In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne critiques Puritan ideology. Hawthorne believes in some parts of Puritan doctrine because he thinks that the God is philanthropy. Everyone has opportunity to redeem from the sin. However, he criticizes for the harsh and brutal laws of puritanism. Fear makes Puritan push aside Hester. Puritan is afraid that if they do not punish this immoral behavior in the Puritanism society, their core of society which is moral ideology will collapse Hawthorne thinks that the traditional Puritan ideology ruins the natural humanity and human right. He believes the narrow attitude of Puritan makes them only see the sin for betrayal. Puritan ignore Hester’s kind, generous, and moral personality. He uses descriptive settings …show more content…
The A symbolizes same meaning of the rose. At the beginning of the story, Hawthorne describes that there is a rose-bush on the grave .He implies that Hester will not have an opportunity to live in a puritan society because she has passionate personality like the red which is not allowed in this severe society. When she is questioned by the minister, the A signify her amour because she never tells people who is the child’s father in order to protect her lover. After Hester is out of the prison, she has to feed her daughter. Thus, she lives on her embroidery skill. She embroiders marvelous and gold flower around the letter. The A represents her good art and able characteristic. To redeem from her guilt, she uses her money to aid those poor people. Although she is alone because Puritan does not forgive her, Hester does not evade the reality. She keeps a kind and admirable heart to survive in this merciless society. Even though the A is a shame of her in other people’s viewpoint, the A is what Hester is being. The red A is like the fire, giving her warmth and hope to overcome the oppressive and cool Puritanism society. Hester transform the meaning of A from adultery, alone, and agony to aid and angel with her virtue. That is the reason she comes back to the town and live with the A forever. It signifies that the humanistic spirit defeat the extreme power of traditional framework …show more content…
Although she uncontrollable, wild, and self-willed, she looks and feels the scarlet letter by herself not by other people’s thinking. Hester is a kind, and friendly. The A is an angel for her. She is the reason Hester lives bravely and strongly. ‘‘And there stood the minister, with his hand over his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between those two’’ (Hawthorne 106). Her being encourages Hester and Dimmesdale to face the cruel society. The A becomes the sincerest and noblest symbol of love in her eyes. Hawthorne expresses those Puritan in the town prejudge Hester for her scarlet letter. Nevertheless, Pearl perceives that her mother is generous and beautiful. Hawthorne condemns Puritan’s fool through the description of link between Pearl, scarlet letter, and
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.
Through the use of numerous symbols, Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter serves as an allegory for the story of Adam and Eve and its relation to sin, knowledge, and the human condition that is present in human society. Curious for the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, which resulted in the revelation of their “humanness” and expulsion from the “divine garden” as they then suffered the pain and joy of being humans. Just as Adam and Eve were expelled from their society and suffered in their own being, so were Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter. Hester was out casted and shunned, while Dimmesdale suffered under his own guilt. After knowledge of her affair is made known, Hester is forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest to symbolize her crime of adultery, and is separated from the Puritan society. Another “A” appears in the story, and is not embroidered, but instead scarred on Dimmesdale’s chest as a symbol of guilt and suffering. Hester’s symbol of guilt comes in the form of her daughter, Pearl, who is the manifestation of her adultery, and also the living version of her scarlet letter. Each of these symbols come together to represent that with sin comes personal growth and advancement of oneself in society as the sinner endures the good and bad consequences.
The scarlet letter is more than just an “A” that Hester Prynne wears as punishment. The “A” on Hester’s clothing is a symbol for adultery, but under the hand stitched “A” it is much more. The “A” tells a story of how one mistake can make a big impact on life. Throughout the book there have been many scenarios that the “A” has affected different characters, in a positive and negative way. This little letter has many meanings to many people, some people that did not know it would even affect them. The simple letter is much more powerful than what anybody thought.
This, as Arthur Dimmesdale almost prophetically expresses in the early scenes of Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, was the role of Pearl, the elfish child borne of his and Hester Prynne's guilty passion. Like Paul's thorn in the flesh, Pearl would bring trouble, heartache, and frustration to Hester, but serve a constructive purpose lying far beyond the daily provocations of her childish impishness. While in many respects a tormentor to Hester, Pearl was also her savior, while a reminder of her guilt, a promoter of honesty and true Virtue; and while an embodiment of Hester's worst qualities, a vision of a better life for Hester and for herself.
The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, includes a variety of symbolism, which plays a significant role in the book. The most significant symbol in The Scarlet Letter is Hester Prynne's daughter, Pearl, whom Hester bore as a result of her sin of adultery. Hester "named the infant "Pearl" as being of great price, -purchased with all she had, -her mother's only treasure!"(Hawthorne 75) As a consequence for Hester's sin, she is forced to wear the letter "A", for adultery, on her chest for the rest of her life. However, the scarlet letter is not the most severe consequence for her sin, Pearl gives Hester the most grief, "the scarlet letter in another form". (Hawthorne 84) Yet, if it were not for Pearl, Hester would not have been able to survive the pure agony of life itself. Pearl is like the wild red rose outside the prison door, giving Hester hope that everything would turn out positive. Pearl is not just a mere token of sin, her purpose is much greater- she symbolizes the love affair of Hester and Dimmesdale, Hester's passionate nature, she is a living daily punishment to Hester, and a living conscience for Dimmesdale. Yet, Pearl is the one who saves Hester from death and Dimmesdale from eternal sorrow. She forces Hester to live on and kisses Dimmesdale to show her filial love. She both guides them and teaches them the true lessons of life.
The Puritan society was extremely restricting. They had strict laws and rules, and harsh punishments for even the smallest of misdemeanors. They lived with only the bare necessities and discouraged uniqueness or boldness. As a Romantic writer, with beliefs the complete opposite of the Puritans, Nathaniel Hawthorne was very critical of the Puritan’s strict society. In the allegorical novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the characters of Hester Prynne, Reverend Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth order to convey the central moral of rejecting societal ideals and acting upon one 's own desires and emotions.
The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, had a large influence of a very popular religion during the 17th century, known as Puritanism. The Oxford Encyclopedia defines Puritanism as “religious sensibility centered around conservation” (?). The reason behind many people traveling to America during the 1600s from England was only for one specific reason: religious freedom (Joselit). “For leaving England for what would become New England, the Puritans were not seeking economic opportunity and security for themselves and their families. They were on a religious mission or, what later became known in Puritan circle as an “errand into the wilderness””(Joselit, 21). The first set of Puritans came to America in 1620, and started a colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts. By the 1640s, there were over twenty-five thousand English settlers in New England. The group of Puritans that settled in the 1630s lived in an area that they named the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which is present day Boston. This is where the setting of The Scarlet Letter takes place (Joselit).
During the 17th century, Puritans believed scripture dictated every aspect of their lives. It appeared evident in the Puritan faith that their defiant actions and inner thoughts were to remain repressed. Puritans felt the urge to resist their impulses because by law, each desire they had, exemplified a tug from the devil. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathanial Hawthorne takes his character, Hester Prynne, who commits acts of infidelity, and turns her against the Puritan community. Although the scarlet “A” objectifies Hester’s humanity and exposes strict Puritan society, it also liberates her as a result of her ultimate transformation.
In the novel, Hawthorne criticizes the “Puritan allegorization of experience” that considers all sins to be equal, and denies the sufficient evaluation of the specifics of moral behavior. In addition, the notion of knowledge is socialized through this method, as evidenced by the “A” in Scarlet, which is the principal illustration of Puritan signification, and seemingly allegorizes Hester‘s being. Hawthorne significantly incorporates the interpretations of the “A” in the novel, which unsettles the allegorical vehicle as well as meaning rather than degenerates into meaningless perspectivism. This undermines the Puritan autocracy‘s symbolic equation of “A” with adultery, therefore, humanizing and de-allegorizing Hester‘s being as well as moral complexity. Throughout the novel, the meaning of “A” continually become clear with the representation of several positive senses helping the reader to understand characters, especially Hester (Imene
Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlett Letter is an American Classic and has proved to be a great contribution to American Literature. Hawthorne has allowed his readers insight into a Puritan past that held strict principles and unyielding consequences that he was all too familiar with and haunted by these horror stories of his heritage led by his own ancestors. In composing this tale Hawthorne presents a realistic image of the 16th Century and threads the importance of his knowledge of the Transcendentalist movement which brought focus to the nature of life and the right of individuals to pursue their natural desire a great contrast to the Puritanic existence he was so custom to. Although the author Nathaniel Hawthorne had doubts about the seriousness of his work, his novel The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850, gained huge recognition and notoriety because of its insight into a changing American culture and the issues that would shift its' direction. Hawthorne was born in 1804 on July fourth in Salem Massachusetts. Hawthorne’s heritage went back six generations in Salem where he was raised and reared for manhood. His own ancestors had been there to judge in the Salem Witch Trial of the seventeenth century. This undoubtedly was one of the many things that shaped and influenced this American author’s style in this and many of his other works.
Therefore, in The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne criticizes Puritan theology as rigid and inflexible. He suggests that when religion is built upon legalism and chastisement without compassion, it becomes a prison of guilt that sucks the life out of believers instead of being a means to help restore sinners. Hawthorne uses The Scarlet Letter as an allegory that shows that the Puritan's lack of compassion is a sin that far surpasses the sins of passion.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a novel that shows the Puritanical way of life. Society does not accept the fact that Hester has committed the sin of adultery so they cast her out by making her wear a scarlet letter 'A' across her chest. Pearl is the product of Hester's sin, the scarlet letter is the product of society. This idea shows that Pearl is the scarlet letter and the scarlet letter is Pearl. There are many ways in which Pearl is shown to be as the scarlet letter because she is considered to be a part of nature, she is the physical connection between Dimmesdale and Hester, and Pearl is the reason that makes Dimmesdale and Hester to finally accept their sin and make their confession in front of society and the people within society. The reasons are listed in this manner because in the first one nature is a stronger force that human force, then comes her connection between Dimmesdale and Hester because she is the natural connection which is a link from the first one to the second and also her being the reason Dimmesdale and Hester accepting the sin is last because there is a stronger connection between the child and the parents here which is linked from the previous reason.
Portrayal of Puritan Society in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter In the introductory sketch to Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel the "The Scarlet Letter", the reader is informed that one of the author's ancestors persecuted the Quakers harshly. The latter's son was a high judge in the Salem witch trials, put into literary form in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" (Judge Hathorne appears there). We learn that Hawthorne feels ashamed for their deeds, and that he sees his ancestors and the Puritan society as a whole with critical eyes. Consequently, both open and subtle criticism of the Puritans' practices is applied throughout the novel.
As the 18th century philosopher William Hazlitt once said, “the only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy”. Perhaps Nathaniel Hawthorne shared this same principle when he wrote his classic novel The Scarlet Letter, as it contains many acts of dishonesty, hypocrisy, and deceit. His book tells the tale of Hester Prynne, a young woman charged with adultery, and her struggle in dealing with the judgment of the Puritan society she lives in. The Puritans take their religion very seriously, and condemn anyone for even the slightest sin. This leads to a culture of intolerance and judgment, which contrasts with Hawthorne’s strongly Transcendental views. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses irony
The Scarlet Letter is a blend of realism, symbolism, and allegory. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses historical settings for this fictional novel and even gives historical background information for the inspiration of the story of Hester Prynne in the introduction of The Scarlet Letter, ‘The Custom-House’. The psychological exploration of the characters and the author’s use of realistic dialogue only add to the realism of the novel. The most obvious symbol of the novel is the actual scarlet letter ‘A’ that Hester wears on her chest every day, but Hawthorne also uses Hester’s daughter Pearl and their surroundings as symbols as well. Allegory is present as well in The Scarlet Letter and is created through the character types of several characters in the novel.