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Nathaniel Hawthorne essay
Nathaniel Hawthorne essay
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The Scarlet Letter Argument According to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter the author argues that sin and suffering exists even in an utopian society. For example, Hester Prynne committ the sin of adultery. Adultery is the act of sexual intercourse by a married person with someone else, not his or her spouse. As consequence of the sin committed by Hester, the townspeople find out she become pregnant while her husband is away during two years. As a result of her sin, Hester experienced a serie of suffer according to the following events: the townspeople force her to stand in a scaffold for three hours every day with her child while the people throw shade at her, point at her, ridiculing Hester and her child, then she is jailed with her infant, and formally forbid her to live as a normal person, in addition Governor Richard Bellingham, Reverend Mr. John Wilson and several townspeople attempt to take away her daughter and send her with someone that would raise her properly or in better conditions. Townspeople doubts that Hester can be a good mother and that Pearl, her baby, is being raised as a pure christian child as the town teach the youth about the perfect society they pretend to live. Ironically, the people from Boston are also committing a …show more content…
In my opinion, Reverend Mr. John Wilson as minister of the Puritan community is supposed to guide people to find a better way away from the sin, he in the other hand wants to punish the sinners, such as Hester and Pearl, instead of forgive and help them he tries to do the opposite. Sometimes, people criticize other people but they never examine themselves and how they are also committing a sin by criticizing, being selfish, hateful and do not forgiving and loving each
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.
Hester is a youthful, beautiful, proud woman who has committed an awful sin and a scandal that changes her life in a major way. She commits adultery with a man known as Arthur Dimmesdale, leader of the local Puritan church and Hester’s minister. The adultery committed results in a baby girl named Pearl. This child she clutches to her chest is the proof of her sin. This behavior is unacceptable. Hester is sent to prison and then punished. Hester is the only one who gets punished for this horrendous act, because no one knows who the man is that Hester has this scandalous affair with. Hester’s sin is confessed, and she lives with two constant reminders of that sin: the scarlet letter itself, and Pearl, the child conceived with Dimmesdale. Her punishment is that she must stand upon a scaffold receiving public humiliation for several hours each day, wearing the scarlet letter “A” on her chest, represe...
The original sin of adultery is what starts the events that end up ruining the characters' lives. "Come up hither, Hester, thou and little Pearl...Ye have both been here before, but I was not with you. Come up hither once again, and we will stand all three together!" (p. 133). Though it is never said out in the open, you come to the realization that Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale have committed the sin of adultery and when Hester becomes pregnant, she is convicted for that sin. "I'd been in the arms of my best friend's / wife" The man and his best friend's wife also commit the sin of adultery and when he cannot give an alibi to a judge because he does not want anyone to know where he was that night, he is convicted for murder and executed. Adultery is what ends up destroying the characters lives because none except for Hester are willing to admit to the sin of adultery.
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.
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.
Hester Prynne, from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, the Scarlet Letter, faces a crucible. She commits adultery with Reverend Dimmesdale and becomes pregnant with a daughter, Pearl. She is isolated from the community and the general public except for when she must stand upon the scaffold for three hours as part of her punishment for her sin. She must also wear a scarlet letter “A” for adultery on her breast. The town looks at her differently because of her sin but Hester stays true to her personality. Hester fairs her life by honoring her punishment and her mistakes, as well as taking care of Pearl and teaching her to be kind.
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.
In the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne displays a society filled with sinners who believe the are not the worst and that they deserve justice. Some of the them trampel over each other in seeking justice how Chillingsworth tries to destroy Dimmsdale in a way of seeking justice for himself. Hester tries to escape a whole continet to give herself and her a family a better life in a form of seeking justice. While Dimmsdale confesses his sin a form of getting justice for himself by dying without any regrets. All of these characters were sinners who believed they werent the worse sinner whic is why they deserved justice.
The world of Puritan New England, like the world of today, was filled with many evil influences. Many people were able to withstand temptation, but some fell victim to the dark side. Such offences against God, in thought, word, deed, desire or neglect, are what we define as sin (Gerber 14).
Nathaniel Hawthorne's works are notable for their treatment of guilt and the complexities of moral choices. "Moral and religious concerns, in short, are almost always present in Hawthorne's work"(Foster, 56). Given Hawthorne's background, it is not a stretch of the imagination to say that his novels are critiques of Puritanism. Hawthorne lived in the deeply scarred New England area, separated from Puritanism by only one generation. His grandfather had been one of the judges in the Salem Witch Trials. Personal issues include the various ways Hawthorne's family and specific events in his life influenced his writing. Readers can easily recognize how "Young Goodman Brown" incorporates facts about his Puritan ancestors. Father Hooper in "The Minister's Black Veil" may be symbolically paralleled to Hawthorne's ancestors, trying to hide a sin they have committed. His descendants' remarks on him in The Custom House introduction to The Scarlet Letter mix pride in Hawthorne's prominence and a sense of inherited guilt for his deeds as judge. Hawthorne's guilt of wrongs committed by his ancestors was paramount in the development of his literary career. He investigates human weaknesses through the time period of his ancestors. Generally Hawthorne's writings contained powerful symbolic and psychological effects of pride, guilt, sin and punishment.
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, the central character in the Scarlet Letter, realizes and accepts the consequences of the adulterous act she committed against her husband, Roger Chillingworth, as Hawthorne shows in this quotation. Hester, throughout the book, excludes and humbles herself because of her crime, rather than simply running away. At the same time, she advertises her sin through the brilliantly embroidered “A” and through her daughter, Pearl, born out of this sin. Hester realizes that she indeed sinned in committing adultery, and, being the strong individual that she is, accepts the consequences of her actions.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, there are many moral and social themes develped throughout the novel. Each theme is very important to the overall effect of the novel. In essence, The Scarlet Letter is a story of sin, punishment and the importance of truth. One theme which plays a big role in The Scarlet Letter is that of sin and its effects. Throughout the novel there were many sins committed by various characters. The effects of these sins are different in each character and every character was punished in a unique way. Two characters were perfect examples of this theme in the novel. Hester Prynne and The Reverend Dimmesdale best demonstrated the theme of the effects of sin.
Throughout the whole book Hester Prynne has to deal with the sin of adultery she committed. She got through the bad time of her life
She knows the severity of her sin, and therefore welcomes her punishment without rebellion. When she stands on the scaffold with Pearl, Hester accepts "that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, [so] she took the baby on her arm... On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A" (Hawthorne 50). She humbles herself by proudly displaying both of the symbols of her disgrace: the scarlet letter A, and Pearl, her sin-born daughter. Not only does Hester display her shame, but gives back to her community. She shows compassion toward the poor and sick of the Puritan town. Hester delivers food to the poor and helps the ill. Many people of the community begin to alter how they interpret the scarlet letter that the poor Hester is forced to wear. The townspeople discuss her claiming "Its 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 147). The letter "A" that Hester bears on her chest begins to mean "able" instead of "adulterer." Even when Hester moves away, she refuses to stay away and returns to the town to serve her remaining punishment. The town is the home of her sin and the place of her penance. Hester isolates herself from the rest of the town and lives in solitude. Hester Prynne