The Scarlet Letter The Effects of Sin on Hester Prynne
Nathaniel Hawthorne believed his task was to analyze the effects of sin, whether thought or committed, on the human heart and mind. Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, deals with many themes, the most powerful being sin. In this novel, Hester Prynne becomes a highly respected person in a Puritan society by overcoming a constant reminder of her sin, a Scarlet letter A which she wears on her chest at all times. This object on "her bosom"; however, does the exact opposite of the initial purpose. Eventually, Hester reverses all the odds that are against here due to her courage, pride and effort. Hester went beyond the letter of the law and did everything asked of her in order to prove that she is "able."
She comes from an impoverished but genteel English family, having lived in a "decayed house of gray stone, with a poverty stricken aspect, but retaining a half-obliterated sheild of arms over the portal, in token of antique gentility." But even without that specific indication of her high birth, the reader would know that Hester is a lady, from her bearing and pride. Especially in Chapter two, when she bravely faces the humiliation of the scaffold: "And never had Hester Prynne appeared more lady-like, in the antique interpretation of the term, than as she issued from the prison,"
Hester's daughter, Pearl, is "a blessing and is a reminder of her sin."
As if the scarlet A were not enough punishment there "was a brat of that hellish breed" which would remind Hester of what had happened in the past. The "brat" could have been given away to Governor Bellingham yet Hester proclaimed that Pearl "is my happiness!...Ye shall not take her! I will die first!" Not a person in Boston, nor Hester herself thought highly of the little child and yet Hester still refused to let Pearl go. Hester carried the child around only because it was a direct reflection of her sin and to cast away her sin as freely as that to give it away would be unjust and unfair to Hester and Pearl. From now on Hester would continually and proudly be near Pearl. Hester would go against the grain in everything she did. Very rarely did she ever give up hope; never did she complete a job poorly.
Through the rhetorical device characterization, Hawthorne is able to promote his motive of exposing the audience to the life lesson: People grow stronger by recognizing their own weakness. Hester Prynne, the female protagonist in the Scarlet Letter charged with adultery, is forced to wear the embroidered letter “A” on her chest to symbolize the stigma of her sin. In the beginning of the novel,
The central theme in The Scarlet Letter is that manifested sin will ostracize one from society and un-confessed sin will lead to the destruction of the inner spirit. Hawthorne uses the symbol of the scarlet letter to bring out this idea. In the novel, Hester is forced to wear the scarlet letter A (the symbol of her sin) because she committed adultery with the clergyman, Dimmesdale. Because the public's knowledge of her sin, Hester is excluded physically, mentally, and socially from the normal society of the Puritan settlement. She lives on the outskirts of town in a small cottage where she makes her living as a seamstress. Though she is known to be a great sewer amongst the people, Hester is still not able to sew certain items, such as a new bride's veil. Hester also has no interaction with others; instead she is taunted, if not completely ignored, by all that pass her by. Despite the ill treatment of the society, Hester's soul is not corrupted. Instead, she flourishes and improves herself in spite of the burden of wearing the scarlet letter and she repeatedly defies the conventional Puritan thoughts and values by showing what appears to us as strength of character. Her good works, such as helping the less fortunate, strengthen her inner spirit, and eventually partially welcome her back to the society that once shunned her.
The short story is narrated by Sonny’s older brother. He is a school a responsible school teacher, with a family of his own. The story begins by the brother, whose name is unidentified in the story, finding out that his young brother Sonny got arrested for possession and selling drugs, specifically heroin. He is the type of older brother that is protective yet he is angry for what his brother has done. He admits that he is scared for Sonny. He knew something was wrong but chose to turn a blind eye to it, because he didn’t want to believe it. “I had my suspicions but I didn’t name them, I kept putting them away.” If he had figured it out he may have been able to stop Sonny from getting in trouble before it was too late. He didn’t write Sonny until his daughter passed and then after they kept in touch regularly.
The character of Hester Prynne changed significantly throughout the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hester Prynne, through the eyes of the Puritans, is an extreme sinner; she has gone against the Puritan ways, committing adultery. For this harsh sin, she must wear a symbol of shame for the rest of her life. However, the Romantic philosophies of Hawthorne put down the Puritanic beliefs. She is a beautiful, young woman who has sinned, but is forgiven. Hawthorne portrays Hester as "divine maternity" and she can do no wrong. Not only Hester, but the physical scarlet letter, a Puritanical sign of disownment, is shown through the author's tone and diction as a beautiful, gold and colorful piece.
Today farmers use six anabolic steroids in various combinations. “Those anabolic steroids are osetradiol, progesterone, testosterone, zeranol, trenbolone, and melengestrol.” (Communication Foundation) There are three natural steroids that are used as well. The natural steroids are estradiol, testosterone, and progesterone. Also used are three synthetic hormones which include estrogen compound zeranol, andgrogen trenbolone acetate, and progestin melengestrol acetate. (Organic Consumer Association) However, when hormones are given to cattle some of the naturally occurring hormone levels could go up seven to twenty times the normal level. Scientists have growing concerns about the use of the hormones.
From the very beginning Hester is seen as a beautiful women who carried a child with an antonymous father. The Puritan society punishes her by standing on the scaffold for three hours and wearing the letter A on her bosom. While standing on the scaffold all the townspeople are gathered around to stare and judge. "At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne's forehead. Madame Hester would have winced at that, I warrant me. But she--the naughty baggage--little will she care what they put upon the bodice of her gown!’’(Hawthorne 51). Hester is told to speak up and name the father of her child, but she refuses not to. This shows that Hester is willing to stand up alone and she is brave.
...s fall into these illnesses since they desire obtaining pleasure. Freud neurosis is easier to see in this light. He states that the reason individuals fall into neurosis is that unable to please their libidos, individuals will turn away from society and into their fantasies. This allows them to achieve pleasure. For Nietzsche individuals elect to contain themselves, since they are unhappy on earth and are told that by limiting themselves they are able to obtain salvation in heaven. Although the stories are different the modern society has made it hard for the people to achieve pleasures so they fall ill attempting to gain them.
For several years now, I have relied on stupid jobs to pay my way through the world. This isn’t because I am a stupid person. On the contrary, stupid jobs are a way to avoid the brain numbing idiocy of full-time employment. They are the next best thing to having no job at all. They will keep you sane, and smart. (Niedzviecki 1971 p. 5)
Even with the hateful comments and the negative attitude towards her daughter and herself, Hester believes that she can raise Pearl right, and to be a good mother even with the scarlet letter on her bosom. Hester`s confidence in herself, not giving up, and to keep pushing forward when times are tough keep her from drowning in despair, self-pity, guilt, and depression. For example, Hester defends her rights of motherhood to keep Pearl, and to have the confidence to speak such a way to the ministers and Governor Bellingham. Hester says, “God gave her into my keeping, repeated Hester Prynne, raising her voice almost to a shriek. I will not give her up! —And here, by sudden impulse, she turned to the young clergyman, Mr. Dimmesdale, at whom, up to this moment, she had seemed hardly so much as once to direct her eyes” (Hawthorne, 103). The quote explains how even with the scarlet letter on her chest, Hester has her own identity and will defend Pearl for anything. Hester`s true identity and the way society views her are entirely different, because she is described as a sinful hussy who does not know how to raise a child, when in reality, Hester would give her own life for
Nathaniel Hawthorne exploits the life of Puritanism in his guilty pleasure The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne lends the reader into an insight of life and human nature. The Scarlet Letter reveals the ordeal and evils of Hester Prynne, a woman living in colonial Boston whom was found guilty of adultery. Hester’s punishment was to then wear a visible sign of her sin’ the scarlet letter “A.” As the novel progresses the reader is introduced to Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister Hester had an affair with; and Roger Chillingworth, the estranged husband of Hester whom is out for revenge. The Scarlet Letter examines the relations of the main characters and the consequence of these characters to Hester’s sin. Hester’s sin of adultery interacts with themes of alienation from society, revenge, creativity, and consequences of breaking the moral code. The underlying sin Hawthorn explores throughout The Scarlet Letter is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is easily defines as a falsehood between one's professed beliefs and feelings and one's actual beliefs and feelings, or an application of a criticism to others that one does not apply to oneself. Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, and the Puritan society were steep in their sin of hypocrisy. Hawthorne reveals through the pages of The Scarlet Letter that hypocrisy is indeed a sin by punishing the offenders.
The story begins with the narrator’s brother, Sonny, being arrested for using heroin. When the narrator discovers what has happened to his brother, he slowly starts to relive his past. Up to this point, the narrator had completely cut his brother and his childhood from his life. He disapproves of the past and does everything in his power to get rid of it. The narrator had become an algebra teacher and had a family who he moved to get away from the bad influences on the street. As a result, it is shown in the story that he has worked hard to maintain a good “clean” life for his family and himself. Readers can see that he has lived a good life, but at the toll of denying where he came from and even his own brother. For years, his constant aim for success had been successful. However, as the story progressed everything he knew started to fall apart.
“These boys, now, were living as we'd been living then, they were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities. They were filled with rage. All they really knew were two darkness’s, the darkness of their lives, which were now closi...
As a living reminder of Hester’s extreme sin, Pearl is her constant companion. From the beginning Pearl has always been considered as an evil child. For Hester to take care of such a demanding child, put lots of stress onto her life. Hester at times was in a state of uncontrollable pressure. “Gazing at Pearl, Hester Prynne often dropped her work upon her knees, and cried out with an agony which she would fain have hidden, but which made utterance for itself, betwixt speech and a groan, ‘O Father in heaven- if Thou art still my Father- what is this being which I have brought into the world!’” (Hawthorne, 77).
The author of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne, expressed ideas of love, passion, shame, and punishment throughout his 1800s based novel. Due to the fact that this novel was based in a Puritan time period, it brought many mental and sometimes physical difficulties for the main character, Hester Prynne. The Puritans solely believed in God and all of his rules. With that said, the author decided to illustrate the drama of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale’s adultery in order to describe the change in Hester’s attitude. Because of the many events, adversities and struggles, Hester had a complete change in attitude from shame and embarrassment to love, proudness and satisfaction.
Vitale, Tom. “Kurt Vonnegut: Still Speaking To The War Weary.” www.npr.org. May 31, 2011. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.