night long ago put there by none other than the infamous Chillingsworth. As regarded its origin there were various explanations, all of which must necessarily have been gruesomely assumed. Some affirmed that Dr. Doomesdale, on the very day when Hester Prynne first arrived at the asylum, had begun a course of atonement, a bewitchment if you will.
see that Hawthorne is struggling between the two ideas of Christianity and Romanticism. The characters, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale display these two opposing qualities simultaneously. However, although Hawthorne struggled with the deadlock between Christianity and Romanticism throughout the story, he concluded the book with the victory of the Christian worldview. To begin with, Hester is mostly Romantic concerning her salvation into heaven at the beginning and the end of the story. Her
Puritan civilization: Boston Massachusetts. The narrator depicts Puritan society as drab, confining, unforgiving, and narrow-minded that unfairly victimizes Hester. In The Scarlet Letter, the Puritans appear as shallow hypocrites whose opinion of Hester and Pearl improves only when they become more of an asset to the community, most notably when Hester becomes a seamstress and Pearl inherits a fortune from Chillingworth. The novel begins with a crowd of Puritan Bostonians waiting anxiously outside the
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a novel about adultery. The main character, Hester has an affair with Reverend Dimmesdale who doesn’t know that his physician, Chillingworth is actually Hester's husband. Hester also has a daughter, Pearl that is extremely smart and understands that something’s wrong with Dimmesdale when he clutches his heart. There are several important themes that vary from negative to positive that are discussed in the Scarlet Letter. The book focuses mostly on the
feelings caused from humiliation when acts that are frowned upon are done. Characters like Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Minister Dimmesdale, all became involved in “sinful acts” and experienced guilt and shame. Hester Prynne is a character that experiences the largest amount of external guilt and shame out of all the characters in The Scarlet Letter. After being released from prison, Hester Prynne was “free to return to her birthplace, or any other European land, and hide her character”(V:67)
inflict harsh punishment upon everyone. Hester Prynne, the protagonist, is shunned throughout the novel due to the impact of the scarlet letter. She fights the oppression imposed upon her and instead gains her own self-dependence. Hester redefines the role of women in society. My opinion on this matter is that Hester’s journey creates a greater understanding of how far she has risen above societal stereotypes. Many critics state that Salem’s community restricts Hester Prynne’s freedoms, but I believe that
The Scarlet Letter unifying the letter “A” as a symbol Hester Prynne wears the scarlet letter “A” to signify that she has committed the sin adultery. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne the scarlet letter is unifying symbol that ties characters and events together. First, Hester and Dimmesdale both have a scarlet letter. Second, Pearl is a symbol of the scarlet letter. Lastly, the scarlet letter defines who Hester is as a person and her existence. As shown above, the scarlet letter is
to the readers that the majority of Puritans were hypocritical. Throughout the novel, poor Hester Prynne had to face the evil Puritans by herself, and bravely wore the Scarlet letter on her chest. Meanwhile, Reverend Dimmesdale lived a life of miserable guilt and self-torture, because he was unable to express to the town who he truly was. This is shown in the novel when Reverend Dimmesdale explained to Hester that the guilt of his sin was tearing him apart, "Be not silent from any mistaken pity and
that creates a world of shame, pain, and guilt between their characters. The transgression of the morality and its effects are represented in The Scarlet Letter through the main three characters Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. One of the main characters is Hester Prynne. This woman exemplifies the sin that the human beings commit. In the story, her sin is seen by everybody. Her sin is the adultery and she has to carry an A that is the
scarlet letter, given to Hester Prynne as an eternal condemnation for committing adultery, is symbolic of change. While it initially symbolizes sin, the scarlet letter ultimately symbolizes the change and development in Hester over the course of the book physically and in the way that she is seen by society as she experiences cruelty from the people surrounding her. An, “ignominious letter on her breast,” the scarlet letter is initially seen as a horrible sin (41). Hester was a fine and polished