Preview

Changes in Hester Prynne

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
338 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Changes in Hester Prynne
The child, Pearl, is "a blessing and as a reminder of her sin." As if the scarlet A were not enough punishment there "was a brat of that hellish breed" which would remind Hester of what happened in the past. The "brat" could have been given away to Governor Bellingham yet Hester proclaimed that Pearl "is my happiness!...Ye shall not take her! I will die first!" Not a person in Boston, nor Hester herself thought highly of the little child and Hester refused to let Pearl go. Hester carried the kid around only because it was a direct reflection of her sin and to cast away here sin as freely as that to give it away would be unjust and unfair to Hester and Pearl. From now on Hester would continually and proudly be near Pearl. Hester would go against the grain in everything she did. Very rarely did she ever give up hope; never did she complete a job poorly. In the city of Boston "many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength." By now the people of Boston believe in Hester and accept her because Hester is an arduous, productive worker in the puritan society. The townspeople were reconsidering whether Hester was still worthy of wearing the scarlet letter by the time Hester was about to leave with Dimmesdale. The people of Boston realized what a good job Hester had done wearing it and what once was evil inside of Hester turned into good.
<br>
<br>The fact that Hester committed adultery was soon forgotten by the people around Hesters' everyday life. Yet another meaning for the scarlet letter was brought about when a meteorite appeared above Boston, a sexton thought it represented the word "Angel" coming from above. What was once an ignoble member of the puritan way of life became a decorous woman. This turn in events was inevitable because of

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Scarlet Letter Study Guide

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages

    2. Hester was condemned to wear the "Scarlet Letter," as punishment for adultery. The scarlet letter was the letter "A" and is a symbol of shame. It was meant to single out the wearer for their sin and ostracize them from the community. Hester's pregnancy and Pearl's subsequent birth were the reason she was publicly shamed by the Puritan community. The scarlet letter is bright red with gold thread. The symbol symbolizes Hester being “able.”…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hester was sentenced for committing adultery back in the late 1640’s and forever punished to wear the scarlet letter on her chest. As a result of her sin, she gained a daughter; Her name is Pearl. Hester has committed adultery and sinned, but they should not remove Pearl from her mother. Furthermore, Hester should keep Pearl because, Hester’s punishment has already been served, she is a constant reminder of her sin, and after all, Pearl is all Hester has.…

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Due to the fact that the scarlet letter represents Hester's sin that produced Pearl. Pearl points out the A on Hester's chest every chance she gets; Although, she is not intentionally trying to hurt Hester she does just that. Everytime Pearl points out her letter Hester is reminded of her sin. In a way, the letter and Pearl serve the same purpose of the A on Hester's chest. In addition, Pearl is the best thing that happened to Hester because it is all she has left. Her love for pearl and the how she makes the A obvious and beautiful represents Hester not allowing herself to be shamed by the other people in town because of having pearl. Through all of the hate Pearl makes Hester a stronger…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    town of Boston, Massachusetts. Was found guilty of Adultery. Her punishment was being sentenced to prison, and being forced to wear the letter ‘A’ for adultery. When Hester Prynne got pregnant with her daughter, Pearl. The townspeople began to talk and eventually figured out she committed adultery. Although, some people, such as the townspeople and the governor, believe Pearl is some sort of devil child. (Hawthorne 87) The one question that lies is, should Hester be able to keep her daughter Pearl?…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When The Scarlet Letter was written the Author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, discovered many ideas and facts about the Puritan community. Knowing this Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote about how women in the 17th century lived and how strict the society's rules can be, one major rule that was followed strictly phonate was “Actions spoke louder than words, so actions had to be constantly controlled.” (nd.edu). When the book begins it starts with introducing Hester and how she has done this huge violation according to the bible, maybe even causing the death penalty upon herself. As The Scarlet Letter goes through the timeline of how she is isolated and is shunned from the society; eventually, Hester slowly becomes part of the society by being the pure character she really was. This lets her take off the scarlet “A” and change the meaning of Adultery to the meaning of Able. Hawthorne decribes the climax of Hester’s story by expressing, “The letter was the symbol of her calling. such helpfulness…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the beginning, Hester’s scarlet letter was seen as a sinful, dark, symbol of adultery. However, the townspeople “refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification” (168) and “said that it meant Able”…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Hester Prynne, in the eyes of the Puritans violated her religion's principle: turning to sex for lust. By doing so, she defies “Puritanic code of law” (Hawthorne 50); therefore, as a punishment, she must wear an embroiled scarlet letter "A" on her bosom to mark her sin. However, Hawthorne contrasts the Puritan beliefs by using Romantic philosophy. Hester is portrayed as a young and beautiful woman who committed adultery but eventually earns the respect of most villagers. Not only Hester, but also the supposedly shameful scarlet letter- from “Adultery” to “Able”- is described as a majestic symbol when Hester wears it. A sinner is usually being viewed as a loathsome and ill-favored figure in society; however, Nathaniel Hawthorne contrasted the belief of Puritanism by showing how a sinner can earn back a place in society. Pearl, the child of sin is supposed to be ugly, evil, and shameful, but Hawthorne depicts her as a young, free-spirited child. Pearl's gentler action “here [the forest] than in the grassy-margined streets of the settlement, or in her mother’s cottage” (Hawthorne 194) shows Romanticism; Puritanism believes everything in the forest is wicked. In the “evil” forest, Hester is able to relax and escape her troublesome life. Hester and Pearl, even though both were Puritans, represent Romanticism through their actions and…

    • 1049 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, he writes a gloomy story that talks about a young woman named, Hester Prynne. As the story begins Hawthorne states,” …that SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom.”(Hawthorne 32). In this time, it was unusual for someone to have a scarlet letter since women only got these because they have committed the sin of adultery. This scarlet…

    • 630 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In chapter two of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne describes Hester Prynne as she stands on a pedestal in front of her community and gets publicly condemned for her adultery. Hawthorne shows the irony in the situation through the symbol of Pearl being just as sinful as the letter A embroidered on Hester’s clothing. He also irony irony in describing the A and how it is so similar to how Hester herself is portrayed. Lastly, Hawthorne describes Hester’s physical beauty and the irony of how the town doesn’t see her as someone who wasn’t a Puritan would be.…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Hester returns to Boston, she is still wearing the letter. People don’t believe their eyes. This is because Hester is not accompanied by Pearl. Pearl directly represents that letter and the end of the novel proves it. It has grown with Pearl and changed her too. As Wagenkenecht quotes John A. Andola in Characters in The Scarlet Letter, “‘Without her mother’s sin Pearl could not exist, nor could she exist without her mother’s love, both of which are symbolized in the scarlet A and in Pearl herself.’” (69) The ultimate symbolism in The Scarlet Letter is that Pearl is the scarlet A.…

    • 1036 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    ‘Thou thyself wilt see it, one time or another. They say, child, thou art of the lineage of the Prince of Air! Wilt thou ride with me some fine night to see thy father? Then thou shalt know wherefore the minister keeps his hand over his heart!” (Chapter 22 Pg.230). In The Scarlet Letter Mistress Hibbins is the voice of society so one can infer that the rest of society also perceives Pearl as not only Hester’s sin, but also as the devil, which is why she is left to find companionship on her own leading her to do things in which the Puritan society frowns upon such as grave stomping and disrespecting her elders. Once Pearl expresses her anger throughout bad actions it leads Mistress Hibbins to believe that Hester is an unfit to raise Pearl due to her sin. “But this could never be. Pearl was a born outcast of the infantile world. An imp of evil, emblem and product of sin, she had no right among christened infants. Nothing was more remarkable than the instinct, as it seemed, with which the child comprehended her loneliness: the destiny that had drawn an inviolable circle round about her: the whole peculiarity, in short, of her position in respect to other…

    • 669 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Hester Prynne Change

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In the book The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is convicted of adultery and ordered to wear the scarlet letter "A" on her chest as a permanent sign of her sin. Hester is sentenced to never take off this badge of shame, and doesn't until chapter thirteen. As the novel proceeds, Hawthorne presents several questions that are left unanswered. How does the nature of the letter "A" seem to change? What role of does Hester's own response to her situation play in changing the meaning of the letter "A"? How does the letter "A" come to be seen as a symbol of the mysterious connection between human experiences (sinful in nature) and a kind of wisdom that would be impossible without failure? Why does Hester not tell who Pearl's father is when she is on…

    • 1275 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    She also is a sign of Hester's wrongdoing, and a constant reminder to the town of the sin. The Puritans automatically despise the child. She is the daughter of sin there fore she also is different. Society avoids both of them from fear they may too become something unknown, may be looked at differently from their peers. So the towns people continue their lives conforming to whatever society excpects from them. While at the same time Hester lives in isolation and gains a true sight of the community. She sees their lives objectively and gains a new insight into their pain and grievances. While the Scarlet letter is meant as a punishment, without it Hester would never know this detachment that lets her see the truth of the Puritan people. She could clearly see the sin each man or woman had of their own, and their fear and desperation to hide it. So while some find Hester's pride in her letter "A" unusual, the reader can understand where her pride comes from. She may not be directly proud of her sin, but she realizes she is honest about what she chose to do. Hester becomes a better person with the lessons she learns from her punishment. She knows there is no reason for her to hide her shame as all of the others do, because she is honest about her values and choices. Her lesson is: while she may not have conformed to the mold of society, she knows she is a better person because of…

    • 1261 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hester's daughter is pearl, so since hester went through all the horrific events pearl was bullied for it. “Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations that made her mother tremble because they had so much the sound of a witch’s anathemas in some unknown tongue”(Hawthorne 70). Hester feels appalling, as she has begun to feel that she has ruined Pearl’s only chance of happiness. Hester begins to work hard and strong to show that she cares about Pearl and give her a future in Boston. The hard work of Hester’s pays off but of course will never be completely better as she wears the scarlet letter on her chest. Later on, Hester gains enough confidence to take the scarlet letter off, but Pearl immediately tells her to put it back on. Pearl showed that there will always be sin in her life as she has showed it when she told Hester to put the scarlet letter back on. Pearl grows up to be a successful adult that when Chillingworth passes away he leaves his extensive fortunate to Pearl. “Pearl the elf child, the demon offspring, as some people, up to that epoch, persisted in considering her, became the richest heiress of her day in the New World”(Hawthorne 201). Through all the grief Pearl has faced in the novel she has finally overcome the sin that Hester gave her. After the long battle of public ridicule and punishment by isolation, Hester is able to rest easy knowing that Pearl was able to leave Boston and pursue a life that did not revolve around the Scarlet Letter and her mother’s…

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The 1600’s was a time in the Roman Catholic Church where followers were breaking away to start their own church. These Protestants who sought out to find a purer version of the church were called appropriately The Puritans. The Puritans stood on a base of strong religious beliefs and contained very strict regulations for their people to follow. The communities they set up were structured, and the ministers of the towns ruled with iron fists. Their belief in Satan however, was some of the most notable in history, such as the Salem Witch trials. In the story of “The Scarlet Letter,” it shows how far the Puritans would take a single punishment for a now common sin. For their time and beliefs, Hester was a sinner, and her child Pearl was the work of the devil. After finding her guilty of adultery, their punishment was to humiliate, to show that she had done wrong. That was accomplished with the scaffold of shame, embarrassing Hester Prynne and her new born child. The second half of the punishment was for her to adorn a scarlet letter on her bosom for the rest of her days. This might have been taking it a little too far.…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays