More handpicked essays just for you.
Moralityin the scarlet letter
Theme of love and relationship in the scarlet letter
Public guilt in the scarlet letter
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Moralityin the scarlet letter
Everyone in the town each has different views on their life, for Hester, her punishment has changed the view of the world around her. At the beginning of The Scarlet letter, Hester is put on the scaffold in the middle of the town. She is being publicly humiliated, as well as, questioned for what she has done. Hester stands on the scaffold looking as if she is not sorry for her sin. She stands there holding Pearl, the outcome of her sin. She was described as a tall and elegant beautiful woman with a rich complexion. The town is shocked by how she elegantly embroiders the scarlet letter “A.” Hester decides that she deserves the punishment of the town for her sin of adultery. When Chillingworth shows up this make her experience a bigger amount
The central theme in The Scarlet Letter is that manifested sin will ostracize one from society and un-confessed sin will lead to the destruction of the inner spirit. Hawthorne uses the symbol of the scarlet letter to bring out this idea. In the novel, Hester is forced to wear the scarlet letter A (the symbol of her sin) because she committed adultery with the clergyman, Dimmesdale. Because the public's knowledge of her sin, Hester is excluded physically, mentally, and socially from the normal society of the Puritan settlement. She lives on the outskirts of town in a small cottage where she makes her living as a seamstress. Though she is known to be a great sewer amongst the people, Hester is still not able to sew certain items, such as a new bride's veil. Hester also has no interaction with others; instead she is taunted, if not completely ignored, by all that pass her by. Despite the ill treatment of the society, Hester's soul is not corrupted. Instead, she flourishes and improves herself in spite of the burden of wearing the scarlet letter and she repeatedly defies the conventional Puritan thoughts and values by showing what appears to us as strength of character. Her good works, such as helping the less fortunate, strengthen her inner spirit, and eventually partially welcome her back to the society that once shunned her.
In the beginning, the scarlet letter represents the sinful nature of Hester’s crime, as revealed through the thoughts and feelings of Hester and the townspeople towards the letter. When first wearing the letter in public, Hester portrays herself as indifferent towards the town’s harsh language and detest for her, despite still feeling the intensity of her punishment internally. Hester portrays herself as indifferent towards the town’s harsh language and detest for her, and strong in the difficult conditions. By “wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she…with a burning blush, and…haughty smile…looked around at her townspeople and neighbours” (Hawthorne, 80).
The Scarlet Letter starts off by throwing Hester Prynne into drama after being convicted for adultery in a Puritan area. Traveling from Europe to America causes complications in her travel which also then separates her from her husband, Roger Chillingworth for about three years. Due to the separation, Hester has an affair with an unknown lover resulting in having a child. Ironically, her lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, is a Reverend belonging to their church who also is part of the superiors punishing the adulterer. No matter how many punishments are administered to Hester, her reactions are not changed. Through various punishments, Hester Prynne embraces her sin by embroidering a scarlet letter “A” onto her breast. However, she is also traumatized deep within from everything she’s been through. Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts this story of sin by using rhetorical devices such as allusion, alliteration and symbolism.
Although Hester and Pearl are isolated for a while after their punishment (85), the Puritan society’s view of her changes in chapter 13. In chapter 13, Hester is shown to have become a servant of the community, and, rather than scorning her, the community praises her as holy (134). Even the symbol that embodies her punishment, the scarlet letter A, transforms into a symbol of her holiness, being interpreted by the people as meaning “Able” (134). In chapter 24, the story’s conclusion, Hester mentors young women, furthering the idea that she brings redemption from her sin by using her lessons to help others
with. Having a heart blinded by love Hester choose to stay in the town and
The narrator notes her change in morals and beliefs: “She had wandered… much amiss” (180). This passage describes Hester’s state of mind and morals after seven years with the scarlet letter. Compared to Dimmesdale, Hester is much wilder, yet also much better adjusted to the weight of her guilt. She has accepted what happened and uses that acknowledgment to shape her views. She has become stronger, more untamed, and more removed from society. Not only does society reject her, but her crime forces her to question morals and dive into her wilder nature. Religion and law no longer work as simple guidelines for her life. Her act is considered a sin, but out of it she got freedom, love, and Pearl. After being cast out, she now looks at society and its rules—the things most people conform to—from a more negative, outsider perspective. The letter gives her a chance to be independent and find what she believes in as opposed to what she's been told to believe in. She rejects society through both these rebellious views, and also through her actions upon coming back to the community. She helps women in the community by offering support and counselling. In such a male dominated society, this is an important step both towards feminism and away from the
As a result of not telling the authorities who the father of her child is, Hester Prynne and her daughter, Pearl, are put onto the scaffold at the market place in Boston, Massachusetts for public interrogation. In addition to that, she is also forced to wear the scarlet letter, which represents her sin of adultery. From this, the readers can infer that one of the themes of this novel is that a person should be punished for their wrongdoings and sins. Her emotions and feelings at the moment in time are ignominy, shame, and embarrassment; the scaffold symbolizes humiliation. Thus, by presenting the first scaffold scene to the readers, they are able put together many literary elements in the plot
The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread (Hawthorne 138).”Instead of accepting the label that is given to her by society, Hester uses the freedom that comes from being isolated from a rigid society to explore her own beliefs and way of life without other people scrutinizing her. By leaving society, Hester is able to learn from her misery in order to sympathize with others, such as the homeless men and women. Her affair was only the start of Hester’s fate, the end is her ability to feel compassionate for everyone, including Dimmesdale and Chillingworth. Hester chooses to make the Scarlet Letter a part of her character and showcase her good qualities in order to change the definition of the “A”. The way that Hawthorne describes Hester’s fate shows that Hester’s affair was not a mistake, but it was inevitable. Although Hester “wanders without rule or guidance”, she does not wander aimlessly. While she originally did not have much hope for her future, Hawthorne foreshadows that she will end up being an important person because she is the first to explore her morality without being biased by society. By having no set plan to follow, Hester is able
The Scarlet Letter is a unified, masterfully written novel. It is structured around three crucial scaffold scenes and three major characters that are all related. The story is about Hester Prynne, who is given a scarlet letter to wear as a symbol of her adultery. Her life is closely tied to two men, Roger Chillingworth, her husband, and Arthur Dimmesdale, her minister and the father of her child. Her husband is an old, misshapen man who Hester married while still in Europe. Chillingworth sends her ahead of him to New England, and then does not follow her or correspond with her for two years.
Initially, in Chapter 14, Hester has a sense of pity towards Roger Chillingworth, where she notices how the physician has changed from being a shy, light-hearted man to this so called, “spawn of the devil”, where he now has a darker, more evil demeanor to him now. This is shown in the novel where Hawthorne states, “All this while, Hester had been looking steadily at the old man, and was shocked, as well as wonder-smitten, to discern what a change had been wrought upon him within the past seven years.It was not so much that he had grown older; for though the traces of advancing life were visible, he bore his age well, and seemed to retain a wiry vigor and alertness. But the former aspect of an intellectual and studious man, calm and quiet, which was what she best remembered
Hester Prynne, from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, the Scarlet Letter, faces a crucible. She commits adultery with Reverend Dimmesdale and becomes pregnant with a daughter, Pearl. She is isolated from the community and the general public except for when she must stand upon the scaffold for three hours as part of her punishment for her sin. She must also wear a scarlet letter “A” for adultery on her breast. The town looks at her differently because of her sin but Hester stays true to her personality. Hester fairs her life by honoring her punishment and her mistakes, as well as taking care of Pearl and teaching her to be kind.
As Hester wears the scarlet letter, the reader can feel how much of an outcast Hester becomes. When walking through town, “…she never raised her head to receive their greeting. If they were resolute to accost her, she laid her finger on the scarlet letter and passed on” (Hawthorne, 127).She believes that she is not worthy of the towns acknowledgments and chooses to ignore them. The guilt that now rests in Hester is overwhelming to her and is a reason of her change in personality.
Hester’s role in the story is described as sleeping with a priest and got accused of committing adultery and got punished by having to wear a scarlet letter “A” on the breast of her gown (Hawthorne 71). Hester Prynne’s punishment is to go to prison and then with her child, Pearl, go and stand out on the platform in front of everybody wearing her scarlet letter on the breast of her gown (Howells). Hester...
‘The Scarlet Letter’ illustrates the lives of Hester Prynne, her daughter Pearl, local preacher Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester’s husband (whom uses the alias of Roger Chillingworth in order to disguise his true identity), and how they are affected after Hester committed an adulterous act with Dimmesdale, hence conceiving Pearl. This mother and child are then ostracized by society, and Hester is sentenced to jail, forced to wear a scarlet “A” on her chest as a symbol of her sin. The novel continues to narrate the four characters’ story for the following few years, until Hester passes away and is buried near Chillingworth (whom had died earlier on), both sharing a letter “A” on their gravestones.
Puritan minister. Their affair results in a baby named Pearl. Everyone in town is extremely curious about who the father of Pearl is. Dimmesdale and Hester hide their secret from the townspeople, because Dimmesdale is worried his wrongdoing will result in a bad reputation. In addition to going to prison, Hester has to wear the Scarlet Letter, which is an “A”, on her chest every day. Hester also has to stand on the scaffold, so everyone in the town can recognize that she is an adulteress. There are three scaffold scenes in The Scarlet Letter. The three scaffold scenes state “Much emphasis has been placed upon them, and justly so; to know these scenes well is to have a purchase on a romance which is remarkable for its synthesis of elements” (“Scarlet” 109). Dimmesdale starts to feel worse when Hester stands on the scaffold