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Hester’s view on the situation is she thinks because Roger Chilingworth had not stayed with her and traveled to America with her she was lonely and had an affair with Arthur Dimmesdale. This affair had lead to the birth of Pearl, a young and beautiful baby. Although Pearl was a living example of my wrong doings she is my most…
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Hester was convicted of being an adulterer, and the novels follows her story in a 17th century Puritan town. The tale focuses on Hester, her daughter Pearl, her lover Dimmesdale, and her husband Chillingworth. They are all enduring their own battles with sin, some coming out of it better than others. Pearl is a physical version of Hester and Dimmesdale’s consciences. Pearl serves as a living version of the scarlet A on Hester’s chest. She torments Hester, and pushes Dimmesdale to acknowledge his sins. Pearl serves as a major character in this classic tragedy, and leaves the character better off than they…
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Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story about Hester Prynne, her drastic act of sin, and her punishment for that act. Hester, a married woman, committed adultery, and borne a child from her affair. Her husband had sent her ahead of him to America and had never arrived in Boston. It was believed that he was lost at sea. As punishment, Hester has to wear a flashy, scarlet and gold stitched “A” embroidered on her chest for as long as she lives. From what I have read, Hester is leaving from her stay at prison, her child clutched tightly to her breasts, as she moves through the crowd to receive her punishment. Other women scorn her, and insult her openly as if she weren’t in their presence. There in the crowd of people, she notices her…
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Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter describes life through the eyes of 4 main characters, including a woman who was caught of committing adultery. Hester Prynn was the emotional martyr and symbol of the Scarlet Letter. Throughout the course of the story she undergoes change in her mentality state, the way her eyes perceive the World, and perhaps even the way she smiles. Her strength becomes the Scarlet Letter and her innocent Pear. She encounters much conflict (internal and external), throughout the story. Hester, once a prisoner of her sin, spent a long life held by its chains. This all transpired until forgiveness stepped in.…
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The people of the town see otherwise until they see the great improvement in her attitude as she's helping by doing various tasks in her town. 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). The guilt is destroying her and overwhelming which results in her change in the novel. A living reminder of her sin of course Pearl, her constant companion. One also affected by Hester's change is her daughter Pearl; the same traits that Hester has are displayed by pearl in the story. It is true what Hester believes in as far as committing sin help one discover themselves but run the risk of being talked down soon by friends or just the local town folk. She uses her experiences and helps change the perspective of the to the townsfolk, regarding their idea on the letter "A". How does this not bother her? Hester is strong mentally as she is physical. One of the greatest sins is not taking a toll on her reputation because others seem to look past it and notice her for the person she has become and not the girl she was before she committed the…
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Hester was sentenced for committing adultery back in the late 1640’s and forever punished to wear the scarlet letter on her chest. As a result of her sin, she gained a daughter; Her name is Pearl. Hester has committed adultery and sinned, but they should not remove Pearl from her mother. Furthermore, Hester should keep Pearl because, Hester’s punishment has already been served, she is a constant reminder of her sin, and after all, Pearl is all Hester has.…
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1. Hawthorne uses the quote, “Man had marked this woman’s sin by a scarlet letter, which has such potent and disastrous efficacy that no human sympathy could reach her, save it were sinful like herself. God, as a direct consequence of sin which man thus punished, had given her a lovely child, whose place was on that same dishonored bosom, to connect her parent forever with the peace and descent of mortals, and to be finally a blessed soul in heaven.” (86), to contrast how man views Hester’s sin as an unforgiveable act that she deserves to be punished for infintely, and God saw the sin and sent her aid in the form of baby Pearl. Pearl’s purpose on Earth is to show her mother happiness and beauty and lead her to heaven.…
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Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is set in Puritan Boston, New England. Hester Prynne is accused of adultery and brand with the letter “A” for the rest of her life. With Pearl in tow, Hester moves to a cottage to live her life. As time progresses conflicts arise and ideals fade. The “A” on Hester's chest has many stories changing with each character who tells it. Hester Prynne is the wearer of the “A.” Having the scarlet letter set on her at a young age, Hester absorbs the mark turning the hainted symbol into a representation of her character. Even the people who force Hester to wear the “A” change,”many people refused to interpret the scarlet letter A by its original signification.” The community of Boston has, at first, the view that the “A” has a connection to the devil. Later, after Hester shows courage despite her situation, the community has a changing of heart and…
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In chapter two of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne describes Hester Prynne as she stands on a pedestal in front of her community and gets publicly condemned for her adultery. Hawthorne shows the irony in the situation through the symbol of Pearl being just as sinful as the letter A embroidered on Hester’s clothing. He also irony irony in describing the A and how it is so similar to how Hester herself is portrayed. Lastly, Hawthorne describes Hester’s physical beauty and the irony of how the town doesn’t see her as someone who wasn’t a Puritan would be.…
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She almost lost her only child, and was not able to openly love who she wanted. Throughout the book she was feeling guilty, also feeling sorry for making Dimmesdale go through the suffering as well. She wanted to love again furthermore not to die with no one on her side, loneliness and lack of love led her to commit a “crime,” according to the Puritan society. All what Hester wanted someone that loves her and helps her but the puritan society prevented that from happening, so she became a victim of their rules and…
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‘Thou thyself wilt see it, one time or another. They say, child, thou art of the lineage of the Prince of Air! Wilt thou ride with me some fine night to see thy father? Then thou shalt know wherefore the minister keeps his hand over his heart!” (Chapter 22 Pg.230). In The Scarlet Letter Mistress Hibbins is the voice of society so one can infer that the rest of society also perceives Pearl as not only Hester’s sin, but also as the devil, which is why she is left to find companionship on her own leading her to do things in which the Puritan society frowns upon such as grave stomping and disrespecting her elders. Once Pearl expresses her anger throughout bad actions it leads Mistress Hibbins to believe that Hester is an unfit to raise Pearl due to her sin. “But this could never be. Pearl was a born outcast of the infantile world. An imp of evil, emblem and product of sin, she had no right among christened infants. Nothing was more remarkable than the instinct, as it seemed, with which the child comprehended her loneliness: the destiny that had drawn an inviolable circle round about her: the whole peculiarity, in short, of her position in respect to other…
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The torture and cruelty relates from “The mother herself - as if the red ignominy were so deeply scorched into her brain, that all her conceptions assumed its form - had carefully wrought out the similitude; [...creating] an analogy between the object of her affection, and the emblem of her guilt and torture” (94). The analogy created between the “object of her affection”, being her daughter, and “the emblem of her guilt and torture”, symbolizes the scarlet letter A stitched onto her wardrobe. Hester feels this way because she feels passion and love for her beautiful daughter, but is once again distraught by the scarlet letter defining not only her life but her daughter’s life forever. The fact that women during the time period of the seventeenth century are, considerably, immobilized by their lack of freedoms, regulates the attention to this disgraceful sin that Hester committed. She recognizes the relationship with the scarlet letter and how it was ultimately the best and worst thing that could have happened in her life. She wants all of the shame, guilt, and harmful comments to disappear, yet she is in love with Pearl. Cruelty is indirectly displayed in her situation because once the people saw her pregnancy appear, they treated her like an outcast because there was an unknown father, hence the…
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In "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathienal Hawthorne, the narrarator places symbolic connections between Hestre's daughter, Pearl and the life Hester endures after her commitment of an adultrious sin. Hester is forced to look upon her daughter; a living embodiment of the ultimate sin commited as a contant reminder of the past. The erry details used to describe Pearl as well as her actions enforce the sifficance of the consequence Hester must be reminded of evryday for her action in the past. In profiding such deatils, readers become intreged as well as suspicious as to why Pearl behaves in such a dark and myseterious way. By describing such a dark soul beneath a name associated with such beauty and value as Pearl is, enforcees the hardships Hester…
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In Hester's mind, everything she did and everything she has to suffer, by wearing an ‘A’ all the time and the townspeople constantly talking about her, is worth it just for Pearl. Hester has loved Pearl unconditionally since the day she was born, and she does not care that Pearl was the outcome of a sin, she is her daughter and there is nothing better than to have Pearl with her at all times. Hester says “She is my happiness!... Pearl keeps me here in life!” (Hawthorne, 104). Pearl was everything for Hester. She gave Hester a reason to live and a reason to move on with her life. Hester loves Pearl no matter what. Her sin is not Pearl and she does not relate Pearl to a sin in any way. Hester actually sees Pearl as a blessing, rather than as a sin. Pearl encourages Hester to be a better person. Hester is always trying to be better in order for Pearl to be better when she grows up. For example, Mistress Hibbins once invited Hester to do witchcraft, but she rejected the offer for the good of Pearl and because she needed to be with Pearl. Hester could’ve gone with Mistress Hibbins to do witchcraft and act silly, but her duty as a mother was more important. It was more important for Hester to be a good example for her daughter, than to go crazy with her…
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Pearl is a great contrast to the strictness of puritan society; she is a very wild and disobedient child and this comes from being raised in the forest. She is raised in the forest instead of in town, and her distance from society is greatened because of the absence of people around her during childhood. This leads her to not know how to behave as an honorable member of the puritan society. The few times Hester took her into town it is very obvious that she is uncomfortable and unaware of how to behave. "But Pearl, who was a…
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