Good vs. Evil in The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter is a wonderful and not so traditional example of the good versus evil theme. What makes this a unique instance of good versus evil is that either side could be considered either one. Hester could very easily have been deduced as evil, or the "bad guy," as she was by the townspeople. That is, she was convicted of adultery, a horrible sin of the time. As for punishment, a sentence to wear a scarlet "A" upon her chest, it would hardly be considered a burden or extreme sentence in present day. Another sin that Hester committed was the fact that she never told who the father of her child, Pear, forcing her to be without a father. Hester's silence also caused Dimmesdale to live in torture every day. Chillingsworth was also hurt by Hester's act of adultery and because of her, his life was destroyed and the only thing he could do was seek revenge against the man who had been with her.
Hester's child Pearl had to be raised by only one parent and that caused the child to be less disciplined and more outrageous making the townspeople more suspicious of who the child's father was. It also caused the religious leaders to wonder about the religious stability of the child, and if there might be witchcraft involved, "The little baggage have witchcraft in her"(p112).
Hester also caused numerous a sleepless night for Dimmesdale. If Hester had just announced that Dimmesdale was the father he would have never have lived through all the guilt that she forced him into. Dimmesdale was a weak and frail man because of Hester's silence.
Chillengsworth was pushed into a life of revenge and anguish since Hester had betrayed their marriage and Chillengsworth's trust in her. She had turned Chillengsworth into a fiend, "I have already told thee what I am, a fiend!" (P169). Hester admitts to causing Chillengsworth into becoming the fiend as well.
The guilt rests solely on Hester Prynne for destroying not just her own life from this sin but also of many other people such as the minister Dimmesdale, the physician Chillengsworth, and her own daughter Pearl.
Chillingworth, the injured husband, seeks no revenge against Hester, but he is determined to find the man who has violated his marrige: “He bears no letter of infamy wrought into his garment, and thou dost; but I shall read it on his heart.” Chillingworth comments: “Believe me, Hester, there are few things.
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When asked to describe Roger Chillingworth, peers say he was an upstanding, respectful, concerned citizen. They would have been right, but he didn’t let anyone know just how much he cared. With the loss of Hester, he became filled with anger and jealousy and eventually let his emotions overtake him. At the close of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the malevolent state of Roger Chillingworth’s heart made him the guiltiest.
During this puritan time in the 1600s. Nathaniel Hawthorne who is an anti-transcendentalist speaks about sin. But not just any sin, secret sin in this novel “The Scarlet Letter.” Hawthorne expresses many themes and symbols in many strange and mysterious ways. Hawthorne is a very dark and devious man. The scarlet letter A that is embroidered on Hester’s bosom symbolizes adultery. Adultery is the sin that she has committed. Hester had a whole husband and made a baby with a man that wasn’t the husband. In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of Hester’s Cabin, Leeches, and Dimmesdale to contribute to the overall theme of Good Vs. Evil.
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
As a living reminder of Hester’s extreme sin, Pearl is her constant companion. From the beginning Pearl has always been considered as an evil child. For Hester to take care of such a demanding child, put lots of stress onto her life. Hester at times was in a state of uncontrollable pressure. “Gazing at Pearl, Hester Prynne often dropped her work upon her knees, and cried out with an agony which she would fain have hidden, but which made utterance for itself, betwixt speech and a groan, ‘O Father in heaven- if Thou art still my Father- what is this being which I have brought into the world!’” (Hawthorne, 77).
In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes imagery to convey that Dimmesdale can represent Puritan Society rather than the round character that can be seen on the surface level. This is seen through the imagery and symbolism of hypocrisy, Dimmesdale as a Christ figure, and the scarlet letter.
Hester Prynne was the main character in the Scarlet Letter. Hester sin was committing adultery with minister Arthur Dimmsdale. Birthing a child named Pearl of pure sin. By committing her sin they punished her. “‘If thou feelest it to be for thy soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be made more effectual to salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer!" (98 ) The community made her stand on the scaffold for public humiliation. Wearing the letter “A” on her garments meaning Adultery as another punishment. The community shunned Hester and Pearl looking at them as satans work. Hester believes that she should remain in Boston since that were her crime of adultery was committed making it as a reminder to herself what shes have done. Also staying to protect Dimmesdale from Chillingworth.
The virtue of truth and the evil of secret sin are clearly illustrated in the novel, The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The three main characters in this novel display their own honesty and sins.
In the beginning, the scarlet letter represents the sinful nature of Hester’s crime, as revealed through the thoughts and feelings of Hester and the townspeople towards the letter. When first wearing the letter in public, Hester portrays herself as indifferent towards the town’s harsh language and detest for her, despite still feeling the intensity of her punishment internally. Hester portrays herself as indifferent towards the town’s harsh language and detest for her, and strong in the difficult conditions. By “wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she…with a burning blush, and…haughty smile…looked around at her townspeople and neighbours” (Hawthorne, 80).
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...
...h life because of that. Dimmesdale, on the other hand, faced Puritan torture under Chillingworth for the seven years without benefit of the release of guilt Hester had found by being in the public eye. Dimmesdale's only release from guilt was not the scaffold, but death itself.
The Reverend Dimmesdale was another character that demonstrated the effects of sin. He committed the same offense that Hester committed, adultery. The difference between Dimmesdale and Hester was that Dimmesdale was not publicly punished for his crime while Hester was. Because of this, Dimmesdale felt extremely guilty. This feeling of guilt was so atrocious that it mentally and physically withered Dimmesdale, as he felt a very strong need to repent and cleanse his soul.
Pearl is an offspring of sin whose life revolves around the affair between her mother and Reverend Dimmesdale. Due to her mother's intense guilt during her upbringing, she is not able to become more than a mirror image of her surroundings; like a chameleon, she mimics everything around her, and the changes that occur externally affect her internally. Pearl stands out as a radiant child implicated by the sin of her parents. Without a doubt, if Pearl hadn't been born and such a burden had not been put upon Hester, she would have experienced a life without visible ridicule. It is only when the sin is publicly revealed that she is liberated by the truth.
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.