Preview

Hester Prynne Sinful Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
521 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Hester Prynne Sinful Analysis
A Good Sinful Woman

Hester Prynne is a young Englishwoman who was sent by her husband to Salem alone. She is punished because she has given birth to a daughter named Pearl, although her husband has been absent for two year. Hester is forced to carry her child and wear a scarlet letter “A” attached to her bodice and experience three hours of public humiliation as a sinful woman after her three-month imprisonment.
In my opinion, although Hester is said to be sinful, she is a positive character. When she is led to a scaffold where she is to be publicly condemned, she shrugs off the beadle’s hand on her shoulder, pauses a moment outside the door of the prison, and looks around at the townspeople. She resists the urge to cover the scarlet

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    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
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne is the protagonist. She is a young woman condemned for adultery and required to wear a letter "A" on every piece of clothing she owns. She refuses to reveal the identity of Pearl's daughter.…

    • 141 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hester Prynne and Roger Chillingworth were initially husband and wife that had planned to move to Boston and he was to send Hester ahead of him and then he was to follow. He went missing before he could reach Boston and was later assumed dead. Hester, feeling lonely, sought comfort in Reverend Dimmesdale. They, for one night, have sexual intercourse and she becomes pregnant with Pearl. Hester was put on trial and was found guilty of adultery. The respected punishment in their puritan society was for people who commit such a sinful sin is to be executed. Instead she was sentenced to prison time and her own scarlet letter. She was to wear an “A” for adultery for the rest of her life, which was sown on the chest of her clothing and stand on a…

    • 250 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good 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

    Hester: In this novel, Hester is the protagonist. She is also the mother of Pearl. Due to her adulterous affair with Arthur Dimmesdale, she is forced to wear the Scarlet A on her chest as a punishment. Roger Chillingworth is Hester’s husband, but when he is away in Amsterdam is when Hester has her affair with Arthur, and Pearl is conceived. Hester never fully comes to terms with her punishment because she doesn’t understand how she can lose everything including her home, her love, and her religion, all for following her heart.…

    • 2549 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the beginning of this book we meet Hester Prynne, a beautiful young mother making her way from prison through a crowd of displeased Puritans. She finds herself displayed like a circus animal, amongst a silent and unforgiving crowd, on a scaffold commonly used for executions. She has a brilliantly embroidered Scarlet Letter “A” attached to her bosom, a curious punishment for the sin of adultery. The crowd, with the exception of that one young maiden, seems to think she deserved much more than a simple letter attached to her clothes. Death is the proper punishment for a scandal of this proportion! The Scarlet…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the book, Hester Prynne had a gentle attitude. When she had to stand on the scaffold and have insults hurled at her, she did not yell back at the crowd. Standing proudly, she held her baby, the “the burden of her sin”. Hester moved into a cottage away from…

    • 473 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hester was convicted of being an adulterer, and the novels follows her story in a 17th century Puritan town. The tale focuses on Hester, her daughter Pearl, her lover Dimmesdale, and her husband Chillingworth. They are all enduring their own battles with sin, some coming out of it better than others. Pearl is a physical version of Hester and Dimmesdale’s consciences. Pearl serves as a living version of the scarlet A on Hester’s chest. She torments Hester, and pushes Dimmesdale to acknowledge his sins. Pearl serves as a major character in this classic tragedy, and leaves the character better off than they…

    • 801 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The torture and cruelty relates from “The mother herself - as if the red ignominy were so deeply scorched into her brain, that all her conceptions assumed its form - had carefully wrought out the similitude; [...creating] an analogy between the object of her affection, and the emblem of her guilt and torture” (94). The analogy created between the “object of her affection”, being her daughter, and “the emblem of her guilt and torture”, symbolizes the scarlet letter A stitched onto her wardrobe. Hester feels this way because she feels passion and love for her beautiful daughter, but is once again distraught by the scarlet letter defining not only her life but her daughter’s life forever. The fact that women during the time period of the seventeenth century are, considerably, immobilized by their lack of freedoms, regulates the attention to this disgraceful sin that Hester committed. She recognizes the relationship with the scarlet letter and how it was ultimately the best and worst thing that could have happened in her life. She wants all of the shame, guilt, and harmful comments to disappear, yet she is in love with Pearl. Cruelty is indirectly displayed in her situation because once the people saw her pregnancy appear, they treated her like an outcast because there was an unknown father, hence the…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 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
  • Better Essays

    Hester Prynne's sin was labeled an adulteress, and the result of this was that she had to wear the scarlet letter "A." She feels that her sin has taken away everything she had, and given her one thing in return; that is, her baby. Although she had dignity and pride when she first stepped out of the prison and when she stood upon the scaffold this "A" alienated and separated her…

    • 968 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Chapter Two, the narrator describes the scene of Hester Prynne walking out of the prison into the daylight. Hester 's reaction as she walks out of the prison into the crowd of people on her way to the market-place illustrates her motherly instincts. The young mother stands before the crowd with an expression that looks as if she might grasp the infant close to her chest; not to protect the infant, but hide an item sewn onto her dress. She quickly realizes that she cannot hide the shame sewn onto her dress with the shame she holds in her arms, and she then gazes around at the townspeople. A fine red letter A surrounded by fancy sewing of gold thread appears on her chest (Hawthorne 47). The young woman knows of the guilt and shame placed upon her, figuratively and literally. She knows it figuratively by the guilt and shame of having an affair. Literally by the scarlet red letter "A" sewn onto her gown with gold thread. She will not allow others to place fault on her for covering up or taking off the letter "A" from her clothing, giving her some sense innocence. In Chapter Three, Reverend Mr. Wilson tries to pressure and persuade Hester into giving up the name of the father of her baby. She refuses to speak of his name because she does not want him to bear the burden of the guilt. Reverend Mr. Wilson harshly cries out at Hester that she should not sin further than the limits of Heaven 's forgiveness. The baby in her arms will reveal to the counsel the name of Hester 's fellow sinner. He bargains with her that she can take the scarlet letter off her breast if she reveals his name. She refuses to speak the name or take the scarlet letter off her breast. Hester will bear the burden of his guilt and hers so that he can feel innocent and free (Hawthorne 61). Reverend Mr. Wilson tries to find out what man…

    • 2499 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Prynne is released from the prison, “Hester Prynne’s term of confinement was now at an end. Her prison-door was thrown open, and she came forth into the sunshine, which, falling on all alike, seemed, to her sick and morbid heart, as if meant for no other purpose than to reveal the scarlet letter on her breast” (Hawthorne 72). Isolated from the entire town, all Prynne has left is her infant, Pearl; the living proof of her sin. Prynne chose to live this way in order for her to protect Dimmesdale, the man she loved. She almost decides to flee town because of the extremity of how she is treated, but her heart is blinded by love, which tells her she needs to stay…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Scarlet Letter

    • 1408 Words
    • 6 Pages

    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 Peal, until she confesses who the child’s father is. As she refuses to name him, she is forced to stand in the town’s pillory for a few hours while being tormented by the civilians’ frightful comments. In most of The Scarlet Letter, Hester is haunted by her sinful act, since the town people use her as an example. However, Dimmesdale, Pearl’s father, also suffers with this situation, even though his identity as Pearl’s father is unknown, his lie lives with him and as the novel progresses, Hester gradually begins to be accepted in society, while Dimmesdale’s life becomes worse.…

    • 1408 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hester Prynne

    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Hester Prynne defies the ideological image of a Puritan women. Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays her as strong self reliant and outgoing women in The Scarlet Letter who castes away the stereotypical ideology of a Puritan women and establishes the concept of feminism. She defies all the necessary component of becoming a mother. She hand raised her daughter, Pearl, with no man for assistant and with a stable occupation. Although she is looked down upon by society as a sinner or someone who is impure, she brushes off the inequities and continues on with her head held high. With no man to help run the family, she took upon herself to get a job to make a living. Little did she know that her sewing clothing for her society would lead them to believe she is different from the women in her society. Hester Prynne defies the every law of the Puritan society and becomes the scapegoat for her society, yet…

    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays