In the Nathaniel’s Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter we see a hierarchy of sins. Roger Chillingworth’s pursuit of revenge is considered a "worse sin" than the passion that led Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale to commit adultery. All the characters recognize that sin will be punished, if not on earth immediately, than by God after death. The puritans believed many sins were punishable by death. Hester is spared execution because the Puritans of Boston decided it would benefit the community to transform
Hiding a Secret The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, illustrates the consequences of adultery in the Puritan society. During that time, adultery was an extremely terrible sin and a crime to commit. In this novel, two main characters arise that have committed that terrible sin. Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale committed adultery with each other. Hester confronts her sin and throughout the novel, works to find redemption. She later is rewarded with coming to peace with her past
reputation. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel, The Scarlet Letter, uses the, often horrible, decisions and reputations of characters to shape the story, moulding it into the classic novel both English teachers and students come to know and love. Nathaniel Hawthorne shapes characters such as Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale through their sins, their evolving mental and physical state, and their crippling lack of courage, their cowardice. Both Dimmesdale and Hester share together their sin, both commit
is to empower them. In The Scarlet Letter, author Nathaniel Hawthorne accounts the tale of Hester Prynne, a woman in Puritan Boston accused of adultery and forced to wear a red embroidered “A” on her chest. For the past two centuries, Hester Prynne has fascinated literary critics and readers, such as Nina Baym and Kathryn Harrison, startled by her unorthodox characterization in such a conservative and religious environment. Although Hawthorne is harsh on Prynne, he does not condemn her; rather, he
strict Puritan beliefs and norms. Therefore, the novel is considered as feminist because it brings the ideas about gender equality and love for oneself as a woman. Hawthorne depicts an exclusive view of women, love, sins and how Hester punishment turns into power. We get to see how bravely Hester takes her decisions.Though Hester is married to Chilingworth who was
Nathaniel Hawthorne published The Scarlet Letter in 1850 in a time much later than the Puritan setting. The main character, Hester Prynne, commits an act of adultery, subsequently has a child, and is forced to wear the scarlet “A” as punishment. The child produced from Hester’s sin is called Pearl. Pearl is her mother’s greatest treasure, as well as the greatest price Hester has ever paid (Hawthorne 499). In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses Pearl to symbolize the Scarlet Letter; her fiend-like actions,
Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letters, says, it is fate that nature will prevail in the end, whether it is identified through Human Nature of emotions and or physical Mother Nature. The burden of our guilt cannot be in hidden in ourselves because we carry the constant weight of our mistake of what we have chosen until we own up to it. Throughout the book, we reveal the burden of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. They both commit adultery and are faced with the shame from themselves and the
The Scarlet Letter Comparison Lying, cheating, stealing, and guilt all cause the perishing of heart and conscience. But love, compassion, and forgiveness is the cure for the dying of one’s heart. Hawthorne writes that love and hate “is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether [it] may be not the same thing at bottom” (Hawthorne 246).In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie, and Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables all portray the ideal of the importance