The Scarlet Letter, By Nathaniel Hawthorne Essay

In a surface examination of the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne, it is quickly evident that no good things come from the wilderness. Therein, the wilderness is often associated with the savages and the devil. In his work The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne finds herself exiled by society for having an adulterous affair with the town reverend which brought forth the child known as Pearl. Pearl is quickly established as the child of the wilderness: wild, capricious, and thought by the town to be a demon-child. She represents several entities in the novel just by her being, but when her morality is delved into, much more of the nature of the story can be revealed. Pearl’s role is often overlooked as a formative force in the novel. Some scholars have gone as far as to denounce her as unnecessary to the story’s makeup. Upon close examination, it can be determined that Pearl is indeed a necessary element. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Pearl presents themes of morality, both personal and cultural, as well as the divide between society and nature, through her interactions with Hester, Reverend Dimmesdale, and the scarlet letter itself.

You’re free. Calmly sitting in a chair reading a book. One moment later, your tied up. Unable to move, unable to escape the ropes that tie you down. There is a tray of food in arms reach and you seem to be comfortably placed. You seek a way to get get out and run from whoever trapped you, yet part of you wants to stay. The pros and cons of the situation seem to be swirling around clouding your judgement. Equivalently, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays the same clouded judgement with Hester’s exile. Throughout the novel Hester’s exile has the reader to believe that she has experiences that both enlighten and alienate her as a character. Even though experience with exile may seem to lead us down only one path, the one of despair and solitude, Hester’s experience with exile taught her that solitude gives strength, proving a rift teaches us more about our character.

To start the book, we find that a young woman has committed adultery and when standing in front of a mocking crowd, she is ashamed of her actions. Continuing through the book we find that the adulteress, Hester Prynne, displays many examples of positive outcomes arising from negative situations. She becomes more and more aware of the faults of society and becomes wiser as she deals with the consequences of her actions. Even though Hester made a terrible decision that came with many extremely negative effects, she gained personality traits, perceptions, and people that rose from her mistake.

Surveillance can be considered the act of being watched under a close eye and can have either a positive or negative effect on a person. Some individuals feel more at ease knowing that someone is always there watching which is to create a supposedly safe environment. Others feel pressure from society or their peers to live up to their respected positions and morals of the society, much like Dimmesdale, which causes extreme paranoia. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dimmesdale is an example that demonstrates negative effects that surveillance can have on a person. In the romance, Dimmesdale is faced with both his own surveillance and Chillingworth’s surveillance. However, Dimmesdale’s own scrutiny causes more damage to himself than Chillingworth’s does.

The blinds on the windows are shut, it feels like a prison cell as I sit under the spotlight. The darkness outside makes me feel somber and alone. I stare at the glowing screen and think to myself, “It’s just me and this paper.” In December of my junior year in high school, I was assigned a persuasive essay on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter; it was my first academic essay of the year. My previous experiences with academic writing were both stressful and unfulfilling; when the essay topic was announced, I felt only resentment and anger, I remembered my past tribulations. With my mother’s help, this essay was different; after I submitted it to the teacher, I possessed a new perspective on academic writing. From my experience, I learned that strong writing skills are vital to communication, critical thinking, and life outside of the classroom.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was in his mid-twenties when he published Mrs. Hutchinson in 1830. He referenced this story and its main character in his famous novel The Scarlet Letter, which was published two decades later.

In the Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne discusses the hurdles Hester Prynne, the protagonist, goes through due to her sinful nature with her child, the mocking Puritans, and the past always creeping up on her. Often these obstacles appear when she is in the forest, making it a very critical locality in the book. Nathaniel Hawthorne brilliantly uses symbolism to convey how the three main aspects of the forest—the stream, the logs, and the sunshine— all correlate to the Scarlet A that Hester wears on her chest.

Children have sponge-like mindsets that are full of curiosity and through each negative and positive encounter, they are able to learn from their experiences. Through their experiences, they are able to be more perceptive about their surroundings and are more honest than adults because they do not know what they say is either right or wrong. Children differ from adults in their potential for expressing these perceptions because they are not afraid to say or express anything but the truth. The children in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, are presented as more perceptive and honest than adults due to their actions of perceiving Hester’s scarlet letter, expressing their opinions without knowing if it is right or wrong, and their willingness to ask questions. In the Scarlet Letter, Hester’s daughter, Pearl, has a willingness to ask questions about the scarlet letter on Hesters chest to help her have a better understanding of why her mother wears it. Pearl shows how different a childs mind is from an adults since she does not understand the mark on her mother 's chest is a punishment. Children are able to be more perceptive and honest than adults because they express their ideas out loud without knowing if it is either correct or incorrect; despite how rude it might be. The ideas that children pick up are usually picked up by the action of their parents. Children are shown to be blunt and innocent because they are young and curious about everything leading them

The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a timeless classic with many symbolic meanings. Such as the forest which symbolizes much more than one might imagine. In this mysterious dark landscape Hester and Dimmesdale met once again and this time they let their guard down profess their love to one another and committed adultery here. Nathaniel Hawthorne, created a literary masterpiece. He took a landscape and made it a place of morally astray, and a place for natural innocence.

Everyone faces penalties for the choices that he or she makes. Nathanial Hawthorne, well-known dark romanticist and author of “Young Goodman Brown,” and “The Scarlet Letter,” displays a love for story and symbols. Goodman Brown in “Young Goodman Brown,” chooses to question his faith and sells himself out of everyone because he does not believe in anyone. Whereas Hester in “The Scarlet Letter,” was thrown away from everyone because of her actions. Hawthorne’s usage of light and dark imagery in both, “The Scarlet Letter,” and “Young Goodman Brown,” represents good and evil, and the difficulty man faces to differentiate between the two

The Novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne is about a woman named Hester Prynne who is married to an older man, but not for love. Mrs. Pryne has an affair with another man named Arthur Dimmsdale and is completely ostracized by the community. It is revealed that because of this affair she gave birth to a daughter, Pearl. The main conflict Is external with Hester, but internal with her lover, Arthur. It is later revealed, Hester had taken full blame for the affair, but that is eating away at Dimmsdale’s conscience. Arthur’s health is slowly deteriorating. The climax is when Dimmsdale becomes an idol in the town after preaching powerful and influential sermons. Arthur would love nothing more than to confess, but such

Societal influence on people is a highly discussed topic today, and evidently was in the past, as Nathaniel Hawthorne makes comments on how society should affect people in The Scarlet Letter. This book is about a woman named Hester Prynne, who is condemned to wearing a scarlet letter A by the Puritan society, in which she lives. The symbol explored is Hawthorne’s use of nature. Nature is found everywhere, no matter where a person looks. It can be a display of beauty or a display of ugliness. It also contains many elements, such as leaves, stems, and roots. Nature is used in The Scarlet Letter to represent the characters of the novel. Hawthorne uses nature to point out how the actions of characters reveal their true nature in order to convey that by not living by one’s true identity, a person doesn’t live their life to the highest potential, and instead corrupts their natural character.

Nathaniel Hawthorne adds a satirical twist throughout his novel The Scarlet Letter which manifests his perception of the Puritanism. The novel portrays the strictness and impact of Puritanism on human lives. Hawthorne’s usage of Puritan characters and outcasts also demonstrate Hawthorne’s position on Puritanism. Throughout Hawthorne’s novel, all of the characters in this novel represent strong Puritan belief, Puritan lifestyle, strong resistance to Puritanism, and satirical Puritan lifestyles. Hawthorne uses irony to demonstrate his perception of strict Puritanism by providing ironic twists on a character’s true identity with Puritanism.

In the novel Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne presenting the idea for humans to endure the laws of nature and conscience, rather than following the laws of man, to fulfill happiness. The novel consists of a young woman named Hester Prynne carrying her infant daughter named Pearl. The golden letter "A" embroidered on Hester’s bosom symbolizes adultery, a vile sin which is looked down upon in her community. She encounters Dimmesdale, an influential Puritan priest who commits adultery with Hester. Their main priority is to escape their society and live a new life. There are many symbols displayed in the Scarlet Letter, in particular, wilderness vs. civilization. The wilderness represents opposing behaviors while civilization represents bounded to rules.

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a novel that takes place in the early 1800’s. The author was influenced by the ongoing Romanticist time period. The Scarlet Letter is about the misfortunes of sin in a particular Puritan society. The story of Hester Prynne, the woman who went through the ordeal of the reactions and consequences of the sin, is brought to light. Hester Prynne commits the sin of adultery with the the town’s beloved minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. Throughout the majority of the novel, nobody, except Roger Chillingworth, her husband, knows who the other half of the affair is. This affair is a very exciting, yet chaotic event for this conservative Puritan society. The government of the town is a theocracy, so the Church is mixed with the state. This means a sin has consequences not only spiritually, but legislatively as well. Hester’s punishment is that she is forced to wear an eye catching capital letter “A”, for adultery, on her chest. This brings a stigma to her and her daughter Pearl for the rest of their lives. However, no one can punish her as much as she is punishing herself and trying to make herself righteous again. Redemption becomes possible due to Hester’s generosity, commitment, and honesty.