The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Repeatedly she stays silent to protect both those she loves and those she is indebted to. One instance of this is when she denies information about Dimmesdale, her lover, to her husband in order to protect him, saying “‘That thou shalt never know!’” (Hawthorne 69). This privilege of trust is not just exclusive to loved ones however, as she turns right around and offers the same deal to her husband, who asks her to “‘[b]reathe not, to any human soul, that thou didst ever call me husband!’” (Hawthorne 69-70). She complies, and no one ever finds out their prior relation. Hester is loyal to more than just the people around her, however. Hester is also loyal to her punishment and societal beliefs despite her lack of respect for the clergymen and their decisions. Hester has the option to escape her punishment, but chooses not to, rather displaying her embroidered ‘A’ to the public “... which was of a splendor in accordance the the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony” (Hawthorne 50). She views this mark of her sin as something to be proud of, decorating the letter like a trophy and taking a firm ownership of her sin. At the same time she also remains loyal to her ideals, refusing to believe she has done anything wrong. Hester “remains unwilling to separate herself from her sin by recognizing it as a sin,” and as a result maintains a strong “devotion to

The children In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter play a major role in the Puritan society. With their honest opinions of Hester and Pearl, the children are presented as more perceptive and more honest than adults. Due to their innocence, children are capable of expressing themselves without constraints; there are no laws or regulations that they are bounded by. As an adolescent go through the stages of life and grow older, they begin to be more conscious of the how they act as they are more aware of society and the things that are occurring in the world, creating a filter for their actions. When they remain as the children, on the other hand, are adventurous; they are still exploring the universe that seems to fill with mysteries that are bound to be solved. They tend to attach to the truth and they are not afraid to speak it freely. Children differ from adults in their potential for expressing these perceptions. With their obliviousness to the things that are actually going on around the town, children therefore react differently compared to the adults, who are more knowledgeable. Perceived to be immature, young children are presented as more perceptive and more honest than adults due to their innocence, how they are unaware of the reality and the crimes that are presented in society by the adults enables them to be blithe and not afraid of saying what they feel like. Due to their naivety, when they express what they perceive to be true, they do not get punished,

In the novel, Hester is the character with the scarlet letter. She believes the scarlet letter is apart of her, that is why when she gets humiliated and shamed for it, she takes it with strength. Hester is so close to the letter ‘A’ that even when she has a chance to take it off she refuses. Hester does not want to take off the letter, but what she pleases to do is transform the meaning behind the letter with her actions. For instance, when she helps around the town she transforms into something majestical “ She was self-ordained a Sister of Mercy or, we may rather say, the world’s heavy hand so ordained her, when neither the world nor she looked forward to this result. The letter was a symbol of her calling.” (Hawthorne 158) Hester becomes somewhat of a nurse, but both the world and she do not see her this way. This is

““There was witchcraft in little Pearl’s eyes, and her face, as she glanced upward at the minister, wore that naughty smile which made its expression frequently so elvish.” (Hawthorne 145) This, is a misleading description that Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts of Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne, in his classic novel The Scarlet Letter. Pearl is the living product of sin for her mother. Born out of wedlock, Pearl is a unique child that tends to be very moody and unpredictable. However, Pearl, at such a young age, demonstrates outstanding knowledge and exhibits curiosity to her mother’s scarlet letter, and the hypocrisy of Puritan society. Although Pearl portrays devilish characteristics and performs mischievous behaviour, she

The Scarlet letter shows hester as a humble person. She had to suffer a lot in the beginning. I tried to convey this with her distaste of the town shaming her. I also made sure to highlight her persistence to protect herself and her child. That’s the one thing Hester always did, protect Pearl. I decided

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 novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, many of the main characters suffer from toils of sin. Especially Arthur Dimmesdale, the local puritan clergyman who has committed adultery and can 't admit to the people of the town in Boston what he has done. He lived under a strict society where the system and all of its components were based on God. He suffers from this because he values the Puritan way. Arthur Dimmesdale does not come out for many reasons and that isn 't right, which makes him a coward throughout the novel.

In the Scarlet Letter there are characters that are important to the novel; however there is one specific character that relates to the topic of the story is Arthur Dimmesdale. The character Arthur Dimmesdale is a respected minster in Boston. However even though, Arthur Dimmesdale is a minister and preaches against sin to his congregation, he commits the ultimate sin with a young married woman named Hester Pryne. For punishment Hester Pryne becomes pregnant and shunned from public society, Dimmesdale is forced to live with guilt and later in the novel dies from the same sin within his body. Critics that have read the Scarlet letter would argue that Dimmesdale is a weak or ennobled character because he didn’t tell the community of his sinful crime. Another characteristic that critics would agree on is that Dimmesdale was a hypocrite. Arthur Dimmesdale is a character that is weak and hypocritical to his own belief.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was quite progressive for his time and his novel, The Scarlet Letter, is a wonderful example of this. Before he married his wife, Sophia Peabody, Hawthorne joined Brook Farm, a transcendentalist group (Nathaniel Hawthorne). According to Merriam Webster, transcendentalism is, “a philosophy that emphasizes the a priori conditions of knowledge and experience or the unknowable character of ultimate reality or that emphasizes the transcendent as the fundamental reality” (“Transcendentalism”). Put simply, transcendentalists thought that intuition and knowledge of ourselves is more a more important reality than the scientific, sensual reality. As a group, these people held very progressive views on women’s rights, education,

"On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A...it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore; and which was of a splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony." Hester uses what was originally meant to degrade her character and turns it into a beautiful decoration, that symbolizes her resilience and individualism, on her already not so "appropriate" outfit (at least for the Puritan community). This is outrages to the Puritans, who feel ridiculed by Hester's attitude. Yet later in the chapter, despite her pride, Hester still barely believes the situation she is currently in, this is shown when "She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast, that it sent forth a cry; she turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and the shame were

Hester has acknowledged her sin and learned to live with it even though it was hard at first. She hot used to to and moved on to live a normal life. “When the young woman— the mother of this child—stood fully revealed before the crowd, it seemed to be her first impulse to clasp the infant close to her bosom; not so much by an impulse of motherly affection, as that she might thereby conceal a certain token.” (Scarlet Letter page 50.) Hester shows that she is uncomfortable with the A of her chest, so she tires to hide it, and for a while she becomes very haughty towards society. “The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her—so much power to do, and power to sympathize—that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that is meant Abel, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength.” (Scarlet Letter page 110.) Hester is starting to become abel to do things by herself. “Hester Prynne went one day to the mansion of Governor Bellingham, with a pair of gloves which

First of all, the scarlet letter stands for Hester's sin. By forcing Hester to wear the letter A on her bosom, the Puritan community not only punishes this weak young woman for her adultery but labels her identity as an adulteress and immoral human being as well. "Thus the young and the pure would be taught to look at her, with the letter flaming on her chest", also "as the figure, the body and the reality of sin." And the day Hester began to wear the scarlet A on her bosom is the opening of her darkness. From that moment, people, who look at her, must notice the letter A manifest itself in the red color covering not only her bosom, but her own character. The Puritans now only see the letter A, the representation of sin, scorn and hate

To begin, the scarlet letter had lost its meaning over the course of time. “Then, also, the blameless purity of her life during all these years in which she had been set apart to infamy was reckoned largely in her favor.” (Chapter XIII) The author’s purpose is to call attention to the Puritan’s weak shaming system. For example, if the person being subjected to the humiliation does not draw attention to them self, the villagers will lose interest in the crime; this allows the villagers a healing time. In Hester’s case the people were able to see her in a new light. “Such helpfulness was found in her-so much power to do and power to sympathize-that many people refused to interpret the scarlet “A” by its original signification. They said that it meant “Able”; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s

Symbolism has many different meanings, and the Scarlet ‘A’ in “The Scarlet Letter” has many different meanings as well. Hester Prynne is the main character who is forced to wear the scarlet letter as remembrance for the crime and the sin that she has committed. This letter completely ruined her reputation in her community. How could a small piece of fabric do so much harm? This letter was a representation of something much greater than the letter ‘A’. This letter was originally made to stand for adulteress, as physical reminder of her sins. The vibrant scarlet red is meant to shame Hester, to make her feel sorry for her mistakes. Most importantly it was a symbol for change and an emblem of identity. In short, the scarlet letter meant much more than a letter of shame, it was simply a piece of fabric with meaning that could easily change.