Free Scarlet Letter Essay: Secrets

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The Secrets of The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is considered by many to be the greatest accomplishment of an author hailed as the master of the American short story. It is set in Salem, Massachusetts. In this strictly controlled Puritan town the inhabitants live by harsh laws and fierce prejudices. Hester Prynne, a young wife whose husband is presumed dead, is being publicly humiliated for the sin of adultery. The proof of her sin is her baby girl Pearl. She conceals the identity of Pearl's father to protect him from the harsh judgement of Puritan law. She however is doomed to spend the rest of her life marked as an adulterer by wearing a scarlet "A" on her chest. Hester's husband meanwhile has arrived in the colony and taken up practice as a doctor. He makes Hester promise that she won't reveal his identity to anyone. The book covers a seven year period during which the identity of the father becomes known. It is the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, who is renowned as an especially holy and pious man. Wracked by guilt he starts to show outward signs of serious illness. Hester's husband under the assumed name Roger Chillingworth moves in and begins taking care of Dimmesdale. Chillingworth soon discovers that the Reverend is Pearl's father. Dimmesdale however thinks that Chillingworth is simply a doctor. Chillingworth uses his influence to multiply the feelings of guilt in the minister while trying to keep him in physical health, as a form of emotional torture. At the climax of the story, Dimmesdale confesses and dies. Hester and Pearl leave the colony. Chillingworth whose whole purpose was to get revenge from Dimmesdale suddenly finds his life without purpose and dies within a year. Hawthorne used the settings in the book, not only to develop the story, but to make a statement about Puritan Society through the use of allegory.

The Puritans were a people dedicated to perfecting themselves according to a certain set of values that were uniquely Puritan. On the individual level a Puritan would try to reach perfection by living out this series of values. If they did not succeed, as in Hester or Arthur Dimmesdale's cases, their punishment would be in the fact that they did not live up to the perfection they strived for. The prison, in The Scarlet Letter is proof that Salem is a society striving for self perfection, not only individuals dedicated to perfecting themselves.

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