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Critical appreciation of the scarlet letter
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Recommended: Critical appreciation of the scarlet letter
In On the Scarlet Letter, D.H. Lawrence examines one of the many different opinions on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s character from The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne. Instead of evaluating the consequences of Hester’s sin, Lawrence focuses more on the sin itself. Mocking Hester, he clearly demonstrates that he does not agree with the amount of appraisal she receives and does not think that people should use her as a model to look up to. To express his opposition towards Hester Prynne, Lawrence includes narrative allusions, demeaning diction, and repetition throughout his criticism. By examining Hester Prynne’s character through narrative allusions, Lawrence demonstrates his cynical view of her. He refers to Hester Prynne as “Mrs. Hercules” and describes her ability to seduce Arthur Dimmesdale (Lawrence 45). Like Hercules, Hester proves to be cunning, strong, and willful. However, using these characteristics to her advantage, Hester entices Dimmesdale, which differs from what Hercules does with his strength. Alluding to Hercules, Lawrence mocks Hester for her actions and further persuades his audience that people should not look up to Hester Prynne. …show more content…
To mock Hester’s depiction as a victim, Lawrence writes, “Abel! Abel! Abel!” (Lawrence 45). Lawrence repeats the name “Abel” in order to highlight the fact that people see Hester as a victim and when she is quite the opposite. He mocks her and reminds his audience that Hester continued to live after her sin even though Dimmesdale died. Furthermore, Lawrence repeats the word “adulteress” throughout his criticism (Lawrence 45). Repeating this word helps to emphasize that Hester is still, and always will be, a sinner. Moreover, “adulteress” usually comes with negative connotations. By continuously labeling Hester as an adulteress, Lawrence reminds the audience that her wrongdoings make her unworthy of
Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne attempted to expose the varying ways in which different people deal with lingering guilt from sins they have perpetrated. The contrasting characters of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale ideally exemplified the differences in thought and behavior people have for guilt. Although they were both guilty of committing the same crime, these two individuals differed in that one punished themselves with physical and mental torture and the other chose to continue on with their life, devoting it to those less fortunate than they.
Hester Prynne is a character who gave up everything, even love, for her child. Hester Prynne sacrificed her peace, her beauty, her entire being for her child and this shows her determination and profound understanding of the world. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s piece, “The Scarlet Letter” shows the other side of the sinner’s story and not as a villain, but a victim.
Hester is a youthful, beautiful, proud woman who has committed an awful sin and a scandal that changes her life in a major way. She commits adultery with a man known as Arthur Dimmesdale, leader of the local Puritan church and Hester’s minister. The adultery committed results in a baby girl named Pearl. This child she clutches to her chest is the proof of her sin. This behavior is unacceptable. Hester is sent to prison and then punished. Hester is the only one who gets punished for this horrendous act, because no one knows who the man is that Hester has this scandalous affair with. Hester’s sin is confessed, and she lives with two constant reminders of that sin: the scarlet letter itself, and Pearl, the child conceived with Dimmesdale. Her punishment is that she must stand upon a scaffold receiving public humiliation for several hours each day, wearing the scarlet letter “A” on her chest, represe...
In his essay On the Scarlet Letter, D.H. Lawrence explores Nathaniel Hawthorne’s portrayal of Hester Prynne. Lawrence focuses on and condemns Hester’s sin itself rather than its consequences. Instead of supporting Hawthorne's depiction of Hester as an innocent character, Lawrence sheds light on what he believes is her true character, a deceiver. He argues that Hester Prynne has a false appearance of purity through his use of critical diction, sarcastic tone, and biblical allusions.
Many hearts are drawn to history's greatest love stories, such as Romeo and Juliet, Bonnie and Clyde, and Helen and Paris to name a few. One could argue that humanity’s way of finding happiness is to seek love. Pure, unadulterated love is one of the hardest feelings to acquire, but when one does, they’d do anything to keep it. Through Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and his characters, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, readers discover that this innate desire to be accepted and loved is both our most fatal flaw and our greatest virtue.
Hester Prynne is seen by many as worthy of respect and admiration throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter. She is ultimately seen as a hero in many areas of the novel. Literary critic Mark Van Doren argues that Hester Prynne is a heroic citizen who rises above the consequences of her sin. Van Doren argues that Hester Prynne should be seen as a noble hero through his use of repetition, praiseworthy diction, and admirable tone.
In D.H. Lawrence’s essay, “On The Scarlet Letter,” he criticizes Nathaniel Hawthorne’s wrongful idolization of Hester Prynne. Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hester is treated as a victim rather than the criminal Lawrence believes her to be. In Lawrence’s essay, he analyzes Hester’s sin and mocks the book for becoming a farce. He focuses on the causes of Hester's sin, rather than the consequences. In analyzing Hester Prynne, Lawrence is effective in achieving his purpose due to his satirical tone, choppy syntax, and use of biblical allusions.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is seen as a hero by some and as corruption and sin itself by others. She commits adultery, perceived as one of the worst sins by Puritan society, but also comes to terms with it. D.H. Lawrence conveys his thoughts on the subject of whether the protagonist of the novel should be considered a hero in his essay “On Hester Prynne”. He claims that the whole idea of Hester being a hero is ridiculous because The Scarlet Letter was meant to be satirical when relating to the topic of who is seen as a hero. Lawrence believes that she has corrupted Dimmesdale, the young and pure minister, and does not deserve the praise she is receiving from Hawthorne and other authors like Van Doren. Hester
The characterization of Hester Prynne demonstrates a contrast to pure society, as writer and critic D.H. Lawrence suggests in his article, “On the Scarlet Letter.” There is a genuine disparity in the methods Lawrence uses to portray Prynne, and the methods used by The Scarlet Letter’s author, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Because of his utilization of impactful syntax, religious allusion, and critical tone, D.H. Lawrence’s claim that Hester Prynne is a contradictory character to pure society is effectively justified when compared to the misleading seductive elements of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing.
D.H. Lawrence criticizes Nathaniel Hawthorne’s portrayal of Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter in his essay “On the Scarlet Letter.” By focusing on Hester’s sin itself rather than its causes and consequences, Lawrence expresses his opinion on the role of Hester in the novel. Lawrence utilizes choppy syntax, biblical allusions, and a sarcastic tone to clearly reveal his objection towards Hawthorne’s depiction of Hester as a victim of Puritan society’s condemnation.
Readers don’t know the full story of the sin, therefore, readers assume she is who the townspeople say she is. Hester stands with confidence and a poker face as her fellow community judges her for her actions. Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne’s lover, is a spiritual figure to the townspeople. He fell in love with Hester because of her striking beauty and, he too, wants to keep his identity a secret to his peers. He feels guilty while he sees Hester standing on the scaffold, but he doesn’t stand up there with her.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s well known novel, The Scarlet Letter, extensive diction and intense imagery are used to portray the overall tone of the characters. In particular, Hester Prynne, the wearer of the Scarlet Letter, receives plentiful positive characterization throughout the novel. Hester’s character most notably develops through the town’s peoples ever-changing views on the scarlet letter, the copious mentions of her bravery, and her ability to take care of herself, Pearl, and others, even when she reaches the point where most would give up and wallow in their suffering.
In Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the reader meets the character Hester Prynne who as the novel progresses, one notices the changes in her character are very dramatic. The changes are both physical and in her mannerism’s. There are many significant events which took place before the start of the novel and during the novel. Some of these events that lead to this dramatic change include the affect of wearing the scarlet letter, the secrets which she keeps, and her daughter Pearl’s evil characteristics. By these events, Hester Prynne’s image is transformed throughout the time of the story.
Throughout all the sinful things Hester Prynne has done, she still managed to obtain good qualities. Hester was an adulterer from the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hester was looked down upon by the citizens of Boston because of the sin she and another person committed, but no one knew who her partner in crime was because she refused to release his name. Towards the very end of the story Hester’s accomplice confessed and left Hester and Pearl feeling joyous, because now they didn’t have to keep in a secret. Hester is a trustworthy, helpful, and brave woman throughout The Scarlet Letter.
The Scarlet Letter is a fictional novel that begins with an introductory passage titled ‘The Custom-House’. This passage gives a historical background of the novel and conveys the narrator’s purpose for writing about the legend of Hester Prynne even though the narrator envisions his ancestors criticizing him and calling him a “degenerate” because his career was not “glorifying God”, which is very typical of the strict, moralistic Puritans. Also, although Hawthorne is a Romantic writer, he incorporates properties of Realism into his novel by not idealizing the characters and by representing them in a more authentic manner. He does this by using very formal dialogue common to the harsh Puritan society of the seventeenth century and reflecting their ideals through this dialogue. The Puritans held somewhat similar views as the Transcendentalists in that they believed in the unity of God and the world and saw signs and symbols in human events, such as when the citizens related the meteo...