public humiliation, and takes on the role of a feminist by showing this feminine strength. Despite the attempts from society to force Hester into their Puritan ways, Hester Prynne fulfills the notion of a feminist through her rebellious qualities and actions, and she proves to be a contrast by assimilating into the role of a Puritan woman and thriving in this role despite her public humiliation.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, He writes about a disputable scandal which occurs in seventeenth century during a time period where the Puritan way of life is quite prevalent. He reveals the values of the Puritan society as well as how this society affects the characters in his novel. Hawthorne writes about the sin of adultery between protagonist Hester Prynne and her counterpart Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester Prynne is exposed of her sin in the very beginning of the novel. She is ostracized by her community and is sentenced to wear a scarlet letter as a symbol of her crime.

The Harry Potter series is arguably the most well known sequence of books and movies of all time. Harry, a heroic wizard, is portrayed as a Christ figure throughout the series, assisting friends, family, and strangers before himself. He is also marked by the wound of another with a scar, and that disfigurement defines him as a person to those who may be unfamiliar to him. He possesses some of the qualities of another fictional character, written about over two centuries before him. Hester Prynne is marked by her scarlet letter, giving people a preconceived notion about who she is, similar to Harry’s iconic scar. She also puts others before herself, including those who had betrayed her trust (Dimmesdale), similar to Harry saving his enemy Draco from being engulfed in flame in the seventh installment of the series. These acts of selflessness shown by these characters resemble the actions of Christ, and allude back to the Bible. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne alludes to Christianity and the Bible to expose the Puritan’s rigid dogmatism that fails to appreciate his endorsement of love, tolerance, and mercy prevalent throughout the novel.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s,The Scarlet Letter, conveys Hester Prynne’s struggles against the oppressive Puritan society of the 1630s, which leads to the illumination of her progressive feminist views. Hester’s sin of adultery leaves her shunned from her pious New England community, but the extreme consequences that she encounters highlight the notion that she recognizes women as possessing equal capabilities and strengths as men. Hester evinces feminism throughout Hawthorne’s novel, without ever truly mentioning it, but her sense of independence is surely prominent due to the manner in which she handles criticism for being an adulteress. Overall, Hawthorne’s development for women’s role in society is blatantly apparent through Hester Prynne’s

Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the reader is shown how the main character, Hester Prynne, overcomes her public humiliation and stands against the traditional ideals held in her Puritan society. Hester Prynne is considered an outcast in her patriarchal society because she does not display the ideal woman in the Puritan town. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne exemplifies a feminist heroine who faces limits and persecutions in her Puritan society, challenges the traditional views of society roles, and demonstrates personal values. In contrast of viewing Hester Prynne as a heroine, some may view her as a corrupt individual.

Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter is a brave individual with a terrible sin. During the time of 1642 in Boston, Massachusetts, the Puritans took over. The Puritans were strict over their religion and forced the Bible to be taught properly. Someone who did not follow every rule would be humiliated in their community, like Hester Prynne. Hester Prynne had to wear a stitched “A” to show that she has committed the sin: Adultery. The standards of Prynne’s society is ridiculously strict on their word, she is affected harshly, and responds to this situation maturely.

As common as it is, we should not judge a book by it’s cover as the ladies at the beginning of the novel did to Hester. Who is to stay they haven’t done the same thing without being caught. Hester, even with a major sin, turned out to be stronger, and more compassionate than the puritan women who looked down on her. The theme of sin in The Scarlet Letter shows us, the readers and interpreters, that one sin cannot define us and we can overcome sin if we accept it, learn from our mistakes, and embrace the imperfect human beings we

A Prominent theme in "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorn’s is feminism. This Trait is shown through the main character Hester Prynne. Living in the Puritan community, Hester is seen as an adulteress and a weak woman by the puritan community. This is because she has consciously gone against the church values that promote purity and devotion to God by breaking a commandment and refusing to say who the father is. In this book, Hester portrays several ideas of feminism by overcoming public humiliation and going against the lifestyle that the Puritans thought was right for her. She is the perfect example of a feminist because of the many acts she did to show she's much more than a weak woman.

In The Scarlet Letter, the perception of sin deviates from person to person. The deviation occurs on the severity of the sin that was committed and who committed the sin. Focusing on Hester and Dimmesdale, it is easy to compare the consequences of coping with the perception of their sins, on a private and a public level. The outcome of dealing with their sin is extremely different. The theme of morality affects Hester and Dimmesdale also. They have varying levels of morality and this changes during the course of the novel.

Throughout life, every person lives through peaks and valleys of emotions. Weeks turn into months then into years, all filled with nothing but happiness and bliss. All this joy makes a person feels as if nothing could ever go wrong, but every time anything travels up, it must come down. This downward spiral can occur in an instant, sticking out of thin air like a curse meant to ruin your enjoyment of life. Valleys are the worst part of the cycle. Shame, despair and solitude are enough to tear anyone 's feelings apart. These feelings make people want to pack up and leave without saying a word to anybody. An onslaught of hate from others and oneself as well forces people to change their beliefs and outlooks of what life truly has to offer them. Many will start to question whether they could ever feel happiness again. The ending of The Scarlet Letter goes through the peaks and valleys of Hester, Pearl and Dimmesdale’s emotions as their plan to leave for a new life fades away in an instant. The struggle these characters have to endure for it all to fall apart proves why it is, in fact, a sad ending.

“Human nature will not flourish, any more than a potato, if it be planted and replanted for too long a series of generations in the same worn-out soil. My children have had other birthplaces, and, so far as their fortunes may be within my control, shall strike their roots into unaccustomed earth.” (23)-Nameless narrator’s narration

b. Hester’s Home- Hester and Pearl live in a small cottage with a thatched roof on the outskirts of town