The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne Essay

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

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.

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

“Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred” (Hawthorne). As this sentence is read in the The Scarlet Letter, the reader will realize that the main theme of the book is the sentence above. Throughout the book, secret sin damages the lives, soul, and the integrity of the main characters. However, it could have easily been evaded through open confession of their sins. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s purpose in writing this novel is an attempt to influence the reader to openly confess their sins and never be ashamed of who they are. According to Levine, “even though we convey ourselves as saints, we are really sinners (Levine 64). The Scarlet Letter is a classic work of

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

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.

The Puritans believe that it is their job, as well as the job of the communities in which they live, to glorify God in everything they do by living holy lives. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” is a novel about the struggles that Hester, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale, have to face living in a Puritan society. Throughout the novel these three characters are faced with isolation and secret guilt. All three have to face their sins both internally and externally.

To better understand The Scarlet Letter, we first must explore the author and his purpose for writing such a novel. Nathaniel Hawthorne was a philosophical thinker. He grew up in Salem, Massachusetts and was the descendant of William Hathorne, a Puritan magistrate and judge who became infamous for giving out harsh punishments. This was especially true during the Salem witch trials. Hawthorn’s family past seemed to fascinate and haunt him, and is represented in most of his works. This is coupled with his transcendentalist ideals, and clues the audience to the book’s intended

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.

     In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s American classic The Scarlet Letter the main character Hester Prynne is portrayed as the preeminent feminist heroine through the portraiture of her crime and punishment. In this novel, a Puritanical society in New England condemns Hester Prynne to wear a highly embossed depiction of the letter “A” on her breast as punishment for an act of adultery. How Hester handles the consequences of her castigation is what brings about the heroic feministic qualities of the main character. Three aspects that corroborate Hester Prynne’s qualities are: 1. Admitting her sin openly to fellow man and God, 2. Putting up with the taunting and social exile of

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.

As the novel progresses, readers watch Hester transform herself from once adulterer to selfless civilian. In the beginning, readers learn quickly of Hester’s egregious sins. She cannot conceal her sin of adultery from her town as she has a child named Pearl as a result. She is publicly punished by being forced “…to stand only a space of three hours on the platform of the pillory, and then and thereafter, for the remainder of her natural life, to wear a mark of shame upon her bosom” (Hawthorne 56). Hester must wear a scarlet letter ‘A’, which symbolizes adulterer, on her chest so that every person that comes upon her knows of the sin she has committed. Initially, Hester is mortified of the public symbol of sin she is made out to be and feels an immense amount of shame because of the callous stares from villagers. Eventually, she and Pearl move to the outskirts of town to try to move on with their lives while the indignity of the letter “A” follows. Over time, Hester begins to be a valuable aspect of society in that she sews clothes for the community and delivers food to the poor among many other good deeds. The townspeople begin to view Hester as a hard worker and her past slowly begins to fade. The once infamous letter becomes “…the symbol of her calling” and “… many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original

Appealing to the society that Hawthorne found himself in at that time was a very crafty strategy that surely picked up many fans of his writing. The conception of women’s rights movements was a perfect edifice on which Hawthorne crafted the ideas of his novel. Contrast would be a perfect word to describe reasoning behind the success of Hawthorne’s book. The fact that women did just not simply have a large role in Puritan society was an incredibly effective contrast to Hawthorne placing Hester at the center of the book, almost effectively negating the pure facts of history at the time. A thorough exhumation of the background of Hawthorne and the time period of the novel really gave insight into the style of The Scarlet Letter.

    The title of my novel is The Scarlet Letter by the prestigious author Nathaniel Hawthorne. The story is set in the mid-seventeenth century in Boston, Massachusetts. It is set during a time in which religion seems to govern over all. The puritan people looked up to the reverends and the community leaders and believed whatever they said as their destinies. During this time everyone was expected to follow the puritan law. Public punishment and shame were used to ensure that people would not go astray, and that they would not fail in the completion of their duties to God.

"The happiness of the wicked passes away like a torrent!" This quote from Jean Baptiste Racin summarizes The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne in one sentence. The novel's main focus is on three main characters and how the sins they commit affect their lives in the strict Puritan town of Boston around the year 1642. Hawthorne was very knowledgeable of his Puritan ancestry and shows it by incorporating some important thoughts and traditions into this story about sin and confession. Throughout the novel, the physical, social, mental and emotional changes that result from sin in the lives of the characters are never positive and the outcome of their spiritual