book‚ The Scarlet Letter tells the story of the conflicts between Hester Prynne‚ Arthur Dimmesdale‚ and Roger Chillingworth and how their sins affect themselves and their community. All three have committed grave sin in the eyes of the Puritans‚ but the most evil sin was committed by Roger Chillingworth. The opening of the book focuses on Hester Prynne being publicly shamed for the sin that she committed. She was released from jail and made to stand in front of the public wearing the letter “A” embroidered
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The Scarlet Letter. Chillingworth is a man disgraced by his wife’s actions. Throughout the book‚ he chooses to remain in the shadows of the pages to torture Dimmesdale‚ his wife’s lover‚ with his guilt. However‚ before the events of the novel‚ Chillingworth is described as a kind‚ intelligent man. Nathaniel Hawthorne characterizes Rodger Chillingworth as a Lucifer type figure‚ using fierce diction and a good and malevolent binary. Rodger Chillingworth is not a weak man‚ in The Scarlet Letter. The
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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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family and community. They were solely relegated to serve their husband and their household. Anne Hutchinson was a woman in that time period that rebelled against the traditional roles by standing up for her own thoughts. Hester Prynne‚ a fictional character in The Scarlet Letter‚ is a symbol of what Anne Hutchinson represents in Puritan history. Both women went against traditional beliefs and stood by them. Puritans believed in predestination which means Puritans believed “ in Jesus and participation
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In the first scaffold scene the protagonist Hester Prynne is physically displayed as a tall young woman with a “figure of perfect elegance on a large scale.” (50) Her regular features give her a stunning face and impressively‚ her “dark and abundant hair threw off the sunshine with a gleam.” (50) Hester’s appearance after several years of punishment for her commission of adultery contrasts these physical appeals. Influenced by the public humiliation
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Discussing The Scarlet Letter with my classmates helped deepen my understanding of the novel because I was able to obtain a new perspective on several issues that the novel addressed. Never would I have questioned the treatment of women in today’s society versus the treatment of women in Puritan society if it weren’t for collaborating with classmates on edmodo and during socratic seminars. Not only did discussing The Scarlet Letter open my eyes to new viewpoints‚ but it also provided me with a greater
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Essay Test: The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne’s "The Scarlet Letter" is set in the early days of Puritan America. Hester Prynne‚ a seamstress‚ comes to the New World before her husband in order to prepare a place for them. During his absence‚ she develops a relationship with Arthur Dimmesdale‚ a rising minister in the newly founded Puritan community. Hester becomes pregnant. The novel is widely viewed to be a story about her trials and tribulations; however‚ critic Randall Steward argues
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Many characters go through transformations in The Scarlet Letter‚ and one of those characters is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Author Nathaniel Hawthorne writes of a puritan society‚ and it is the laws of that society‚ both written and unwritten‚ that Dimmesdale breaks and which causes the changes to occur. He commits the sin of adultery‚ and by sleeping with Hester Prynne‚ breaks the laws that he is supposed to represent. He cannot admit his sin because he is a holy man‚ and admitting his sin would
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judgment‚ and non-conformity are all used in the Scarlet Letter. These can be used to prove that Hawthorne’s assessment of The Scarlet Letter being a work of romanticism was correct. In the Scarlet letter‚ it displays uses of values and intuition over reasoning through Pearls questioning of Dimmesdale‚ and in Hester’s concerns about Chillingworth. From the beginning Pearl always asks her mother why Dimmesdale always holds his hand over his heart‚ and Hester never has an answer for her little one. This
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else. "The Scarlet Letter"‚ by Nathaniel Hawthorne is filled with symbolism which he uses to unify the novel and add a deeper level of meaning to the story. In the novel‚ the three most important symbolisms were the forest‚ the scaffold‚ and the scarlet letter "A" on Hester’s bosom. But the symbolism of the scarlet letter "A" outweighs every other symbolism. The forest is symbolic of Nature‚ both in its darker and lighter aspects. The rays of sunshine fall on Pearl but do not reach Hester‚ which symbolize
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