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Critical study of the scarlet letter
The scarlet letter hester character analysis
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Recommended: Critical study of the scarlet letter
Assumptions Lead Nowhere An assumption is a thought or opinion that is accepted as being true, without enough or any proof. In The Scarlet Letter and The Minister’s Black Veil, this occurred a lot in their community. Both stories were solemly based on this theme. Judgment went along with assumption. The people of the community in The Scarlet Letter used assumption as a way to justify an excuse of judging Hester Prynne. The people of the community in The Minister’s Black Veil, used assumptions to think of ways to describe how minister, Mr. Hooper, has changed. Punishment leads to judgment, false facts, confrontation, and change. In The Scarlet Letter, the beginning started with people judging Hester the minute she came out of the prison door. One of the females in the community announced, …show more content…
Both involved how assumptions can create judgement, false facts, confrontation, and change. People make assumptions every day, but no assumption should have the power to affect an individual unless if the individual allows it. Assumption was an important theme in both The Scarlet Letter and The Minister’s Black Veil. In The Scarlet Letter, assumptions led to people judging Hester for her sin which dragged along throughout the entire book. It’s important because it created an image for Hester, and it was dependant on how she would handle it. The community had a hard time accepting Dimmesdale’s death and the reality of what happened, and it's important because it showed how people in that community had thoughts. in The Minister’s Black Veil, assumptions led to people believing that Mr. Hooper was frightening, but it was important because they were all being hypocritical to each other. The people that got affected the most in both stories were the townspeople because it opened up a new world and possibilities for them. Their opinions didn’t affect anyone but themselves. Which is why assumptions lead
History has underrepresented females throughout countless centuries. In contrast, Hawthorne allows them to take on essential roles in “Young Goodman Brown,” “The Minister’s Black Veil,” “and “The Birthmark.” The way he presents them distinguishes his stories from others at his time. He proves all of his female characters almost flawless, deeply connects the male protagonists to them, and uses them to reveal the males’ hidden sides.
...t to acknowledge that fact than to live your life a lie. By keeping sin secret from the world like Dimmesdale, your conscience eats at your spirit until you are no longer able to live a healthy, normal life. Hooper's demeanor and sermons scared everyone into seeing their own sins and when looking at his black veil, they saw their own faults, which petrified them for they knew they were pretending to be one of the elect, and that none of them could be perfectly sinless. The horror and the hate people felt towards both the black veil and the scarlet letter was an outward manifestation of the horror and hate they all had for their own sins. Thus it brings us back to the theme that Hawthorne makes so clear in both the Scarlet Letter and "The Minister's Black Veil," that though manifested sin will ostracize a person from society, un-confessed sin will destroy the soul.
In both the “Scarlet Letter” and “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Hawthorne showed that we tend to judge a book by its cover and not by its plot. Mr. Hooper and Dimmesdale have many things in common. They are both reverends and both held up high in their societies. They are also similar in that they both were hiding something from their townspeople. In Dimmesdale's’ case he was hiding the fact that he had committed adultery. In Mr. Hooper’s case, he was hiding his face behind a black veil to become a more effective role model amongst his townspeople. However, these characters secrets had different effects. Near Mr. Hooper’s death, the minister of Westbury says, “Dark old man! With what horrible crime upon your soul are you now passing to the judgment?”(story) Mr. Hooper replies says that there is no sin, the veil was used a symbol of how the Puritans are hypocrites because they see the wrongs in others, but can't admit to their own sins. Unlike Mr. Hooper who was set on keeping his secret, Dimmesdale’s secret starts to play mental games on him. Dimmesdale is a hypocrite himself, because he tells everyone to be pure, but he has committed adultery which was extremely bad in Puritan faith. Dimmesdale realizes that evil has overcome him and he finally confesses, which leads to his death. Although he was a hypocrite, he is a role model also because he came
The first important scene in The Scarlet Letter is when Hester is released from prison and is forced to
Everyone has judged someone else in their life, with or without it being intended, but being judgemental is different than being hypocritical. In The Scarlet Letter, Arthur Dimmesdale was a perfect example of a hypocrite because he committed the sin of adultery with Hester, yet judged her as if he had not. Along with Arthur, the townspeople also showed the hypocrisy of the Puritan society.
The narrator notes her change in morals and beliefs: “She had wandered… much amiss” (180). This passage describes Hester’s state of mind and morals after seven years with the scarlet letter. Compared to Dimmesdale, Hester is much wilder, yet also much better adjusted to the weight of her guilt. She has accepted what happened and uses that acknowledgment to shape her views. She has become stronger, more untamed, and more removed from society. Not only does society reject her, but her crime forces her to question morals and dive into her wilder nature. Religion and law no longer work as simple guidelines for her life. Her act is considered a sin, but out of it she got freedom, love, and Pearl. After being cast out, she now looks at society and its rules—the things most people conform to—from a more negative, outsider perspective. The letter gives her a chance to be independent and find what she believes in as opposed to what she's been told to believe in. She rejects society through both these rebellious views, and also through her actions upon coming back to the community. She helps women in the community by offering support and counselling. In such a male dominated society, this is an important step both towards feminism and away from the
Three gossips present at Hester’s public shaming moan at Hester’s “merciful” punishment, one even going as far as declaring “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die.” (Hawthorne 36). As time passes, however, and Hester dutifully lives out her penance, the people start to see the piety of her everyday actions. After seven years, they go from crying for her death to exclaiming “None so ready as she to give of her little substance to every demand of poverty…None so self-devoted as Hester, when pestilence stalked through the town.” (Hawthorne 110). They also declared her “a self-ordained Sister of Mercy…Such helpfulness was found in her,—so much power to do, and power to sympathize,—that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able.” (111). When the people of Hester’s town managed to stop gawking at Hester, they easily saw her true nature and changed their ideas to
One of the main themes in The Scarlet Letter is that of the secret. The plot of the book is centered on Hester Prynne’s secret sin of adultery. Nathaniel Hawthorne draws striking parallelism between secrets held and the physical and mental states of those who hold them. The Scarlet Letter demonstrates that a secret or feeling kept within slowly engulfs and destroys the soul such as Dimmesdale’s sin of hypocrisy and Chillingworth’s sin of vengeance, while a secret made public, such as Prynne’s adultery, can allow a soul to recover and even strengthen.
Readers generally characterize the Puritan Townspeople in The Scarlet Letter by their attitudes in the beginning of the novel. When Hester first walks into the scene, most of the townspeople are very harsh and strict in their religions. They believe that adultery is one of the worst sins possible. One unyielding woman says, “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not law for it? Truly, there is, both in the Scripture and in the statutebook. Then let the magistrates, who have made it of no effect, thank themselves if their own wives and daughters go astray.'; Although a young woman and a righteous man try to intervene with the angry old women, their voices are never heard. Also, Hawthorne associates ugliness with wickedness; therefore, all of the stingy women are described as being very ugly. They regard her not as a fellow sinner but as a woman so evil that she must be ostracized from her “perfect'; community. They view the scarlet letter that she wears upon her breast as a symbol of her atrocious crime of adultery and nothing more. The women in the beginning of the novel are so quick to pass judgment on others, yet they fail to recognize the sin in themselves. Once they realize this obstacle, the townspeople will become more understanding of Hester’s situation.
Hester’s sin is publicly declared at the scaffold, and she is forced to forever wear a scarlet letter as a reminder of the wrongful act she committed. However,
Her first punishment was public shaming. “ Preceded by the beadle…. Hester Pyrnne set forth towards the place appointed for punishment” (41).This is when Hester was being escorted to her position on the scaffold for shaming. Hawthorne uses public shaming so the reader understands that there are a lot of people who attended this event and judge Hester for her actions. The intended purpose of the shaming was for Hester to be embarrassed and feel guilty for the crime. Although he uses public shaming early in the book, the ineffectiveness of this punishment does not appear until more than half way through the novel. People eventually see the good that Hester possesses although she is only looked at as an adulterer. “ Individuals in private life, meanwhile, had quite forgiven Hester Prynne…. they had begun to look upon the scarlet letter as the token, not of that one sin….but of her many good deeds since” (124). Even after one does
According to the Merriam -Webster Online Dictionary an assumption is a belief that something is true or a fact or statement that is taken for granted. Susan Glaspell wrote "Trifles" to demonstrate the male assumption that women are insignificant members in a male dominated society. Because the men underestimate them, the women are able to prove they are not insignificant. The improper assumptions by men toward women can have dire consequences, as demonstrated in Glaspell's world. Combating these narcissistic assumptions displayed by men can result in a unity among women that can overcome any male caused disrespect and oppression.
A theme that can be seen in both ‘A Scarlet Letter’ and ‘The Narrative of Frederick Douglas’ is the abuse of religion and its use as a form of power over others. Both texts present characters that fall victim to the misuse of religion as a form of control and are forced to live with the consequences of this. In both texts religion is used as a form of control, for Hester the villagers use it to punish her and isolate her from society and for Frederick it provides his slave masters with an excuse for his mistreatment.
After Hester Prynne was condemned to live with the scarlet letter, she chose to not let her guilt from her act of adultery consume her. She chose to do her best to prove the fact that the Scarlet Letter didn’t define who she was. She proved she was much more than just an adulteress. “None so ready as she to give her little substance to every demand of poverty, even though the bitter-hearted pauper threw back a gibe in requital of the food brought regularly to his door” (Hawthorne 108). Even though she faced rejection even more when she tried to help, she didn’t let that stop her, she continued to serve everyone, and lived a caring life. “Many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Abel, so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (Hawthorne 109). Hester Prynne changed the idea of the Scarlet Letter for the whole
From the moment Hester Prynne is introduced into the plot of The Scarlet Letter in chapter 2, "The Marketplace", the reader realizes how prideful she is. As an adultress, she is forced to endure ignominy by her peers and is doomed to have the letter A bound to her heart. When standing on the scaffold as pun- ishment for her sins, she never truly falters. She hold a three month old infant in her arms and attempts to cover her brand with the child. However, she realizes that the baby symbolizes her sin just as much as the letter, and decides it's pointless.