In the book “The Scarlet Letter” we Hester asks us to decide whether Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth are forgiven. Hawthorne view shows us that for one to feel forgiven thatforgiven you must forgive yourself. Dimmesdale was never able to forgiven himself so it followed him to the grave. Hester, however forgave herself. This resulted in her being seen as able as time went by. During the very beginning of “The Scarlet Letter” Hester Prynne commuted the unforgivable sin of adultery. Hester shows the readers the extreme punishment she received while forced to wear a scarlet letter A on her clothing. However, at the end of the story Hester changed greatly. She forgave herself and then received forgiveness by the town and by God for all the helping actions she performed throughout the town. Hawthorne stated “The letter …show more content…
Dimmesdale needed forgiveness in order to live with himself. The guilt of his sin, ate away at him until his death. Dimmesdale died too scared and afraid that people wouldn’t forgive him for what he did. Dimmesdale states “Let me now do the will which he hath made plain before my sight. For Hester, I am a dying man. So let me haste to take my shame upon me.” Dimmesdale is stating that he admits his afraidness and that he won’t admit to his sins for that reason.Instead, he would rather die scared and afraid and decided to take his secrets to the grave. However though, Chillingworth showed outraged to learn about how Dimmesdale is the father. But Chillingworth didn’t have the heart to forgive him for his adultery. Chillingworth stated “I shall seek this man as I have sought truth in books, as I have sought gold and alchemy. There is a sympathy that will make me conscious of him. I shall see him tremble.” This tells us that Chillingworth was not able to forgive Dimmesdale because he believed there was only evil in
As a spiritual leader, it is his responsibility not only to condemn Hester of her sins, but also when the sinner does not repented for them, they are to be set aside from society which results in Hester making the letter “A” beautiful. We see that hear through this quote, “[g]ood Master Dimmesdale,.. the responsibility of this woman’s soul lies greatly with you. It behooves you, therefore, to exhort her to repentance and to confession, as proof and consequence thereof” (pg. 62). After stating this the people wait for his direction. He leans over the balcony and commands her to disclose the name of the man she had slept with. She, however, refuses to relinquish the name, as she knows it is better for her to keep quiet, until he decides that it is time to come forward with the truth. This is only exemplifies the hypocrisy within Dimmesdale. 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 within confessing to Pearl the truth and keeping it from her. At first he is regarded as being selfish for not
Throughout the entire novel, every character except for Roger Chillingworth learned to forgive and cleared his or her heart of guilt. When the reverend showed his concern for the doctor just before his death he said, “may God forgive thee. Thou hast deeply sinned” (251). For example, Dimmesdale used some of his last words to forgive the doctor of his wrongdoing. Even though Chillingworth tortured and haunted him until the very end of his life, the reverend had strong enough character to want God to show mercy on the evildoer’s soul. Moreover, Dimmesdale was able to forgive Hester when he told her, “I do forgive you Hester” (191). Because of his high position of authority, Dimmesdale set high standards for his life, and that reflected in the way he handled personal relationships. Also, if Chillingworth had been more understanding towards Hester’s problem, he had a better chance at winning her love back. Finally, both Hester and her lover admitted their sin on the scaffold and sought forgiveness for their transgressions while Chillingworth never could admit he sinned.
The Scarlet Letter starts off by throwing Hester Prynne into drama after being convicted for adultery in a Puritan area. Traveling from Europe to America causes complications in her travel which also then separates her from her husband, Roger Chillingworth for about three years. Due to the separation, Hester has an affair with an unknown lover resulting in having a child. Ironically, her lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, is a Reverend belonging to their church who also is part of the superiors punishing the adulterer. No matter how many punishments are administered to Hester, her reactions are not changed. Through various punishments, Hester Prynne embraces her sin by embroidering a scarlet letter “A” onto her breast. However, she is also traumatized deep within from everything she’s been through. Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts this story of sin by using rhetorical devices such as allusion, alliteration and symbolism.
Hester Prynne’s sin was adultery. This sin was regarded very seriously by the Puritans, and was often punished by death. Hester’s punishment was to endure a public shaming on a scaffold for three hours and wear a scarlet letter "A" on her chest for the rest of her life in the town. Although Hawthorne does not pardon Hester’s sin, he considers it less serious than those of Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. Hester’s sin was a sin of passion. This sin was openly acknowledged as she wore the "A" on her chest. Hester did not commit the greatest sin of the novel. She did not deliberately mean to commit her sin or mean to hurt others.
Hester Prynne has a fairly unconventional approach to her “sin.” She does not feel ashamed of her wrong and therefore does not feel guilt as others in The Scarlet Letter do. She is marked with a large “A” for her sin of adultery and embraces this by embroidering the letter. "And never had ...
Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth are all sinners, but they each handle their guilt in different ways. Hester tries to earn forgiveness by acts of service. Dimmesdale allows his guilt to build up to the point that it kills him. Chillingworth becomes obsessed with getting revenge. None of them receive the benefit of forgiveness. There is no true redemption, because there is no Savior in The Scarlet Letter. Without a merciful, loving, and gracious Savior, there can not be forgiveness of sin and reconciliation of broken relationships. This barren hopelessness leaves the characters desperate, alone, and in need of a Rescuer.
Hester's sin is that her passion and love were of more importance to her than the Puritan moral code, but she learns the error of her ways and slowly regains the adoration of the community. For instance, 'What we did had a consecration of its own. We felt it so! We said so to each other! Hast thou forgotten it?';(Ch.17: 179). Hester fully acknowledges her guilt and displays it with pride to the world. This was obvious by the way she displays the scarlet letter with elaborate designs showing that she is proud. Furthermore, she does not want to live a life of lies anymore when she states 'forgive me! In all things else, I have striven to be true! Truth was the one virtue which I might have held fast, and did hold fast, through all extremity save when thy good--the life--they fame--were put in question! Then I consented a deception. But a lie is never good, even though death threaten the other side!';(Ch.17: 177). Hester learns from her sin, and grows strong, a direct result from her punishment. The scarlet letter 'A' was as if a blessing to Hester changing her into an honest person with good virtues. Fittingly, she chooses to stay in Boston with Pearl although Hawthorne admits, ';…that this woman should still call that place her home, where, and where only, she must needs be the type of shame';(Ch.5: 73). She is trying to stay and face her consequences instead of running in the other direction. Most people would leave a town where they are looked upon as trash the scum of society. Finally, the colonists come to think of the scarlet letter as '…the cross on a nun's bosom';(Ch.
In the beginning of The Scarlet Letter, the letter is understood as a label of punishment and sin being publicized. Hester Prynne bears the label of “A” signifining adulterer upon her chest. Because of this scorching red color label she becomes the outcast of her society. She wears this symbol of punishment and it become a burden throughout her life. The letter “produces only a reflection of her scarlet letter; likewise, the townspeople's image of Hester revolves around her sin. The evil associated with Hester's actions and the letter on her chest consume all aspects of her life, concealing her true beauty, mind, and soul” (R. Warfel 421-425). Society pushed blame upon Hester Prynne, and these events lead to the change of her life. The Puritans whom Prynne is surround by view the letter as a symbol from the devil, controversially some individuals look upon the letter, sigh and fell sympathy towards her because they have or are involved in this same situation. Nonetheless the haunting torture Hester Prynne battles daily drags on, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows this torture “of an impulse and passionate nature. She had fortified herself to encounter the stings and venomous stabs of public contumely wreaking itself in every variety of insult but...
Guilt, a powerful feeling that overwhelms the weak, but manipulates even the best of people. A minister living a lie, a women who committed adultery, and a husband seeking revenge creates Nathaniel Hawthorne's story of The Scarlet Letter. The beloved minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, and the married Hester Prynne are involved in a forbidden relationship. Hester’s pregnancy, with Dimmesdale as the father, forces her to endure the public punishment of the Puritan society. Hester deals only with embarrassment and isolation, while Dimmesdale not owning up to his mistakes creates worse havoc for the minister. Throughout the remainder of the story, Dimmesdale’s physical appearance directly correlates to his remorseful conscience, which supports the theme
With his family at his side, Dimmesdale finally confesses his sin and shows the scarlet "A" on his chest. He then died peacefully. Hawthorne has perfectly structured The Scarlet Letter around three scaffold scenes. At the first one, located in the very beginning of the novel, Hester openly confesses her sin of adultery in the light of day while Dimmesdale and Chillingworth look on from the crowd that has gathered.
Both committed adultery but have suffered in different ways. Hester’s punishment composed of public shaming on the scaffold for all to behold, but afterwards she did not suffer from guilt because she confessed her sin, unlike Dimmesdale, who did not confess, but rather let his sin become the “black secret of his soul” (170), as he hid his vile secret and became described as the “worst of sinners” (170). He leads everyone to believe of his holiness as a minister and conceals the, “Remorseful hypocrite that he was [is]” (171). Hester, a sinner too, however, does not lie about how she lives and therefore, does not suffer a great torment in her soul. While she stays healthy, people begin to see Hester’s Scarlet Letter turn into a different meaning, of able or angel, and they view her in a new light, of how she really lives. Dimmesdale however, becomes sickly and weak after “suffering under bodily disease, and gnawed and tortured by some black trouble of the soul” (167). He hides behind a false mask as he is described as possessing, “Brilliant particles of a halo in the air about his head” (300), and perceived as the most honorable man in New England. People do not see him as truly himself, but rather who he hides
Through these events, Hester Prynne’s image is transformed throughout the course of the story. As Hester wears the scarlet letter, the reader can feel how much of an outcast Hester becomes. When walking through town, “.she never raised her head to receive their greeting. If they were resolute to accept her, she laid her finger on the scarlet letter and passed on” (Hawthorne, 127). She believes that she is not worthy of the towns acknowledgments and chooses to ignore them.
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.
In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne analyzes Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. In the story, Hester is the main character of the story and was called Mistress Prynne (Hawthorne 70). Dimmesdale, in the story was referred to as Reverend Dimmesdale (Hawthorne 90). Chillingworth was originally named, Roger Prynne but later in the story he changed his name to Roger Chillingworth. In the story, Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale against Chillingworth and in the beginning she got punished and sent to prison and later she got to get out of prison but with the exception of having to wear the letter A on her breast every time she went out in to town.
As Hester wears the Scarlet Letter the people around her label her as well as her changing for her society around her in order to fit in. Hester Prynne has committed the sin of adultery, which in her society she needs to wear a Scarlet Letter as a punishment. Hester was put in front of her community and is exploited to what she is. “I charge… speak out the name of thy fellow sinner… though he were to step down from a high place.” (Hawthorne 77) Because she is a sinner, and people want her to confess her sin she goes against them and refuses to speak. When she does not speak, many people in the society thinks that she should be