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Critical analysis of scarlet letter
Themes in scarlet letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The scarlet letter by nathaniel hawthorne analysis
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Thou shall not be forgiven because both Hester and Dimmesdale had a child out of wedlock together named Pearl. That is considered a sin under God. Then Dimmesdale is the lead preacher of the town who is also called the “cheating minister”, still had a child with Hester Prynne even though he was married and it was a sin that is looked down upon. It says in the scarlet letter that “ were it not think’st thou, for little ones temporal and eternal welfare”. Another bad thing on Dimmesdale's behalf is that he decided to not tell anyone that he is the father of Pearl, “ the Demon Baby “. He told Hester Prynne that she was a sinner and that she will go to hell for her faulty actions. Near the end of the story, both Hester and Dimmesdale take Pearl
In the book The Scarlet Letter, the character Reverend Dimmesdale, a very religious man, committed adultery, which was a sin in the Puritan community. Of course, this sin could not be committed alone. His partner was Hester Prynne. Hester was caught with the sinning only because she had a child named Pearl. Dimmesdale was broken down by Roger Chillinsworth, Hester Prynne’s real husband, and by his own self-guilt. Dimmesdale would later confess his sin and die on the scaffold. Dimmesdale was well known by the community and was looked up to by many religious people. But underneath his religious mask he is actually the worst sinner of them all. His sin was one of the greatest sins in a Puritan community. The sin would eat him alive from the inside out causing him to become weaker and weaker, until he could not stand it anymore. In a last show of strength he announces his sin to the world, but dies soon afterwards. In the beginning Dimmesdale is a weak, reserved man. Because of his sin his health regresses more and more as the book goes on, yet he tries to hide his sin beneath a religious mask. By the end of the book he comes forth and tells the truth, but because he had hidden the sin for so long he is unable to survive. Dimmesdale also adds suspense to the novel to keep the reader more interested in what Reverend Dimmesdale is hiding and his hidden secrets. Therefore Dimmesdale’s sin is the key focus of the book to keep the reader interested. Dimmesdale tries to cover up his sin by preaching to the town and becoming more committed to his preachings, but this only makes him feel guiltier. In the beginning of the story, Dimmesdale is described by these words; “His eloquence and religious fervor had already given earnest of high eminence in his profession.”(Hawthorne,44). This proves that the people of the town looked up to him because he acted very religious and he was the last person that anyone expected to sin. This is the reason that it was so hard for him to come out and tell the people the truth. Dimmesdale often tried to tell the people in a roundabout way when he said “…though he (Dimmesdale) were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life.
Dimmesdale could not have been in love with Hester, due to the fact he was unwilling to bear the shame of iniquity. After many years of remaining in secrecy, the minister still refused to claim the mother and child publicly. On the night of Governor Winthrop’s death, Hester and Pearl found Dimmesdale upon the scaffold where he once again denied his family, promising he would, “stand with thy mother and thee one day”, to little Pearl (Hawthorne 127). Over the course of seven years, Dimmesdale had countless opportunities to claim his sin, beginning with the first day Hester was convicted. During his few encounters with Hester over the next seven years, the ordinate continued to say he would one day be with her and expose his debauchery. However, Arthur Dimmesdale only ever spoke such promises, and never acted upon his word until the moment before his death, leaving no time to father Pearl and be a husband to Hester. If Dimmesdale had truly loved Hester, he would have disposed his identity as an adulterer on the initial day of Hester’s castigation and aided in the raising of Pearl. The minister acted out of lust and did not love Hester, which caused the loathing himself for the act of infidelity. His only method to cope without disposing his depravity to the congregation was illustrated by actions of penance, which
The town is all out to witness the punishment of Hester Prynne some of the women are suggesting other punishments and the women are telling us about Hester and Dimmesdale. People say," said another, "that the Reverend Master Dimmesdale, her godly pastor, takes it very grievously to heart that such a scandal should have come upon his congregation." (Page 49) Reverend Dimmesdale is seen as a godly man. A man who does not commit sin and in his own mind at this point he feels fine and does not have any guilt. Dimmesdale at this point in the novel is seen as godly and throughout the novel is seen as godly even at the end after the last scaffold scene. Consequently enough, Dimmesdale is trying to convince Hester to reveal the man who has sinned along with her , so the man can be relieved of his guilt, some what ironic because he is the man who has sinned along side with her. "What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him--yea, compel him, as it were--to add hypocrisy to sin? Heaven hath granted thee an open ignominy, that thereby thou mayest work out an open triumph over the evil within thee and the sorrow without. Take heed how thou deniest to him--who, perchance, hath not the courage to grasp it for himself--the bitter, but wholesome, cup that is now presented to thy lips!" (Page 65) This is the first scaffold scene Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is not showing any signs of guilt at this point, he is still fairly the same and has not began to inflict punishment on himself or so it appears. Dimmesdale in the first scaffold scene seems fairly normal and has not begun to transform himself but by the next time we see him at the scaffold he is taken a turn for the worst.
Not only in this story of the Scarlet Letter, but throughout the early churches, we often see religious leaders in this predicament of coming forward or not coming forward with the truth of their role within certain situations. Hester, on the other hand, is portrayed as strong but also abandoned, because she is standing alone for the sins she could not have committed alone. Dimmesdale also struggles with confessing to Pearl the truth and keeping it from her. At first he is regarded as being selfish for not confessing right away and as a result, when he does confess, it is not well received from Pearl at all. This is not only because she is flustered from finding out, but Pearl knows that Dimmesdale abandoned them at first as he weighed the options.
Both Hester and Dimmesdale, are characters in the Scarlet Letter. They suffer with the guilt of the sin of adultery that they committed. At the time, the Puritans looked down on this type of sin. Hester and Dimmesdale can be compared and contrast in the way they handled their scarlet letter, their cowardliness, and their belief of what the afterlife is.
Hester thinks about the mercy of God herself in the story and comes to the conclusion that “man had marked [her] sin by a scarlet letter, which had such potent and disastrous efficacy that no human sympathy could reach her, save it were sinful like herself. God, as a direct consequence of the sin [...] had given her a lovely child” (86). Society decides to punish Hester by public humiliation and eternal shame, while God decides to let nature take its own path, and blesses‒or rather curses‒Hester with her own child. Although this is a more merciful consequence, children are still a large challenge in themselves. Young children are difficult, and Pearl especially seemed to be “a demon offspring; such as, since old Catholic times, had occasionally been seen on earth, through the agency of their mother’s sin” (95). Through having to raise Pearl, Hester is still being disciplined for her rash actions, but in a way that will better teach her the lessons she needs to learn from her mistake. When one observes the behaviors of both Hester and Dimmesdale, it becomes clear that Dimmesdale has failed to learn completely from his
with. Having a heart blinded by love Hester choose to stay in the town and
In Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the reader meets the character Hester Prynne who as the novel progresses, one notices the changes in her character are very dramatic. The changes are both physical and in her mannerism’s. There are many significant events which took place before the start of the novel and during the novel. Some of these events that lead to this dramatic change include the affect of wearing the scarlet letter, the secrets which she keeps, and her daughter Pearl’s evil characteristics. By these events, Hester Prynne’s image is transformed throughout the time of the story.
Every human has sinned but Dimmesdale’s evil deeds led him to live a double life—one as a godly minister and another as the “greatest sinner.” Meanwhile Hester was at trial and being punished for her sin, Dimmesdale showed no sign of guilt and he did not have the valor to stand by her side and take full accountability for his actions. Not only did Dimmesdale fail as a lover, but he also failed as a father by denying Pearl and allowing her to live as an outcast. The townspeople held the minister as a saint but little did they know that he disobeyed the eighth commandment from Exodus 20:16, by hiding the truth from his church Dimmesdale became a liar. Moreover, in chapter twenty Dimmesdale confesses all the evil thoughts that roam in his mind and that his flesh desires to do. He even states how he has used his eloquence to manipulate the youngest female member to attend church. As a result of all the evil deeds, the minister seems to depart from his relationship with God and is confused. Dimmesdale becomes lost and desperate, he habitually questions life and his identity but ironically the famed theologian finds no concrete answers to h...
While Hester tries to protect Dimmesdale by not giving the name of Pearl's father, she actually condemns him to a long road of suffering, self torture and disappointment. She does this by letting him keep the sin he committed in secret while he watches her being publicly punished. Chillingworth observes Dimmesdale's desire to confess, as well as his lack of willpower to do so. Dimmesdale rationalizes not confessing; all the while Chillingworth is torturing with constant reminders of his hypocrisy. Hester never voluntarily confesses to committing adultery, and never feels any remorse for it. Her public punishment comes not as a result of her having any contrition, but rather her apparent pregnancy. She stays in the town to be close to Dimmesdale, as a reader would find on page 84, "There dwelt...the feet of one with whom she deemed herself connected in a union..." She also stays in town to convince others, as well as herself, that she is actually regretful for her sin even though she knows in her heart she is not. She does this to appease her guilt. As Hawthorne puts it on page 84, "Here...had been the scene of her guilt...
Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale in the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, struggle to go about life. The characters Hester and Dimmesdale both are ostracized in the story and run into complications with the puritan society and how its morals affect them. The literary elements symbolism, imagery, and setting emphasize the motivations and reactions with the conflict of individual vs. society.
The Scarlet Letter is a classic novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne which entangles the lives of two characters Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale together through an unpardonable sin-adultery. With two different lifestyles, this act of adultery affects each of them differently. Hester is an average female citizen who is married to a Roger Chillingworth from Europe while Dimmesdale is a Puritan minister from England (61). Along the course of time after the act of adultery had happened, Hester could not hide the fact that she was bearing a child that was not of her husband, but from another man. She never reveals that this man is in fact Arthur Dimmesdale, and so only she receives the punishment of prison. Although it is Hester who receives the condemnation and punishment from the townspeople and officials, Dimmesdale is also punished by his conscience as he lives his life with the secret burden hanging between him and Hester.
Hester Prynne committed a crime so severe that it changed her life into coils of torment and defeat. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester is publicly recognized as an adulteress and expelled from society. Alongside the theme of isolation, the scarlet letter, or symbol of sin, is meant to shame Hester but instead transforms her from a woman of ordinary living into a stronger person.
Romanticism was a movement in American history around the late 18th century and into the 19th century in which a lifestyle strongly centered around expression and art, music, and literature were apparent. Strong themes such as nature, experience, and imagination can be seen all throughout the works of the Romantics. The Romantic movement occurred in reaction to the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Reason brought on by historical figures such as Benjamin Franklin. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, written in 1849, is a novel from the Romantic era. The many values and concepts from the Romantic lifestyles are shown all throughout the book in its characters and symbols. The most abundant are the corruption of man by religion and science, and the value of truth and light. The book takes place in a Puritan community in Boston, Massachusetts. It follows three main characters through their experience in their corrupt society and their own personal downfall. Hester Prynne is a woman convicted of adultery and forced to wear a letter A on her chest for the world to see her crime. It turns out the town minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, is the father of Hester’s child and her husband, Roger Chillingworth, who had been missing has just arrived back into their town ready for revenge. Hester shows the best depiction of the Romantic lifestyle as she is the median between Roger and Arthur. Roger, corrupt by too much science and Arthur by too much religion. The Romantics believed that too much of either will corrupt mankind making Hester the most Romantic character in the book.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a study of the effects of sin on the hearts and minds of the main characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. Sin strengthens Hester, humanizes Dimmesdale, and turns Chillingworth into a demon.