What Is The Theme Of Innocence In The Scarlet Letter

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.

Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth portray one central theme throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, which is that one must accept responsibility for their actions or suffer the consequences.

“Why is Pearl so Variable?: The Examination of Pearl as an Agent of Truth” “Child, what art thou?” (146). So speaks Hester Prynne, the main character of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, to her daughter Pearl, one of the most complex characters of the novel.

Hester Prynne, the heroine and main character of The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, went through many hardships because of one decision. She is a very strong woman in a mental sense. For many years, she had to carry the burden of her sin, which was adultery, by herself. Although being alone, with the exception of her beloved daughter Pearl, amidst public shame and humiliation for a multitude of years, she somehow repeatedly looked for a light at the end of the tunnel. Even though Hester did not end up with the happy ending she had longed for, she learned many lessons on her journey throughout this novel, along with showing the Puritans what a real person looked like. Nathaniel Hawthorne possesses a very exquisite skill when it comes to the use of symbolism. The Scarlet Letter uses symbolism on many different accounts to make characters’ significance obvious, to expose hypocrisy in the Puritan society and the world of Puritan ministers, and to bring importance to everyday objects.

In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays how a young woman, Hester Prynne, is forced to live with the scarlet letter “A” on her breast to mark her shame of adultery. Hester commits the appalling crime with the widely known Puritan minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. Being punished to wear the scarlet letter brings about a change among Hester’s character due to the ridicule from the public, the constant reminder of her sin from Pearl, and becoming secluded from society. Knowing his reputation and importance to the town, Dimmesdale is forced to bury this sin, bringing about an increasing amount of guilt through the years. Along with Hester and Dimmesdale, the letter affects Pearl’s life, making it difficult for the poor child to reach acceptance

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a nineteenth-century author who lived in the 1800s, and his novels were focused on Puritan-era New England in the 1600s. His novel. The Scarlet Letter, tells the story of a woman named Hester Prynne and how she must pay for her sin of adultery by wearing a scarlet letter “A” on her bosom for the rest of her life. Throughout the story, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism to represent and convey his themes. In the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of Pearl, the cottage, and Dimmesdale to contribute to the overall theme of imperfection.

Written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter is a classic piece of American literature. The novel follows the story of Hester Prynne, an adulteress who is determined to keep the secret of her partner’s identity. Main players in the story include Hester Prynne; her illegitimate daughter Pearl; Reverend Dimmesdale, Hester’s pastor who turns out to be the father of Pearl; and the evil Roger Chillingsworth, Hester’s husband who finds out about her affair and is determined to seek out Dimmesdale’s guilt and wreak his revenge. The story is filled with recurring themes, including that of the scarlet letter A which is embroidered on Hester’s clothes as punishment, hidden secrets, and the mysterious forest which lies outside of the small town. This forest, in particular, is a key element in the story. Nathaniel Hawthorne skillfully uses the forest as a recurring theme throughout The Scarlet Letter, and it plays a mysterious part in the drama.

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.

The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne consist of many hidden literary aspects and devices to help convey a multitude of themes. Hawthorne introduces the lives of Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Arthur Dimmesdale as they find themselves in difficult situations full of right and wrong decisions. Hester, an adulterous forever marked with the scarlet letter ‘A’, is married to Chillingworth who makes it his duty to find and torture the man responsible for his wife’s infidelity, while Dimmesdale, the town's minister, has trouble revealing his own sin. Through the use of the literary devices diction and tone, Hawthorne presents the theme that the choices you make today, shape your life tomorrow in only either a positive or negative angle.

Anything and everything in our world are symbolic. In The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne creates a world in which the symbolic nature of things are meant to give the reader insight into the deeper meaning surrounding the characters. Hester Prynne, Pearl , and Arthur Dimmesdale, struggle with daily life because of their personal choices. For each character Hawthorne demonstrates just how the symbolic nature of life helps and hinders them in making those choices. Symbols come in all shapes and sizes, including people, plants, and even cloth. The symbols in the Scarlet Letter all have an essential meaning.

The most complex character in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. As her name suggests, Pearl undergoes a long, constructive transformation throughout the novel. She is perceived as a symbol as a living symbol of Hester and Dimmesdale’s sin. Viewed by the townspeople as a young, ill-behaved child, she blossoms into a wonderful woman in several aspects.

The novel “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, tells the dark and mysterious tale of Hester Prynne, an adulterer in a highly Puritan town and her daughter, Pearl while also focusing on Hester’s husband and the person she committed adultery with, Minister Dimmesdale. Hawthorne uses imagery, supernatural ideas, and negative or juxtapositioned diction to help create a dark and dreary mood that continues throughout the novel. These stylistic choices allow the reader to distinguish between “good and evil” while also creating an overall dark mood that gives a feeling of mystery and darkness to the story.

The Scarlet Letter is an american classic for its wide range of relatable and interesting themes. The book is based around the love and sin of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. These are bond between these two is strong, hence the creation of Pearl, but they are two very different characters. Reverend Dimmesdale is the elder of the two, yet Hester is much more mature, strong, and hopeful. The approach to this sin is remarkably different between the two is evidently clear.

The Scarlet Letter, a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a didactic tale of one woman who defies the rules of early Puritan society along with the struggles she endured. Hester Prynne, a woman who had an affair with Reverend Dimmesdale and as a result conceives Pearl, was chastised because of the affair and is then made in outcast in society. Hester was seen as a sinner and in result reprimanded for this with imprisonment and then the letter being made an outcast by being forced to stitch a scarlet letter A into her clothing, and forced to live outside of town in the woods completely secluded. As the novel develops Hawthorne explores the sin and hypocrisy of the Puritan lifestyle, and uses symbolism to demonstrate the isolation of Hester and Pearl.

“But she named the infant ‘Pearl,’ as being of great price,—purchased with all she had,—her mother’s only treasure!” (74). Pearl is the quintessential symbol of Hester Prynne’s life after her punishment is determined. In the novel, the author takes the reader back to the Puritan days where a woman, Hester Prynne, commits adultery and is sentenced to wear a scarlet letter ‘A’ for life. Throughout the novel, Hester raises Pearl, her daughter, alone while her partner, Dimmesdale, carries on his life as a well respected minister. The scarlet letter isolates her from the rest of the townspeople with only Pearl to accompany her. Hester’s isolation is exemplified many different, powerful symbols. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, one of the major symbols includes Pearl who represents the joy, sorrow, and punishment in Hester’s life.