The Scarlet Letter is set in 17th century Massachusetts. It follows Hester Prynne and the consequences her “sin” has on her, her child, and the community as a whole. Most believe Hester is going to hell and that she gave birth to the devil because of having sex out of marriage. Her husband, Roger Chillingworth wants revenge on her and her unannounced partner in crime. Pearls involvement in Hawthorne's novel in crucial by bringing Hester's sin to life; therefore, creating challenges for her within the Puritan community.…
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne one of the main characters in Hester Prynne. She is a convicted adulterer, and the story follows her starting in 1642 in a Puritan town. She and her illegitimate daughter, Pearl, along with her lover, Dimmesdale, and husband, Chillingworth, are the main focus of this dramatic tale. Through her actions and words, Pearl is a “device” to move the consciences of her parents to end their sinful situation. Pearl’s physical obsession with the scarlet A torments her mother, at one point making her physically put it back on, all while forcing her to confront her sins. Pearl also pressures Dimmesdale into acknowledging her as his daughter, and admitting his sins. Pearl is an important aspect of this tragic…
2. Hester was condemned to wear the "Scarlet Letter," as punishment for adultery. The scarlet letter was the letter "A" and is a symbol of shame. It was meant to single out the wearer for their sin and ostracize them from the community. Hester's pregnancy and Pearl's subsequent birth were the reason she was publicly shamed by the Puritan community. The scarlet letter is bright red with gold thread. The symbol symbolizes Hester being “able.”…
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, many concepts and ideas are represented and shown by using symbols. Hawthorne’s concrete symbols used to epitomize abstract ideas change meaning as characters, notably the main character Hester Prynne, grow and change. With its connotation changing from negative to positive, the symbol of the scarlet letter “A” represents Hester as adulterous, angelic, and able.…
The Puritan Era was the most religious time in American history; committing any sin was seen as an act of rebellion. In that time the sin of adultery was taken very literally to an extent where the women were forced to wear the letter “A” across their bosom to show the people of the town what they had committed. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne’s sin results in such a punishment, but as the reader gets deeper into the book, a prominent and more profound understanding of Hester can be reached. It is through her struggles that Hawthorne gets across his primary themes. Hawthorne illustrates his theme through Hester's struggles that becoming an outcast can help one achieve a profound grasp of who they truly…
When The Scarlet Letter was written the Author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, discovered many ideas and facts about the Puritan community. Knowing this Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote about how women in the 17th century lived and how strict the society's rules can be, one major rule that was followed strictly phonate was “Actions spoke louder than words, so actions had to be constantly controlled.” (nd.edu). When the book begins it starts with introducing Hester and how she has done this huge violation according to the bible, maybe even causing the death penalty upon herself. As The Scarlet Letter goes through the timeline of how she is isolated and is shunned from the society; eventually, Hester slowly becomes part of the society by being the pure character she really was. This lets her take off the scarlet “A” and change the meaning of Adultery to the meaning of Able. Hawthorne decribes the climax of Hester’s story by expressing, “The letter was the symbol of her calling. such helpfulness…
Feminism is the support for equal rights for both men and women, in the areas that include but are not limited to politics, economics, and social norms. In a more general sense, a feminist seeks a justified, balanced amount of opportunity for both sexes. The topic of feminism has been prevalent in more recent years, but not a few centuries ago. The romance novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, highlights a female protagonist named Hester Prynne who lived in the 17th century. She is portrayed as a strong feminist character throughout the novel by showing resilience, despite the lack of social equality during the Puritan times the novel takes place in. This novel displays acts of feminism as Hester Prynne lives her life with the stigma of adultery with the scarlet letter.…
Nathaniel Hawthorne beautifully crafts his story by using symbolism to reveal details about the story and its characters. In The Scarlet Letter one of the most obvious and prominent symbols is the scarlet "A" placed on Hester. But many readers do not realize that to accompany the letter is Hester's daughter Pearl. Although they have the one similarity of having manifested themselves in a physical form they do evolve through the story into two completely different things. In the beginning the scarlet letter "A" represents Hester's adulterous sin. It is used against her to humiliate her and to persecute her. Through the story it slowly starts to become something more. The letter…
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.…
The Scarlet Letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This essay discusses how Hester is a victim of her social pressure. She was punished for something she did to achieve her dream of having someone that loves her. Hester committed adultery with minister Dimmesdale and had a child with him, Pearl. Her punishment was to stand on the scaffold with her child and wear the letter A on her breast as a sign of her “crime”. Due to the strictures of the puritan society, Hester Prynne suffers from public shaming. She almost lost her only child, and was not able to openly love who she wanted.…
Jamie Barlowe wrote a literary criticism about the novel called The Scarlet Mob of Scribblers: Rereading Hester Prynne. In this piece of literature, Barlowe also expresses how Hester Prynne was alienated from the Puritan community. The scarlet letter “A” placed on Hester’s bosom represents the sin she committed and reminds her every day of the mistake she made. Throughout history, the color red symbolized sin and evil (Barlowe 44). Once again society has a big impact on how one is seen by others. Barlowe states “We come from a society where the lady in red is all danger and unresolvable mystery” (10). Hester is most definitely seen as the woman with whom not to associate. She was seen as “sin” and was the symbol of what people should not become. Barlowe reinforces the fact that Hester was “socially, politically, and religiously alienated from the community” (44). Although Hester was seen as an outcast, her tragedy led to a valuable lesson for all. She taught readers that people make mistakes, and they must hold their head up high and dig deep for their inner strength. . Hester Prynne was a prime example that one’s silence cannot protect oneself (Barlowe 10). The Scarlet Letter depicts how people will form unfair opinions and judgments. Hester contradicts this depiction towards the end of the novel when she starts helping out the sick. She does everything she can to prove to towns people and herself that she is a good person despite her mistake. The letter “A” soon turned from “adulterer” to “able”. Being shunned from society had really taught Hester that other’s opinions matter far less than the opinion we have of ourselves. That is the opinion in life that matters most of…
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses symbolism to reinforce the idea that, for every action, there is a positive or negative effect that will follow. In simple terms, if you do something bad, there will be a negative consequence. One of the main recurring symbols in the novel is the scarlet letter itself. The scarlet ‘A’ that Hester Prynne wears in the novel is worth a lot more than just its material value, it relays many ideas and themes. The ‘A’ is a punishment for one of the worst sins that could be committed; adultery. The punishment that is caused by the scarlet ‘A’ manifests itself in different ways and in different people. For example, Hester’s punishment comes in the form of public embarrassment and shame, whereas Minister Dimmesdale’s guilt comes in the form of personal guilt. The ‘A’ means different things at different times in the book also.…
In the book The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is convicted of adultery and ordered to wear the scarlet letter "A" on her chest as a permanent sign of her sin. Hester is sentenced to never take off this badge of shame, and doesn't until chapter thirteen. As the novel proceeds, Hawthorne presents several questions that are left unanswered. How does the nature of the letter "A" seem to change? What role of does Hester's own response to her situation play in changing the meaning of the letter "A"? How does the letter "A" come to be seen as a symbol of the mysterious connection between human experiences (sinful in nature) and a kind of wisdom that would be impossible without failure? Why does Hester not tell who Pearl's father is when she is on…
To begin with, the most important and influential symbol in the entire book is the infamous scarlet letter, hence the title, The Scarlet Letter. In the second chapter, Hester walks out of the prison, wearing the ill-famed scarlet letter ‘A’. During the first few years of Hester’s punishment, the letter was a daily reminder of shame. Hawthorne marks, “…Hester Prynne had always this dreadful agony in feeling a human eye upon the token; the spot never grew callous; it seemed, on the contrary, to grow more sensitive with daily torture.”(90). As the story unfolds, though, this letter comes to mean other things to Hester and the people. Rather than bringing torture to Hester, it eventually becomes a symbol to some people meaning “able.” Hawthorne writes, “They said that it meant ‘Able’; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength.”(178). Then a few pages later, “The scarlet letter had not done its office.”(182). The scarlet letter was meant as a punishment for Hester, and yet here we see that it hasn’t punished Hester. It was applied to her so she wud feel and show others her sin and how she is punished by it. She writes, “Thus, we…
Symbols are everywhere in everyday life. Beginning before even before 1640, people in the newly established colonies were forced to wear letters on their chests for all of the public to see. People who refused were actually whipped and beaten to coerce them into wearing their letters. One particular letter was the scarlet letter “A” which represented adultery. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, the leading woman, Hester Prynne, is forced to wear an “A” for her sin. Hawthorne uses Hester as an example to the rest of the Puritan community of Boston, Massachusetts. There are many things that this “A” represents to not only Hester, but also numerous others of the community in 1642-1649. The scarlet letter is a main symbol for all of the characters,…