was boring, I learned that no matter how long you try to hide the truth it will always come back to haunt you. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses the symbols of light and dark to depict good and evil among the characters Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Hawthorne uses sunshine to represent both light and dark for Hester. At one time Hester suddenly takes her letter off, “All at once, with a sudden smile of heaven, forth burst sunshine” (Hawthorne 186). When Hester
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Dimmesdale choses not to confide in the man, because he doesn’t trust him, he is suspicious of the doctor. Continuing their conversation about death, Dimmesdale comment on this dark plant that he spots in which Chillingworth suggests that it is the buried persons concealed sin. They begin to go into this awkward conversation about
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bosom, the letter punishes her for committing adultery with the town reverend, Arthur Dimmesdale. The badge also intends to outcast her and her daughter, Pearl, from the Puritan society of Boston. Although the "A" originally acted as Hester's punishment, the interpretation of the scarlet letter varies for Dimmesdale and Pearl to juxtapose Hester's unwavering perspective. Besides Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale has the biggest personal
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Chapter 1 What is the significance of the wild rose bush that grows beside the prison door? * The rosebush serves to represent beauty in a community that's so dark and awful. Chapter 2 · What is the public view of Hester’s sin as expressed by the women outside the prison? What do their comments suggest about this society? * They think that the punishment for her sin is not harsh enough. their comments suggest that this society values obedience and punishments. They can be harsh
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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
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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 wanted to play with her. Whenever she and Hester
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reveals that while guilt and secrecy will ultimately have a negative effect on your life, guilt and secrecy can also make you a better person for a short while. Dimmesdale is the reverend of the town, and he is also the man Hester had an affair with. While Dimmesdale forces himself to keep his affair a secret, “the health of Mr. Dimmesdale [has] evidently begun to fail” because the self-condemnation and guilt he is bestowing upon himself is eating him alive (Hawthorne 99). Dimmesdale’s health is failing
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out and seek revenge on her lover. Hester’s husband tells the townspeople that he’s a physician, and he adopts a fake name: Roger Chillingworth. Hester keeps his secret. Chillingworth soon realizes that the minister, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, is the likely father of Hester’s baby, and he haunts the minister’s mind and soul, day and night, for the next seven years. The minister is
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showed how hard of a life Hester had. Even Pearl said “the sunshine does not like you,” meaning that Hester has no happiness. Hawthorne’s depression was a huge impact on Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale was the pastor of Boston Massachusetts in The Scarlet Letter. One thing that Dimmesdale dealt with for seven years was guilt. Dimmesdale felt so guilty that he went onto the scaffold at night and yelled out he was an adulterer. He also beat himself because he felt so guilty. You could almost say that his
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Individualism, although specific for each person, is extremely vague in different societies. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Puritan-era novel The Scarlet Letter intensely presents the contradicting representations of individualism and its effect on not only the individuals themselves but also on the entire society. In Puritan society, individualism is abhorred, yet many influential characters are strikingly different individuals. The Scarlet Letter presents individualism as an integral part of society due
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