Hester Street

themselves isolated in one way or another, but while some are absolutely and thoroughly destroyed by it, others gain loads of power. Characters Hester Prynne, Chillingworth, and Arthur Dimmesdale are all victims of isolation in the Puritan town of Boston, due to a different reasons such as Adultery, upbringing, and their past. In Puritan society at the time of Hester Prynne, the crime of one person is seen as the crime of everyone, so the whole town is involved in the punishing. Even though the punishment

deviates from person to person. The deviation occurs on the severity of the sin that was committed and who committed the sin. Focusing on Hester and Dimmesdale, it is easy to compare the consequences of coping with the perception of their sins, on a private and a public level. The outcome of dealing with their sin is extremely different. The theme of morality affects Hester and Dimmesdale also. They have varying levels of morality and this changes during the course of the novel. In terms of the book,

a theocratic government, especially when it comes to punishment. Hester Prynne has committed adultery, a hideous sin which coincides as a malicious crime in such a government. The punishment consists of public humiliation branded on her chest until she dies. This type of government would lead anyone to despair, however, Hester does not allow society to decide her identity. The punishment of wearing the scarlet letter affects Hester Prynne’s personality and physical appearance, allowing her to grow

way of persuading himself of separation. His purpose is to shed the guilt he ancestrally bears from the witch trials in the feministic, romantic tale of Hester and Dimmesdale. The self-proclaimed romantic author of The Scarlet Letter uses the letter attached to Hester’s bosom as a symbol of Alienation intensely exploited through himself, Hester and Dimmesdale. “The Custom House” opens the book by describing the narrator’s place of work with interruptions from Hawthorne speaking of his lineage where

In Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” Hester Prynne can be seen as the only real character as she is the only character that does not conform to the ways of the puritan society. Her actions and choices throughout the novel are true to her beliefs and not to those enforced by the puritan society, choices such as committing adultery and not revealing who the father of her child is, lead her down a road of ignominy, isolation and hardship, yet these choices do not leave her bitter and unforgiving but

separation of church and state is not yet in place. Hester Prynne is a normal puritan woman and is sentenced to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her bosom for the remainder of her life. This is because she was sentenced with adultery after having sexual relations with Reverend Dimmesdale, while being married to her husband, Roger Chillingworth. Hester Prynne will not tell Roger Chillingworth who she had relations with, but he is determined to find Hester Prynne’s lover. Later in the story, Reverend Dimmesdale

Sin Hester Prynne is a single mother during the puritan times. The father, Arthur Dimmesdale, of the baby has been keeping the secret inside. Hester and Dimmesdale have two very different ways of addressing this sin that has been committed. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Arthur Dimmesdale demonstrates that keeping a major sin on your chest is bad for the soul proving that confessing sin, like Hester Prynne, is the only way to receive full peace. Hester Prynne’s sin has always been

and each, although have the same title, show significant differences in characters and situations. Each of these scenes brings together the major characters and forces of the story and each scene, rivets our attention to the scarlet letter ‘A’ on Hester

face being a social outcast. Herman Melville examines the story of Bartleby, a copyist who mysteriously refuses to work and is, therefore, put in jail. In The Scarlet Letter and Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-street, Hawthorne and Melville use the characterization of Hester Prynne and Bartleby and their independent behavior to critique the effect society’s evils have on the Romantic ideal of individualism in order to remind their readers that despite the human inclination to conform to the

character of Hester Prynne, who is the embodiment of the word “feminist.” Although she may have been shown to be weak and vulnerable in the beginning of the novel, Hester displays strong characteristics as she carried the scarlet letter, helped out the poor people of her community, took care of her daughter Pearl on her own, and protected