People’s actions are generally influenced by their surroundings. People act within invisible, yet seemingly invincible, boundaries set up by their culture. These man-made boundaries are as solid as rock inside a community or in a home, but sometimes these boundaries vanish. When a person steps outside of civilization and into the wild, the walls that keep people in line become less tangible. The darkness that surrounds the idea of the wilderness changes the decisions people make and interactions they have. In the 1850 novel, The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the conflicting ideas of civilization and wilderness are apparent in both the external and internal conflicts of the core characters. Although the themes of sin and redemption …show more content…
If the nature of sin is darkness and deceit, then anything created through a pure act of sin, must be the spawn of those things. The Puritans see sin as human passion let loose to run wild, and its outcome is death and destruction. In The Scarlet Letter, the product of that wildness is Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne and the girl “whose elements were perhaps beautiful and brilliant, but all in disorder” (Hawthorne 83). People tend to look at the wilderness as something above them, it is beautiful to look at, just like Pearl, whose beauty would rival that of those in Eden (82), but the wilderness is often feared because of its brilliance and the chaos of its infinite unknowns. The people in town fear Pearl because she is unpredictable, she has the appearance of an angel but the personality of a demon (82-84). Pearl is a complete contradiction to everything the Puritans have attempted to create, she is the embodiment of disorder. In the woods there is a moment when Pearl doesn’t cross the brook because it means she has to leave the place where she finally connects to something other than her mother (188). Pearl finds freedom among the untouched beauty of the forest. Pearl struggles to fit into the civilization that the Puritans have created, not just because of her deep connection to the wild but because the Puritans refuse to let the living scarlet letter into their spotless little
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...
the height of a mans shoulders above the street . . . . The unhappy culprit
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is one of the most respected and admired novels of all time. Often criticized for lacking substance and using more elaborate camera work, freely adapted films usually do not follow the original plot line. Following this cliché, Roland Joffe’s version of The Scarlet Letter received an overwhelmingly negative reception. Unrealistic plots and actions are added to the films for added drama; for example, Hester is about to be killed up on the scaffold, when Algonquin members arrive and rescue her. After close analysis, it becomes evident of the amount of work that is put into each, but one must ask, why has the director adapted their own style of depicting the story? How has the story of Hester Prynne been modified? Regarding works, major differences and similarities between the characterization, visual imagery, symbolism, narration and plot, shows how free adaptation is the correct term used.
revengeand one of secrecy. He was not driven by an anger at his ownsin, but
Nathaniel Hawthorne is one of the most creative symbolists in 19th century literature. Throughout his novel The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne makes use of various effective symbols that are represented through characters and the scarlet letter itself. These symbols are used to represent the various aspects of rigid Puritan society.
Some say to sin is to go to hell, some say sin is a scourge of human nature, some say sin must be confessed, and some say sin must be forced out of people through punishment. The internal consequences of believing one has sinned are more intangible than social attitudes toward sin, but they appear just as often and in just as many different ways. The novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, exudes sin. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses symbolism to demonstrate the effects of sin not only on public reputation, but also on one’s psychological state. The Scarlet Letter A, which Hester Prynne wears on her chest as punishment for adultery, causes her anguish through ignominy but allows her to improve over time through the public nature of her disgrace. Chillingworth, the leech, punishes Reverend Dimmesdale for his concealed sin, and yet at the same time wastes away due to his own sin of sucking the life out of Dimmesdale. Pearl, the illegitimate child of Hester and Dimmesdale, embodies both the open and the concealed sin of her parents. She is unable to be normal because of this and takes on wild and elf-like qualities.
"To be fully human is to balance the heart, the mind, and the spirit.'; One could suggest the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, that one should not violate the sanctity of the human heart. Hester was well ahead of her time, and believed that love was more important than living in a lie. Dimmesdale’s theology and his inclinations render him almost incapable of action; Chillingsworth dammed himself, along with Dimmesdale. Hester was “frank with [Chillingsworth].';
Banished from the Puritan society for committing adultery, Hester Prynne is considered an outcast, “outlawed from society”(189). With her illegitimate daughter Pearl, Prynne moves with her daughter to the outskirts of the community at the mouth of the forest. It is there in their own secluded life that they are free, not subjected to the regular ridicule and embarrassment that they usually experience in their strict Puritan town. Unknown to the town was the identity of Pearl’s father, Arthur Dimmesdale, who was both a respected and revered reverend and “the head of the [Puritan] social system”(189). Their “sin of passion” (190) caused him to believe that his soul was “irrevocably doomed” (189) causing him to commit self inflicted punishments. They had Pearl behind Prynne’s husband, who was out of the country at the time. Unawa...
A sin is defined as any act regarded as a transgression, especially a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale were forced to face the realities and hardships of committing a mortal sin in the eyes of a predominately Puritan society. Seven years after moving to America alone, Hester assumed her husband, Roger Chillingworth, to be dead and had moved on with the town minister—Dimmesdale. The two lovers ended up having a child out of wedlock, which ensured them the public scorn from their community. Hester, while raising their illegitimate child, Pearl, was ostracized by society and required to wear a scarlet letter, “A,” on her chest as a sign of her wrongdoing. Dimmesdale remained the unknown father of Pearl, by keeping his sin a secret from the townspeople. Because of their unique circumstances, Hester and Dimmesdale were ultimately affected differently by the same sin. Hester was audacious and accepting about the sin, while Dimmesdale was secretive and suffered.
In this writer’s opinion, the greatest sinner in The Scarlet Letter is Roger Chillingworth. There are other characters in the book of who the reader knows has sinned. The only thing that the reader knows of Chillingworth initially is that he wants it to be kept a secret that he is Hester’s husband. The reasons that he can be called the greatest sinner is because he makes a conscious choice to keep certain secrets, he wants to exact his revenge on the man who got Hester pregnant and he is intent on hurting people around him, specifically Hester and Dimmesdale.
A sinful nature is an aspect in man that makes him rebellious against God. Everyone has a sinful nature and it affects every part of us. Sin corrupts the human mind and has consequences for doing wrong in the eyes of the Lord. Every individual on Earth sins, and this is represented in the novel The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale to portray how different people cope with their sin and the consequences of that sin.
Sin is defined as a transgression of a religious or moral law especially when deliberate. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne one of the main points in the book is relating to sin and how it can affect people. Hawthorne uses several methods to convey the nature of sin through his characters and symbolism in The Scarlet Letter. The scarlet A on the chest of Hester Prynne and Hester herself represent known sin. She commits adultery and is caught. The A is her punishment as well as a reminder to her about sinning. The child of sin and Hester is named Pearl. She symbolises the product of sin and sin itself. The third member of the sinning perty is Dimsdale. He is loved and treated with respect by the towns people. No one but him knows that he too has sinned. Hawthorne uses that character to represent hidden sin and guilt. Three different aspects of sin represented by three different characters in The Scarlet Letter.
Nathanial Hawthorne, an American author during the 19th century witnessed the power of sin to wreak havoc not only to an individual but a whole community. His novel The Scarlet Letter expresses this very idea by exposing the follies of mankind and the potentially detrimental effects of sin trough Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth who all affected by sin in different ways. Utilizing powerful symbols and light/dark imagery, Hawthorne conveys to the readers, through these characters, the power of how one’s response to sin can positively change an individual or gradually destroy one by spreading like a contagious disease and ultimately consuming the victim.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” portrays the basic concept of good and evil in a Puritan New England society during the 1600s. It is told through a narrative about one woman, Hester Prynne, who committed a great sin against her virtue. This sin consumes not only Hester, but also the small rural community that she calls home. Just the word “sin” pulls the reader into the story. “The Scarlet Letter” is full of complex symbolism with a variety of avenues to analyze why the focus of sin makes an appearance in the main topic of this fictional story. Sin can imply to some a struggle of good versus evil in every individual based on one’s belief in Christianity in the long time battle between God and Satan. Furthermore,
People often keep secrets in an effort to hide their sins from others. This is a risky since secrets have a way of manifesting themselves externally, and thus, letting everyone know of their owner’s sins. Hidden sin is a prominent theme in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter. Names like Chillingworth and Dimmesdale let the reader know how, in reality, these characters are, before ever really encountering them. Characters whom the reader will encounter in this novel are going through some type of dilemma on the inside, which begins to show itself in the exterior of the particular individual. In The Scarlet Letter, two studious individuals, Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale, two of the main characters in the novel, each possess their own sins which begin to show themselves in their outermost features, each brought apon themselves for their own respective reasons.