The Influences of the Main Characters in The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the greatest American authors of the nineteenth century. He published his first novel Fanshawe, in 1828. However, he is widely known for his novels The Scarlet Letter and The House of Seven Gables. His novel, The Scarlet Letter, can be analyzed from historical, psychological and feminist critical perspectives by examining his life from the past, as well as his reflections while writing The Scarlet Letter. In order to understand the book properly, it’s necessary to use these three perspectives.

The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne shows multiple connections between characters and nature. As the story progresses nature becomes more prevalent in the characters and continues to establish certain characteristics for each character. This established connection provides a view into the depths of human nature that each character portrays.

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.

Throughout, “The Scarlet Letter,” Hawthorne is able to enhance the plot by intricately incorporating symbols which represent a deeper meaning. One of which, is the infamous, and ambiguous, scarlet letter that lays upon the bosom of Hester Prynne. In the beginning of the book, the audience is immediately introduced to the scarlet letter as a symbol of shame and adultery. The narrator describes the Puritan society as very judgemental and harsh. Comments like, “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die,” creates this negative and unwelcoming atmosphere which surrounds Hester for a majority of the book. From then on, the Puritans constantly refer to the

Though never forced to don a branding like the letter “A” in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, people in modern society are always remembered along with their act of wrongdoing. However, the subjects of the public judgement may not see their choices as immoral. People shame for a difference in beliefs and morals. For instance, Kim Kardashian, a popular reality TV star attained her own personal fame by making a sex tape with rapper Ray J, and, consequently, was shamed in the headlines. Despite the bashing, Kim did not see why her act was deemed shameful. Kim acts as a modern day Hester Prynne because she underwent the same humiliation from her society.

As the loved pastor whose undisclosed guilt destroyed him and the secret lover of Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale is an interesting character in The Scarlet Letter and plays an important role throughout the book. Dimmesdale is a “Reverend” and pastor at the church. His interactions with the other main characters in the book such as Roger Chillingworth, Hester Prynne, and Pearl are secretive and painful, and display his inner pain. Hester had committed adultery, against her husband with one that she would not name! The scarlet letter would burn forever on her chest and secretly, on his, as the guilt sears him and kills him slowly.

Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, behaves in an unforgivable, yet understandable manner. When Hester Prynne is in prison for having an affair, proven by the resulting child, Dimmesdale does not confess to his sin nor stand with Hester during her shameful punishment. Throughout the novel, Dimmesdale is being torn apart by the gnawing guilt growing inside of him while Hester is constantly a scornful object in the public’s eye.

Democratic society has a curious effect on its people. Some citizens seem to have a very hard time imagining a fanatically corrupt religious sect of elite clergy running the scenes. Intriguingly, within arguably the most democratic country of our time, the United States was dominated by a class of religious elite a few centuries ago. Those who participated in said system were known as Puritans. Nathaniel Hawthorne, a transcendentalist of the 19th century, decided to recreate Puritan society in his book The Scarlet Letter, which takes place two centuries prior. This brings up an important inquiry: does his rendition stack up with historical evidence? After intense scrutiny and cross-referencing, a conclusion can be drawn that suggests he did indeed take many steps to remain faithful to the source material.

“let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart.” (Hawthorne 92)

Arthur Dimmesdale is a character with constant conflict over the course of the The Scarlet Letter. In the beginning of the story, Dimmesdale tries to convince Hester Prynne to reveal the secret she kept to everyone, and ends up becoming more and more tormented after she does not. He finally reveals the secret to everyone, and dies shortly afterward. All of these occurrences add to the fact that he is slowly breaking down over his affair with Hester. He also continued to do his job as a minister even though he is deteriorating mentally. Hawthorne uses the mental and physical deterioration of Dimmesdale to show how sin and deceit are a detriment to human life.

In The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne examines the moral consequences of sin, or an offense against religious or moral law, and poses the question to his readers; can individuals be redeemed for their sins? The two central characters in the novel, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, both commit the sin of adultery. However, each character deals with their wrongdoing in opposite ways. Initially it seems that Hester Prynne’s sin is worse than that of Reverend Dimmesdale due to her sin being visible to all of society. Even though Hester’s sin causes her alienation from society, she is able to find independence while living on her own that gives her strength. On the other hand, town reverend Arthur

Arthur Dimmesdale is a fictional character written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the 1850’s from the book, “The Scarlet Letter.” Arthur Dimmesdale went through great lengths of guilt and suffering throughout the book. He is a Puritan minister who had a child named Pearl, whose mother was Hester Prynne. They hide their relationship together in the years of Pearl growing up. Arthur Dimmesdale was the only Puritan out of four main characters in The Scarlet Letter. Dimmesdale knows that he has sinned in the very beginning of the novel, but kept all his feelings inside, letting the guilt overwhelm him until the end. When he committed adultery, he knew that what he did was wrong, but at the time he had only put his hand over his heart symbolizing that his sin pains him but only secretly. Dimmesdale believed that his sin and guilt has helped the sermons on Sunday and has helped him become a better minister. Although Arthur Dimmesdale knows he has sinned, he still refuses to confess to the church and accept his punishment. Dim-mesdale went through a lot of suffering from holding his guilt in because he was not allowed to confess. He promised Hester that he shall not confess knowing the consequences of committing adultery with Hester, who was a married woman. Guilt took over his life to the point where the mental pain and the physical pain brought him to death.

Nathaniel Hawthorne does a tremendous job at developing his characters throughout “The Scarlet Letter.” He put a very unique set of characters, each with their own personality that is expected of them at the beginning of the story, but, by the end of the story the reader realizes that the same character acts in a way that the reader was not expecting, because it took the whole story to unfold. One of the main characters that will be explained in the following paragraphs is Arthur Dimmesdale. He was the preacher for the puritans in the story, and although he began the story as what seemed to be a common and thoughtful man turned out to be something very different.

Arthur Dimmesdale is one of the four major characters in the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Although Hester Prynne is the character most readers consider to be the most influential, he is of equal importance to the novel. Arthur Dimmesdale is a young reverend that plays an important role in the Puritan community. To the people who reside in the small puritan town In Boston, Arthur Dimmesdale is considered to be the example of what it means to be “pure” and “holy” as a genuine believer in the Puritan faith.

Set in Boston, Massachusetts, a Puritan society, the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story about a love triangle between a young woman, who is condemned for adultery and wears a letter “A” on her bosom, a well respectable clergyman and an old physician who lives with the clergyman as a friend and sucks his soul bit by bit. Initially, Dimmesdale, the clergyman, struggles to live with his sin and this agonized emotion tortures him physically as well as mentally; however, this inner struggle ultimately leads him to redeeming confession to the public.