The Themes of The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter is a romantic novel, mainly because it is a long, fictitious tale of heroes and extraordinary events. Unfolding over a seven year period, we are treated to the heroism of Hester Prynne and her adulterous beloved, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and the mysterious actions and behavior of their love child, Pearl, and the witch, Mistress Hibbins. The story is set against the background of Puritan, New England, a stern, authoritarian, colony founded by a group of religious reformers. Before the novel begins, Hester is guilty of an affair which produced Pearl while her husband was abroad. Her husband, Roger Chillingworth, comes to America just as Hester is being pilloried. He determines to remain in Boston in disguise in order to discover the man with whom she had the affair. Chillingworth soon uncovers the identity of Pearl's father, the young and emotionally captivating pastor. He proceeds to torment Dimmesdale's soul, eventually foiling the escape of the pastor, Hester, and Pearl. At the end of the novel, Hester and Dimmesdale mount the pillory with Pearl together, where he reveals that he, too, has a scarlet "A" etched on his chest from remorse. However, this act of public repentance allows him to be free of the Satanic clutches of Chillingworth. Pearl, too, a child that barely seems human to others in the novel, reclaims her humanity by giving her real father a kiss and crying for the first time in the story. There are two main themes at work in the novel. The first is the conflict between romanticism and religion. The second is the nature of sin, which the novel suggests is a guilty secret of all people. The novel also portrays the sin of Chillingworth ...
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...in the novel come off less sympathetically than those who sin because they are human in the face of oppression.
In conclusion, we see that for Hawthorne there is sympathy and some kind of identification with imperfect beings oppressed by some arbitrary religious interpretation to be perfect. While Hester and Dimmesdale do, indeed, sin, it is only a sin in the eyes of others but an act of human love to them. In a world where no philosopher has ever absolutely defined the will of God, i.e. the divine truth, it is amusing to view this Puritan community so sure of its divine right to judge that it tramples the human heart to shreds in the process.
WORKS CITED
Gross, S., Bradley, S., Beatty, R. C., and Long, E. H. (eds.). The Scarlet Letter: An Authoritative Test, Essays in Criticism, and Scholarship. New York, W. W. Norton & Company, 1988.
The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, includes a variety of symbolism, which plays a significant role in the book. The most significant symbol in The Scarlet Letter is Hester Prynne's daughter, Pearl, whom Hester bore as a result of her sin of adultery. Hester "named the infant "Pearl" as being of great price, -purchased with all she had, -her mother's only treasure!"(Hawthorne 75) As a consequence for Hester's sin, she is forced to wear the letter "A", for adultery, on her chest for the rest of her life. However, the scarlet letter is not the most severe consequence for her sin, Pearl gives Hester the most grief, "the scarlet letter in another form". (Hawthorne 84) Yet, if it were not for Pearl, Hester would not have been able to survive the pure agony of life itself. Pearl is like the wild red rose outside the prison door, giving Hester hope that everything would turn out positive. Pearl is not just a mere token of sin, her purpose is much greater- she symbolizes the love affair of Hester and Dimmesdale, Hester's passionate nature, she is a living daily punishment to Hester, and a living conscience for Dimmesdale. Yet, Pearl is the one who saves Hester from death and Dimmesdale from eternal sorrow. She forces Hester to live on and kisses Dimmesdale to show her filial love. She both guides them and teaches them the true lessons of life.
The Scarlet letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The plot focuses on sin in the Puritan society. Hester Prynne, the protagonist, has an affair with Reverend Dimmesdale, which means they are adulterers and sinners. As a result, Pearl is born and Hester is forced to where the scarlet letter. Pearl is a unique character. She is Hester’s human form of her scarlet letter, which constantly reminds her of her sin, yet at the same time, Pearl is a blessing to have since she represents the passion that Hester once had.
Gerber, John C. "Form and Content in The Scarlet Letter." The Scarlet Letter: A Norton Critical Edition. Eds. Seymour Gross, Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, and E. Hudson Long. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1988.
Even though there are many cases and arguments for Dualism concerning mind - body, such as Descartes’ substance dualism, the theory does not often have hard, physical evidence to back up such premise like science does. The continued scientific progress over the past centuries has allowed us to better understand universal truths and the functions of the mind-body that were not able to have been explained scientifically in the past. Many complex, unexplained complexities have been simplified or “reduced” through chemistry,biology, or physics. Through both comparison of arguments supporting dualist theories and counter arguments, I will prove that Dualism is a concept of the past and the continued scientific progress is inevitable and will one day allow us to understand many Dualistic explanations with hard evidence and scientific proof that we have failed to do so in the past.
The controversial topic involving the existence of God has been the pinnacle of endless discourse surrounding the concept of religion in the field of philosophy. However, two arguments proclaim themselves to be the “better” way of justifying the existence of God: The Cosmological Argument and the Mystical Argument. While both arguments attempt to enforce strict modus operandi of solidified reasoning, neither prove to be a better way of explaining the existence of God. The downfall of both these arguments rests on commitment of fallacies and lack of sufficient evidence, as a result sabotaging their validity in the field of philosophy and faith.
As you yell back and forth, it all falls together in your tempered mind, every little sign you decided to ignore by thinking to yourself “Oh, we can work it out, no big deal!” boy were you ever wrong, from the way he ignored you after coming home from work, to the rolling of his bloodshot eyes after stumbling through the front door at 4am after his “friends birthday celebration” every. Single. Saturday. You knew it would be a disaster from the start, but you trucked on, for the fun times you had, when his apologies seemed sincere, to your friends constantly envying you for being with such a seemingly “perfect guy” but every empty night ends with a lung emptying sigh. If you only had paid more attention to the little things, none of this would ever be happening; you are constantly in the dark with him, when all you want is the light. After a thorough reading of the Scarlet Letter, the reader can conclude that Nathaniel Hawthorne has an immense focus on symbolism, whether it's on a subconscious level like night and day, or in blatantly obvious ways, from the red letter "A", to pearl herself.
Niccolo Machiavelli lived in Florence, Italy in the 1400’s. The country of Italy was divided into city-states that had their own leaders, but all pledged alliance to their king. In time in which great leaders were needed in order to help the development of a city-state and country, Machiavelli had a theory that man needed a leader to control them. In his book The Prince, he speaks of the perfect leader.
“The Scarlet Letter”, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, records a struggled life about two adultery lovers. This story was marked by the most successful work back in 1850s and also become to a big part of Hawthorne’s writing career. Through the eyes of his main character Hester Prynne, the readers seem to see a woman’s helpless under a brutal and traditional society, which was ruled by Puritan people. After his book had been published one after another, no one can deny Hawthorne’s irreplaceable talent and unremitting effort. Nathaniel Hawthorne expressed his own feelings about the dark Puritan society through many successful works, which helped him become more and more popular after he died in 1864.
In this paper, I will explain and argue for two-way interactive substance dualism. Dualism is a term referred to the idea that there are only two basic kinds of things and everything real is categorized under those two things. Dualism is split into two types, substance dualism, and property dualism. Substance dualism is the idea that the mind and body are two different sorts of basic substance, whereas property dualism is our mental and physical properties are two separate types of basic properties even though they may be properties of the same thing (lecture). Branching from dualism, mind-body dualism argues that the mind and body are two separate entities. Although they are two different substances, i.e. brain/body being material and
Machiavelli’s views were drastically different from other humanists at his time. He strongly promoted a secular society and felt morality was not necessary but stood in the way of a successfully governed state. He stated that people generally tended to work for their own best interests and gave little thought to the well being of the state. He distrusted citizens saying, “In time of adversity, when a state is in need of its citizens, there are few to be found.” In his writings in The Prince, he constantly questioned the citizens’ loyalty and warned for the leaders to be wary in trusting citizens. His radical and distrusting thoughts on human nature were derived out of concern for Italy’s then unstable government. Machiavelli also had a s...
Nathaniel Hawthorne used symbolism to bring meaning into his book "The Scarlet Letter." Generally speaking, a symbol is something that is used to stand for something else. In literature, it is most often a concrete object which is used to represent something more abstract and broader in scope and meaning. Symbols can range from the most obvious substitution of one thing for another to creations as massive, complex, and perplexing as Melville's white whale in Moby Dick ( Dibble, p. 77 ). In The Scarlet Letter the symbols and the ingredients of the story come together "in a seamless unity in which each manifestation of the letter illuminates an aspect of the characters' or the community's evolving experience ( Brodhead, p. 159 ) .
The Scarlet Letter, a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, shows the adverse consequences caused by adultery between Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne. Dimmesdale and Hester committed the supreme sin of the Puritan society they belong. They must both deal with the effects of the scarlet letter. Pearl, the daughter of the two lovers, continuously punishes Hester for what she has done. Dimmesdale can only see Hester and Pearl when others will not find out or see. Hester finds a way to support herself and daughter, and at the same time, puts a mark on the possessions of some who are a part of society. The sin of adultery created repercussions that were shared and individually experienced by Reverend Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne.
However, we can wonder if the pleasures that derive from necessary natural desires are what actually brings us happiness, since having a family, friends, a good job and doing fun things seem to bring the most joy in life. Plato’s ideas on life are even more radical, since he claims that we should completely take difference from our bodily needs. Therefore it seems that we should only do what is necessary for us to stay a life and solely focus on the mind. Although both ways of dealing with (bodily)pleasure are quite radical and almost impossible to achieve, it does questions if current perceptions of ‘living the good life’ actually leads to what we are trying to achieve, which is commonly described as
The era of the Italian Renaissance was a time period for many great thinkers whose minds helped shape the way that people see the world today and Niccolo Machiavelli is certainly no exception. He is most assuredly one of the top philosophical and political minds in the history books and has been an inspiration for many leaders. Unfortunately, tyrannical dictators such as Adolf Hitler were known to use Machiavelli’s teachings in their quest for power so the world has not always viewed this man in the most positive light, even with the things that he tried to teach.
In his work Meditations on First Philosophy, René Descartes defines his existence, being the only concept he can perceive as true. Existence of self is a necessity that arises simply from introspective thinking; one exists “since [one can persuade himself or herself] of something” (Descartes). This definition gives rise to a separation of the human entity, as what defines a person is not the physical but rather the nonphysical (Descartes). Descartes’ view of two separate essences of a person constitutes a theory known as substance dualism, which states that humans are composed of two elements: a material component (which is purely physical and makes up the “body”) and a mental component (all cognitive thinking which makes up the “soul”) (Kleinman