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Theme Of Sin And Love In The Scarlet Letter
Theme Of Sin And Love In The Scarlet Letter
Symbolism in the novel the scarlet letter by nathaniel hawthorne
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Throughout the novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there are three scaffold scenes, each scene provides a change in meaning but is equally as important. The first scene is shown at the beginning of the novel. Hester Prynne is on the Scaffold holding an infant child whose name is Pearl, which is discovered later. She is being charged with adultery and will not reveal to the authorities who the father of her child is. The second scaffold scene is portrayed towards the middle of the novel when Aurthur Dimmesdale, who is the reverend of the of Boston, Massachusetts, is standing on the scaffold by himself in the middle of the night. While Dimmesdale is there Hester and Pearl happen to be coming home from Governor Winthrop’s death bed, passing by the scaffold. Dimmesdale proceeds to ask the two to join him in standing on the scaffold and they accept the offer. The third scaffold scene is at the end of the novel in which Dimmesdale publicly is seen for his part in the sin that created Pearl and then he slowly sinks down into his demise. Each of these scenes has a different me...
The three scaffold scenes bring great significance to the plot of the Scarlet Letter. The novel is based on repenting the sins of adultery. The scaffold represents a place of shame and pity but also of final triumphs. Each scene illustrates the importance of the scaffold behind them with many potent similarities and differences.
The first scaffold scene takes place in the very beginning of the story. Hester Prynne, a woman who has committed adultery and will not name the father of her child, is forced to stand upon the scaffold in shame for three hours in front of a crowd of people. Dimmesdale, who is later revealed as the father, openly denies his sin and even goes as far as telling Hester to "speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer," in order to make sure that nobody suspects him. While the author doesn't make his guilt very obvious, he does give a few hints that suggest Dimmesdale does have some sort of hidden secret. In this scene, the Reverend shows his original strength of character, which he slowly loses over the course of the story.
The characters Hawthorne develops are deep, unique, and difficult to genuinely understand. Young, tall, and beautiful Hester Prynne is the central protagonist of this story. Shamefully, strong-willed and independent Hester is the bearer of the scarlet letter. Burning with emotion, she longs for an escape from her mark, yet simultaneously, she refuses to seem defeated by society’s punishment. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale claims the secondary role in The Scarlet Letter; he is secretly Hester’s partner in adultery. Conflicted and grieved over his undisclosed act, he drives himself to physical and mental sickness. He fervently desires Hester, but should he risk his godly reputation by revealing the truth? Dimmesdale burns like Hester. Pearl, the child produced in Hester and Dimmesdale’s sin, is the third main character. She is fiery, passionate, perceiving, and strikingly symbolic; at one point in the novel she is referred to as “the scarlet letter endowed with life!” Inevitably, Pearl is consumed with questions about herself, her mother, and Dimmesdale. The reader follows Pearl as she discovers the truth. Altogether, Hawthorne’s use of intricately complex, conflicted ch...
Hawthorne uses the scaffold scenes to show how the presence of light and dark gives insight into the characters nature. In the first scaffold scene, Hester releases not only her guilt about her crime, but, she also releases Pearl to the society and creates in Pearl the need for strength and determination that she will need to overcome the legacy of her creation. In this scene she also creates the need in Dimmesdale to absolve himself of his guilt. The second scaffold scene is the opportunity for Dimmesdale to attempt to release his guilt from the first scaffold. However, Pearl creates a need in Dimmesdale to repent in front of the town. During the third scaffold scene, Dimmesdale is able to release his guilt about his crime and his lack of strength. He is also able to complete his obligation to accept the hands of Pearl and Hester on the platform from the second scaffold scene. Through his confession, he creates a sense of reality for the entire town. It can be clearly seen that what is created in the first scaffold is released in the second scaffold; while, the things created in the second scaffold are finally released in the third and final scaffold. The darkness during the second scaffold scene is covered in darkness, which display the symbols of reality and truth. There is another complexity to the scaffold scenes in the presence, or lack there of, of lighting. The first scaffold
That scaffold holds more importance than just somewhere to condemn prisoners. It is the one place where Dimmesdale felt liberated to say anything he wishes. In Puritan culture, the scaffold is used to humiliate and chastise prisoners, be it witches at the stake, thieves in the stocks, or a murderer hanging from the gallows. In The Scarlet Letter, the scaffold was viewed more as a place of judgment. “Meagre ... was the sympathy that a transgressor might look for, from such bystanders, at the scaffold.” (p. 63) Indeed, it was used for castigation, but it was also a place of trial: Hester’s trial was held at the scaffold. Standing upon the platform opens oneself to God and to the world. “They stood in the noon of that strange and solemn splendor, as if it were the light that is to reveal all secrets, and the daybreak that shall unite all who belong to one another.” (p. 186) Being on the scaffold puts oneself in a feeling of spiritual nakedness- where you feel exposed to God, but cleansed. It was the one place where Dimmesdale could find complete reconciliation.
The Scaffold is not only a high view point the in market place but a site where one can see beyond the restraints of town and even time. For one person, " . . . the scaffold of the pillory was the point of view that revealed to Hester Prynne the entire track which she had been treading since her happy infancy (p65)". The experience of the scaffold has a profound effect on Hester. Living on the border between the town and the forest, she learns new freedom while seeing the conformist repression of the town. Hester sees what the townspeople ignore. She soon believes that because of her punishment on the scaffold and her perpetual reminder of it, the scarlet letter, she sees the sins of the entire townspeople and the hypocrisy of keeping them secret. Thus, her time on the scaffold has made her see the truth of the town and its lies.
There are many important scenes in The Scarlet Letter but, there are five scenes that stand out above the others and are the most important scenes of the book. These five most important scenes are first, when Hester gets released from jail and forced to stand on the scaffold. The second, is when Hester’s husband takes on the name of Roger Chillingworth. Another is when the governor tries to take pearl away from Hester. The next, is when Hester meets Dimmesdale in the woods. Last is when Dimmesdale reveals what he had done to everyone while he was on the scaffold.
The second scaffold scene is momentous, but seemingly less important in comparison with the other two. This scene, in general, is quite different from the other two scaffold scenes. The first and third take place during the day, in front of large crowds. However, the second scene takes place at night, in which only five citizens pass before the scaffold, or glance out their windows at it. At the beginning of this scene, the reader finds Dimmesdale by himself on the scaffold.
Within the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne the imagery of revelation works as a reoccurring theme to bring the reader into the characters view of the incidences going on before them. These ‘revelations’, scattered throughout the story, work as awakenings or realizations of the current situation that the character is presently in or situations they may have to face in the future. All of the characters presented into the story have revelations of some sort. One key discovery theme used in this story is the realization of identification; this is presented as the characters previously thinking they knew somebody and what they stood for, yet they are proved wrong in their beliefs. Another reoccurrence of a theme, used in the story, is the usage of the scaffolding in the center of town to unfold a revelation in the characters lives. The scaffolding situation takes place three times within the story, each time with a different circumstance and a change of the witnesses to the scene; but with a revelation that slightly changes the character from what they were before they stood upon the scaffolding. The first instance when the scaffolding appears is the beginning of the story when Hester Prynne is sentenced to stand upon it, bearing her child and the ominous letter ‘A’, for a set time as her punishment for adultery. This takes place during the day as the entire town is placed before to observe. The second scene of scaffold revelation brings the Reverend Dimmesdale to the top of the platform alone as he attempts to lift the weighty guilt off of his chest. Finally, towards the end of the story, we see Hester, Reverend Dimmesdale, and their child, Pearl standing together in front of the judging crowd. In each of these scenes the revelations captured in that moment by the character or characters remain pivotal parts of story and ultimately of the characters lives.
The scaffold is a place of much activity and importance to the puritans, and Hawthorne centers many of the significant moments in this story around it. The Scarlet Letter is a highly symbolic work, and two of the most prevalent symbols are light and dark meaning truth and secrecy. Many of the characters go through the cyclic motion between truth and secrecy, and the scaffold has a great deal to do with one becoming the other. It is where Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth first dim into the darkness, but it is also where each finally returns to the light.
From the first scene on the scaffold, Hester’s scarlet letter and her intense grief define her character through a shameful tone. Her A thoroughly isolates her and Pearl from the world around them, even in a crowd of familiar faces. Standing on the scaffold, the scarlet letter burns brighter than anything else about Hester and her life, revealing the great effects that it will leave on her. Hawthorne describes Hester’s letter as having “the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary
He explains that the scaffold that Hester is sentenced to stand upon as punishment is meant to be a comparison to the famous weapon in the French Revolution, the guillotine. Reynolds points out that it was custom in Puritan New England to refer to such places as to where Hester stood as the gallows, not scaffolds. “[…] the central setting of the novel, the scaffold, is, I believe, an historical inaccuracy intentionally used by Hawthorne to develop the theme of revolution” (619). Here he is saying that Hawthorne purposely misused the term in order to spur up themes of revolution. Although he fails to mention Hawthorne’s motive in doing so, it does credibly show the reader that there are possible and deliberate connections made between the French Revolution and The Scarlet
Hawthorne uses the setting to develop the theme of sin, isolation and reunion. In the market place one of the guards opens the jail cell and announces to all the spectators and to Hester shouting, “Open a passage; and I promise ye Mistress Prynne shall be set where man, woman, and child may have a fair sight of her… Come along! Madam Hester and show your scarlet letter in the marker place” (Hawthorne 52). Hester is being displayed on the scaffold, which Hawthorne uses to show sin. While Hester is walking out of the jail a woman murmurs to one of the other women, “ This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die!” (Hawthorne 49) This scene clearly shows isolation between Hester and the community. The setting of the scaffold scene also illustrates the reunion between Dimmesdale, Hester and Pearl. When Dimmesdale admits on being the father of Pearl to all the townspeople, this scene reunites Pearl with herself by making her normal. The forest is as well as a major setting that instigates sin. Isolation in the forest occurs when Hester meets Dimmesdale to achieve some reunion, but instead drives them selves further into isolation. The use of the settings greatly structures how the theme of sin, isolation and reunion came about.
With his family at his side, Dimmesdale finally confesses his sin and shows the scarlet "A" on his chest. He then died peacefully. Hawthorne has perfectly structured The Scarlet Letter around three scaffold scenes. At the first one, located in the very beginning of the novel, Hester openly confesses her sin of adultery in the light of day while Dimmesdale and Chillingworth look on from the crowd that has gathered.
In the first scaffold scene, Hester Prynne stands at the scaffold holding her infant daughter pearl for public humiliation for her crime. She bears a scarlet “A” which stands for adultery on her chest. Reverend Wilson commends Hester to give the name of her lover. She is given the chance to “take the scarlet letter off [her] breast” (64). She refuses. Then Arthur Dimmesdale is told to implore her to confess who she had the affair with. “So powerful seemed the ministers appeal that the people could not believe but that Hester Prynne would speak out the guilty name” ( ) Arthur gives a powerful speech that shows his need to confess. This scene opens t...