A CHAPTER-BY-CHAPTER READING GUIDE FOR THE SCARLET LETTER A 1636 Plymouth Colony law required anyone convicted of adultery to "wear two Capital letters viz AD cut out in cloth and sowed on theire uppermost Garments on their arme or backe; and if att any time they shallbee taken without the said letters whiles they are in the Govrment soewarn to bee forthwith taken and publickly whipt."[1] Other Massachusetts colonies had their own versions of this law. In fact‚ "The Capitall Lawes of
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The Rosebush The rose bush is a discreet yet important symbol in the novel The Scarlet Letter. The rosebush is first mentioned in the chapter‚ “The Prison Door.” The narrator is setting the first major scene by describing the scenery. He is comparing the Puritan society to and “ugly edifice” and contrasting the rose bush to “the deep heart of Nature.” Later‚ in “The Governor’s Hall‚” Hester and Governor Bellingham are talking about taking Pearl away from her. Pearl starts throwing a tantrum until
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Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter as an exemplum on pride. His creation of Hester Prynne‚ the protagonist of The Scarlet Letter‚ and her selflessness was the moral behind keeping her alive. The characters in The Scarlet Letter are nothing more than symbols representing abstract qualities and are dispensable. Names play an important role in The Scarlet Letter it is Hawthorne ’s way of distinguishing not just the characters but their personalities. The latter is the most important when
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a dream come true. Thier society was obsessed with the idea of being pure. Any sin that was committed had an over exaggerated punishment. Many of the puritans were hypocritical. This idea is expressed greatly in The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter as a story of revenge‚ sin and hypocrisy because the narration does not really show love between people‚ but shows all the sinful acts people would do to one another. A great example of sin is Hester cheating on Chillingworth
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December 7‚ 2012 Revenge: A Leech’s Worth Revenge can take a person’s life over. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter‚ Roger Chillingworth begins seeking revenge and becomes completely obsessed with getting what he wants. Roger Chillingworth seeks his revenge on Arthur Dimmesdale. Roger Chillingworth is taken over by revenge; ultimately resulting in the physical and mental decay of his body and soul. In the opening of the novel Roger Chillingworth deformities are not as noticeable‚ but
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The Scarlet Letter‚ written by Nathaniel Hawthorne‚ has characters that each bring different feelings and emotions to the story. While reading the novel‚ I noticed that Pearl‚ Hester’s daughter‚ was very different from the other main characters‚ though at the same time‚ she was almost a second Hester. With the addition of Pearl‚ Hawthorne’s story comes to a completely different level. Around the first part of the book‚ Hawthorne doesn’t talk much about Pearl or describe her in any way‚ but this
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The Scarlet Letter: Nature’s Individualist Every individual is born universally in nature‚ all starting from the same humble beginnings. The only way we gain our originality in life‚ is when we look deeper into the eyes of nature and see that her small flaws are mirrored in us as well. In the novel‚ The Scarlet Letter‚ by Nathaniel Hawthorne Hester Prynne embodies the characteristics of the self- reliant individual. The novel takes place in Puritan sixteenth century Massachusetts telling the story
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Nathaniel Hawthorne‚ a critically acclaimed American writer of the 19th century‚ was born in Salem‚ Massachusetts in 1804. The novelist ’s book‚ The Scarlet Letter‚ is supposedly his best work‚ and universally considered a literary classic. Concerned with sin and consequences of dealing with it‚ Hawthorne ’s work relates to his own personal sense of shame about his ancestor ’s persecuting roles in the 17th century Salem Witch Trials. By indirectly dealing with his sense of guilt through fictional
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Scarlet Letter Essay After reading the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne I came to believe that Adultery is a terrible thing and can have very bad repercussions‚ especially in the early to mid 1700s. Back then committing adultery was a very serious offense to not the just the community but to your family also. Adultery used to destroy family relationships and to this day it still does. Adultery is also more of a religious problem but also goes into social and legal consequences. When it talks
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The Superiority of Men? The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is commonly known as America’s first great novel and as America’s first feminist novel as well. Hawthorne writes The Scarlet Letter in the middle of the nineteenth century while the novel actually takes place in the mid seventeenth century puritanical Boston. Different people at different times viewed women in very different ways. In this novel alone women are viewed in two different ways. Hawthorne was a transcendentalist from
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