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Puritanism In The Scarlet Letter
How does the scarlet letter define sin
Role of puritanism in The Scarlet Letter
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“Original sin”: is the Puritan belief that all sin developed from women due to the fact that Eve, the first woman, made the first sin by giving in to temptation and offering it to men. This sin made the belief that all children created a sin and should be held responsible for the act of Adam and Eve. In the book, The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne uses imagery, symbolism, and the belief in “original sin” to criticize how women are not seen as equals to men.
The Imagery in The Scarlet Letter portrays what a strong character Hester had to be and what he had to go through to be able to withstand herself. Her own daughter, she had to withstand from the community and her loved ones that she felt betrayed by. There’s imagery in the way
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she explains the custom house and how she sees it and the people that she knows that are around there, she explains the smell surrounding her as she's walking around town and how everything is and how it affects her. It's like if she's distant, in another world, but she's actually just looking around and seeing the town and what brought her to the point that she is right now. Hawthorne uses the Rose Bush by the prison door as an image of sympathy. The rose bush shows something that is fragile and vulnerable to the human eye. Its an act of empathy as Hawthorne says “offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of Nature could pity and be kind to him.” Hawthorne uses nature to create images about humans or to humans, he shows that nature is kinder to humans than humans are to humans. There are several examples of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter, her own daughter is an example of symbolism.
Pearl's name shows the purification that Hester wants Pearl to have in her life and the lifestyle she wishes Pearl could have, but the town sees her as the devil's child due to the fact that the child has no father and has a sinful mother and she was not just a child, she was different. Pearl's name also symbolizes a bible quote (“Gospel of Matthew: “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. Matthew 13:45-46”) The biblical verse shows that Hester gave up everything to Pearl, she was her “punishment” but yet she was also her “happiness” and Pearl is the one who kept her alive. As the novel goes on Hester starts to embrace the letter ” A” that,s sewn onto her which at that point stood for Adultery. She goes through stages throughout the book. At first she feels shame when walking through the prison door and the prison door symbolizes a society that does not realize their own mistakes, but imprisons others feeling better about their own sins, doings, and afflictions. Then as she walks through the crowds yell and hears the town's gossip and feels the wrath of the Puritan society, she feels offended when the people want to take Pearl away from her, she builds up emotional intensity by expressing how she feels about Pearl and the society …show more content…
that's surrounding her. After many battles and challenges Hester feels she has the Ability to go on and look past all that's happened to her and deal with whatever comes her way her own way. The townsmen do not trust in Hester and the men would hide away their wives and children afraid that women would go astray(pg47) by the effect that Hester had on the town. In this time period, women could no wrong for they already in sin by having children. But the men could do as they please, because they were men and men controlled the household and had the upper hand on what the family did and what happened within the family. The town's women slowly start to see the unfair ways of men and try to retaliate in their own way and then feel guilty about their sin and go to Hester to ask how she got through it all and Hester comforts them and the society starts to slowly forgive her and sees that she's not the only one to make mistakes, that all make mistakes and that they all sin. The town saw her as an angel to help other people out. The belief of original sin controls the story and carries the story through.
The act of Adam and Eve is repeated throughout the story multiple times, in a discreet way. The belief of original sin in the book makes Pearl, any children, any Women seems like they’re a sin and that they will never be forgiven for the sin of Adam and Eve since they are the example of temptation and the wrong that women has done towards men. But what the original sin does imply in the Puritan belief is that it also men's fault for giving in to the temptation brought on by women. The Puritan does blame Adam, but not as much as Eve. The Puritans blame Adam for every child that is going to be born after Adam and Eve because every child conceived is a sin because Women are a sin in the Puritan belief. Women are vulnerable, tempted, and do not have a brain of their own to think. And that man should be in charge of the household and everything possible. The original sin affects how everybody sees Hester even though they have all sinned before they believe that no sin would compare to Hester's sin and that Hester ought to be but away from all the shame that she's created for the community and for all the women that feel like her influence is strongly based on what she
did. This proves that men believed that women did all wrong and that they were the only ones who could do wrong and that even if the men sinned, their god would forgive them since they are not women and do not give into temptation, but our offered temptation throughout the book which is the Puritan belief that all women are sinners and that men are here to redeem them and make them better people and keep them away from people like Hester who might influence their behavior and reject gender roles and refuse to be suppressed anymore and to come up and be better than what men think women are. Men suppressed them and women allowed it until the scarlet letter came along and showed what the letter “A” truly meant. “The tendency of her fate and fortunes had been to set free. The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread.”
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.
Pearl is a symbol of Hester’s transgressions and even has similar qualities as the sin which she represents. Pearl’s life and behavior directly reflects the unacceptable and abnormal nature of Hester’s adulterous sin. Hester is plagued with more than just a letter “A”; she is given a child from her affair who is just as much a reminder of her sin as the scarlet letter. Ultimately Hester overcomes the shame associated the scarlet letter and creates a sense of family for herself and Pearl. This relationship is integral to the theme of this novel and the development of its characters.
From the moment she is born in the cold, heartless prison, Pearl is placed under scrutiny. The townspeople see her as a visible reminder of sin, and it isn't long until even her own mother searches for evil in her. The girl is described as "the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed with life!"(Hawthorne 103). With her fascination from an early age with the scarlet letter, Hester believes that Pearl's very reason for existence is to torment her mother. Hester fails to realize that the letter is just something bright and significant to which Pearl reacts; instead, she sees every glance, every word aimed at the letter, every touch of Pearl's tiny fingers to her bosom as an added torture resulting from her adultery. Hester, considering Pearl's very existence, goes so far as to question if the impish child is even her own. "Thou art not my child! Thou art no Pearl of mine!"(Hawthorne 99) she tells Pearl, only half-jokingly. In her own way, she wonders whether Pearl was sent to her by God or by a demon wishing to cause her pain. She is not alone in this speculation; many of the town's citizens believe there is something of the Devil in Pearl.
Evil. Pearl was the baby that was born into darkness and is now a devil baby. The name Pearl was a very unique name and the meaning is very unique as well. The name Pearl is very unique in it’s own way already, but Hawthorne makes it even more unique. “But she named the infant Pearl, as of being of great price, -purchased with all she had, -her mother’s only treasure.” (Hawthorne 81) Hawthorne says that because no matter how evil Pearl is, she happens to be the only thing that keeps Hester sane. Pearl is a very devious child and I think it’s because Hester created her out of sin. “Pearl would grow up positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations” (Hawthorne 86) Hawthorne explains that Pearl is always doing bad things but she doesn’t know any better because that’s how she was
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.
revengeand one of secrecy. He was not driven by an anger at his ownsin, but
Initially Pearl is the symbol of Hesters public punishment for her adultery. As the novel progresses and Pearl matures she symbolizes the deteriation of Hester's like by constantly asking her about the scarlet letter "A". Pearl in a sense wants her mother to live up to her sin and, she achieves this by constantly asking her about the scarlet letter. Another peice of evidence that shows how Pearl symbolizes the sin Hester has committed, is when the town government wants to take Pearl away from her Revrend Dimmsdale convinces the government that Pearl is a living reminder of her sin. This is essentialy true, Hester without Pearl is like having Hester without sin.
The character Pearl in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is the most ambiguous character in the novel. Pearl plays an important role as the daughter of Hester Prynne, who commits the sin of adultery. During this time of Puritan law, Hester was punished by having to wear the scarlet letter “A” on her chest to remind the world of her sin which was committing adultery. Even the Bible states that sin is wrong, “For the wages of sin is death:” (The Bible). Pearl was born and considered an outcast because of the sinful deed of her mother. Pearl is the living evidence of Hester’s adultery with an unknown man. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s character Pearl is portrayed as a more perceptive character, there is the emotional impact Pearl had with her mother, and how much more truthful and honest she is than the adults in the novel.
Although Pearl is looked at as the result of Hester’s sin, she is a blessing to her mother as well. Her name, “Pearl,” is fitting because of what she means to Hester. For instance “Hester names her”Pearl” because she has come to great price, and Hester believed that Pearl is her only reason for living,” (Johnson: Understanding The Scarlet Letter pg.1). Pearl motivates her mother to keep on going when she is tempted to give up. In the novel, Mistress Hibbins asks Hester to join her in a witches gathering, but she declines saying if she had lost Pearl, she would have gone.
A pearl is a precious thing; the finest example of something; pure, white, sinless. However, this distinct character, Pearl is unwanted, a sign of transgression, taint, dirty, and full of sin. In The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne commits adultery and has a baby named Pearl who is the symbol of her mother's sin. Pearl is a rebellious outcast within The Scarlet Letter. She plays a role in key narrative events and due to the embodiment of her mother's sin her actions represent her identity.
Pearl is said to symbolize the result of sin but her character as a child have placed an innocent view of her contribution to the story. As any mother would accept their child she have accepted her “… torture, none the less! Pearl keeps me here in life! Pearl punishes me too!”(Hawthorne 38). Hester “represent the violation of social contract” (Egan1), because of her simple imperfection of “struggles to meet the social demands.
In The Scarlet Letter, symbolism in the symbolism in this novel plays a large part in the novel, in the scarlet letter “A” as a symbol of sin and then it gradually changes its meaning, guiltiness is symbolic in the novel, and of course the living evidence of the adulterous act, Pearl. The actions of Pearl, Dimmesdale and fate all return the letter of Hester. They give Hester the responsibilities of a sinner, but also the possibility to reconcile with her community, Dimmesdale and the chance to clean her reputation.
Nathanial Hawthorne, an American author during the 19th century witnessed the power of sin to wreak havoc not only to an individual but a whole community. His novel The Scarlet Letter expresses this very idea by exposing the follies of mankind and the potentially detrimental effects of sin trough Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth who all affected by sin in different ways. Utilizing powerful symbols and light/dark imagery, Hawthorne conveys to the readers, through these characters, the power of how one’s response to sin can positively change an individual or gradually destroy one by spreading like a contagious disease and ultimately consuming the victim.
The Scarlet Letter is a novel that deals with the theme of sin. Throughout history, people have committed all types of sins, and whether they are major or minor, people have been punished. However, the severity of a punishment is very difficult to agree on. Some people feel that sinners should be deeply punished no matter how little the wrongdoing was. Others feel that a person's punishment should be based upon the severity of their crime. However, what many people overlook is the fact that in time, we all have committed sins.
Hester Prynne and her little Pearl do not fit in perfectly with the cruel society they live in and they are both alienated from the town. The Puritans act as if Hester and Pearl are acts of the devil, and do not agree with them being in the town. Along with Hester’s punishment of standing on the scaffold in front of the village every day with her baby child, she worn the letter ‘A’ upon her boozums each and every day. After the town realized that they had passed judgment on Hester and her innocent child, that’s why they wanted to accept them both and give them a chance. The people in the village finally opened their eyes and realized that they were both people just like them, and that Hester was very true and sweet. The Puritan’s stopped looking down on Pearl and her mother and started looking up to them both. Knowing that the society did not agree with Hester’s decision she still tried to live like a normal person, and it was impossible for her to live her own way in her own lifestyle. People would defy her as a person, alienate her from the town, and make her life simply intolerable for her and her young