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Introduction of the scarlet letter nathaniel hawthorne
Scarlet letter nathaniel hawthorne
The scarlet letter nathaniel hawthorne
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In the book The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, iron is a common image used throughout the book, not only as a repeating topic but as a metaphor for the control Hester has over her mind. According to the book iron is a prison, a restrainer, and a restricter, but in reality Hester has the ultimate control to impose these onto herself not the iron. Hester feels as if iron is holding her back in New England, but it can be seen that her mind is what is restricting her from leaving. In addition, Hester is able to find reason in her life by preventing the restraining iron framework most of the community follows using her ability to control the prison in her mind. Overall, the image of iron used in the novel is referring to the iron prison in Hester's mind and how it is the ultimate restricter of her life as well as the controller of restraining beliefs. …show more content…
Hester has countless opportunities to flee the town after her prosecution, but she believes that she has iron chains holding her back from leaving.
However, her iron chains simply disappear when she returns from a different town. Hawthorne explains, "The chain that bound her here was of iron links, and galling to her inmost soul, but could never be broken." (p 163) Hester feels as if the iron links is restricting her from leaving, but as soon as she lets the chains go she feels no restriction. Hawthorne says, "...but either she unlocked it or the decaying wood and iron yielded to her hand..." (p 535) Hawthorne explains that Hester has the ultimate control over her iron chains restricting her. When Hester is first prosecuted her sin is fresh in her mind, something that she can never let go, but as time passes she sees that she can't hold onto it forever. As she releases most of guilt she feels, her iron chains fade away. The image of iron is used as a metaphor to show the amount of control Hester has over her thoughts and
actions. Hester is told repeatability what is acceptable and what is not while living in The New World, and the restraining framework of these thoughts keep Hester locked in the typical Puritan beliefs. Puritan's have restricting beliefs and practices, and Hester seems to limit herself to these understandings in the beginning. However, as she matures she realizes this way of living is not the way she would like to live her life. Hawthorne explains, "The prejudices which they shared in common with the latter were fortified in themselves by an iron frame-work of reasoning..." (P 330) This is referring to the moment in which Hester and Dimmesdale realize how strict the community they live in is. Before, Hester was ok chaining her mind up with iron, locking in the ideals she held on the inside. However, by the end of the book she unlocks her beliefs from the chains that have sealed them up. This proves that Hester is the iron that holds back her thoughts and controls how she views her community. In the novel, iron is not mentioned for its melding capabilities or its resounding usage in modern engineering, but it's reference to a prison in Hester's mind. The iron chains represent a prison that is holding Hester's mind a prisoner. Hester is unable to leave the town and move away from the norms in society because the iron chains are restricting her free will. In the end, Hester learning to break down her chains is one of the morals Hawthorne hopes to convey to the readers. In the end, Hawthorne's advice to break down whatever is holding you back and live without restriction from yourself is the optimal goal humans strive to complete
First, Hester is a main symbol in the book and she is a symbol of sin, confession, shame, and repentance. The first two symbols Hester represents are shame and sin. She has committed adultery and was forced to stand on the scaffold for public humiliation. She has to wear the scarlet letter ‘A’. The scarlet letter ‘A’ stands for adultery and is a symbol of shame. Hester is forced to wear this so she will always be reminded of the sin she has committed and so everyone knows that she has committed adultery. Although Hester has to wear the scarlet letter, she is a very strong, independent woman even without a male influence in her life. Hester is also a symbol of strength because she has to hold all of the shame and punishment in the sin that her and Reverend Dimmesdale committed. On Election Day Reverend Dimmesdale gives his sermon and people say it is the most powerful speech he has ever given. They think that
A sinful nature is an aspect in man that makes him rebellious against God. Everyone has a sinful nature and it affects every part of us. Sin corrupts the human mind and has consequences for doing wrong in the eyes of the Lord. Every individual on Earth sins, and this is represented in the novel The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale to portray how different people cope with their sin and the consequences of that sin.
In the acclaimed novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses juxtaposition, as well as parallel structure, to illustrate the negative effects of Puritan’s religious traditions, and the harmfully suppressive nature of Puritan culture as a whole.
Light and Dark Light and dark is an everyday aspect of life, The Scarlet Letter really reveals how light and dark everyone can be. Though it was sometimes hard to read, the book made me think more about the good and evil in everyone. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses the symbols of light and dark to depict good and evil among the characters Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Hester Prynne is considered a light and dark character in the book; many of the things that are noticeable about Hester in the book involve the sunshine. Hester explains this to Pearl in the book “Thou must gather thine own sunshine I have none to give thee” (Hawthorne 95).
The central theme in The Scarlet Letter is that manifested sin will ostracize one from society and un-confessed sin will lead to the destruction of the inner spirit. Hawthorne uses the symbol of the scarlet letter to bring out this idea. In the novel, Hester is forced to wear the scarlet letter A (the symbol of her sin) because she committed adultery with the clergyman, Dimmesdale. Because the public's knowledge of her sin, Hester is excluded physically, mentally, and socially from the normal society of the Puritan settlement. She lives on the outskirts of town in a small cottage where she makes her living as a seamstress. Though she is known to be a great sewer amongst the people, Hester is still not able to sew certain items, such as a new bride's veil. Hester also has no interaction with others; instead she is taunted, if not completely ignored, by all that pass her by. Despite the ill treatment of the society, Hester's soul is not corrupted. Instead, she flourishes and improves herself in spite of the burden of wearing the scarlet letter and she repeatedly defies the conventional Puritan thoughts and values by showing what appears to us as strength of character. Her good works, such as helping the less fortunate, strengthen her inner spirit, and eventually partially welcome her back to the society that once shunned her.
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 accost 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. The guilt that now rests in Hester is overwhelming to her and is a reason of her change in personality.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's bold novel, The Scarlet Letter, effectively employs three major symbols: light, dark, and the scarlet letter. The novel relies heavily on light and dark symbolism to represent the eternal struggle of good versus evil.
She lost all her fiery passion on the scaffold, by which society mocked and watched and she was punished for the sins she committed. The scaffold became the essence of sin and hatred for Hester, Hawthorne created the meaning of this by stating things like the scaffold was “the very ideal of ignominy [and] was embodied and made manifest in this contrivance of wood and iron”. Hester makes her transformation on this scaffold and although she is silent ad still filled with anger, she will never be the same due pain she felt on that scaffold. Through society's punishments and harsh bias, Hester is stripped of all passion and this is continually argued with her change as she wears the scarlet letter. In the beginning, Hester tries to cover it up, but the burn of those eyes who look upon her still stand. ONce in the free spirit environment of the forest and she takes the scarlet A off she becomes happy and passionate once again that even her own daughter doesn’t recognize
Hester Prynne's guilt is the result of her committing adultery, which has a significant effect on her life. Hester is publicly seen with the scarlet letter when she first emerges out of the cold dark prison. "It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and enclosing her in a sphere by herself" (49). The spell that is mentioned is the scarlet letter, "so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom" (49). The scarlet letter is what isolates her from everyone else because it symbolizes sin. Hester is in her very own sphere, where her sin affects her livelihood and has completely cut her off from the world. Her entrance into the sphere marks the beginning of her guilt and it occurs when she is in the prison after her first exposure to the crowd. The prison marks the beginning of a new life for Hester, a life full of guilt and seclusion. Her problem is that her shame is slowly surfacing while she faces the crowd realizing that she has been stripped of all her pride and everything that was important to her in the past. The lasting effect of Hester's sin is the shame that she now embodies due to her committing adultery. The shame that is ass...
"To be fully human is to balance the heart, the mind, and the spirit.'; One could suggest the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, that one should not violate the sanctity of the human heart. Hester was well ahead of her time, and believed that love was more important than living in a lie. Dimmesdale’s theology and his inclinations render him almost incapable of action; Chillingsworth dammed himself, along with Dimmesdale. Hester was “frank with [Chillingsworth].';
One of the most prominent debates throughout history is the question of individual versus group. Is it better to protect individual rights or sustain peace and safety in society? Is it better to be oneself, at all costs, or conform to the strict guidelines and rules set before each person by society? Conformity is fundamentally a failure to be one’s self and true to one’s nature. Non-conformists are those who rebel against the masses through their views and behaviour. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne constantly internally struggles with this debate on conformity. Often it seems she is willing to obey the masses, wear the letter, and settle for a life plagued with shame and guilt. Other times it seems Hester rejects society's rules as arbitrary
Hawthorne manages to create many metaphors within his novel The Scarlet Letter. The rose bush outside the prison door, the black man, and the scaffold are three metaphors. Perhaps the most important metaphor would be the scaffold, which plays a great role throughout the entire story. The three scaffold scenes which Hawthorne incorporated into The Scarlet Letter contain a great deal of significance and importance the plot. Each scene brings a different aspect of the main characters, the crowd or more minor characters, and what truth or punishment is being brought forth.
4. The Scarlet Letter was written and published in 1850. The novel was a product of the Transcendentalist and Romantic period.
Hester's fantastically embellished red letter takes on many meanings as a symbol. The gold thread with which the letter is embroidered symbolizes Hester's mockery of the Puritan way of punishment. A female spectator in the market place remarks, "Why, gossips, what is it but to laugh in the faces of our godly magistrates, and make a pride out of what they ... meant for a punishment?" (Hawthorne 61). The embellishment of the letter physically displays Hester's reaction to her punishment. Her strong will not only accepts the challenge that the Puritan church has laid before her, but she also laughs in mockery at it. The scarlet letter also shows the triviality of the community's system of punishment. Whenever Hester walks outside of her cottag...
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.