...The Puritan “A” Essay Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” tells the story of a woman, Hester Prynne, who conceived a child through an adulterous affair. As punishment for her sin she must wear a scarlet letter “A” on her dress. This story took place in the Puritan town of Boston; in the Puritan society “A” is a symbol of adultery or affair. Hester was forced to wear this letter as a constant reminder of her shame and so that everyone would know what she has done. The townspeople automatically began to mistreat her and her daughter so that they would leave and their society could remain pure. Although the original Puritan meaning of the letter “A” is adultery, throughout the story “A” takes on different meanings such as able and angel. Initially the Puritan society sees the “A” as a mark of punishment for sin but over time their outlook changes. In spite of all Hester endured throughout her years of being labeled as an adulterer she still remained strong. “Such helpfulness was found in her,—so much power to do, and power to sympathize,—that 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” stated a member of society (13.3). She worked to redeem herself of the wrong she had done; she was a helper to those that were in need, sick, or poor. Her actions caused many members of society to change their viewpoint and no longer view her as an adulterer but as someone...
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...The Scarlet Letter Study Guide Published in 1850, The Scarlet Letter is considered Nathaniel Hawthorne's most famous novel--and the first quintessentially American novel in style, theme, and language. Set in seventeenth-century Puritan Massachusetts, the novel centers around the travails of Hester Prynne, who gives birth to a daughter Pearl after an adulterous affair. Hawthorne's novel is concerned with the effects of the affair rather than the affair itself, using Hester's public shaming as a springboard to explore the lingering taboos of Puritan New England in contemporary society. The Scarlet Letter was an immediate success for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the United States was still a relatively new society, less than one hundred years old at the time of the novel’s publication. Indeed, still tied to Britain in its cultural formation, Hawthorne's novel offered a uniquely American style, language, set of characters, and--most importantly--a uniquely American central dilemma. Besides entertainment, then, Hawthorne's novel had the possibility of goading change, since it addressed a topic that was still relatively controversial, even taboo. Certainly Puritan values had eased somewhat by 1850, but not enough to make the novel completely welcome. It was to some degree a career-threatening decision to center his novel around an adulterous affair (but compare the plot of Fielding's Tom Jones). But Hawthorne was not concerned with a prurient affair here, though the novel’s...
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...Regis Hicks ENG 2223 JKYA March 29, 2015 Instructor: Mrs. Wiley Scarlet Letter Essay Some may think evil comes just from the devil and his accomplices. But in actuality, evil lives throughout mankind also. There are several points in “The Scarlet Letter” that reveal the nature of evil: Chillingworth “forcing” Hester to become his wife, Pearl being named a devil child, and Dimmesdale’s denial of Pearl. Chillingworth forced Hester to marry him and took away her youth. “Mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay.” (Ch.4) This may be the reason Hester committed the sin she did. While Chillingworth was away, Hester committed adultery with a man she was not to reveal until later on in the novel. It was also said that Chillingworth sent Hester to New England while he remained in Europe. Although Hester did not know if Chillingworth was alive or dead after being captured by Native Americans, when she first saw Chillingworth when he arrived in New England, she did not seem very excited to see him. This looks to be another reason why it is to be believed that Hester was forced to marry Chillingworth. She may not have been happy throughout the entire marriage. She seeks Dimmesdale for the happiness she never received. After the town discovered that Dimmesdale was the man Hester committed adultery with, the Puritans all began to look at Pearl differently. They began calling her the Devil’s Child. None of the children...
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...The Scarlet Letter Death…the common punishment in Puritan America. Puritans were people who lived in a time of fear; fear of sin and a fear of God. Hester Prynne, a Puritan woman of the sixteen hundreds, committed a sin that would leave her with a life of ridicule and guilt. Her life is narrated by a dweller of the eighteenth century, two hundred years after her lifetime. Hester Prynne’s life is told in the novel, The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathanial Hawthorne and is stationed in the Puritan town of Boston during the sixteenth century. Prynne, who was sent to America by her husband, was left alone by him for two years. Soon, she became attracted to another man, committed adultery, and bore a daughter whom she named Pearl. Due to this child, her fellow Puritans became aware of her deadly sin, and Prynne was sentenced to prison for a short time, public ridicule on a scaffold, and a life of recognition wearing the “Scarlet A,” which stood for her sin of adultery. In Nathanial Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne’s punishments were fair to her crime. For the crime of adultery that Hester Prynne committed, the punishment of staying in prison was fair. Prynne, living in Puritan Boston in the sixteenth century, was seen as someone as deadly as a murderer. During this time, adultery was known as a horrid sin which would send a person to Hell upon death. Therefore, the usual punishment for this crime during this time was death, which Prynne narrowly...
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...in The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne’s scarlet letter is a hardworking symbol, it represents: adultery, sin, hard work, skill, charity, righteousness, sacredness, and, of course, grace. At first, there is no doubt that it symbolizes the sin of adultery, and Hester wears it as punishment. From the very beginning, she is not willing to let it dictate the terms of her punishment. “On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter 'A.' It was so artistically done, and with so much fertility and gorgeous luxuriance of fancy, that it had all the effect of a last and fitting decoration to the apparel which she wore; and which was of a splendor in accordance with the taste of the age, but greatly beyond what was allowed by the sumptuary regulations of the colony” (Cain 630). By embroidering the "A" so finely, Hester takes control of her own punishment. She acknowledges her punishment and owns up to it. The letter showcases her talent and artistry, skills that allow her to make a living as a single parent in Puritan Boston. These qualities of strength and independence set her apart, as does her love of beauty, since we meet the Puritans as a crowd of "bearded men, in sad-colored garments and grey steeple-crowned hats” (Cain 626). As Hester Prynne builds a new life, her hard work and charity end up altering the letter's meaning. Some people even "refused to interpret the scarlet A by its...
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...AnnaLeis Dibert Mrs. Eron English 2330 April 9, 2014 Each Sin Letter Humans are naturally sinful. With that being said, just because every human being knows he or she is sinful does not mean the entire human race needs to know of our sins; however, in “The Scarlet Letter” the reader learns the importance of his or her sin coming forth in ways they did not expect. The letter represents the ways our sins come forth in the world. Reverend Dimmesdale lives in constant fear of his letter being exposed for the entire world to see. Yet, Hester Prynne tries countless times to hide her letter from the world but cannot because her letter is pinned on the outside for the world to see and judge. In “The Scarlet Letter”, Hawthorne’s choice of characters and their sinful nature is a perfect example of human’s sinful nature and the ways we try to hide. Hawthorne chooses the character of Reverend Dimmesdale to represent the humans who are prideful, and “too perfect to sin”. In the religious community, the reverend is someone the citizens look up to; someone they want to follow and in their footsteps to mirror. After all, a reverend or outspoken religious leader should be someone who mirrors Christ’s image on a consistent basis. With that being said, hypocrisy plays a major role is Dimmesdale’s sins. He realizes he is being watched by the citizens and takes pride in knowing the town is looking to him for religious advice or encouragement; however, Dimmesdale’s sin could never be found...
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...Hester’s Dynamic Personality In the novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne undergoes both physical and emotional revelations. Hester is directly affected by the consequences of breaking moral and social codes of behavior. The novel is a story of a young woman who commits adultery, and has a child. She stays strong when the community harasses her by not revealing the identity of her daughter Pearl's father. Throughout the novel the reader learns that the father is Arthur Dimmesdale, a minister in the town. He keeps his sin on the inside until the end of the novel where he reveals to the townspeople that he is an unworthy minister for committing such a sin. Hester’s secret is revealed in the beginning, but she changes many times throughout the novel. In the beginning of the novel, Hester is portrayed as a young and elegantly beautiful mother who is being punished for a horrid sin. The townspeople think of her as a haughty and wretched woman, and that her punishment should be much harsher. When she comes out of the jailhouse, a beautiful letter "A" is embroidered onto her breast. After being in jail people expect for Hester to be in bad shape, but she somehow still looks beautiful standing up there. This is because even though she is condemned, she still stands tall and does not let this punishment consume her. She is trying to make the best of things by making the “A” She has to wear beautiful and to not give in to punishment....
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...In the Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne is the protagonist. She expresses a multitude of qualities in her character that an audience could find admirable or disdainful, depending on how looked at. Within the colonial Puritan period and culture she lived in, it was normal and easy to harshly react to Hester’s situation. She may not have been a heroine in the eyes of her people, but she still embodies a beautiful, strong, and confident woman. Hester Prynne has the capability of being a heroine in The Scarlet Letter by dealing with her circumstances in a mature nature, being remorseful, and still loving the world as a whole. Hester Prynne is a woman that obviously made a mistake that resulted in a public awareness. It is easy for an individual to hide mistakes or sins committed, but it takes a very strong individual to embrace it and learn from it. Hester responsibly confronts her situation in a mature nature. Any other woman could have simply fled from such an unforgiving place. “She is my happiness!, She is my torture, none the less! Pearl keeps me here in life Pearl punishes me too!” (Hawthorne 101) Hester committed the sin of adultery and in that a living product resulted. It is very admirable to see that while Pearl, Hester’s daughter, reminds her every day of what she did, Hester realizes that she must love her child and take responsibility for her actions. Another remarkable trait that Hester embodies is that she shows an utterly remorseful side to her circumstances...
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...The Scarlet Letter “He had been driven hither by the impulse of that Remorse which dogged him everywhere, and whose own sister and closely linked companion was that Cowardice which invariably drew him back, with her tremulous gripe, just when the other impulse had hurried him to the verge of a disclosure” (Hawthorne 134). Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale constantly battles between these two emotions throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. In the story, Dimmesdale struggles to manage the sin of adultery in his life, as the evil Roger Chillingworth, husband of Hester Prynne, impresses upon him. Hester must also deal with this sin, through the exhibition of a scarlet “A” on her bosom, as she struggles to raise Pearl, the child that she conceived through her sin with Dimmesdale. Both Dimmesdale and Hester struggle to be rid of the darkness that plagues their worlds, and their inmost beings. Hawthorne skillfully develops the theme of light versus dark in The Scarlet Letter. In each of the scaffold scenes, Hawthorne uses either light or darkness, not only to expose truth, but also to conceal it. In the first scaffold scene, which takes place in the daytime, “[Hester] took the baby on her arm, and, with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbours. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the...
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...The Scarlet Letter A: Write an analytical essay (900 - 1200 words) on the excerpt from Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter (1850). Part of your essay must focus on the narrative technique and the theme of Puritanism and slut shaming. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter”, a dark tale of shame and condemnation, centres on a small Puritan society of Boston during the 17th century. Set in Puritan New England, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, a Puritan woman who has a baby out of wedlock. Although written many years ago, Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” covers themes and ideas related to modern readers. The themes of slut-shaming and breaking society’s expectations are ones to which many young people can relate to today. Seen in this context, the novel can be approached as the story of a young woman who let her heart rule her head and suffered the consequences. In a dedicated Puritan town, a young married woman named Hester Prynne conceives a child. There is a glitch, however; her husband, a doctor, has been missing for a long time. The society magistrates imprison her for this sin and commands that she must wear a scarlet “A” on her dress as a sign for adultery, shame and sins. Additionally, she must stand on a scaffold, exposed to public humiliation. The reason why is she had an affair with the local minister, Reverend Dimmesdale. The fact that he is a reverend makes the case much worse and also shows hypocrisy in the community, since the minister...
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...The Scarlet Letter: A Not-So-Similar Ending between the Movie and the Novel The Scarlet Letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. In 1995, an adaptation movie of the novel was released. The movie, however, is not quite similar with the novel as one would hope – something that could be predicted easily as in the beginning in the movie the excerpt “freely adapted from the novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne” was shown. There are few differences that can be found between the ending of the novel and the movie, all of which would be discussed in the following paragraphs. The first difference appears when Arthur Dimmesdale confesses that he is the father of Pearl in front of the townspeople. In the novel, Dimmesdale does this on his Election Day sermon, where he suddenly asks Hester to stand next to him. He also shockingly reveals a red mark on his breast, which makes many people gasp because somehow it is similar with the scarlet letter worn by Hester. In the movie, however, Dimmesdale confesses his sin on a completely different occasion. His confession occurs when Hester, along with other women who are accused of practicing witchcraft, are about to get hanged in front of the townspeople. Dimmesdale interrupts the execution and after making his confession, he offers his life in place of Hester’s. And he was this close of getting hanged when the Indians attack the town and save his life. The different occasion on Dimmesdale’s confession apparently leads to the second difference...
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...Hunter Lindblade Mrs. Byrne English 11 Honors 1 November 2013 Role of Secret Sin in The Scarlet Letter In many of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novels, secret sin plays a large role throughout the stories. Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter”, contains the theme of secret sin which plays a very important role in the story of the novel. Secret sin in the novel “The Scarlet Letter” plays an important role because it both physically and emotionally damages the characters throughout the story. The character of Roger Chillingworth undergoes a very drastic emotional and physical change throughout the novel due to secret sin. In the beginning of the novel, Hester goes up to the scaffold since she is punished to public humiliation for committing the crime of adultery. Her husband, Roger Chillingworth, comes to the town to see that his wife has cheated on him with another man and now bears a child that is not his. The result of Hester’s partner’s secret sin on Chillingworth changes his inner and outer emotions immediately. Hawthorne writes “ A writing horror twisted itself across his features, like a snake gliding swiftly over them, and making one little pause, with all its wreathed intervolutions in open sight. His face darkened with some powerful emotion” (Hawthorne 45). By using very descriptive imagery and similes, Hawthorne showed that the secret sin was starting to change Roger’s inner and outer emotions. Before Roger saw Hester he was a normal person but once he saw her he started...
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...Buy PDF Buy Paperback The Scarlet Letter Summary Hester is being led to the scaffold, where she is to be publicly shamed for having committed adultery. Hester is forced to wear the letter A on her gown at all times. She has stitched a large scarlet A onto her dress with gold thread, giving the letter an air of elegance. Hester carries Pearl, her daughter, with her. On the scaffold she is asked to reveal the name of Pearl's father, but she refuses. In the crowd Hester recognizes her husband from Amsterdam, Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth visits Hester after she is returned to the prison. He tells her that he will find out who the man was, and he will read the truth on the man's heart. Chillingworth then forces her to promise never to reveal his true identity as her cuckolded husband. Hester moves into a cottage bordering the woods. She and Pearl live there in relative solitude. Hester earns her money by doing stitchwork for local dignitaries, but she often spends her time helping the poor and sick. Pearl grows up to be wild, even refusing to obey her mother. Roger Chillingworth earns a reputation as a good physician. He uses his reputation to get transferred into the same home as Arthur Dimmesdale, an ailing minister. Chillingworth eventually discovers that Dimmesdale is the true father of Pearl, at which point he spends every moment trying to torment the minister. One night Dimmesdale is so overcome with shame about hiding his secret that he walks...
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...The Change from Demon to Woman The thought that adultery could have both positive and negative effects is one of the major themes in The Scarlet Letter. The negative side was that the scarlet letter “A” branded Hester Prynne physically for committing the sinful act of adultery, and her daughter Pearl emotionally because she was the product of her mother’s sinful act. Many people in the Puritan community of Boston shunned this behavior even though it could ultimately produce a miracle of life. Yet, throughout the text, there was a strong focus on the positivity that came as a result of Hester’s sinful act of committing adultery. Because of Hester’s behavior, a little girl was born who shed a ray of sunshine onto what was deemed one of the most horrific acts in the Puritan society. She was not named after purity or innocence but instead she was characterized as the gift of a miracle. Hester’s devout love for Pearl gave her the drive to survive the cruelty she endured as she walked down the roads of her community. Her child became a major symbol in this romantic novel exhibiting the characteristics that evolve over time as she transformed from the product of a sinful act to a woman without sin. Pearl evolves both physically and emotionally throughout the story by changing from a child with an extremely sassy and mature personality and known for her “witch-child” persona to a person portraying a new woman who overcame being the product of sin outside the Puritan community...
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...In the English language, an alphabet letter is often referred to as a “character.” In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, he presents the letter “A” as a primary character. Throughout the novel, the meaning of the “A” continuously changes and has different meanings for different characters as well. Specifically, Hawthorne indicates that the “A” signifies “Adultery”, “Able”, and “Angel”. Additionally, throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne suggests that the letter “A” signifies abandonment in that Hester abandons traditional Puritan society and her femininity, and she is abandoned by Dimmesdale when he reaches salvation and ultimately dies. When Hester commits adultery, she immediately abandons the strict Puritan ideals of the society that surrounds her. In this theocratic society, where “religion and law were almost identical,” a sin is equivalent to a crime and is therefore severely looked down upon (35). Hester demonstrates her rejection of Puritan society by acting by her own free will: “she repelled him, by action marked with natural dignity and force of character, and stepped into the open air, as if by her own free-will” (36). In Puritan society, there is no free will. The concept of predestination confirms that the choice of whether a person is going to heaven or hell is already made and therefore, one’s actions cannot change that decision. Bearing the elegantly embroidered scarlet letter on her chest and her illegitimate baby on her bosom, Hester proudly demonstrates...
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