The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his bold novel, The Scarlet Letter tackles a variety of themes that include: sin, guilt, redemption, postfeminism, and organized religion's abuse of power. Hawthorne spoke in a somber and grim tone, designed to arouse a sense of suspense for his readers. The audience in which he was addressing would have been conservative Christians and women suffragettes, all of whom reflected the ideologies during this time period. By instilling clever diction, Hawthorne exposes hypocrisy in Puritanism and objects against the religion's superfluous punishments; which force individuals to endure unnecessary and extreme suffering.

During the 17th century, a Puritan commonwealth presided over Boston and was known for its strict adherence to religious, moral and social codes. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes rhetorical strategies in order to denounce the Puritan system of beliefs and bring to light the hypocrisy of the Puritan community as he tells the agonizing story of a young woman who was condemned by society.

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 by Nathaniel Hawthorne was written amidst the 1800’s. Hawthorne was a famous American author during that time frame. He is a relative to a judge from the Salem Witch Trials, which was his Great-Great Grandfather John Hathorne. Hathorne was the only judge who did not express atonement for his crimes, which led people to dislike all the Hathorne’s. This sparked Nathaniel Hawthorne's interest in the Puritan times, which resulted in the Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne delineates Puritan standards religiously and culturally in an outstanding way. He was also an Anti-Transcendentalist which means that he believed that all humans were evil. In his novel, the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbols of the scarlet letter, Reverend Dimmesdale, and burrs to add onto the overall theme of guilt.

Written in 1849 and published in 1850, the novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), investigates in the most penetrating way the concept of sin, the sense of guilt and the impact that religious fanaticism can have on human communities and specific individuals. The historical, religious and spiritual climate in which the story unfolds has a remarkable importance in the development of the facts and the evolution of the characters, whose lives are spent in very specific historical circumstances, which were well known to the author of the novel. The geographical locations where the events happen are in Boston, a colony of Massachusetts, between 1642 and 1649. The first stable settlement of the English in North America took

The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is set in Boston during the 1640s where the main religion was Puritanism. Hawthorne published his book during the Romantic period emphasizing individualism and a person’s relationship with God. This book also contains Gothic elements because it shows the psychological effects of being alienated from society and the darker sides of humanity. Throughout the book there are characters that demonstrate hubris. The character that most prominently shows excessive pride is Arthur Dimmesdale.

Historically, Puritanism was a popular way of life, playing a major role in English history during the first half of the 17th century. Back in that time a man named Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was a well known writer, had a history of creating stories about Puritan society. Although he wrote about the Puritans, he most certainly did not favor them, and this has become obvious throughout the storyline. In the uptight and dismal culture that Hawthorne paints for us in The Scarlet Letter, his distaste, annoyance, and utter hostility towards the Puritans in this time exemplify Hawthorne’s use of diction and symbols to persuade readers to dislike Puritans and their culture.

The prospect of having religious freedom was enough reason for the Puritans to pick up their lives and begin a journey across the Atlantic. The Puritans lived and breathed their religion, which was prominent in their cultural and political beliefs. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter captures these ways with a beautiful story about a young woman and her struggle with the Puritanism expectations. American Puritanism, with its strict religious beliefs, swept over the New England colonies during the seventeenth century.

Many of the events of The Scarlet Letter involve religion. The Puritans were strict Protestants who made the mighty voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas, and settled in New England. When the Puritans landed on the shores of New England in 1620, other than the lose kinship ties of Native Americans, the religion they carried with them was the only source of organization in what became New England ("Puritanism"). As a result, everything was built off a foundation of religion. From what is clearly visible in The Scarlet Letter, the Protestant religion shaped all aspects of society. As a result, a theocracy was naturally put in place in the Puritan colonies. This resulted in a society where every political, social or economic action

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a writer in the 1800s, an anti-transcendentalist, and the great-nephew of John Hathorne, a judge in the Salem Witch Trials. Hawthorne is obsessed with Puritanism and, due to being obsessed, bases all his writings on Puritan towns. All of his stories take place in New England in the 1600s, before the Salem Witch Trials; The Scarlet Letter is one of these stories. In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of the Wild Rosebush, Hester’s Cabin, and the sunlight and the forest to contribute to the overall theme of imperfection.

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the 1800s, takes place in a New England Puritan society in the 1600s. Hawthorne was an anti transcendentalist, the great nephew of John Hathorne, who believed that all humans have an innate darkness within them. Hathorne was the only judge who did not apologize for the Salem Witch Trials. The basis of anti transcendentalism also included that the forest/nature is evil because that is where the devil lives, and that society was good because it kept humans from giving in to their evil natures. Hawthorne uses symbolism, a literary device that uses objects and people to stand for something outside themselves, throughout the book to depict and explain many events.

In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne is very critical of the Puritans. There are many villains that come into the picture throughout the story, but the Puritans are focused on the most. Hawthorne reveals the Puritans evil through their hypocrisy, judgment, and irrationality. The Puritans are by far the most hypocritical people in the novel. We see this early in the novel with their strong religious views; "The magistrates are God-fearing gentlemen, but merciful overmuch,—that is a truth," (44).

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a man who was both plagued and absorbed by the legacy of the Puritans in New England. He was related to John Hathorne, a Puritan judge during the infamous Salem Witch trials of 1692. In The Scarlet Letter, his fictional account of mid-17th century Boston presents an opportunity to examine different themes commonly associated with Puritans. Particularly the nature of sin, personal identity and the repression of natural urges are themes that appear repeatedly through the novel. While his account of this time period may not be completely historically accurate, it is indicative of the persistent thematic influence of Puritan culture on American and New England society.

In the Puritan society the outlandish mindset of the leaders caused more harm than good with the witch trials in Salem to the events mentioned in The Scarlet Letter. Sin and evil the new world cloud the vision of the citizens, yet they are two separate actions and have different definitions. Hawthorne explains the difference between the two in the novel and also shows off his famous skill of questioning a society’s rules, regulations, and social structure. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses his writing style of ambiguity, and ornate word choice to relay his opinion of the puritan society. Characters, quotes, and symbols give us a snapshot of the time and thoughts on events and ideas during the era. Hawthorne’s characters are a

The Scarlet Letter is a modern classic of American literature written about controversy and published with controversy. The main topic of the book, adultery, is written in a dark and sad way, as Hawthorne describes injustice, fate or predetermination and conscience ( Van Doren, 1998) . No other American novel of the time has such a controversial theme as Hawthorne's, The Scarlet Letter. The setting of Nathanial Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is the seventeenth century Puritan New England. But Hawthorne's writing for this book is heavily influenced by his own nineteenth century culture. Hawthorne strongly believed in Providence. Hawthorne was descended from the Puritan