Kristin Moseley Professor Hooks English 101 20 July 2009 The Scarlet Letter: Literary Criticism Published in 1850‚ The Scarlet Letter is considered Nathaniel Hawthorne ’s most famous work‚ and the first quintessentially American novel in style‚ theme‚ and language. Set in seventeenth-century Puritan Massachusetts‚ the novel centers around the travails of Hester Prynne‚ who gives birth to daughter Pearl after an adulterous affair. Hawthorne ’s novel concerns the consequences of the affair
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Marta Azarpour August‚ 30th 2011 English Hester’s Public Suffering vs. Dimmesdale’s Lie The Scarlet Letter‚ written by Nathaniel Hawthorne‚ is a novel set in the mid-seventeenth century‚ which tells the story of Hester Prynne‚ a woman who commits a sin in her home in Boston. With a child in her arms from another man who is not her husband‚ Hester is obligated to wear a scarlet ‘A’ (which stands for adultery) on her chest. As part of her sentence‚ she is locked up in prison with her daughter
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God was strictly obeyed by the Puritans. Those found guilty of breaking this law‚ and any other of the Ten‚ were severely punished to a degree determined by the leader of the church. Hester Prynne‚ the protagonist of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter‚ is exposed as an adulteress-which creates the main conflict in the novel. Hester willingly sins against the laws of the church‚ thus causing the tragedy. Puritanism started in the sixteenth century as a movement to reform the Church of England
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directly connects the scarlet letter on her mother’s bosom and the sun’s failure to shine on her to the absence of sunlight in her life‚ through her sin of adultery. Though Pearl’s symbolic nature allows her to identify these truths‚ her position as just a child prevents her from understanding the intricacy that these truths hold. Pearl sees her mother as an example of what every adult is characteristic of. In this sense‚ Pearly believes that all grown women wear this scarlet letter of an equivalent
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The Aspects of Public Guilt V.S. Private Guilt The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne One of the main aspects and purposes of The Scarlet Letter‚ was to illustrate the differences between the public humiliation of a person about their sin’s‚ or the private suffering of a persons guilt and sin in their private acts. The fact that Hester had not just one of these‚but both to deal with in her life. Besides the fact that she kept
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Moral of the guilt that transform people’s hearts Guilt empowers us to take action but can also enslave us. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic‚ The Scarlet Letter‚ sin makes a permanent `mark on a Puritan Salem Massachusetts in Boston. Through the actions and reactions of both the community and characters‚ we learn that guilt not only influences behavior but it also transforms us. Guilt is a feeling of responsibility or remorse for some offense‚ crime and wrong‚ which can overwhelms the people
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guilt. Whether it be from cheating on a test‚ lying to your parents‚ or forgetting your best friend’s birthday‚ guilt can be very powerful‚ it gives us a contrite awareness that we have acted in a way that some would considered to be wrong. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne‚ Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale have committed a great sin‚ and because of this sin‚ it causes these characters to have an extensive amount of guilt. Hawthorne transmits the idea of guilt and sin by using different
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Andrew Martinez AP English III Mrs.Jones October 8‚ 2014 The scarlet letter the story of a young woman which committed what was considered to be one of the most vile sins of her time. That sin was adultery and for committing such a sin her punishment was public humiliation in the form of a scarlet letter a worn upon her bosom. Hester Pryne the wife of Roger Pryne (aka Chillingworth) was left waiting alone for two years for the arrival of her husband in the new world for two long lonesome years
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to dwell upon…”. Throughout the rest of The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne uses several devices to describe Hester and women in general. The first device that seems to be the most prominent throughout the book is symbolism. One of the symbols was the scarlet letter itself. Due to Hesters sin of adultery‚ the letter “A” is given to her to wear. She is publically ridiculed because of her human nature “...was the SCARLET LETTER‚ so fantastically embroidered and illuminated
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the book‚ The Scarlet Letter‚ I think Nathaniel Hawthorne is making the scarlet letter seem so terrible and cruel for Hester. But as the book comes to a close‚ you realize that it has done some good things for Hester. Though this punishment of wearing a red “A” on your chest to show adultery seems cold‚ there were some positive outcomes and it was effective after all. In Massachusetts‚ during the 1600’s‚ Hester Prynne is punished for adultery by having to carry around a scarlet “A” on her chest
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