The Sin, Free Will, And Pessimism

1071 Words3 Pages

Fairbanks, Henry G. “Sin, Free Will, and "pessimism" in Hawthorne”. PMLA 71.5 (1956): 975–
989. Web.
In the beginning of this article it talks about how even though Hawthorne himself is not a church going man, he is a religious man in his books and his outlook on Christian heritage was important. This article focused on the sin of adultery committed by Hester with Dimmesdale. It talked about how her sin is in the will and not the sinful act itself. Pearl is the living representation of their sin. And it focused on the freewill of Hester and Pearl returning on their own. I found this source to be really useful but it had a lot of information in it so it was hard to soak it all in so it is helpful taking notes and highlighting key words while reading this article. The word choice was difficult in some paragraphs so I had to look up a lot of words while reading. This article is reliable because it was a peer reviewed journal article and when it referenced to something from a different article it gave you the links to access that article in the footnotes. The length of this article was about a full sixteen pages so it takes time to read and annotate it. But it was one of the longer articles compared to some other ones I read. This article bounced back and forth from sin to free will whereas my other articles where more focused on one topic.
Budick, Emily Miller. “Hawthorne, Pearl, and the Primal Sin of Culture”. Journal of American
Studies 39.2(2005): 167-185. Web.
This article also focuses on the aspect of sin. In this book it brought up that in the book the word “adultery” is never once mentioned. It talked about how Hester committed the sin but Pearl is the one who suffers it. In this article is asked multiple questions abo...

... middle of paper ...

...ocrisy of Hester Prynne. She has a lot of differences between who she is and who she shows to be. It describes how you must know the difference between “shame” and “compunction”. The words have a relationship between them but they are not the same thing. It explains how A Real, Honest Regretful Person describes Hester’s hypocrisy. This source was the most useful because the layout of this article was really good and crisp. All the information was clear and easy to understand. This source is reliable because it is a peer reviewed journal from the SearchIt database. This was the shortest article from all of my sources. Even though it was short it had a lot of information and it went right to the topic, hypocrisy. It didn’t go back and forth it focused on the book and the topic. This would be a really good article to help you understand the hypocrisy aspect of the book.

Show More
Related

  • Hester Prynne Greed In Scarlet Letter

    1259 Words  | 3 Pages

    People all over the world continuously commit sins some are bigger than others and some do more damage. In the book, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a woman, Hester Prynne, is publicly shamed and force to wear a scarlet A upon her bosom for committing adultery. Throughout the book, Hester and her daughter, Pearl, try to adapt to life as an outsider. The two are continuously judged for Hester’s sin, and humiliated, however, they overcome this judgment and are seen in a different way. Hester and Pearl have been publicly shamed, Pearl has been considered an elfish devil like child, and after all the humiliation they were able to turn their lives around.

    Read More

  • Pearl Indoctrination In Scarlet Letter

    672 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hawthorne seems to take a stance removing himself as a narrator from religious or moral partiality. As Hawthorne pursues the idea of a morally oblivious phycology, he creates Pearl. Perhaps Pearl is symbolic of truly raw human nature. Pearl is an unaltered version of mankind; factors of emotional and mortal influence are lost on her. Pearl is like the “control group” in the experiment of the human condition. This is demonstrated when Hawthorne speaks through the guise of Governor Bellingham, “There is no law, nor reverence for authority, no regard for human ordinances or opinions, right or wrong, mixed up with that child’s composition.” (92) Pearl attempts to connect with Hester as she “sob[s] out her love for her mother in broken words, and seem[ed] intent on proving that she had a heart by breaking it,” but she could not imitate human compassion because she had been shown so little herself. Because of the lasting trauma of Hester’s ordeal and her inexperience as a mother, Hester is inattentive and emotionally unavailable during Pearl’s childhood. Primarily because of her mother’s negligence, Pearl is “like a thing incapable and unintelligent of human sorrow” (64) but can still sense how other’s perceive her as strange. Taking into account her lack of remorse and incapability to express genuine sympathy, one might contend

    Read More

  • Scarlet Letter - Pearl as a symbol

    645 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Hester Prynne: Victim or Heroine?

    938 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Comparing The Scarlet Letter and Long Black Veil

    861 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Two Faces in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

    1356 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...t with the sin in a completely different way not only because she was a different person, but because there was no additional weight of a secret that went along with the sin. Instead of trying to figure out her identity, the way Arthur had, and clinging onto the belief that what she had done was not a sin, she allowed herself to surrender and believe what the rest of society believed at that time. The people of Boston saw adultery as a sin, and there was no way that any good or love could come out of it. When Arthur's character is tested, he struggles to find the answer but is unable to, and literally dies trying. Hester, on the other hand, does not give such a noble attempt, but rather chooses, whether consciously or not, to go along with society’s views of adultery.

    Read More

  • Changes of Hester Prynne in Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter

    495 Words  | 1 Pages

    The guilt that now rests in Hester is overwhelming to her and is a reason for her change in personality. The secrets Hester keeps are because she is silent and hardly talks to anyone. “Various critics have interpreted her silence. as both empowering. and disempowering. Yet silence, in Hester’s case, offers a type of passive resistance to male probing”

    Read More

  • Symbolism for Adam and Eve in Nathanial Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter"

    1031 Words  | 3 Pages

    As evident in The Scarlet Letter, when a person sins they face positive and negative consequences that lead into development of their own personal character. Hester’s scarlet letter gave negative consequences in the beginning, but as Hester persevered she discovered benefits that aided in her becoming a strong woman in society. While Arthur Dimmesdale suffered the guilt and pain of his sin, his sermons benefited from his anguish, making him better than he ever had been. As an ever-constant reminder of sin, Pearl was able to show Hester the goodness in life and keep her going. In conclusion, in modern and past society there has always been sin or badness that people fall into, but it is important to get through these hard times as only then will people grow into who they are meant to be, and not remain stagnant in the pool of the “immaculate”.

    Read More

  • Hester Prynne Faith In Scarlet Letter

    1857 Words  | 4 Pages

    Faith and religion are important factors that contribute into a puritan society, where sin is the devil himself and those that have condemned themselves to him are isolated from the pure. Hawthorne decoats a soul that has been designated to unblind those that have been haunted by Satan and create a wide understanding on the disconnection that has been made towards the man above. Hester Prynne,who has gained the most humiliation as she once stood on a platform for those to see the embellishment on her bosom shaped like an A, has bared a fruit named Pearl who came to let her live her sin in true regret and seek the penance needed to be forgiven by the souls that see her a adulterer or a criminal. The savior is Pearl. Pearl has come to Hester,

    Read More

  • Internal Conflict In The Scarlet Letter

    1893 Words  | 4 Pages

    The very heart of the novel’s conflict begins with the protagonist, Hester Prynne. Her crime of adultery is presented

    Read More

  • Compassion and Redemption in 'The Scarlet Letter'

    905 Words  | 2 Pages

    The society in which she lives is legitimized such that people follow a certain moral code. Refraining or overlooking of such codes leads to punishment as revealed by the women “this woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die” (The Ugly Woman, 7). The narrator however, echoes concern against following strict codes of conduct. Hawthorne presents the idea that lack of compassion and forgiveness makes a society dictatorial, he believes the need to observe and practice grace is imperative. Ruling through grace was expressed by Hester when she is forgiven by a society that had once punished her for same mistakes as the young girl retorts “let her cover the mark she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart” (A Young Wife, 6). Reverend Dimmesdale finds adequate grace after seven years of not confessing his sins because of the repercussions that would come thereafter. He begs Hester to reveal his name so that he can as well reveal his sin “be not silent from any mistaken pity, and tenderness for him” (Reverend Dimmesdale, 26) YOur

    Read More

  • The Nature of the Heart in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

    1343 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...eminders of how sinners can truly learn about what type of person they honestly are. Hester would always help people and Dimmesdale would never be true to himself about his religion. The doctor was perhaps the most significant character of the whole story. He would always help people, even if it meant helping them die. Pearl was the reminder of how a free person can really prevail. Hawthorne used his symbolism through nature to show how people develop and rediscover themselves and life. His symbolism also showed how different parts of nature die and how others thrive based on the way they decide to live. He made this connection with the sinners and let the readers picture the relationship between them by using the symbolism through nature.

    Read More

  • The Scarlet Letter: The Response to Sin

    1857 Words  | 4 Pages

    Through Hester and the symbol of the scarlet letter, Hawthorne reveals how sin can be utilized to change a person for the better, in allowing for responsibility, forgiveness, and a renewed sense of pride. In a Puritan society that strongly condemns adultery one would expect Hester to leave society and never to return again, but that does not happen. Instead, Hester says, “Here…had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul, and work out another purity than that which she had lost; more saint-like, because the result of martyrdom.” Hes...

    Read More

  • Moral and Social Themes in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

    648 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Suffering from the Tolls of Sin in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

    834 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, many of the characters suffer from the tolls of sin, but none as horribly as Hester's daughter Pearl. She alone suffers from sin that is not hers, but rather that of her mother's. From the day she is conceived, Pearl is portrayed as an offspring of vice. She is introduced into the discerning, pitiless domain of the Puritan religion from inside a jail; a place untouched by light, as is the depth of her mother's sin. The austere Puritan ways punish Hester through banishment from the community and the church, simultaneously punishing Pearl in the process. This isolation leads to an unspoken detachment and animosity between her and the other Puritan children. Thus we see how Pearl is conceived through sin, and how she suffers when her mother and the community situate this deed upon her like the scarlet letter on her mother's bosom.

    Read More

More about The Sin, Free Will, And Pessimism

Open Document