In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays Arthur Dimmesdale as a troubled individual. In him lies the central conflict of the book. Dimmesdale's soul is torn between two opposing forces: his heart, his love for freedom and his passion for Hester Prynne, and his head, his knowledge of Puritanism and its denial of fleshly love. He has committed the sin of adultery but cannot seek divine forgiveness, believing as the Puritans did that sinners received no grace. His dilemma, his struggle to cope with sin, manifests itself in the three scaffold scenes depicted in The Scarlet Letter. These scenes form a progression through which Dimmesdale at first denies, then accepts reluctantly, and finally conquers his sin.…
1) “But the point which drew all eyes, and, as it were, transfigured the wearer, - so that both men and women, who had been familiarly acquainted with Hester Prynne, were now impressed as if they beheld her for the first time, - was that SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom” (51).…
Nathaniel Hawthrone’s Scarlet Letter is praised as one of the most revolutionary and compelling literary works in modern American history. The narrator’s omniscient, descriptive lingustics enfore the story’s captivating plot as well as invokes insights on the moral fiber of each character. For some, the novel is an inspiration to readers in regard to the powerful protagonist, Hester Prynne, with her feminism and strength in the face of adversity; or by her daughter’s pure spirit, or even the devotion of the minister Dimmesdale to his congregation. As popular and coveted is the complex plot, Hawthorne’s literary talents excel within each paragraph. The story is historical in its characters and what they represent, but is exciting because of its constantly misleading irony. The author uses irony systematically throughout the book to keep the reader guessing, whether verbal irony in Chillingworth’s words, situational irony - Hester and Dimmesdale’s burst of joy before a tradgic ending - or the dramatic irony of Dimmesdale’s secret relationship with Hester. The deceptive techniques used by Hawthorne are what makes this elderly tale so relevant today.…
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 Iroquois creation story is similar to the biblical story of creation. In the Bible, God is credited for the making of the universe and all the non-living things and living things, including mankind. The Iroquois creation story talks about two worlds, one is full of light and mankind and the other world is full of darkest and monsters. This description is comparable to the idea of heaven and hell. According to the bible, heaven is a place full of light, beauty, and this place is where God and his angel reside. While hell is a place full with darkest, pain and anguish. The sky woman is the creator of the universe, just as God is the creator in the biblical story. The good son (good mind) can be compared to Jesus. While as the bad son (bad…
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is set in a gloomy, distressed, religious atmosphere in Boston, Massachusetts with multiple main characters known for the sins they have done. One of those being a man named Arthur Dimmesdale, who is known for being a sinful and hypocritical individual. He is part of the Puritan community who are very judgmental people, which sets up the perfect situation for confrontations. Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates his theme that secrets that are hidden will have its consequences. Dimmesdale is very conflicted with himself and also with the community; he struggles with doing the what is right.…
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter follows the life of Hester Prynne after she commits adultery and is forced to wear the scarlet letter upon her bosom for the rest of her life. Hawthorne uses setting, allusion, metaphor, irony, and diction to set a sombre tone. In chapter 9, Hawthorne reveals the evil qualities of Roger Chillingworth and Reverend Dimmesdale’s disposition. In the battle of good and evil, good does not always win.…
The prison door is very dark in comparison to the rose bush next to it that “by a strange chance, has been kept alive in history; but whether it had merely survived out of the stern old wilderness, so long after the fall of the gigantic pines and oaks that originally overshadowed it”(34). The dark prison door is representative of the unrelenting Puritan laws that are in place at the time.The bright rose bush, an opposite of the door, represents forgiveness and decency that are still somewhat present; no matter what the circumstances are, there is always room for hope, and the rose bush is that hope. The most renowned symbol in Hawthorne’s book is the scarlet letter on Hester’s chest. As punishment for having an illegitimate child, Hester Prynne is not executed, the standard of the time, but is forced to wear a red letter “A” on her chest that represents adultery. A greater punishment than any prison sentence, the scarlet letter has “the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity , and inclosing her in a sphere by herself”(37). The contrasting colors of red and black on Hester’s dress show how the “A” has changed her literally and psychologically. The people to the right of Hester are talking about Hester and making appalling faces. The prison door was close to the marketplace, where she was going, but it seemed like an…
In Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter", the quote "No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true." stands true in many forms. Both Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, prominent characters in the novel, convey this two-faced nature in the countenance of an overbearing Puritan society. It is this inner conflict, existing within all humans, that eventually brings about the downfall of these characters and to a large degree sheds light upon the human condition.…
The Imagery in The Scarlet Letter portrays what a strong character Hester had to be and what he had to go through to be able to withstand herself. Her own daughter, she had to withstand from the community and her loved ones that she felt betrayed by. There’s imagery in the way she explains the custom house and how she sees it and the people that she knows that are around there, she explains the smell surrounding her as she's walking around town and how everything is and how it affects her. It's like if she's distant, in another world, but she's actually just looking…
In the passage present above from the book “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne attitude of Dimmesdale is of passion and nobility. Hawthorne expressed his attitude through a multitude of devices such as diction, syntax, and imagery. His dictions for Dimmesdale is that of a man who does not care and just wanted to tell the truth. The syntax that Hawthorne applied is meant to undermined Dimmesdale with irony but at the same time, make Dimmesdale even nobler. Imageries were used as a series of Dimmesdale actions during the confession of the sin to portray Dimmesdale fervor.…
In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes Puritan ideology to convey a philosophical reflection on sin and redemption. Adulteress Hester Prynne must wear a scarlet A to mark her shame, and while her lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, remains unidentified and is wracked with guilt, her husband, Roger Chillingworth, seeks revenge. Although all three characters contemplate redemption, it is only Hester that chooses to confront her sin; Dimmesdale and Chillingworth refuse. This decision is heavily influenced by their respective morals. Hester’s morals of truth, forgiveness, and honesty allow her to be almost fully redeemed in the eyes of the public, whereas Dimmesdale's perverse loyalty to the morally corrupt society that hinders his love for…
In Nathaniel Hawthrone's novel, The Scarlet Letter, both main protagonists, Hester and Dimmesdale, present behaviors which do not correlate with what they feel inside. According to Psychoanalytic ideology, "[the study] to bring patients' repressed memories and wishes to the surface"(Psychoanalysis), Hester and Dimmesdale are repressing their real emotions and projections ones that they are not feeling.…
Hawthorne utilizes symbolism to demonstrate what effects sin and guilt has on humans. Hester Prynne has to wear a scarlet letter on her chest, walking in her own shame. This has…
The truth may not always be beautiful, but it is a part of a person’s identity. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, illustrates how denying the truth affects one’s mental and physical wellness. It is better to be true to one’s identity rather than put up a false identity to please society. Hester and Dimmesdale both bare a scarlet letter “A”. Yet, Hester’s is a symbol of beauty in truth and the Dimmesdale's a symbol for the ugliness of one's character when one is untrue and ashamed.…