In The Scarlet Letter‚ the Puritans are a group who believe that people are born with sin. Subsequently‚ they keep a strict eye over their community as well as themselves. Correspondingly‚ depending on how severe a sin is‚ it may be punishable by death. Hester is spared by the Puritans because they believe that she will serve as a living sermon of sin. Hester must wear a scarlet letter on her chest for the entirety of her life to make up for her punishment. These events convey how the overall theme
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The Scarlet Letter Essay Prompt #1 As far as women are discussed in past societies‚ they are usually not the heroes. Nathaniel Hawthorne thought otherwise in his literary work‚ The Scarlet Letter. Heroes are often characterized as courageous‚ strong‚ and ones with humility. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s character Hester Prynne exhibits all of these qualities of heroism. Due to Hester Prynne taking responsibility for her sin of adultery and deciding to continue to work arduously in a society where she is
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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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the forbidden acts of drunkenness‚ blasphemy‚ and adultery. In The Scarlet Letter‚ the church enacts harsh sentences of incarceration and public shaming in order to discipline the presumed sinners. Even though these punishments seek to inflict harm and cause suffering to their victims‚ Hawthorne uses their cruelty to elicit the truth. 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
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~ The Scarlet Letter ~ Psychological Analysis "I experienced a sensation...of burning heat; and as if the letter sere not of red cloth‚ but red-hot iron." These words in the introduction to The Scarlet Letter describe the letter as an object that contains power. The power left in the little red piece of cloth represents all the emotional toil that was associated with it - guilt‚ pain‚ betrayal‚ and vengeance. Throughout the novel the letter will stir all these emotions‚ creating an intense psychological
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These chapters return the reader to the romance world of preternaturally aware children and enchanted forests. Pearl has cleverly discerned the relationship between her mother’s mark of shame and the minister’s ailment‚ which share one obvious characteristic—their physical location upon the body. None of the townspeople has made the connection that Pearl now makes because they would never suspect their pastor to be capable of such a sin. Again‚ we see the problem with the Puritan “reading” of the
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The Scarlet Letter: Prohibit or Protect? In this day and age‚ just about any opinion‚ show‚ book‚ or movie can be seen as offensive and unnecessary by different groups of people. All around the nation‚ classic novels are being banned from public schools and libraries due to their contentious and possibly harmful language and content. Among these is a timeless and beloved book‚ The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Since the publishing of this title in 1850‚ many teachers‚ parents‚ and community
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March 9‚ 2008 Isolation within The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne‚ an American author who lived from 1804-1864‚ could be characterized as “an imaginative genius gifted with considerable linguistic skill” (Perkins 1 of 3). Hawthorne’s most famous works included The House of the Seven Gables and The Marble Faun‚ both novels portrayed the essence of sin and guilt and their emotional effects on mankind. One of Hawthorne’s most famous works The Scarlet Letter‚ takes place in Boston during the Puritan
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is The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthrone. The story takes place during the middle of the seventeenth century in Boston‚ Massachusetts. The story is told through an unnamed customhouse surveyor who writes two hundred years after the events he describes took place. He is both omniscient and subjective because he knows more about the characters than they know about themselves while he also voices his own interpretations and opinions. Body- The title relates to the story because the scarlet letter
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The Power of Romance Versus Society Hester Prynne‚ the main character in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter‚ is very similar to Edna Pontellier of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening‚ in that both women contradicted the societal standard and followed their hearts as opposed to the rigid marital structure of their respective times in history. Edna and Hester chose to be with men whom they really cared for. At times when marriage seemed to be based more on a convenient loyalty rather than a genuine bond‚ these
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