The Novel ' The Scarlet Letter '

The Scarlet Letter is a well known novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The novel is composed and written in Salem and Concord, as well as Boston, Massachusetts in the late 1840's. The narrator of the novel is in an omniscent state, meaning he knows more about the characters than the characters know about themselves. Although the narrartor is omniscent, he also makes sure to include his ideas and opinions on situations, making him also greatly subjective. Being subjective, as well as omniscent, historical fiction along with a story displaying constant symbolism is evident.

The Scarlet Letter Introduction The Scarlet Letter is a classic tale of sin, punishment, and revenge. It was written in 1850 by the famous American author Nathaniel Hawthorne. It documents the lives of three tragic characters, each of whom suffer greatly because of his or her sins. Shot Plot The story begins with Hester Prynne, a resident of a small Puritan community, being led from the town jailhouse to a public scaffold where she must stand for three hours as punishment for adultery. She must also wear a scarlet A on her dress for the rest of her life as part of her punishment. As she is led to the scaffold, many of the women in the crowd complain that

Society has unintentionally been guided by the same themes since the beginning of time. The recurring themes that are present in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic The Scarlet Letter are still relevant in today’s society. When high school students and teachers claim that Hawthorne’s novel is archaic and should be removed from the curriculum, they are absolutely wrong. Hester Prynne, the main character of the novel, commits adultery and as punishment, has to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest for everyone to see. Throughout the novel, Hester is faced with obstacles such as the struggle between self and society and the burden of publicly suffering for her sins. Despite a substantial amount of time having passed since Puritan times, the themes that Hester Prynne had to experience are still pertinent. Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, is driven mad by his incessant need for revenge and in society today there are many occasions where people are plagued with the desire to seek vengeance. There are some instances in life where human nature takes over without people even realizing and revenge is one of them. Also, people are right when they say “history repeats itself” because some of these themes never go away. The Scarlet Letter takes place in the strict religious time of the 1600’s and although the book seems outdated and obsolete, the ideas inside are still relevant and therefore high school students should continue to read this work

In the novel The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, all of the characters possess specific traits of the seven deadly sins which are lust, gluttony, greed, pride, wrath, envy and sloth. My character Roger Chillingworth possesses the sins, greed, wrath and pride. I will attempt to make a connection between the sins committed by Chillingworth and his motivation behind those sins and sins committed by people in our world today. For example, one could compare wrath to the destructive and horrible feats of today’s murders that feel they have been treated unjustly, therefore, take the lives of those they feel have wronged them. Another comparison is the effects that pride can have on today’s role models such as professional athletes and the result of greed on some of today’s entertainers who need more and more stuff, such as cars, homes, jewels and the list goes on and on.

1. Hester Prynne is portrayed as a Christ figure in The Scarlet Letter. She displays self-sacrifice, saintlike features, and exemplifies some biblical teachings throughout the book. The first, which is self-sacrifice, is shown when Hester is standing on the scaffold in front of the whole town and will not uncover the other participant in the adultery. Reverend Wilson questions her of this man that helped commit this crime, “Speak out thy name! That, and thy repentance, may avail to take the scarlet letter off thy breast” (60), with the attempt to bribe her by promising the possible removal of the scarlet A. She refuses to sell out her secret lover with the responses “Never” and “I will not speak!” (60) but the young clergyman keeps questioning Hester. She is willing to take the fall for the both of them and stand up there with the humiliation of their actions. “It is too deeply branded. Ye cannot take it off. And would that I might endure his agony, as well as mine!” (60). This reinforces her firmness in protecting Dimmesdale and from completely razing his name as a minister by telling the public. She is willing to endure the ignominy from the public without exposing him, which is an example of self-sacrifice. With saying that, Hester is like Jesus Christ because he was crucified for our sins as a form of self-sacrifice so we could have eternal life and go to Heaven. Hester's actions for Dimmesdale caused her much more agony and humiliation by the public because of the

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

The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, consists of multiple characters that are all important to the novel: Hester Prynne, Pearl Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester Prynne is the protagonist who has a affair with Reverend Dimmesdale behind her husband’s, Roger Chillingworth, back thus creating Pearl Prynne, the outcome of Hester and Dimmesdale’s affair. Since Hester was pregnant, she was charged for committing adultery, and her punishment is to wear a Scarlet Letter on her bosom. Though, the whole novel surrounds that idea of who the father is, because Hester and Dimmesdale won't reveal their sin, which creates conflict and tension between all the characters. Though Dimmesdale, in particular, caused chaos

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne was written in 1849. This novel won him much fame and a good reputation as a writer. In writing The Scarlet Letter, Hawethorne was creating a form of fiction he called the psychological romance. A psychological romance is a story that contains all of the conventional trappings of a typical romance, but deeply portrays humans in conflict with themselves. The Scarlet Letter won Hawthorne great critical acclaim, and even today the book remains on the best seller list. The Scarlet Letter is so popular maybe because generations of readers can interpret it and see subtle meanings that somewhat reflect their own lives. Each of us, has

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne focuses more on the symbolic meaning than on characterization. The Scarlet Letter revolves around the themes of sin, guilt and redemption, which are conceptualized through an adulterous life story in Massachusetts. Adultery is expressed in a means, which is not only psychologically disturbing but also reflects upon understanding of the human heart. Hester Prynne is an adulteress who is forced to wear a scarlet letter A on her gown according to Puritan practices. Arthur Dimmesdale, struggles in the background with guilt for fathering her secret child, Pearl yet the woman gets to be castigated independently. Furthermore, Dimmesdale is a cleric and Chillingworth who is Hester’s husband, from

        In reality, the Scarlet Letter is many things. It has all the characteristics of a modern-day soap opera, but it is way more than some television show cast on ABC. It could be a sermon being shouted from a church attendee, but no; the Puritans are surely not the heroes in this novel. It could be a story of failure, for there are many failures cast upon the main characters, or it could be a story of revenge from an angry husband. And, maybe it could even be a story of creativity-- the attempt of one to see their artistic side in a community who disapproves a mind of imagination. The novel could mean a multitude of things, only noticed

“But she named the infant ‘Pearl’, as being of great price, --purchased with all she had, --her mother’s only treasure!” (73). In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne utilizes characters’ names to reveal a deeper meaning within a character or the plot. For example, Pearl’s name reflects many of her attributes throughout the novel. Pearl is beautiful, rare, and worth a great price. Through Pearl’s actions and words, the reader can clearly see the close resemblance between the meaning of her name and her personality. Pearl not only symbolizes beauty and grace, but she is also adultery, pain, and truth. As the plot advances Pearl’s name becomes more evident in its truth. For example, Pearl resembles a great price and expense to her mother. On the other hand, she is valuable since she is the most valuable person to Hester. Hawthorne chose her name as Pearl to reveal a deeper meaning of physical beauty, inner value, and universal truth.

In the stories of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the antagonist characters display parallel story lines through their searches for the enemy. Roger Chillingworth, the former husband of Hester Prynne and the antagonist of The Scarlet Letter, works against his wife in order to find her untold second lover. Frankenstein is a contrasting story in which an unnamed monster is the antagonist towards his human creator, Dr. Frankenstein. Yet despite quite different story lines, the two characters possess traits that exibit parallels between them. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth displays the startling passionate characteristics of an unwavering drive to seek out his foe, madness as his focus on his search takes over his entire being, and terrible anguish when his task is unexpectedly over, all of which are reflected in the daemon created at the hand of Dr. Victor Frankenstein in Mary Shelley 's novel Frankenstein.

French poet Jean De La Fontaine once said, “Nothing weighs on us so heavily as a secret does.” Set in the harsh Puritan community of seventeenth-century Boston, Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a tale of a woman named Hester Prynne who is involved in an infidelity scandal. As a result she is punished by the relentless society and is ordered to bear a scarlet “A” on her bosom for the remainder of her life which stands for adulterer. However, the mystery as to who the father is of her newborn baby, Pearl would remain a mystery for seven years. One of the town’s most renowned figures, their beloved minister Arthur Dimmesdale proves to be a true exhibit of Mr. Fontaine’s saying since he is the illicit lover of Hester and is Pearl’s

In addition to the creation of Pearl, Hester Prynne was a woman who committed the act of adultery. She had sexual relations with a man who was not her husband, resulting in the pregnancy and birth of her daughter, Pearl. Hester must be prosecuted for sinning, as it is deemed a crime by the townspeople and those who govern. As punishment, Hester Prynne must adorn the scarlet letter upon her bosom, “...in find red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread appeared the letter A.” (Hawthorne 46) The woman of the town do not find the

“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