Pillars of Metaphorical Ambiguity in The Scarlet Letter
Among the multiplicity of arcane elements hidden beneath the words in Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter", none is so apparent, yet strikingly subtle to the reader's perception and consumption of characterization than the allegorical play on words within the names of the characters. Both the protagonist and her rival within the plot are blessed with conveniently appropriate, fitting names. The four pillars supporting this novel are all cloaked with foreshadowing names, which silently clue the reader into what traits and significance the character holds as the story unfolds. These pillars that solidify the novel are Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Pearl.
The first, possibly strongest column supporting the evolution of themes in the novel is Hester Prynne. Hester is the young woman who is abandoned by her older, disfigured husband, and falls in love with a young, passionately God-fearing man who subsequently conceives a child, thus revealing her "adultery" and is punished by the Puritan society that he represents. She is instructed to wear a red letter, hence the title of the book. Through her punishment, she acquires and applies several motifs that the novel boasts, the most powerful one being represented perpetually throughout the story, sin. Apparently, in efforts to stress her significance and origin of decisions in the story, Hawthorne skillfully gave this woman whom the story revolves around the name of Hester Prynne, comfortably in sync with the word she is faced with constantly: sin. Her last name, rhyming with the word is no mistake, and though subtle in its existence, is ingenious in its implication, and an almo...
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...r Dimmesdale divulges the less than resplendent qualities the young minister displayed in his lack of resolve and spirit. Finally, Pearl implies the costly, lamentable result of a debacle that was ironically conceived from affection and tender ardor. The intricate constituents of this endless metaphor of a novel would vaporize without concrete, stationary components that solidify the plot and stimulate its growth, each reactive and influential upon the other. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” would crumble into an insipid, low faceted pile of a couple plot twists, monotonous characters, juvenile prose, and a stack of aged papers from Hawthorne’s basement that would have never reached the new millennia without those four pillars of metaphorical ambiguity.
Work Cited
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Ed. Brian Harding. Oxford: Oxford 1990.
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 Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted in 1971 by psychologist Philip Zimbardo explored the moral impact of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. Zimbardo, a former classmate of Stanley Milgram who conducted his own obedience experiment (The Milgram Obedience Study), looked to expand upon Milgram's research. He sought to further investigate the impact of situational variables on human behavior. The main question the researchers asked was, how the participants would react when placed in a simulated prison environment. The participants that were chosen were undergraduate students who were physically healthy with no history of mental illness or a criminal record. They would be selected to fill either the role of prisoner or prison guard. The main question was “Would those good people,
...ed 6 million people based on the orders of Adolf Hitler and his henchmen. In reference to the two situations, one participant of the study said that “anybody can be a guard, but not every one becomes sadistic.” This saying can be applied to real life situations, especially that of the New Jersey incident.
When put into the position of complete authority over others people will show their true colors. I think that most people would like to think that they would be fair, ethical superiors. I know I would, but learning about the Stanford Prison Experiment has made me question what would really happen if I was there. Would I be the submissive prisoner, the sadistic guard, or would I stay true to myself? As Phillip Zimbardo gave the guards their whistles and billy clubs they drastically changed without even realizing it. In order to further understand the Stanford Prison experiment I learned how the experiment was conducted, thought about the ethical quality of this experiment, and why I think it panned out how it did.
The experiment was conducted in the Stanford Psychology department basement. The mock guards were told they could use anything to enforce prison rules except violence. Their goal was to be strict and psychologically demeaning to the prisoners. Guards were told to dehumanize the prisoners, calling them by their assigned number instead of their name. Zimbardo (1971) took the role as prison superintendent and watched over the guards and prisoners. To begin the experiment, Zimbardo (1971) cooperated with local law enforcement and had all 12 pri...
The book Obedience to authority by Stanley Milgram is about a series of experiments performed by Milgram himself, on unsuspecting participants. The experiments were performed to answer the question if people had a tendency to comply with authority figures. Milgram drew inspiration from Adolf Eichmann’s trial, to create a study to explain the actions of the Nazis. As quoted “The point of the experiment is to see how far a person will proceed in a concrete and measurable situation in which he is ordered to inflict increasing pain on a protesting victim.” (pg. 5) The experiment involved a learner, whom was strapped to a chair and connected with electrodes, an experimenter who lead and gave instructions about the experiment and a teacher whom asked
At last the experiment can proceed. Nothing will go wrong; after all, it is only an experiment. None of it is real. This is what Slater must have been repeating continuously to bring him some form of comfort. Contemplating all the possible failures he could endure as the experiment progressed. It may have been a good thing he did, it prepared him for what was about to happen. In this case, day two began as a horrible realization for Zimbardo. The inmates were blocking their cell doors with the beds provided and revolting against the guards. This forced overtime for many of the guards and caused them to retaliate by using fire extinguishers on the inmates. One guard came up with the idea to push a wedge against the opposition. “Privilege cells” were set up to give prisoners higher quality food and special items, if they did not riot with their peers. Unfortunately for the guards, this olive branch was rejected and anarchy continued. Prisoner #8612 was the first to lash out in a furious mental breakdown and removed only after 36 hours into the
An only child is one that has no siblings; they are in fact the "only" child in the family. They are classified as a special case of a first born. Because an only child has no siblings to play with, they have to overcome feelings of loneliness and often times, boredom. To combat their solitude, only children make up imaginary playmates and games to amuse themselves. They also become resentful of adult intrusion and cope with intrusion in one of two ways. They either go into fast mode to avoid the intrusion altogether or they use slow mode, accepting the intrusion and trying to see the help in it. Only children also tend to be extremely selfish. Growing up with 200% of the parents' attention, they hold much resentment for anything t...
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.
For every child born there is a different set of characteristics set for them. First borns tend to be the leaders of the family. They are the ones that turn out to be newscasters or presidents (Neal,1). They are well organized, scholarly, and usually perfectionists (leman,27). Also, parents tend to favor the first born over the others because of their achievements and hardworking attitude (Vowels,1). The first and second child will become complete opposites (Vowles,1) A second child is the trouble maker of the family. They feel less important than the rest of the children (Neal,1). They have strong relationships with their friends because they feel they cannot share things with their family members and are not valued in the family (kelger,). Second children help avoid conflict and keep the family members out of fights (Leman,28). They are expected to live up to the oldest which to have self esteem issues and makes it hard for them to open up to anyone (Kluger). This child has the most varied char...
With its abundance of genera, the Burgess Shale is one of the world’s most important fossil fields. It’s discovery in 1909 led to over 100 years of paleontological study in the Canadian Rockies, a majority of which has been carried out in two quarries known as the Walcott and Raymond quarries (Hagadorn, 2002). Though he was originally in search of trilobites in the Burgess Shale Formation, paleontologist Charles Walcott also discovered a diverse group of soft- and hard-bodied fossils, from algae and sponges to chordates and cirripeds (Hagadorn, 2002). Soft-bodied fossils are incredibly rare due to their delicate structure and susceptibility to decay, so it is hard-bodied fossils that more regularly occur in fossil findings. However over 75,000 soft-bodied specimens have been found in the Burgess Shale formation (Hagadorn, 2002). These specimens are preserved in layers of shale formed from deposits of fine mud. One of the most significant species discovered is the Pikaia gracilens. Believed to be an early chordate, the Pikaia gracilens existed very close to the beginning of the evolutionary path that ultimately lead to humans (McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia, 2006).
The guards were reported to have been “disappointed” in having to leave, while the prisoners left with severe psychological damage. The Stanford Prison Experiment is known as one of the most controversial tests in all of psychology. Researchers were fascinated with the results and the study provided an unbelievable amount of information regarding human behavior; however, it raised a lot of issues to the public dealing with the morality of the situation. People were very alarmed by Zimbardo’s willingness to put young students in such a harsh situation while he sat back and observed, not even stepping in to calm the guards when things got too intense. The prisoners were subjected to long-term mental problems, which Zimbardo had to know was a possibility from the start, but the experiment happened
The only- child develops characteristics from having to cope with playing alone and with having to fend off adult intrusion. Only children tend to feel frustrated and throw tantrums when not pleased. They love to say “Leave me alone, I’d rather do it myself!” They tend to have imaginary companions and feel as if the child within was smothered because they had to grow up so quickly. Therefore in turn allow their own children time and space. As well as always being an emotional and considerate friend that loves to listen.
Only children are also commonly known to become more mature faster then other children who grow up with siblings. Their maturity grows faster because again adults surround them most of the time. They copy what they see their parents do and they try to fit in and be like the parents. As other kids with siblings they would try to fit in with their siblings but only children have their parents to fit in with. (Koontz, 1989)
The Scarlet Letter is a blend of realism, symbolism, and allegory. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses historical settings for this fictional novel and even gives historical background information for the inspiration of the story of Hester Prynne in the introduction of The Scarlet Letter, ‘The Custom-House’. The psychological exploration of the characters and the author’s use of realistic dialogue only add to the realism of the novel. The most obvious symbol of the novel is the actual scarlet letter ‘A’ that Hester wears on her chest every day, but Hawthorne also uses Hester’s daughter Pearl and their surroundings as symbols as well. Allegory is present as well in The Scarlet Letter and is created through the character types of several characters in the novel.