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Does hester's perception of the scarlet letter change
What is the relationship between the scarlet letter and hester
Nathaniel Hawthorne and sin
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In the Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is a strong woman who triumphs over patriarchal society because Hester overcome her sin, became mature women, and she is someone that people could look up. During the book, Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale which he is the minister of the Puritan community and also she is not telling who father is. A sin committed in the Puritans community is very tough to handle because the Puritans have very strict laws and punishment. In the beginning of the book, Hester was standing on the scaffold with her baby, and she survives the punishment without any complains, or giving up. For the first time that she wears the scarlet letter on her clothes so people could see her guilt. Even though the whole town was …show more content…
Hester decided to stay and raise Pearl on the outer’s parts of the town because she is an outcast to the community. She goes to the town with her scarlet letter on her chest, and she is not afraid of showing her scarlet to people. Other people would have left the town if they were in Hester’s situation because Hester have experience humiliation from the Puritans. At this time Hester was alone in the house with her baby, and she just decided to embroider. Later, Hester decided to help the poor even though they still look down on her scarlet letter. She cares for the poor and brings them food and clothing. Then, Hester shows maturity and responsibility when she hears the people wants to take Pearl away from her. She went to the governor’s house, so she could tell to back off of taking Pearl away from her. During the argument; she was mature enough to ask the father to help her keep the child. She made Dimmesdale to take responsibility on being on her side while everyone beliefs that the Pearl should be taken away. Then, Hester said to the governor that, “I can teach my Pearl what I have learned from this!" (Hawthorne 84). She said this to defend her argument that she is the better person to be with Pearl because she was the one who the scarlet
Hester Prynne, the protagonist in the book The Scarlet Letter, has committed the sin of adultery, but learned to use that mistake as a form of strength. Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth, sent her to America and was supposed to follow her, but never arrived in Boston. While Hester was waiting on Chillingworth, she had an affair with the town minister, Dimmesdale. As a result, Hester gave birth to a beautiful daughter and was forced to wear the scarlet
Hester Pryne of The Scarlet Letter Hester Pryne, after being punished for her sin, lived an important life. In "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester was convicted of adultery. However, after her conviction, she managed to raise a daughter, became an important seamstress in her community, and set an example for her close-knit community. Pearl, the daughter of a convicted sex offender, grew up living a different life from her peers.
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.
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 today 's modernised world people are often times criticised for the way they dress, act and portray themselves. Similarly, this judgement has been going on since the early days of the Puritan Era. During this era, a popular novel called The Scarlet Letter takes place. In this novel, the main character, Hester Prynne, commits an act of adultery and is forced to wear the letter “A” upon her bosom. Like Hester Prynne, I was expected to wear a letter upon my chest for the purposes of this essay. I wore the letter “P” for the vice of procrastinator, which I felt like I was guilty of. By wearing this letter for an entire school day, I was able to feel the way Prynne felt on a much smaller scale. I was constantly looked down upon and questioned
Adultery is considered evil by Puritan belief (Korobkin 3). In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne’s Scarlet “A” goes against the Puritan community and culture with her conceal of sin, which has negative as well as positive results. Hester was a passionate, persistent woman who wanted to turn her sin into a positive act (Stewart 56).
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.
The elders of the Puritan community find her to be guilty and force her to wear a scarlet letter on her bosom for the rest of her life. Some of the people of the town are angry because her punishment is so easy. However, Hester takes her punishment and embraces it. Hester knows, “But now, with this unattended walk from her prison-door, began the daily custom, and she must either sustain and carry it forward by the ordinary resources of her nature, or sink beneath it” (Hawthorne). Hester embroiders her scarlet letter and dresses her daughter, Pearl, in scarlet. She also wears her scarlet letter way longer than the community says showing everyone that she has nothing to hide. Even though the strict Puritan values bring Hester to public shame, they also help Hester gain back the respect of her community. “To Puritans, a person by nature was inherently sinful and corrupt, and only by severe and
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.
At the beginning of the Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne is labeled as the “bad guy”. The townspeople demand the other adulterer’s name, but Hester denies this revelation. She does not reveal it because she knows that the information will crumble the foundation of the Puritan religion and the town itself. “‘But, Hester, the man lives who has wronged us both! Who is he?’ ‘Ask me not!’ replied Hester Prynne, looking firmly into his face. ‘That thou shalt never know!’(Hawthorne 52). Hester knows that finding out that the father of the child, the Minister that is leading the town, will diminish credibility for the church and for Dimmesdale, the Minister. During her punishment, Hester decides to move out near the woods and make a living as a seamstress. Hester is regarded as an outcast from Boston, but she still gives back to the society that shuns her. ‘“Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge?’ they would say to strangers. ‘It is our Hester, —the town's own Hester, —who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted!’”(Hawthorne 111). Her acts of kindness, helping the sick and comforting the afflicted, toward the society that makes her an outcast shows the inner goodness of a person. Throu...
Throughout The Scarlet Letter, the author Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many literal and figurative items to illustrate the significance of various characters or themes. Coupled with the tangible evidence given, the reader can make many miscellaneous assumptions of the importance of these items to directly and indirectly contribute to the issues of the novel. One cryptic item that symbolizes more than it seems to is the appearance of one of the main characters, Hester Prynne. Hester Prynne's appearance and hair signify the levels of will and determination she possesses at the moment.
Throughout all the sinful things Hester Prynne has done, she still managed to obtain good qualities. Hester was an adulterer from the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hester was looked down upon by the citizens of Boston because of the sin she and another person committed, but no one knew who her partner in crime was because she refused to release his name. Towards the very end of the story Hester’s accomplice confessed and left Hester and Pearl feeling joyous, because now they didn’t have to keep in a secret. Hester is a trustworthy, helpful, and brave woman throughout The Scarlet Letter.
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne, Hester Prynne is labeled as an adulteress by the community. Many people are often labeled by others. As humans labeling is a part of life; it helps people to categorize their thoughts. I know that when I started dancing, I labeled myself as a dancer. By the time I left St. Mary’s, and maybe even a little bit now, dance defined me, just as Hester’s adultery defined her. It became the only thing that people knew about me, and the only thing I knew how to talk about. Hawthorne says, “It is a good lesson …to step aside out of the narrow circle in which his claims are recognized” (24 Hawthorne). I wanted to broaden my horizons, as paradoxical as it sounds, the best way for me to do that was through dance.
In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, two of the main characters, Hester Prynne, the protagonist, and Pearl, her child. Pearl is the dramatic foil to her mother. There are also two other main characters in the novel, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth. Dimmesdale is the anti-hero of The Scarlet Letter while Roger Chillingworth is the antagonist.
In another criticism, Lelend S. Person mention, “Hester Prynne’s adulterous behavior and the scarlet letter that initially represents it also deform her motherhood” (656). There is no perfect mother in this world even in modern day. People before becoming parents may have a rough behavior until unexpected events occur. Hester’s Scarlet Letter may give her daughter, Pearl, an influence in Pearl’s future life because of Hester’s letter on her chest. Even though, Hester never stopped or refuse to take off the Scarlet letter in front of Pearl, her daughter, or the Puritans