Guilt in The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a book which goes far into the lives of the main characters. After establishing the main characters--Hester, Pearl, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth--he shows how each decision they made affects all the others. Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth all felt guilty at one point in the novel. Hester had "dark and abundant hair, so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam, and a face which, besides being beautiful from regularity of feature and richness of complexion, had the impressiveness belonging to a marked brow and deep black eyes" (50). Hester, here described as a beautiful woman, had committed adultery. Because of her sin, her punishment was shame by the branding of the scarlet `A'. She simply accepted the punishment. The scarlet letter makes people look at Hester differently, but she doesn't seem to care. Hester created the `A' to be very elaborate to make people notice it. Having the sin out in the open let her relieve any guilt. The `A' was meant to punish Hester for eternity. She was to wear it till she died, and then it was going to be engraved on her tombstone. While in the forest, Hester made clothes for people in town. Because she had sinned, she was not allowed to make "the white veil which was to cover the pure blushes of a bride" (76). After a few years, Hester had changed the meaning of her scarlet letter, "they said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength" (141). Her "punishment" had become an honor. Although Hester tore off the letter and went to England with Pearl, she returned to Boston and put the scarlet letter back on. Hester was certainly not the only person affected in all of this. Roger Chillingworth had a "slight deformity of the figure" which later reflected the transformation his soul would make (56). In the first meeting of Hester and Chillingworth, Hester asks, "Hast thou enticed me into a bond that will prove the ruin of my soul?" and Chillingworth replies, "Not thy soul. No, not thine!" (70). Chillingworth's plan becomes obvious at this point in the novel. He is planning to get revenge on Pearl's secret father, Dimmesdale. Chillingworth is always around tormenting Dimmesdale, reminding him of what he had done. Chillingworth knows he is becoming devilish. During a meeting between him and Hester, he tells her to "let the black flower blossom as it may" (152). He accepts the change and doesn't want to be back to normal. His soul purpose in life was to torture others, but in the end Dimmesdale had died. Roger Chillingworth died not too long after Dimmesdale. The target of Chillingworth's revenge carried the most guilt. Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister and Pearl's father, had no way to relieve his guilt. Being the minister, he was forced to hide everything and pretend he had nothing to do with it. At one point, his own scarlet `A' appeared on his chest, it is not explained how this came to be. Dimmesdale could not show any emotion towards Hester or Pearl while in town, but in the forest, he was very passionate and openly accepted Pearl as his daughter. It is not till the end of the novel that Dimmesdale confesses his sins. On the way to the scaffold, Dimmesdale says "Thy power is not what it was! With God's help, I shall escape thee now!" to Chillingworth as he dies on the scaffold (230). In the end, Dimmesdale is free from the torment and Roger Chillingworth lives in agony. Hester and Dimmesdale's adultery caused much grief and torment to both them and Hester's husband, Chillingworth. From beginning to end, guilt transformed these characters. Nathaniel Hawthorne thoroughly developed the main characters.
In the beginning, we find Hester with the scarlet “A” on her chest, this “A” stood for adulteress. In the beginning she could hardly live with the “A”. It seemed to almost consume her with grief. The only thing she had left was her little Pearl, the child born from the illegitimate relationship. As the story continues on we see Hester beginning to mellow out and find her purpose. She moved to a little shack by the sea and took up sewing. She made all the fancy clothes for all occasions except for weddings. This is when the “A” transformed to means “able”. She was now able of sustaining herself without the need for a man or even society. Hester and Pearl could survive on what they made and live a life by the sea. However, Hester seems still wounded by the “A”, every time any attention is brought to it she relives all the pain and grief that it brought. She has not gotten over the scarlet letter, but has learned to cope with it a little better. Further on in the story, as Pearl is growing older, Hester begins to feel mocked by Pearl and wonders if she might be a devil. Hester thinks this, because every time Pearl does something sweet, kind, or caring she immediately does something rude, typically bringing attention to the letter “A” on Hester’s chest. Towards the end of the story the “A” again changes meaning. This time it has changed to “Angel”. At the conclusion of the story
Juanita "June" was born in the mid-1940's, the firstborn of Q.D. and Hazel. Q.D. was a driller on oilrigs, a crew called "roughnecks." Over the years the family lived in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. For the first 16 years of her life, June lived with her father, mother, and two younger brothers in a trailer that was so small it could (and was) pulled by the family car from oil patch to oil patch. Despite social prejudices, educational setbacks, and trauma in her life, she overcame those obstacles.
Hester wears the scarlet A on her chest, to publicly atone for her sin and receive redemption in the light of God. She mirrors this in Pearl’s attire, as she dresses her in a “crimson velvet tunic of a peculiar cut, abundantly embroidered with fantasies and flourishes of gold thread” (69). Hester’s sin and Pearl are both guilty acts, but were also both acts of affection. Hester dresses Pearl in a beautiful scarlet dress, in attempt to create an “analogy between the object of [Hester’s] affection and the emblem of her guilt and torture” (70). Hester tries to show that Pearl is another physical representation of redemption of the sin that the scarlet letter
Freud begins to create the map of mental life through the ideas of the ego, the id, and the superego. The ego, or consciousness, is the manner in which a person first realizes tha...
Boeree, C. George. "Sigmund Freud." George Boeree's Page. George Boeree, 2009. Web. 14 May 2014.
The Scarlet Letter is a classic novel that entails many different themes of accepting sin, finding identity, cruel revenge, compassion, and forgiveness. It tells the story of Hester Prynne, a women in a Puritan town, whose sins and outcomes of her sins contributed to the themes behind this book. Hester 's actions molded her into the strong character she is because of the terrible crime she committed, which would change her life forever.
Now, Hester may have been successful in her lack of common sense, but she wore the letter “A” proudly, as is shown in the following quotation from the novel: “... The point which drew all eyes and, as it were, transfigured the wearer-so that both men and women, who had been familiarly aquainted with Hester Prynne, were now impressed as if they beheld her for the first time--was the Scarlet Letter, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and enclosing her in a sphere by herself (61).” I believe that although it caused her much pain and suffering it could also be a token of her love for Dimmesdale. She wears the letter as a consequence from loving Dimmesdale. She might have made the letter so lovely as to vibrate positive feelings from it, however, which may or may not have been a good thing.
The letter "A," worn on Hester's bodice, is a symbol of her adultery against Roger Chillingworth. This letter is meant to be worn in shame, and to make Hester feel unwanted. "Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment . . ." Hester is ashamed of her sin, but she chooses not to show it. She committed this sin in the heat of passion, and fully admits it because, though she is ashamed, she also received her greatest treasure, Pearl, out of it. She is a very strong woman to be able to hold up so well, against what she must face. Many would have fled Boston, and sought a place where no one knew of her great sin. Hester chose to stay though, which showed a lot of strength and integrity. Any woman with enough nerve to hold up against a town which despised her very existence, and to stay in a place where her daughter is referred to as a "devil child” is a very tough woman.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a study of the effects of sin on the hearts and minds of the main characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. Sin strengthens Hester, humanizes Dimmesdale, and turns Chillingworth into a demon.
After Hester committed adultery, she was marked with the Scarlet “A”. The Scarlet “A” was embroidered onto Hester’s clothing. It was eventually put on every article of clothing Hester owned (Korobkin 1). The Scarlet “A” served several purposes. It was a symbol of sin, evidence of guilt, a reminder and it served as Hester’s identity (Magill Masterpieces 5). Hester was not the only person nor object to be marked with the scarlet letter. There are several occurrences of the scarlet “A” throughout the novel (Korobkin 1).
Freud, S. & Brill, A. A. (1995). The basic writings of Sigmund Freud. New York: Modern Library.
In the first chapters of the novel, Hester was punished to wear an "A" on her chest at all times. The "A" is a punishment for the adultery she committed with the towns own Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Instead of making it into something that people looked down upon, as something horrific and disgusting on her chest, she made it look like a beautiful, gleaming gem. She made it out of the most gorgeous sparkling gold threads that caught everyone's eye. A quote in chapter two described the scarlet letter as "so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself." That shows how she is a confident and very individual person. No other woman would have as much courage as she did to make a punishment into an attraction.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a look into the pressure society places an individual. Hester Prynne longs for independents. But the scarlet letter strips her of her freedom to be who she chooses, instead forcing her to be a victim of how society portrays her. Throughout the book she becomes more caring, humble, and strong. finally culminating in her realization that she can be independent of what people think. She realizes that the A doesn't have to define her, she can define
In his novel Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky uses Raskolnikov as a vessel for several different philosophies that were particularly prominent at the time in order to obliquely express his opinions concerning those schools of thought. Raskolnikov begins his journey in Crime and Punishment with a nihilistic worldview and eventually transitions to a more optimistic one strongly resembling Christian existentialism, the philosophy Dostoevsky preferred, although it could be argued that it is not a complete conversion. Nonetheless, by the end of his journey Raskolnikov has undergone a fundamental shift in character. This transformation is due in large part to the influence other characters have on him, particularly Sonia. Raskolnikov’s relationship with Sonia plays a significant role in furthering his character development and shaping the philosophical themes of the novel.
In the beginning of the story, Hester is being punished for adultery, and is forced to wear the letter A on her bosom. It is shown so that people will know her as an adulteress. The letter A also gives Hester some supernatural abilities. When some women look at the letter A on Hester’s chest, they make a face and look at her with disgust. Other women look at Hester and they seem to share something; “But sometimes...she felt a human eye--upon the ignominious brand, that seemed to give a momentary relief, as if half her agony were shared” (79). Hester knows that she is not the only one who committed adultery, and having the letter with her all the time seems to give her an intuitive power about it. As time goes on, people seem to forget that Hester had committed a sin and see her as a lovely and respectable person.