Preview

Scarlet letter Essay

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
528 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Scarlet letter Essay
Hester Prynne a victim of adultery and deals with shame. Thinking of Hester’s story reminds me of a story I know, Chris Herrens story. Knowing they both live in a judging world, Chris and Hester know they’re innocent people. Chris a former basketball stud developed and alcohol addiction and drug addiction. He wasn’t a criminal, he lived with a problem that did affect his friends and family. When the world knew about Chris’s problem they were sad and felt ashamed. Hester Commits adultery and the town’s people are mortified. She also isn’t a bad person she just happens to make a mistake. Chris Herren and Hester Prynne both made a great mistake in their lives but it does not make them awful people.
When Hester committed her sin she had to be punished. Wearing the letter A presented the symbolism of adultery. At first she felt uncomfortable wearing the letter A”. .I happened to place it on my breast....It seemed to me then, that I experienced a sensation not altogether physical, yet almost so, as of a burning heat” Pg 31. Hester soon accepted the fact that she had to wear it. When she was in jail she had lots of time to think. Released from jail Hester grew as a person. She proved herself to be a solid mother. Hester also helped the community and the poor. "'I have already told thee what I am! It was I not less than he” Ch14 pg 3. She accepts her wrong doing and takes responsibility for it.
I first learned about Chris when he was in an ESPN documentary that was really inspiring. As the top player in the nation as a high school kid; he could go anywhere for school. Everyone assumed after college he would be ready to go to the NBA. He had a major problem he had a drug addiction. In college he got suspended a great amount of games because failed drug tests. In his final year as a senior he stayed clean and had a great successful season. Once he got to the NBA he had no one watching over him like he had in college. With plenty of freedom he couldn’t control himself.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Scarlet Letter Test Essay

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages

    1. In the passage beginning at the bottom of page 37 (It was a circumstance…) and ending on page 39 (here comes Mistress Prynne herself), the narrator seems to feel that the women of the era…

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The fact that every new colony starts with a prison and cemetery immediately demonstrates how Hawthorne frowns on the ideologies of the Puritans in colonial times. Instead of focusing on majestic and wistful details of the colonial Puritans, Hawthorne focuses on the darkest details. Hawthorne also establishes the somber tone of the novel with the gloomy and harsh detail, which he expands on with the women and their gossip pertaining to Hester with malicious ideas such as branding the A on Hester’s forehead and even death.…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne establishes the character Pearl as having tenacity and peculiarity in her personality and traits. First, Nathaniel Hawthorne exaggerates Pearl’s qualities to establish her as an odd child and a separate person from the Puritan town she lives in. In chapter 7, after the governor asks Pearl who created her, she answers by saying ‘no one created her rather her mother plucked her from a wild rose bush near the prison.’ Hawthorne follows Pearl’s remark with, “This fantasy was probably suggest by the near proximity of the Governor’s red roses, as Pearl stood outside of the window; together with her recollection of the prison rose bush, which she had passed in coming hither.” (Pg. 77) Adults are not…

    • 559 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 Scarlet Letter" by Nathienal Hawthorne, the narrarator places symbolic connections between Hestre's daughter, Pearl and the life Hester endures after her commitment of an adultrious sin. Hester is forced to look upon her daughter; a living embodiment of the ultimate sin commited as a contant reminder of the past. The erry details used to describe Pearl as well as her actions enforce the sifficance of the consequence Hester must be reminded of evryday for her action in the past. In profiding such deatils, readers become intreged as well as suspicious as to why Pearl behaves in such a dark and myseterious way. By describing such a dark soul beneath a name associated with such beauty and value as Pearl is, enforcees the hardships Hester…

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dimmesdale's Redemption

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Even though they both sinned, they each spent their lives gaining penance in their own way. Hester was an outcast of the community. Moreover, she got treated as the town punching bag practically. As a result, she always was in pain and suffering even if she didn't show it at times. Additionally, she knew that she had to bear the weight of the “A” on her bosom. Hester could have been happy and felt free by removing the scarlet letter, but instead she kept it on because she knew she had to in order…

    • 612 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A creepy and disturbed tone is created in this excerpt, using words like “writhing,” “horror,” “twisted, and “darkened.” It also creates imagery and gives insight on how…

    • 1859 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne finds in colonial New England a compelling setting for his dramatization of the paradox of individualism—America was founded on the principle that to be an individual is to be separate from the state, thus creating a community, or country in the United States’ case, formed completely of separatists. The Scarlet Letter dramatizes the individualistic dimensions as this tendency of democracy that “relieve(s) the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and sorrow” (Hawthorne 29). The Puritans were a group of dissident voluntary exiles who sought to strengthen and reform the Christian community in England by leaving it—setting out across the sea for a New World, a New England that would furnish a model for reconstructing the old one. “The Scarlet Letter agrees with the doctrines of the Puritans” and envisions this moral and political paradox in terms of individual…

    • 513 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    By wearing the scarlet letter, Salem publically shames Hester. If she leaves the town, then she could remove the A, but instead she stays. She could go away with her daughter Pearl and have a completely normal life. She refuses to leave because the letter has become her identity, and she uses its power. Some people in the town even think that the A now symbolizes “able”, which means something completely different than the original significance. The A now means that Hester’s strength defies everything else, making her able and capable of defending herself. Towards…

    • 609 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Scarlet Essay Essay

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne portrays the personality of each character along with the secrets within, using mirror imagery to reflect the inner truth. In the beginning, Hester seems to be a passionate woman, and then turns into this sinful reflection of Puritan belief. Ironically, the man she commits adultery with is Reverend Dimmesdale, who is a reflection of the evil that has taken over Chillingworth. Lastly, the embodiment of the sin, Pearl, is a mirror image of Hester’s punishment. Mirror imagery helps characters recognize the real complexion that lie within.…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Anyone can see proof of her sin by looking at the intricate, scarlet “A” on her chest and by her child that walks by her side. Its because of these two reminders that Hester is changed, society has declared her an outcast and banished her from ever being allowed back into their webs. The isolation that Hester has to deal with is a cause for her change. Her experiences have forever changed her and can be see throughout the novel. In the beginning of the novel Hester barely resists the urge to cover the “A” woven into her clothes, ashamed of what the mark means, and she is constantly aware of the eyes that see the mark over her heart (Hawthorn 50). As the novel progresses her shame is still there but she has developed more tolerance and realizes that the mark that she holds is proof of her penance. The scarlet “A” no longer means Adultery to others, it means Able. Hester no longer hides her mark, when passing others she points at the “A” over her heart to replace the normal greeting (Hawthorne 134). Hester has faced her sin head on repenting heavily and has been forgiven by the public; finding peace in her constant atonement. In the end of the novel she has accepted her sin and her burden and shame were gone: released from her soul (Hawthorne…

    • 625 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

    The Scarlet Letter

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In the ancient times of our world, two very powerful empire/dynasties arose. Han china and Imperial Rome came to be two of the biggest empires that the ancient world had ever known. Both areas conquered vast areas of the eastern hemisphere, however their techniques differed. Although Han China and Imperial Rome were similar in that they both had strong militaries, ultimately they are more different because of political structure and economic abilities.…

    • 464 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Scarlet Letter

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Scarlet Letter is a story that characters have to live and deal with the effects of sin in different ways. Of all the characters in the book, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is the character represented as the most weak. He is a much stronger guy than he is given credit for. The amount of control he has over handling and dealing with burdens is out of this world.…

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In conclusion, even though Hester Prynne did commit adultery, and had a child with someone who wasn’t her husband, she is actually the best citizen in Boston in the 1600s. Through all of her pain in guilt she still was very charitable, and helped the community. Under the circumstances she raised Pearl very well, and to the best of her ability. Finally she never let the scarlet A define who she was as a person. She really taught everyone in Boston that just because you sin it doesn’t make you any less of a…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays