In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book, The Scarlet Letter takes place during the 1600’s in a puritan society. Nathaniel Hawthorne is extremely obsessed with Puritanism and enjoys making books about Puritanism. A Puritan society is a society based strongly around religion. The main characters in this book are Hester Prynne, Reverend Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth, and Pearl Prynne. Hester Prynne committed adultery with Dimmesdale and she is married to Chillingsworth. She had a child, who is Pearl. Hester must wear a Scarlet Letter due to committing adultery as a reminder of the wrongs she has done. In Hawthorne’s book, he will use the symbolism of a burr, the Scarlet Letter, and Dimmesdale to contribute to the overall theme of guilt.
First, Hawthorne
…show more content…
uses the burrs to contribute to the overall theme of guilt. A burr will stick to you and can be hard to pull off similar to the guilt that Hester has. Hawthorne says, “The Child probably overheard the voices; for looking up to the window, with a bright, but naughty smile of mirth and intelligence, she threw one of the prickly burrs at reverend Dimmesdale.” (Hawthorne 122) Hawthorne said this because he wanted to explain that Pearl can tell that Dimmesdale has guilt of the previous wrongs he has done. The burr is symbolic in this part because it is showing that guilt will find him and stick to him. Hawthorne also says “Taking a handful of these, she arranged them along the lines of the Scarlet Letter that decorated the maternal bosom.” (Hawthorne 122) Hawthorne wrote this and Pearl was putting burrs on Hester’s Scarlet Letter. The burrs are acting as a symbolic meaning for guilt. When Pearl put them on Hester, it showed that Hester has guilt. Second of all, Hawthorne uses the Scarlet Letter to contribute to guilt.
The letter is worn by Hester and later by Dimmesdale. But Dimmesdale has it on his chest, not on a piece of fabric. The letter is worn in the Puritan society to show that someone has committed adultery so that people will know of your sin, and as a reminder of what you have done. Hawthorne explains in his book, “But the point which drew all eyes, and, as it were, transfigured the wearer, -so that both men and women, who had been familiar with Hester Prynne, were now impressed as if they beheld her for the first time, - was the Scarlet Letter.” (Hawthorne 51) During this time in the book, Hester was leaving the prison where she has been for the last 6 months with her newborn baby, Pearl. When people saw her for the first time with the Scarlet Letter, they viewed her in a different way because she was wearing it. Another quote from Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter is, “With these words, she advanced to the margin of the brook, took up the Scarlet Letter and fastened again onto her bosom.” (Hawthorne 190) Hawthorne wrote this because Pearl was coming to her because she wasn’t wearing the Scarlet Letter. The Scarlet Letter is shown as a symbol of guilt because she will never be able to take it off, showing that her guilt will never fully be
removed. Finally, Hawthorne uses Dimmesdale to contribute to guilt. Dimmesdale's sickness is due to guilt and he eventually even dies from the burden of it. He never told anyone that he is the one who Hester committed adultery with and the only people who knew over all those years were Hester and Pearl. Hawthorne showed that Dimmesdale felt guilt in his book from a number of passages, “And thus, while standing on the scaffold, in this vain show of expiation, Mr Dimmesdale was overcome with a great horror of mind, as if the universe were gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast.” (Hawthorne 134-135) Hawthorne wrote this and Dimmesdale was standing on the scaffold in the middle of the town where Hester once stood. When he decided to go up there, it showed that he is feeling the guilt from his sins and that he should be standing up there with Hester and Pearl. Hawthorne also writes, “ “May god forgive thee!” said the minister. “Thou too hast deeply sinned!”” (Hawthorne 228) Dimmesdale was confessing on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl at the end of the book to god and the people. He was trying to rid himself of the sins of his past so he can try to become guilt free. After doing so and giving his final sermon, Dimmesdale dies.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter tells the story of Hester Prynne, a sinner, living in a puritan society. As punishment, she is forced to wear a scarlet letter on her chest. Her daughter Pearl is the product of her sinful ways, and a constant reminder of her wrongdoing. Pearl’s embodiment of the Scarlet Letter causes her hostile relationships with the world and her mother. However, when Dimmesdale kisses her, he frees her from isolation and allows her to form human connections.
Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne attempted to expose the varying ways in which different people deal with lingering guilt from sins they have perpetrated. The contrasting characters of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale ideally exemplified the differences in thought and behavior people have for guilt. Although they were both guilty of committing the same crime, these two individuals differed in that one punished themselves with physical and mental torture and the other chose to continue on with their life, devoting it to those less fortunate than they.
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.
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 Prynne is the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne's romantic novel, The Scarlet Letter, which is set in seventeenth-century Puritan New England. As a young woman, Hester married an elderly scholar, Roger Chillingworth, who sent her ahead to America to live but never followed. While waiting for him, she had an affair with a Puritan minister named Dimmesdale, after which she gave birth to Pearl. Found guilty of adultery (through the absence of her husband and the birth of Pearl), Hester is punished by being forced to wear a scarlet lette...
Guilt and shame haunt all three of the main characters in The Scarlet Letter, but how they each handle their sin will change their lives forever. Hester Prynne’s guilt is publicly exploited. She has to live with her shame for the rest of her life by wearing a scarlet letter on the breast of her gown. Arthur Dimmesdale, on the other hand, is just as guilty of adultery as Hester, but he allows his guilt to remain a secret. Instead of telling the people of his vile sin, the Reverend allows it to eat away at his rotting soul. The shame of what he has done slowly kills him. The last sinner in this guilty trio is Rodger Chillingworth. This evil man not only hides his true identity as Hester’s husband, but also mentally torments Arthur Dimmesdale. The vile physician offers his ‘help’ to the sickly Reverend, but he gives the exact opposite. Chillingworth inflicts daily, mental tortures upon Arthur Dimmesdale for seven long years, and he enjoys it. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth are all connected by their sins and shame, but what they do in regards to those sins is what sets them apart from each other.
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.
To Hester and the townspeople, the scarlet letter represents her sin, her punishment, and her detachment from the town and society 's valuesl however, at the end of the novel, it is a liberating symbol. It represents everything that Hester has gone through, and everything she has learned from it. Being familiar with sin enabled Hester to wander “without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness; as vast, as intricate and shadowy, as the untamed forest, amid the gloom of which they were now holding a colloquy that was to decide their fate" (134). The scarlet letter also represents Hester 's transcendence of the Puritan values and punishment. It was meant to be a reminder of her sin every day and something that set her apart from the town in a negative way. While it did function that way at first, eventually it transformed into something different. It showed that Hester could rebel against her punishment by reclaiming it for her own and transforming it into a positive thing. The
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.
though out the rest of the book. One of the main character's that is affected
The Scarlet Letter is a romance written by Nathaniel Hawthorne that takes place in the Puritan Community in Boston, Massachusetts during the 17th century. It tells the story of Hester Prynne, who commits the sin of adultery with the minister of the church, Reverend Dimmesdale, and conceives a baby girl, Pearl. Hester's husband, Roger Chillingworth, returns and seeks revenge. As Pearl grows up, her mother learns how to deal with the scarlet letter of shame and Dimmesdale feels guilt. When they decide to run away, Dimmesdale confesses his sin in public and he dies. The story end with the death of Chillingworth and all his belongings and property go to little Pearl. Pearl grows up and probably gets married and Hester becomes a mother for all women in need.
The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in the sixteen hundreds. Hester Prynne is accused of committing adultery in her small puritan settlement but little does the town know that the father is in fact Reverend Dismmesdale. Having sent his wife ahead of him two years before hand, Hester stops her husband in the crowd as she is standing accused on the scaffolding. Hester is given a punishment in the hopes of making her ashamed; however, she turns the mockery into amazement by making the scarlet A into a beautiful piece of patch work. Chillingworth, Hester’s husband, is on the hunt from at that point to find out the child’s father but not even Pearl herself knows. The Scarlet Letter showed how early Americans concentrated their beliefs of church and home in their daily lives. Nathaniel Hawthorne words reflect the flaws in American society during the Puritan settlement. This was also the era of the Salam Witch Trials which Hawthorne’s father played a part in. The central idea reflects that suffering comes from sinning. The Scarlet Letter was the stepping stones that paved future American novels to become so successful.
The historical setting is highly significant in the novel since it is intertwined with the public’s belief and values, which shape overall themes of the novel and the main characters’ traits. The main setting of the novel takes place in New England during the middle of the seventeenth century, and the setting is the essential factor that develops the core conflicts among Hester, Dimmesdale, and the Puritan society; in fact, the historical setting itself and the society within it is what Hawthorne intends to reveal to the reader. New England in the seventeenth century was predominately organized around religious authorities, and indeed, a large portion of the population had migrated to the colony of New England with religious purposes. Therefore, the strict and religiously centered historical setting is well demonstrated through Hester’s townspeople when Hester commits adultery. The church authority and the townspeople require Hester to wear the large “A” embroidered scarlet letter, which symbolizes adultery. This act is aligned with the historica...
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the theme revolves around a sin that has been committed. It takes places in the seventeenth century in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Hester Prynne, who had an affair with the local Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, commits the sin. Roger Chillingworth is Hester's husband while the affair is taking place. Because of the affair, Hester and Arthur have a daughter named Pearl. The sin that Hester commits is adultery. Hawthorne uses a variety of symbols throughout The Scarlet Letter, and he symbolizes the scarlet letter "A" in several ways.
The Scarlet Letter is a fictional novel that begins with an introductory passage titled ‘The Custom-House’. This passage gives a historical background of the novel and conveys the narrator’s purpose for writing about the legend of Hester Prynne even though the narrator envisions his ancestors criticizing him and calling him a “degenerate” because his career was not “glorifying God”, which is very typical of the strict, moralistic Puritans. Also, although Hawthorne is a Romantic writer, he incorporates properties of Realism into his novel by not idealizing the characters and by representing them in a more authentic manner. He does this by using very formal dialogue common to the harsh Puritan society of the seventeenth century and reflecting their ideals through this dialogue. The Puritans held somewhat similar views as the Transcendentalists in that they believed in the unity of God and the world and saw signs and symbols in human events, such as when the citizens related the meteo...