pointing out he beauty and "perfect elegance". He never once pointed out a flaw of…
Undoubtedly, Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth had all committed sin in one form or another, but Chillingworth’s sin lies on a much larger scale because while Hester and Dimmesdale repent for their sin Chillingworth fails to even recognize his own.…
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.…
There are many maladies in this world to which the fragile human body can fall victim. Be it from disease or from physical injury, the end result is the same if the ailment is left unattended for too long. However, what happens when this sickness emerges from the darkest corner of the human soul and begins to agonizingly consume the fibers of one’s being day by day? When the parasite is an insatiable guilt which causes sensations so tortuous and vile that they can drive a man to the brink of insanity, and perhaps even into the waiting claws of death? Such horrid feelings, especially when contained, possess an unfathomably immense danger with grave consequences. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter, Arthur Dimmesdale’s deteriorating…
In the novel Mad Shadows by Marie-Claire Blais and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, isolation was used as a major theme to sculpt and reveal the characters true identity. The behaviour of each central character towards isolation crafted their fates. The Scarlet Letter portrays the psychological effects of alienation on the characters. Mad shadows illustrates an unprincipled world where beauty is skin only deep and love is measured by material possessions.…
Dimmesdale preached to the town “ Ye have all shuddered at it [Hester and the scarlet letter]!... But there stood one in the midst of you, at whose brand of sin and infamy ye have not shuddered!” This ironic moment of Dimmesdale added to his warmth because he publicly implied that he is the person who Hester been with seven years ago but does not dare to pay for its price until now. Only character of great passion could expel their long due guilt and not die in regret, much like…
Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the isolation of Hester , Dimmesdale , and Pearl to express the toxic and unfair treatment Puritans values have put upon certain individuals throughout the era of their existence and the scaring aftermath leading to those who have been affected by it. “The main image of this evil that threatens a whole community can be found in the mysterious figure of the Black Man. Hawthorne, as the author, never makes a statement as to his existence; all references to him exist simply in the mouths of the characters. From them one can gather that he lives in the forest, outside of the city, and that he carries a book and an iron pen which he offers to those whom he meets. If they inscribe their names, in blood, he places his mark…
Lurking guilt and shame, if not acknowledged and owned up to, can consume you. “‘I wonder he is not afraid to be alone with himself!’” (Hawthorne). The people that attended Reverend Hooper’s church were concerned, frightened, and intrigued about why he was suddenly wearing a black veil to cover his face. What was speculated about him not wanting to be alone with himself is true because he was getting caught up in his own guilt that he felt he needed to hide it from everyone in an attempt to hide it from himself. “At that instant, catching a glimpse of his figure in the looking-glass, the black veil involved his own spirit in the horror with which it overwhelmed all others” (Hawthorne). At the wedding, Reverend Hooper finally saw himself in the mirror and, for the first time, saw how caught up in his guilt and shame he was, and how by not owning…
The Shame “Shame is nothing more than denial of the truth.” – M. Funkhouser. Everyone agrees that…
Nathaniel Hawthorne finds in colonial New England a compelling setting for his dramatization of the paradox of individualism—America was founded on the principle that to be an individual is to be separate from the state, thus creating a community, or country in the United States’ case, formed completely of separatists. The Scarlet Letter dramatizes the individualistic dimensions as this tendency of democracy that “relieve(s) the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow” (Hawthorne 29). The Puritans were a group of dissident voluntary exiles who sought to strengthen and reform the Christian community in England by leaving it—setting out across the sea for a New World, a New England that would furnish a model for reconstructing the old one. “The Scarlet Letter agrees with the doctrines of the Puritans” and envisions this moral and political paradox in terms of individual…
“Guilt is through the spirit and Pain is the body.” Everyone is sinful or guilty in a way, whether it is lying or doing adultery. It is mistakes that are caused by people. Because you will have to be guilty first in order to suffer the pain that was caused by their sin. Mr. Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne had to suffer his own sin and can’t find a way to confess to the society, no one understands what is he going through. Hester has to suffer from her own sin with everyone be disgusted by her, wish to not have any relationship with her. This is the same with John Proctor in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. He had to suffer a sin of his own, due to the affair between him and Abigail Williams. Therefore he has to face…
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, the main characters face the theme of isolation. Every single one of them deals with it internally, however, two of them must face it externally as well. To feel isolated is like standing in a crowded room, constantly filling with familiar faces but yet the feeling of emptiness or aloneness still lingers. It’s a battle with humanity as well as your own mind; in a particular case in The Scarlet Letter it drove a man crazy.…
In The Scarlet Letter, a novel by author Nathaniel Hawthorne, rugged individualism is a reoccurring theme with certain characters throughout the text. Rugged individualism expresses the idea of someone doing what is believed to be right for themselves despite the consequences that may be placed on the person or the people around this person. In The Scarlet Letter, there are multiple events in which rugged individualism takes place, but the two characters that show the most rugged individualism throughout the novel are the main character Hester Prynne, and Roger Chillingworth.…
Shame and guilt, as demonstrated above, are products of society, and the experience of these emotions is subject to the society that the individual was raised and/or currently resides in, as shown by the accounts of Puritan society. Likewise, these emotions and the experiences thereof are subject to where the individual exists within such societies, especially in regards to profession and gender, as shown by the narratives of The Scarlet Letter. Perhaps even morality, the base of emotions such as shame, is subjective to society, because it is, in the words of Paul Gilbert in his article on shame and guilt, this competency of social morals and emotions “that give rise to the human capacities for shame and guilt and make their forms so open to…
How can a sin change a life? In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester’s sin of adultery is well known. Forced to stand in front of the community for one day to be publically shamed, Hester held her head high. However, her shame does not end there. Although people begin to get used to Hester in their community and even begin to accept her, Hester has changed. The constant humiliation has driven her to hide behind her embarrassment, and she is therefore distinguished by it. In the passage from the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses vivid imagery and diction to convey the powerful effect a symbol can have.…