The Scarlet Letter: Analytical Snapshot Seven

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 The Scarlet Letter takes place in the strict religious time of the 1600’s and although the book seems outdated and obsolete, the ideas inside are still relevant and therefore high school students should continue to read this work

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that”- Martin Luther King Jr. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story that proves how far the love of a mother will go for their child. Hawthorne inspired a literature story that pushes the human soul past its own limits. The Scarlet Letter Demonstrates how the human spirit, in both Hester Prynne’s Puritan culture and in the lives of 21st century citizens is resilient.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is biblical in notion that there is sin in everyone, but it is up to God to judge. The theme of The Scarlet Letter is that revenge gets you nowhere and guilt is not the way. A determined woman refuses to speak out, but the secret is told and it costs two men their lives. Adam and Eve are guilty of sin and God punished them so perhaps that is the way it should stay.

The setting of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet letter” is crucial to the understanding of the event that takes place in the story. The setting of the story is in Salem, Massachusetts during the Puritan era. During the Puritan era, adultery was taken as a very serious sin, and this is what Hester and Dimmesdale committ with each other. Because of the sin, their lives change, Hester has to walk around in public with a Scarlet Letter “A” which stands for adultery, and she is constantly being tortured and is thought of as less than a person. Dimmesdale walks around with his sin kept as secret, because he never admits his sin, his mental state is changing, and the sin degrades his well-being. Chillingworth

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, narrates the experiences of Hester Prynne, a beautiful young woman in Puritan times, after committing the sin of adultery with the local Reverend, Mr. Arthur Dimmesdale. Because she became pregnant, she bears the public scorn of her sin, while the town does not uncover Mr. Dimmesdale’s participation in the act until the very end of the novel. Using the Puritan society as the setting, and the development of both Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, Hawthorne explores the concepts of individuality, identity, and isolation. Through Hester and Dimmesdale, he presents two scenarios: one in which the character is isolated and freed from society,

The choice of setting in a novel work to establish the values represented by society and how characters are viewed. This may lead to a brick of independence or even a period of ignorance and judgment. In the novel the Scarlet letter,The Puritan society represents a suppression of women and highlights the intensity of mistakes, specifically that was made by Hester who commits adultery and ashamed to show the novel's stance on independence and values.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a great piece of literature. It explores problems in society that still occur today. It is fascinating to see how the Puritans punished adultery then and the lack of punishment of adultery in our society now. It shows how all the characters affect Hester and what everyone does in the community. It shows that no one is exempt from any type of crime in that town. In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, he analyzes the characters of Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale and Pearl.

In this novel you will find that the main characters are the prime examples of Love, Hate, Sin, and Purity. Although adultery is condemned and seen as sin, adultery isn't what Hawthorne focuses on. Through my analysis of the Scarlet Letter I noticed that there were three different types of love. The act of hatred plays a vile role throughout the novel. Hawthorne uses Pearl as a blatant symbol of purity, from her birth till the end of the novel. As you will see Love, Hate, Sin, and Purity does play a vital role in this story.

The Scarlet Letter (1850), written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, reveals the life of Hester Pryne. She is a single mother who had been isolated by her community for having a bastard child. She was very independent and had a strong personality. In these religious times it was frowned upon to have sexual relations while being unwed. Having felt abandoned by her husband, she did so anyways. To show her shame, she was forced to wear a scarlet “A” on her chest whenever she went out in public. That scarlet letter stood for adultery. Out of respect Hester never revealed who the father was, so she bared the punishment with her daughter Pearl.

Through the words, “You must unlearn what you have learned,” of the infamous, leafy, green-skinned Jedi Master, “small in size, but wise and powerful,” comes the secret to obtaining power, the secret to obtaining success, and the secret to obtaining the ruler of all other moral characteristics: knowledge.

The Scarlet Letter was once a man’s life living experiences in the puritan society where religion reign superior, people were harsh to those with different beliefs or ideas. The refurbished, rewritten, localized, and the updated book gave millions the ideas of how adultery was seen as sinful, Puritans had harsh punishments, and overall society during the 1700’s was difficult compared to the 21st century. Today, published more than 45 books, scarlet letter was considered his best work to many during his 60 years on earth, yet people are finding multiple hints and nudges to other ideas in the text. For example, at the beginning of the book ( mainly chapter 3) Nathaniel Hawthorne goes into great about a bearded, queered stranger angrily stating

It is looked down upon because black flowers were rare and like the odd ones out.

The end of the scarlet letter left us with some unanswered questions. Were they all forgiven? Were they reunited in heaven? Did they even get into heaven? Nobody knows except Hawthorne, the author, but that will never stop people from making theories and coming up with their own endings for the rest of the book. So let’s think about that first question more and come to a decision.

Today is a hard and struggling day for me. I find out if pearl my daughter who gives me life to live every day is taken away and since I have to see the governor I made gloves for him. Pearl is everything to me and I will do anything to keep her with me, a mother needs her daughter just like a daughter needs her mother. Some of the townspeople, including the governor, have come to an agreement that Pearl is a demon child. The townspeople reason that if Pearl is a demon-child, she should be taken from me but I won’t let that happen. They are trying to take my child away and give it to a better parent than me.When pearl and I was walking to the governor house I begin to become scared and frighten

“Women belong in the kitchen.” “All women should be barefoot and pregnant.” “Women are strictly homemakers.” These are a few of the commonly used phrases regarding the female role in society that date back to the mid-seventeenth century. However, ardent supporters of gender equality have surfaced in almost every culture where this ideology is practiced. Nathaniel Hawthorne explores this inveterate societal conflict through his story The Scarlet Letter. The main character, Hester Prynne, is punished for committing adultery by being forced to wear a scarlet letter upon her bosom; Hawthorne created a story sympathetic to the female cause and demonstrated, through Hester, qualities of early feminism that later establish themselves during his