In the midst of a painful and perilous situation, would you respond by giving up or persevering forward? In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the reader is introduced to a woman named Hester Prynne, who beared a scarlet letter to represent her sin of adultery and lived a life as an outcast from society. The story heavily revolves around the idea of sin, which plays a huge part in Hester Prynne’s life. Hawthorne uses different aspects of Prynne’s life to create several conflicts that occur throughout the story. These conflicts include: herself, another, a group, nature, and the supernatural. Hester Prynne has several conflicts, and as these are resolved, her character is revealed. One of the major conflicts that Hawthorne presents …show more content…
One example demonstrates Prynne’s conflict with society and her punishment. After Prynne’s public punishment on the scaffold, she obtained a shameful reputation throughout society. For Prynne, “the days of the far-off future would toil onward, still with the same burden for her to take up, and bear along with her, but never to fling down; for the accumulating days, and added years, would pile up their misery upon the heap of shame” (73). This sad description of Prynne’s life shows how the unending waves of pain become more unbearable as the days go by. However, Prynne accepts her punishment with patience while maintaining a sense of humility. Hawthorne uses this conflict to reveal Prynne’s humility and patience in the midst of a painful …show more content…
After her release from confinement, Prynne had to meet with the men of the power structure to decide whether or not Prynne was allowed to keep Pearl. The power structure was deeply concerned with entrusting a child to, “the guidance of one who hath stumbled and fallen, amid the pitfalls of this world” (101). However, Prynne fights back, as well as calling out for Dimmesdale to defend her. In this battle against men of high authority, Prynne is shown to be persevering through their waves of arguments against her while doing everything she can to keep Pearl. This displays Prynne’s deep love for Pearl, as well as further developing her character of responsibility as a mother. Another example of a conflict took place after Prynne’s release from confinement, where she is given the choice to leave Boston and live a new life as a widow. As attractive as the offer may seem, Prynne refuses and resumes her punishment of her own choosing. Prynne felt the need to undergo suffering for her sin, as Hawthorne states, “Here had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment” (74). As opposed to fleeing from her sins, Prynne decides to take responsibility, which further displays her strong, responsible
Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne attempted to expose the varying ways in which different people deal with lingering guilt from sins they have perpetrated. The contrasting characters of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale ideally exemplified the differences in thought and behavior people have for guilt. Although they were both guilty of committing the same crime, these two individuals differed in that one punished themselves with physical and mental torture and the other chose to continue on with their life, devoting it to those less fortunate than they.
People all over the world continuously commit sins some are bigger than others and some do more damage. In the book, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a woman, Hester Prynne, is publicly shamed and force to wear a scarlet A upon her bosom for committing adultery. Throughout the book, Hester and her daughter, Pearl, try to adapt to life as an outsider. The two are continuously judged for Hester’s sin, and humiliated, however, they overcome this judgment and are seen in a different way. Hester and Pearl have been publicly shamed, Pearl has been considered an elfish devil like child, and after all the humiliation they were able to turn their lives around.
Prynne is imprisoned with her child, both of whom are emotionally and physically exhausted from the punishment at the scaffold. The husband, Roger Chillingworth, passes by and is commissioned to be the physician to the two, and remedy them of their sicknesses. She is surprised he had come at such a time where she was at a point of such horrendous turmoil. He demands that she cannot reveal his identity, yet he also wishes to know the identity of her lover, the father of the child. She refuses to tell him.
This unhappy person had effected such a transformation by devoting himself, for seven years, to the constant analysis of a heart full of torture, and deriving his enjoyment thence, and adding fuel to those fiery tortures which he analyzed and gloated over. The scarlet letter burned on Hester Prynne's bosom. Here was another ruin, the responsibility of which came partly home to her. (116)
The characterization of Hester Prynne demonstrates a contrast to pure society, as writer and critic D.H. Lawrence suggests in his article, “On the Scarlet Letter.” There is a genuine disparity in the methods Lawrence uses to portray Prynne, and the methods used by The Scarlet Letter’s author, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Because of his utilization of impactful syntax, religious allusion, and critical tone, D.H. Lawrence’s claim that Hester Prynne is a contradictory character to pure society is effectively justified when compared to the misleading seductive elements of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing.
Interest heightens in the second chapter when Hester Prynne, finally introduced and in action, walks out of the jail with an infant clinging to her. Hawthorne depicts Prynne as a force that cannot be reckoned with when one of the guards tries to assist her while w...
As she raises Pearl to be moral and kind, she also molds herself to be the same way, even though her that is not her main intention. By serving others, acknowledging her mistakes, and working to raise her daughter past her shameful birth into the world, she exemplified the values of her Puritan community. The hypocrisy of those around her, such as the reverend minster Arthur Dimmesdale does not deter her from service, but rather fuel her passion to help them. She did not look down on him for not telling the townspeople, especially his congregation, the truth, but rather sought to help him reform his heart and convert his spirit into confessing his sin to the world. Just as Hester worked to form Pearl into as moral of a person as possible despite the circumstances, she also worked to turn Reverend Dimmesdale into a man of contrition and helped him muster the courage to confess to those whom adored him, despite any consequences. By helping the minister the same way she helped her child, Hester gave Arthur Dimmesdale the peace of mind he needed to finally die. Where divine intervention failed, Hester Prynne
Hester Prynne, convicted of Adultery and forced to wear the Letter A as punishment, goes through the hypocrisy of the Puritan colony and the raising of a queer child, Pearl. Hawthorne’s passionate and tenacious protagonist, Hester Prynne, suggests that whatever strenuous event may overcome her, she uses it to better herself as a person.
Through Hester and the symbol of the scarlet letter, Hawthorne reveals how sin can be utilized to change a person for the better, in allowing for responsibility, forgiveness, and a renewed sense of pride. In a Puritan society that strongly condemns adultery one would expect Hester to leave society and never to return again, but that does not happen. Instead, Hester says, “Here…had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul, and work out another purity than that which she had lost; more saint-like, because the result of martyrdom.” Hes...
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Mr. Dimmesdale’s greatest fear is that the townspeople will find out about his sin of adultery with Hester Prynne. Mr. Dimmesdale fears that his soul could not take the shame of such a disclosure, as he is an important moral figure in society. However, in not confessing his sin to the public, he suffers through the guilt of his sin, a pain which is exacerbated by the tortures of Roger Chillingworth. Though he consistently chooses guilt over shame, Mr. Dimmesdale goes through a much more painful experience than Hester, who endured the public shame of the scarlet letter. Mr. Dimmesdale’s guilt is much more damaging to his soul than any shame that he might have endured.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, a female protagonist named Hester Prynne is subjected to public humiliation and alienation from the Puritan society because she committed adultery. This “sinful” act is further enhanced when her husband, Roger Chillingworth, comes to Boston, and Hester is forced to keep the secret identities of her lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, and her husband concealed from the community. Over the course of her seven-year journey, she becomes more independent, more free, and a model of feministic power to the Freudian society that had once marked her bosom with the letter “A” to shame her. Hawthorne depicts the contrasting views of the patriarchal Puritan society, which is characterized by the town and Dimmesdale against
In Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the reader meets the character Hester Prynne who as the novel progresses, one notices the changes in her character are very dramatic. The changes are both physical and in her mannerism’s. There are many significant events which took place before the start of the novel and during the novel. Some of these events that lead to this dramatic change include the affect of wearing the scarlet letter, the secrets which she keeps, and her daughter Pearl’s evil characteristics. By these events, Hester Prynne’s image is transformed throughout the time of the story.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”(Romans 3:23). Since the beginning of time guilt has existed, and in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter, guilt illustrates itself through adultery involving Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale. Hester and Dimmesdale resided in New England during The Puritan Age and committed adultery while Hester’s husband was out of town. Hester’s sin did not go unnoticed, as her baby illuminated the situation. While Hester’s mister hid in the shadows, she was branded with a scarlet letter A for adultery as punishment for her sin. The scarlet letter was more than a piece of cloth over her chest; it was reminder to everyone around about Mrs. Prynne’s actions. Hawthorne uses biblical and spiritual allusions to argue that guilt causes individuals to change their lifestyles.
Hester Prynne, the main character of the novel, was a courageous and honorable person; even though, what she had been known for wasn’t such an admirable deed. Hester Prynne was a very strong person in one’s eyes, because even though she had been publically humiliated in front of all of Boston, she still remained confident in herself and her daughter. She was ordered to wear a scarlet colored piece of fabric, with the letter “A” embroidered in gold on it, on her bosom at all times to show that she had committed adultery. She was mocked all the time and constantly looked down upon in society, because of her sin; but instead of running away from her problems, she st...
Hester Pryne from The Scarlet Letter is alienated after she sins, but redeems herself by accepting her identity and reuniting with the rest of society. Hawthorne uses these characters to teach two different lessons. The first is of the damnation that is the result of alienation and isolation from society and humanity. The second is that reuniting with society can prevent damnation and put an end to alienation and isolation from humanity.