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…
Symbolism is the use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities by giving them symbolic meanings that are different from their literal sense. Almost everything in a literary piece can be used as a symbol. If the author takes the time to write about it then it’s important. If the object doesn't seem relevant than it is probably being used as a symbol and probably has a deeper meaning. Anything can be used as a symbol, and in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne there are many different symbols. A certain import symbol to me in the book is Pearl, Hester’s daughter.…
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…
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.…
The way that Nathaniel Hawthorne introduced Pearl as a character in The Scarlet Letter lead to a better understanding of Hester and Dimmesdale throughout the story. Pearl serves as a living example of Hester and Dimmesdale’s actions to Hester herself, Dimmesdale, the townspeople, and the reader. Pearl’s confident outer appearance also creates a questioning mood throughout the story that allows the reader to…
In the novel, “The Scarlet Letter,” Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts the scene of 17th century Puritan Boston. The novel was written in Salem and Concord Massachusetts during the late 1840s, but was not published until 1850. The narrator of the novel is an unknown Custom House surveyor that discovers the records and a manuscript written by a previous surveyor, detailing the events while working in and tidying up the attic one day. The fictional story depicts the life and struggles of Hester Prynne as she conceives a fierce and whimsical child, known as Pearl, after she has an affair with an unknown member of the community.…
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.…
6) In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne employs figurative language to explain the symbolic character of Pearl before she becomes a woman. To Hester, her child who is often associated with sin is, “Her Pearl! ...she named the infant “Pearl”, as being of great price, --purchased with all she had, her mother’s only treasure!”(6,1). This allusion of the Gospel of Matthew, the merchant man seeking goodly pearls gave up everything to get that one pearl, similarly connects to how Hester gave up everything such as her home, friends, and dignity just to obtain her daughter, Pearl. Hester sustains the pain of abandonment and wrath from the Puritans just to keep Pearl; Pearl gives Hester a reason to strengthen herself and survive in this community…
“Truth was the one virtue which I might have held fast… save when thy good – thy life – thy fame – were put into question.” These words spoken by Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter display her practice of situational morals and hypocrisy. Hawthorne displays this major element of human nature, hypocrisy in all characters save young Pearl who is blatantly unique from most people. Dimmesdale, Hester, and the entire Puritan community are hypocrites, and their hypocrisy manifests itself in the conflict of this novel. Hawthorne created a drastic difference between the inward and outward lives of everyone in this story and they can be related to the hypocrisy present in modern society. People never change, hypocrisy will always be present both today in the past.…
Feminism is the philosophy advocating equal political, economic, and social rights for women. The idea of feminism was not at all prevalent during the 1850s when Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter was published. In spite of this, Hawthorne wrote one of the most influential feminist novels of his time: The Scarlet Letter. This novel was hailed as an important feminist novel because of the main character: Hester Prynne. Hester Prynne is the very embodiment of feminism because of her refusal to adhere to the societal norms, her independence socially and in thought, and how the view of what the society thinks of her changes through the novel.…
Pearl is a very interesting character in The Scarlet Letter. Hester views Pearl as another symbol of her sin, but there is much more to Pearls character, than just being a symbol. Throughout the book, Pearl is portrayed as very perceptive; she sees and, for the most part, understands everything that is happening. Using this, Pearl pushes other characters in the story to think about things in a different way, or remind them of something. Most of the time, she does this in the form of reminding Hester and others about Hester sin. Let's delve deeper into Pearl's character and her role in The Scarlet Letter.…
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…
Symbolism is one feature in The Scarlet Letter that Nathaniel Hawthorne uses quite a lot; and I find it especially interesting how he is able to cleverly use metaphors to get this symbolism across. Symbolism runs wild throughout the book in the form of Pearl. Pearl is like an extended metaphor in a sense because, throughout the romance, Hawthorne uses her as a living reminder of the Scarlet Letter and the sin that Hester commits. This strategy adds an interesting element to the book since the reader is constantly reminded of Hester’s condemnation without Hawthorne having to continually speak of the Scarlet Letter and the sin attached to it. I personally feel bad for both Hester and Pearl because of the way others treat them.…
The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a novel set in the mid-seventeenth century, which tells the story of Hester Prynne, a woman who commits a sin in her home in Boston. With a child in her arms from another man who is not her husband, Hester is obligated to wear a scarlet ‘A’ (which stands for adultery) on her chest. As part of her sentence, she is locked up in prison with her daughter Peal, until she confesses who the child’s father is. As she refuses to name him, she is forced to stand in the town’s pillory for a few hours while being tormented by the civilians’ frightful comments. In most of The Scarlet Letter, Hester is haunted by her sinful act, since the town people use her as an example. However, Dimmesdale, Pearl’s father, also suffers with this situation, even though his identity as Pearl’s father is unknown, his lie lives with him and as the novel progresses, Hester gradually begins to be accepted in society, while Dimmesdale’s life becomes worse.…
Hester Prynne, the main character of the book "The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, commits adultery, is considered a hussy, and has a child as the result of her sin. She cheats on her husband while he is absent from town and receives a harsh punishment for her behavior already. Hester is forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her bosom for the rest of her life. It is now on debate on whether or not Pearl should be taken away from her mother’s guidance. This is due to the fact that she is a sinner and might not be a qualified mother for her child.It is true, that no matter what you did in the past, a child is a blessing and parents change due to the love they have for their children. Therefore, Hester Prynne is a good mother and she has been taking actions to prove so.…