The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

As great effect as emotions can have on someone, even greater is the effect of how one reacts to his emotions. Arguably the two most influential of these emotions are guilt and anger. They can drive a man to madness or encourage actions of vindication. Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale are subject to this very notion in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's The Scarlet Letter. Hester simply accepted that what she had done was wrong, whereas Dimmesdale, being a man of high regard, did not want to accept the reality of what he did. Similar to Hester and Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth allows his emotions to influence his life; however, his influence came as the result of his anger. Throughout the book, Hawthorne documents how Dimmesdale and Hester 's

Why is sin important? It is believed that sin is important to people because their deity places guilt on their wrongdoings to show that those actions are not to be repeated. In contrary to this belief, there are people with religious views that hold no importance with sin. Depending on the individual’s religious views, sin can be a conflict between oneself and a “higher” being or it can not affect the individual at all. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Arthur Dimmesdale is an ordained Puritan priest that had committed a grave sin in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He had committed adultery with a married woman, Hester, the woman that is married to Roger Chillingworth. After Chillingworth has heard about this news, he seeks

The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is an 1850 work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and is considered to be his magnum opus. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, Massachusetts, during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt.

Hester may seem like an ordinary sinner, but once the symbols are devoured, Hester is much more complex. As seen in the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, symbols provide underlying messages to the reader, to help learn more about characters and plot. In the novel, the three main characters, Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, are struggling the battle of sin and the consequences that come about. In the Puritan society, there are many religious references and concepts. While Hester is judged by the society for her sin, others in her life are affected by it also. The book opens up with Hester standing on the scaffold, where she is made a shame. Through the book, Hester 's life is dug into deeper, as the reader finds out who she truly is and who the people around her have become. The symbols in the book are necessary to understanding the underlying themes of the text. Throughout the book, the most important symbols to understand are, nature and the black man, Dimmesdale 's mark and scarlet letter, and Pearl.

What exists within often does not match what appears outside. This statement is especially seen in the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale commits adultery with Hester Prynne, but the Puritan community only knows, until the end of the book, that Hester committed adultery, but they do not know with whom. Arthur Dimmesdale therefore finds himself feeling guilty and attempting to repent himself before he dies. His actions, however, until the end of the book, are internal because of his internal conflict – confessing his sin to the community would alleviate his internal pain but could cause the community to disrespect or mistreat him. Dimmesdale therefore deals with his sin internally, but these effects are seen outside his skin. Arthur Dimmesdale demonstrates the relationship between individualism and society (the community) because his individual private actions and thoughts, those done internally, affect his societal public actions, those done externally and vice versa.

Nothing is more powerful than the feeling one gets when they have committed a wrong doing in their life. Sometimes, guilt can cause a person to suffer so terribly that they end up doing things that they usually would not do. Guilt has an enormous effect on a person, and could change their life forever. Committing a sin causes the feeling of guilt inside a person. The person usually feels as if they deserve to be punished for what they did. The punishment for guilt could be shown either privately or publicly. Nathaniel Hawthorne shows these different punishments and how either private or public punishment affects the characters. Guilt can change a person by making them hate themselves and believe that they are at fault. In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, guilt is illustrated throughout Roger Chillingworth, Hester Prynne, and Arthur Dimmesdale, making these character suffer from guilt, which shows the powerful effect of guilt.

Adultery was a moral wrongdoing and transgression in 1850. Hawthorne captured the essence of the events that could occur in any Puritan woman’s life after committing this sin from his own perspective of the topic, Hawthorne did this within a writing of his. The Scarlet Letter was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. The Scarlet Letter is about the life of Hester Prynne and the other characters after she played a part in committing the sin of Adultery. Hester partakes in moral trials throughout the novel too, some even concerning her daughter Pearl. The Scarlet Letter reflects on the toll that secrets can play of a person, through Dimmesdale and the effects of a person 's decisions on others around them. The novel also speaks of how

In many cases, humans are instinctually very judgmental and quick to label individuals. It is so easy to look upon a person who we are not acquainted with and create false judgments based on what we see. The judgment of individuals who we are not acquainted with is chiefly based on their public appearance and how they seem to carry themselves. The fictitious book The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, takes place in the Puritan town of Boston. The Puritans were a group of English Reformed Protestants who sought to “purify” the Church of England from all Roman Catholic practices. Puritans were unhappy with the limited extent of the English Reformation and with the Church of England’s tolerance of practices. One can assume that

In The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthrone looks at three people who all suffer in different ways. Hester Prynne because of her adultery, was driven away by the people of Boston. Roger Chillingworth fueled by his need for revenge rushes into madness. The Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, who is loves by all, is almost pushed into insanity. While it is clear Hester and Chillingworth suffer, Dimmesdale is the one who goes through the worst trial.

Although Hawthorne goes back two hundred years to create a romantic setting for his famous novel The Scarlet Letter, he also envisions a hopeful future for women in which “sacred love should make [them] happy” (166). However, our present setting tells us a different story. We are presented with the problem of “slut shaming”: a subtle, yet deadly transfiguration of a woman’s passion and “sacred love” into moral frailty and opprobrium. As a male, I do not have the same authority to speak on this topic as someone who has experienced it firsthand would. I am a part of the problem, but so is our patriarchal society, and if everyone is part of the problem, then who should begin the inevitable discourse? The Scarlet Letter embodies the idea of exaggerated ignominy placed upon women who desire just to be a normal woman: someone of passion and caring. One would expect that with the one hundred and fifty years Hawthorne alots us to appreciate and respect a woman’s “sacred love,” we would have at least made strides to do so. Yet, it seems our society today has only embraced the shame that Hawthorne tried so hard to dismantle.

In the beginning of the Bible, Adam and Eve were exiled from the Garden of Eden for eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The story of Adam and Eve has been recalled in The Scarlet Letter because of the sinful acts Arthur and Hester commit, which lead to expulsion and suffering. Even though Hester Prynne is the main protagonist in the novel, she does not change much; however, we see Arthur change in various ways. It is through Dimmesdale’s suffering that Hawthorne illustrates his theme, namely the idea that though forbidden knowledge can bring suffering, exposing others to that same knowledge can bring redemption.

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.

A young woman named Hester Prynne is found of adultery. She had an illegitimate child and now has to wear the letter "A" on her chest to represent adulterer. She has been sentences to three hours of scolded punishment and a lifetime of being branded. Reverend Wilson and reverend Dimmesdale question Hester about the child 's father. She refuses to give up the name. Her old husband Roger Chillingworth appears and gives her some medicine to help her. She bursts out that he might be the devil in disguise and assures her that he just wants to get revenge on the baby 's father. A few months later she is released from prison and is able to take care of herself and the baby from her talent as needlework. Pearl is Hester 's child and knows she is different from everyone else. There are rumors going around that Pearl is a demon child and should be taken away from Hester. She persuades Wilson by saying that she can teach pearl a lesson from her shame. He grants the order of letting pearl be with her mother. Chillingworth becomes a doctor and moves in with reverend Dimmesdale to find the cause of his health problems. Dimmesdale is getting worse and is seeing visions. He tortures himself because of his sin and whips himself. He goes to the scaffold and holds hands with Hester and Pearl. They return home and Dimmesdale does the sermon of his lifetime.

Symbols are one of the many literary devices authors use to convey deeper meanings and context to the story. Similarly, an artist will use symbols in his or her art to portray a story that can be interpreted in different ways. Often times, books will have cover art done by an artist whom has read the book to bring the book’s meanings and themes into one picture. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book, The Scarlet Letter, has acquired many different renditions of the cover over the years from different artists. In his story, a young Puritan, Hester Prynne, is sentenced to a punishment of the scarlet letter after she has committed adultery with an unnamed man. Hawthorne’s narrative is filled with in depth characters, symbolism, and themes of revenge, sin, forgiveness and secrecy. By using important symbols, characters, themes from the book, the artists of each cover art for The Scarlet Letter clearly represents Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel.

In the spring of 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne published what could be considered the astounding literary works of the Romantic Period of literature. The Scarlet Letter was set in 17th century Boston where most of the population was of firm Puritan faith. Hawthorne used great symbolism in his novel to convey a message of guilt, sin, and judgment. The symbols used most profoundly by Hawthorne are the various settings of the book, Hester’s daughter, Pearl, and lastly, the ever important scarlet letter endowed upon the adulterers, Hester and Reverend Dimmesdale.