Symbols Found in Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlett Letter Essay

this influenced early American society. Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlett Letter texts prevail the theme of Religion and Adultery. These particular authors wrote during the Puritan times and conveyed this time period in their texts while exploring the similarities and difference of Religion and Adultery in the Puritan Community. The Crucible’s protagonist John Proctor and The Scarlett Letter’s protagonist Hester Prynne are a part of a society with similar but

Williams EL3600 7, November 2016 The Scarlett Letter defines Romanticism. During the 1800’s America was in a identity crisis, the need for literary independence weighed heavily on the culture. There was no set genre that defined America and set them aside from other literatures. Thus resulting in the Romanticism literary movement for their desire of a literature that was all American. The Scarlett Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne who during the 19th century was one of

their stories. The themes represented by these symbols tend to represent sin and evil. Like many of his writing counterparts, Nathaniel Hawthorne extensively uses symbolism in several of his major works to explore sin and human nature. The Scarlett Letter, “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Minister 's Black Veil” are all vivid examples of this exploration and are the focus of this analysis. Before discussing his works, it is important to explore Hawthorne’s background to better understand how they connect

The Scarlett Letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, (but taking place in the mid-1600s), in which he exposes the ideas of legalism as well as the effects of sin in Puritan Boston, Massachusetts. The novel is based around the life of protagonist, Hester Prynne, a woman found guilty of adultery. This act of adultery ended in pregnancy and in order to shame her, a red letter “A” is placed on her clothing so that everyone knows of the sin she committed. While being shamed Hester is

any human being. Belonging can be seen in the prescribed text of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society & Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, where the central characters are driven by their need to belong or not belong which is ultimately stimulated by the world & people around them. The Crucible is based on the Salem community found in

A man who wrote about this in his famous novels is Nathaniel Hawthorne. He came from a family of Puritans; therefore, he was well associated with that lifestyle. He applied the Puritan’s beliefs on Satan and witchcraft into his books – especially “Young Goodman Brown” and The Scarlet Letter. Both of these amazing literary works involved people battling evilness every day. Their whole lives revolved around it. In the 1600’s, in The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne writes about a woman who committed adultery

Because of the irrational and nonsensical actions of virtually every character in The Scarlett Letter, I find it extremely difficult to substantiate a claim that I empathize with any of them on any genuine level. However, for the sake of completing this summer’s reading assignment, I will resort to writing about the only person who displays typical human behavior in a way to which I can somewhat relate—Roger Chillingworth. Though cynical, egocentric, and (dare I say) satanic, Roger Chillingworth

of John Winthrop” (Paul 138). Escaping from the religious pressure of the Catholic as well as the Anglican church they wanted to build up a new community with their own rules and religious ideals. Just in this society the plot of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter takes place: Hester Prynne, a young woman whose husband is believed to be dead, has an affair with another man, gives birth to a misbegotten child and is therefore sentenced in public to wear an ‘A’ on her cloths for all of her life

in the Antebellum period of The United States. This was a man who was born a slave, escaped to his freedom and became one of the louder voices calling to abolish slavery. Then we have Hester Prynne, who is a fictional character from the mind of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Her time period was years before that of Douglass, as she lived Puritan New England. Looking at these two comparatively from the outside, it is hard to believe that the two would represent any of the same ideas. However, delving deeper