You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
The Scarlet Letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This essay discusses how Hester is a victim of her social pressure. She was punished for something she did to achieve her dream of having someone that loves her. Hester committed adultery with minister Dimmesdale and had a child with him, Pearl. Her punishment was to stand on the scaffold with her child and wear the letter A on her breast as a sign of her “crime”. Due to the strictures of the puritan society, Hester Prynne suffers from public shaming. She almost lost her only child, and was not able to openly love who she wanted.…
- 812 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
In the Bible it says, in Matthew 5: 27-28, "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart”. In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character Hester Prynne was an adulteress in the seventeenth century during the Puritan era. Three rhetorical strategies that really stood out were symbolism, archaic diction, and irony. The use of these rhetorical strategies enables Hawthorne to tell the story of the woman who was condemned for adultery and to expose the hypocrisy in a Puritan society.…
- 504 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, a dark tale of sin and redemption, centers around the small Puritan community of Boston during the seventeenth century. In the middle of the town market place is a " . . .weather darkened scaffold. . . (234)" where sinners are made to face the condemning public. The people standing on the scaffold experience strange phenomena while on the scaffold. Some become braver, some meeker. And whether the people are looking at them or not, they becomes their true selves on the scaffold. In essence, everything that is real and true occurs on the scaffold, and everything that is illusion or hypocrisy occurs everywhere else.<br><br>The forest is also a setting where characters find the truth about themselves. Most settlers to the forest are people who are outsiders from society. They are untainted by the views of the townspeople and can see beyond the lies and hypocrisy of the townspeople. The experiences of the people on the scaffold and in the forest lend themselves to a higher issue, reality vs. perception. In the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne shows how people create their own reality with what they see.<br><br>The Scaffold is not only a high view point the in market place but a site where one can see beyond the restraints of town and even time. For one person, " . . . the scaffold of the pillory was the point of view that revealed to Hester Prynne the entire track which she had been treading since her happy infancy (p65)". The experience of the scaffold has a profound effect on Hester. Living on the border between the town and the forest, she learns new freedom while seeing the conformist repression of the town. Hester sees what the townspeople ignore. She soon believes that because of her punishment on the scaffold and her perpetual reminder of it, the scarlet letter, she sees the sins of the entire townspeople and the hypocrisy of keeping them secret. Thus, her time on the scaffold has made her see the truth of the town and its lies.…
- 794 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Nathaniel Hawthorne promotes the idea of socially on brought guilt through the interactions of characters and Puritan beliefs in The Scarlet Letter. He masterfully depicts a newly settled New England and it's strict religious faith, which is still seen in much of New England today. He uses symbolism, irony and to fully bring out the true potential of his story.…
- 868 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter describes life through the eyes of 4 main characters, including a woman who was caught of committing adultery. Hester Prynn was the emotional martyr and symbol of the Scarlet Letter. Throughout the course of the story she undergoes change in her mentality state, the way her eyes perceive the World, and perhaps even the way she smiles. Her strength becomes the Scarlet Letter and her innocent Pear. She encounters much conflict (internal and external), throughout the story. Hester, once a prisoner of her sin, spent a long life held by its chains. This all transpired until forgiveness stepped in.…
- 754 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, many concepts and ideas are represented and shown by using symbols. Hawthorne’s concrete symbols used to epitomize abstract ideas change meaning as characters, notably the main character Hester Prynne, grow and change. With its connotation changing from negative to positive, the symbol of the scarlet letter “A” represents Hester as adulterous, angelic, and able.…
- 570 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter follows the life of Hester Prynne after she commits adultery and is forced to wear the scarlet letter upon her bosom for the rest of her life. Hawthorne uses setting, allusion, metaphor, irony, and diction to set a sombre tone. In chapter 9, Hawthorne reveals the evil qualities of Roger Chillingworth and Reverend Dimmesdale’s disposition. In the battle of good and evil, good does not always win.…
- 489 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
For Hester, the scarlet letter represents a hindrance to her freedom, reminding her of her heavy sin. Hawthorne uses a metaphor in this passage, comparing the effect of the scarlet letter as a “withering spell.” This shows how one sinful act can prevent Hester from experiencing joys in life, similar to how putting on the scarlet letter hides Hester’s hair, and therefore, her femininity. The phrase “an evil deed invests itself with the character of doom,” describes how an evil act leads to one’s downfall. This supports the theme that one cannot escape one’s own…
- 704 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
An affair can change a person’s life. That is exactly what happens to Hester Prynne in the novel, The Scarlet Letter. The novel was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts. He was a dark romantic writer who wrote about 17-century Puritan life. Puritans came from England to America in search of religious freedom. The life of a Puritan revolved around their religion. They spend their entire life avoiding sin and living simply. Hester Prynne, the main character, is a young Puritan woman who commits the greatest sin: adultery. Not only was her adultery a sin, it was a crime. Later on her husband Roger Chillingworth takes some of the blame for the affair. In the novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Roger Chillingworth believes that both he and Hester were equally to blame for the affair.…
- 660 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
However, Hawthorne strongly uses what is known as “Olde English” throughout the entire novel, which makes the novel slightly less comprehensible. The overall purpose of “The Scarlet Letter” was to demonstrate contrast between public shaming and allowing one to reap the consequences in private. Hawthorn demonstrates how private emotional torture, thoughts, and guilt is far more beneficial to the soul, when forgiving, than public shaming, which is a purpose that is easily recognized throughout the novel. Hawthorne organized the novel to depict, primarily, the events that occur between the years that Pearl is age two and seven; yet, he also provides some information on Hester and Pearl as Pearl was an infant and as they each grows older and Pearl moves away. As a whole, the novel is fairly easy to follow; however, there are few instances when the reader may feel a tad bit confused. “The Scarlet Letter” depicts the time period of Puritan Massachusetts just after the conclusion of the Salem Witch Trials. The time period is very accurately portrayed by Hawthorne; in fact, the entire novel is based on how the society of that particular time period affected one woman’s life. I personally believe that Hawthorne chose this specific time period and location to demonstrate how a society is able to condemn, yet, forgive and accept an…
- 975 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses plant imagery to symbolize both the negative and positive character traits and to set the mood of the novel. The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne takes place during the age of Puritanism in Boston where a young and attractive Puritan woman commits adultery with the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale. Chillingworth, Hesters' husband, whom everyone thought was captured by Indians comes to town, but only Hester knows his true identity. Chillingworth vows to figure out who Hesters' lover is and he succeeds. Ultimately, this novel contains deception and guilt which is in the form of plant imagery.…
- 729 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter, the forest means different things to different people. To the honorable and respectable members of Puritan , the forest is an evil and frightening place where witches lurk and the devil resides. To Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, two people unable to speak their minds in Puritan community, the forest offers a place of refuge where they can be true with each other. To Pearl, the forest . The symbolism of the forest setting’s inherently good and bad natures offer a deeper insight into the emotional complexity of Hawthrone’s characters.…
- 859 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Hawthorne utilizes symbolism to demonstrate what effects sin and guilt has on humans. Hester Prynne has to wear a scarlet letter on her chest, walking in her own shame. This has…
- 1124 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
Hawthorne uses imagery to present a picture of the Puritan town in which Hester Prynne resides. These Puritans are described as strict and unforgiving, a society based on the “iron frame-work of reasoning”(line 7). The scarlet letter represents this town’s “gray” feel. There is no tolerance for any ungodly behavior, however the A also represents this town’s gossipy nature. Hawthorne writes, “Then, it is true, the propensity of the human nature to tell the very worst of itself…to whisper the black scandal of bygone years“ (Lines 26,27,29,30). As word of Hester Prynne’s affair travels, the scarlet letter more and more defines Hester as the town reject.…
- 402 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
"With the superstition common to his brotherhood, he fancied himself given over to a fiend, to be tortured with frightful dreams, and desperate thoughts, the sting of remorse, and despair of pardon; as a foretaste of what awaits him beyond the grave. But it was the constant shadow of my presence!—the closest propinquity of the man whom he had most vilely wronged!” (188). This quote represents the sin that is lying, and the punishment that can follow. Also, it is shown simple it may be, it too causes many long and short term problems. Throughout The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne uses a few key symbols to represent major themes in the book. The most obvious and well known is the scarlet letter that Hester is forced to wear and the scaffold that reoccurs many times in the novel show the sin and punishment that is present.…
- 717 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays