Hester Prynne In The Scarlett Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ancestor is John Hathorne, the “hanging judge” of the Salem witch trials. He and his family were deeply troubled by this fact, so they changed the spelling of their last name from Hathorne to Hawthorne. Nathaniel couldn’t stand the cruelty of his Puritan ancestors. These ancestors contribute a small inspiration for the writing of this book. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a romance between two sinners. This book is centered on keeping sin a secret like Dimmesdale, where it mentally and physically hurt him, therefore, Hester had a better, easier life after her sin was revealed. Hester Prynne is arranged to marry a man she did not love at a young age. Within a few years, her husband leaves on a voyage and is kidnapped by Indians. His absence for such a long

He is highly respected and is chosen over other reverends in the town that have more experience and education than him. Hester refuses to tell the name of her lover and wishes to put his burden on herself. She is only trying to save the minister’s treasured reputation but the secret of his sin strains him. “‘People say…that the Reverend Master Dimmesdale, her godly pastor, takes it very grievously to heart that such a scandal should have come upon his congregation.’” (51). I believe he takes it grievously to heart not solely because it is a scandal in his congregation but it is a scandal he is involved in. His sin mentally affects him so badly that it drove him to practice “the old, corrupted faith of Rome” (149) instead of the practices of his church to which he was born. When Dimmesdale is alone under lock and key in his secret closet, “there was a bloody scourge” and “oftentimes, [he] had plied it on his own shoulders, laughing bitterly at himself” (149-150). He physically afflicts pain on himself to make himself feel like he was paying for his sin. He always felt he “tortured, but could not purify, himself”