Hester Prynne is the main female protagonist in the novel, The Scarlet Letter (1850) Hester Prynne is the main female protagonist. Written) by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and throughout the book, a hostile New England puritanical community alienates her. This is because she conceives and delivers a child, Pearl, out of wedlock as the result of a relationship with a man preacher named Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale whom she is not married to. The only apparent salvation for Hester is for her to reveal the name
At first glance, The Scarlet Letter is a story of sin, guilt, love, and revenge set in a strict Puritan community shortly after the Salem witch trials. However, the story is more than it appears to be at first glance. Beneath its sinful cover, it uses psychological elements to portray a deeper understanding and meaning. Nina Baym’s article, The Scarlet Letter in the Scarlet Letter, examines the importance of the scarlet letter in the story and how it rejects Puritan laws and beliefs. Baym’s article
feminist rights and values were not established and considered in the society. Hawthorne’s story about a feminine representing feminism culture and importance in the society attempts to highlight the equality and justice that much exist in a societyUnlike those Puritan women in the community, Hester follows what she wishes even against the 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
Set in a seventeenth century puritan community, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne revolves around the product adultery committed by Hester Prynne with pastor Arthur Dimmesdale. Hawthorne was a remarkable romanticist who shared a theme among all romantic authors whom withheld the capability to create a character that is passionate and true who questions the true essence of the higher truth which is bestowed upon the romantic hero of the novel. The Scarlet Letter, which used the romanticist
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, struggles to escape her mother’s shadow. Pearl lives a lonely life, an outcast as the result of her mother’s great sin. Not just as a character in the novel, but as a symbol throughout the story. Pearl represents the price of sin in her mere existence, and her fascination for her mother’s “A”; Pearl also stands for hope and redemption of sin. The scarlet letter reminds Hester of her sin
Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson, both reflect radical individualism and Transcendentalist thinking. Hawthorne expresses this in the book The Scarlet Letter on chapter five and Emerson expresses this in his essay, “Self-Reliance.” Each author expresses the importance of freedom, the need for self-reliance, and the benefits of isolation through their writings. They both define the self as the center of reality, and the characters of their literature are all individuals who discover inner
Everything begins in a seventeenth century settlement which back then was a puritan society. A young woman, whose name is Hester Prynne, is taken from the parish prison with her little baby, Pearl, in her arms and the scarlet letter “A” perfectly visible in her breast. Nathaniel Hawthorne shows us immediately what is happening by exposing the people’s comments. A man explained to another that the woman had been punished for adultery. Hester’s arrived a long time ago there. She had been sent by her
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter, based in 17th Century New England, affectation found within the budding civilization is revealed. The hypocrisy of the Puritan religion is exhibited through the actions of the religious townspeople and the prominent church leader, Arthur Dimmesdale. The absolute hypocrisy of the theocratic Puritans is established in the dawn of the novel and lives on throughout. Upon the expected dispatch of letter-clad, Hester Prynne, several Bostonians
found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it”, this shows the significance and importance of a pearl. A merchant traveled great lengths, gave it all up to find a single pearl. That pearl was his treasure and all he ever needed. Furthermore, a young woman went through great lengths and gave it all up for a girl named Pearl. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne named her daughter Pearl to represent how she gave up everything for her. Hester gave up her
is just a human flaw, but it is that really so? Throughout his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne suggests that passion is in fact a part of human nature and acceptable privately and moderately but, when passion becomes excessive and publicly displayed it is the root of sin and evil. Additionally, Hawthorne shows that passion has a great amount of power that ultimately surpasses anything else. The scarlet letter on Hester’s chest symbolizes