For Hester, the scarlet letter represents a hindrance to her freedom, reminding her of her heavy sin. Hawthorne uses a metaphor in this passage, comparing the effect of the scarlet letter as a “withering spell.” This shows how one sinful act can prevent Hester from experiencing joys in life, similar to how putting on the scarlet letter hides Hester’s hair, and therefore, her femininity. The phrase “an evil deed invests itself with the character of doom,” describes how an evil act leads to one’s downfall. This supports the theme that one cannot escape one’s own…
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…
Sin is considered to be a morally bad act in the Christian faith. In The Scarlet Letter, the Puritans’ views on human nature were affected by their belief in original sin. Nathaniel Hawthorne allows the reader to see the significant role that sin plays in human experience and in the Puritan society in which Hester Prynne lived in through the use of symbols in his novel. The symbols that are present convey messages about how humans should deal with their flawed nature and the negative effects that sin has on the body, mind, and soul.…
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a book depicting the struggle of a woman who is spared death after committing adultery in a strict puritan society. The woman, Hester Prynne, was spared death only for the reason to make an example to the rest of the community. Throughout the book you can see the theme of how sin changes lives appear in almost every chapter and is an important driving factor behind the plot. This theme is shown through the actions of the three main characters: Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. These three characters act in this novel as the personification of sin in three different types of sin. A different sin by each of the main characters.…
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.…
“Original sin”: is the Puritan belief that all sin developed from women due to the fact that Eve, the first woman, made the first sin by giving in to temptation and offering it to men. This sin made the belief that all children created are a sinner and should take responsibility for the act of Adam and Eve. In the book, The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne uses imagery, symbolism, and the belief in “original sin” to criticize how women are not seen as equals to men.…
Unfortunately sin can often lead to isolation. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne, a beautiful young woman who is chastised for adultery, and Arthur Dimmesdale, Boston’s beloved minister who is the father of Hester’s baby, both begin doleful lives of isolation after Hester’s sin is revealed. After Hester is sent to Boston by her husband, who says he will shortly join her, she has an affair with the town’s preacher, Arthur Dimmesdale, which results in a daughter, Pearl. Condemned for her sin of adultery by the austere Puritan government, Hester is forced to wear a scarlet letter A on her dress at all times as a punishment for her crime. Though Hester Prynne is a beautiful, graceful woman who is involved in the community, she begins a secluded life of isolation after she is punished for her crime of adultery. Serving as a visible sign of her crime, the scarlet letter A isolates Hester from her community. In addition, Hester encounters isolation when she is required to move to a dreary cabin on the outskirts of town. Furthermore, Hester is isolated from her one true love, Arthur Dimmesdale, when her husband, who goes by the alias Rodger Chillingworth, finally comes to Boston. On the other hand, Arthur Dimmesdale, who is an insouciant, healthy minister before his sin with Hester is punished, becomes paranoid, sickly, and isolated from the people of Boston as his guilt begins to overwhelm him. By neglecting to openly tell anyone about his sin with Hester, Dimmesdale isolates himself from the people. He also isolates himself, this time from Hester, when he allows Chillingworth to move in with him to treat his illness. And he is isolated every time the people of Boston praise his as a marvelous preacher when he knows he is not worthy of such veneration.…
Despite Hester’s sin, she had become known for ability to help others and her strength; the A now represents Able, not Adulteress. This illustrates the fact that Hawthorne believes that truth and embracing sin leads to freedom and forgiveness. Hester has an overall impact in her community despite of the symbol of shame that the letter is meant to represent, by regaining her communities admiration through her ability to be a productive member of the community and sympathize with others. Hester utilizes her “shame” to derive strength, pushing the notion of righteousness through the embracement of sin. Hester continues to participate in society, creating items such as gloves for religious activities, and through this, Hester regains the trust of the people. Hester’s morals of truth, honesty, and hard work are further justified as the righteous morals when it becomes apparent to the community that “none so ready as she to give her little substance to every demand of poverty” (110).…
The scarlet letter brings with it the punishing mockery and humiliation from her fellow Puritans, so continuing to bear this mark requires a great amount of strength. Hawthorne wrote Hester’s character to seem beautiful yet powerful in that she believes her own sinful ways cannot be redeemed or reconciled without proper punishment. Until Hester believes that she has renounced her sinful ways and learned from her mistakes, she will not allow herself or anyone in the town to remove the letter. During her discourse with Roger Chillingworth regarding the removal of the scarlet letter, Hester responds, “It lies not in the pleasure of the magistrates to take off this badge...Were I worthy to be quit of it, it would fall away of its own nature, or be transformed into something that should speak a different purport” (153). Hester believes that it is not in her own power or the power of the town to remove the scarlet letter from her bosom. Although the letter can be physically removed, it cannot be removed by God until Hester becomes worthy of its removal. Hester also discusses the removal of the scarlet letter when she faces public humiliation for her crimes near the beginning of her story. Near the end of the novel, when Hester returns from Europe to Boston without Pearl, Hester still continues to wear the letter. Hawthorne describes this event when he writes, “But her hesitation was only for an instant, though long enough to display a scarlet letter on her breast. And Hester Prynne had returned, and taken up her long-forsaken shame” (233) Although Hester has already completed her punishment of bearing the shame of the scarlet letter, she still continues to wear the letter after returning. This not only characterizes Hester as a determined woman, but also shows how the scarlet letter has become a part…
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…
Presenting a major symbol of Puritan punishment, Hawthorne employs the harshness of the scarlet letter to allow Hester to discover her own strength and beauty. Under…
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…
In a world where everyone’s faults are broadcasted, would we treat people differently? I personally think that we would definitely act adversely towards most. We would avoid certain people who we find strange. We would treat people differently once we have seen their sins. We would have a very minimized friend group for fear of adding someone who has horribly sinned.…
A sin is doing what is wrong or not doing what is right according to God's rules. The Scarlet Letter is the story about Hester Prynne committing a sin of adultery. The consequence of her sinning is that she is forced to walk around in shame wearing a prominent scarlet letter “A” on her chest for the rest of her life. Hester was condemned by her own puritan neighbors. During that time sinning was a big deal, and anyone was eligible to caught and punished.…
The downfall and redemption of an individual surmounted the inherent hypocrisy of Puritanism. Forced to wear the scarlet letter of an adulteress, Hester Prynne struggled to perpetuate dignity in the face of lust and guilt. Spiritual leaders of the community preached strict adherence to Christian dogma which required branding with a scarlet letter. Repeated attempts to survive in the face of adversity failed. Her husband’s use of black magic and the veil of secrecy enforced by him and her lover impeded all efforts to make amends. The elders, acting as God on Judgment Day, sentenced Hester to isolation in a hostile community unwilling to forgive the young woman’s sin as God would.…