In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book‚ “The Scarlet Letter‚” a very prominent theme is the idea of how something a little bit out of the ordinary can become quite exaggerated. In the beginning of the book‚ the main character‚ Hester Prynne‚ is made to wear a scarlet letter to pay for her sin of adultery. This letter and even Hester herself is exaggerated in the eyes of society throughout the book. “It was whispered‚ by those who peered after her‚ that the scarlet letter threw a lurid gleam along the dark
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The Scarlet Letter characters struggle to accept their own personal identities. Hester embodies the scarlet letter‚ while Dimmesdale tries to break his stereotypical religious identity. By wearing the scarlet letter‚ Salem publically shames Hester. If she leaves the town‚ then she could remove the A‚ but instead she stays. She could go away with her daughter Pearl and have a completely normal life. She refuses to leave because the letter has become her identity‚ and she uses its power. Some people
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misinterpretation of who she really is. In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne‚ Pearl is seen as an unworldly creature‚ incapable of any good. Her personality is unusual and difficult to comprehend‚ which prompts the puritanical society to question her ethical development. Pearl is constantly viewed as a mischievous elf-child by all the Puritans in Boston‚ yet Hawthorne intensely compares her to a glorious work of art. She is the representation of the Scarlet letter in human form. A child who is as significant
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EXAMINE THE SCARLET LETTER AS AN OPEN-ENDED NOVEL Hawthorne wrote during the Romantic Period in American literature which lasted from 1830 to 1865. Ralph Waldo Emerson‚ Henry David Thoreau‚ Herman Melville‚ Harriet Beecher Stowe‚ Edgar Allen Poe‚ and Walt Whitman were his literary contemporaries. The Scarlet Letter is considered a piece of American Romantic literature because it is set in a remote past‚ the Puritan era 200 years prior to Hawthorne’s time‚ and because it deals with the interior
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In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter‚ Pearl serves many roles as a character. In the harsh Puritan society she lived in with her mother Hester‚ she provides some comical relief into their difficult lives. Hester was condemned her whole life from committing adultery. Her letter was not the only punishment she faced‚ but the internal guilt of knowing she went against her religion sat with her for life. Pearl was her most precious gift and she gave Hester a reason to keep going and continue on with her
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English 3AP The Scarlet Letter Test 1. In the passage beginning at the bottom of page 37 (It was a circumstance…) and ending on page 39 (here comes Mistress Prynne herself)‚ the narrator seems to feel that the women of the era A) are harsher in their judgments than are the ruling menB) are overly submissive to menC) are without exception bitter-tempered D) are more refined than the narrator’s contemporariesE) are explicitly to blame for Hester’s sin 2. The conversation beginning
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Often‚ two people can commit the same sin‚ but deal with it differently. Guilt can be dealt with in two ways: publicly or privately. In The Scarlet Letter‚ by Nathaniel Hawthorne‚ Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale both commit adultery‚ and both Hester and Dimmesdale deal with guilt from the sin they committed in completely different ways. Hawthorne writes about dealing with guilt publicly and privately to show the emotional and sometimes physical toll of guilt based on how people choose to deal
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Mulholland College Literature February 21‚ 2012 Life Struggles in The Scarlet Letter and Frankenstein If you read a lot of classic literature‚ you can usually see multiple similarities in them. Whether the plots or themes are alike‚ they convey similar messages. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein‚ there are very similar life struggles that the characters go through. The main characters of each novel; Hester Prynne‚ Arthur Dimmesdale‚ Victor Frankenstein‚
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This is shown very well in the book The Scarlet Letter‚ there are many examples of this religious time period and the pressures of living in this time‚ to be a good person in the eye of a Puritan. In my essay I am going to talk about this standard of the church or of human standards‚ set by this time period‚ religion‚ people‚ and the hypocrisy of how some lived their lives’. Hester Prynne‚ who is the main character in the book The Scarlet letter‚ is a perfect and great example‚ on how
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In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne‚ the sunshine is used as a symbol to suggest happiness among the characters. The reason this symbol stands out is because there were numerous times in the novel where Pearl speaks of the sunshine hiding or fleeing from Hester. The reason for the sunshine disappearing on Hester is because sunshine represents happiness and as long as Hester wears her scarlet letter “A”‚ she will never be happy. There are several aspects in the story where the topic of sunshine
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