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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“Thou hast escaped me!”-Chillingworth says. Throughout the course of the Scarlet Letter many of the characters suffer personal struggle and make choices that affect the lives of others. All characters experience this but one such character is Roger Chillingworth or Mr. Prynne‚ as he is also known. The choices and character changes of Roger Chillingworth will be explained throughout this essay. The first point is about Chillingworth’s main conflict in the story. His wife Hester Prynne‚ a main character
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The Scarlet Letter In the “Scarlet Letter” Nathaniel Hawthorne describes the consequences for sinning. The story takes place in a puritan community in Boston‚ Massachusetts in the 17th century. In the story the main character‚ Hester Prynne‚ commits adultery with the Reverend mr.Dimmsdale. As a result of their actions‚ Pearl is born. Hester is punished to wear the scarlet letter A‚ which stands for Adultery‚ on her breast. Hester’s husband‚ Roger Chillingworth‚ made her keep their marriage a
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In The Scarlet Letter‚ Hawthorne uses the lives of Hester‚ Dimmesdale‚ and Chillingworth to emphasize themes of hypocrisy and sin within the Puritan society by stressing the relevance of forgiveness‚ the negative outcome of abandoning righteousness‚ and the austere need for compassion in the Bostonian community . Through Hester‚ Dimmesdale‚ and Chillingworth’s habitation among the Puritans‚ Hawthorne reveals to readers the need for clemency through the demonstration of themes about hypocrisy. First
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In the Scarlet Letter two of the primary characters are provided by the author to show us a kind of foil. The one character‚ Reverend Dimmesdale‚ seems as if he is kind‚ but he has been living with a terrible burden‚ hindering him everywhere he goes. Chillingworth is his opposite‚ you would assume him to be nice when really he is quite evil. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth bring out each other’s characteristics and bring out the characteristics of other characters around them. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth
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The preface to Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter‚ “The Custom House”‚ serves to introduce the society and times in which the story is set; also‚ this essay provides the background story for the finding of the scarlet letter. The Custom House also provides a definition of what a romance is. Excerpts from “The Custom House” essay closely link to The Scarlet Letter’s text. Two notable examples of these parallels can be found in the descriptions given of the townspeople in Salem who live by ancient moral
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The novel titled The Scarlet Letter‚ written by Nathaniel Hawthorne‚ was a story full of tragic irony. Hester Prynne‚ throughout the story‚ makes a great effort to conceal secrets among others such as Arthur Dimmesdale‚ and Roger Chillingworth. This effort is filled with hypocrisy because of the way they live their lives day by day. Some being idled for great doing‚ others shunning people of sin‚ when yet each of them have all committed sin of their own. Therefore‚ irony amongst this novel‚ is great
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Hester Prynne is “a figure of perfect elegance on a large scale‚” a young and beautiful woman (Hawthorne 46). She brought a child into the world with an unknown father. She is punished by Puritan society by wearing the scarlet letter A on the bosom of her dress. The letter is decorated in gold thread; it is decorated in gold because it is a reflection of her spirit. Hester is a very strong woman; it is seen since the very start of this novel. She walks to the scaffold from the prison‚ she holds her
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“The Scarlet Letter” Feminist Essay While Hawthorne is influenced by stereotypes‚ The Scarlet Letter‚ by Nathaniel Hawthorne does serve to criticize patriarchy as he creates a plausible individual who is strong in the face of patriarchal opposition. Hester turns her punishment into a life changing experience by becoming a better‚ stronger‚ and more independent person than she was at the beginning of the novel. The way she handles her punishment does not make it right but
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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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