The effect of being an outsider due to the letter causes her to become a shell of her former self. Her beauty is lost as “her rich and luxuriant hair had either been cut off, or was so completely hidden by a cap, that not a shining lock of it ever once gushed into the sunshine” (Hawthorne 515). Hester has stopped being a woman, which the narrator even confirms. She is able to reclaim her womanhood briefly when she takes off her cap and letter in an intimate moment with Arthur Dimmesdale. She is finally allowed to be beautiful since “the burden of shame and anguish [depart] from her spirit” (Hawthorne 536).
Do anything save to lie down and die!” (TSL 201). She is not ready to flee her site of torture to a new location with Dimmesdale, as this would declare that she is ashamed of her act of defiance. Especially when she casts off her Puritan cap and the scarlet letter for few moments,she regains her passionate self. She acknowledges her act as one of transgression but
The poem basically tells us about 19th century life and people's attitudes towards unlawful relationships. The poem tells us about a cottage maiden who had an affair with a Lord. She loses her virginity to him, and then regrets the whole ordeal. In the 19th century, if you were not known as pure ... ... middle of paper ... ... but further on she's not able to contain this calmness anymore and has an outburst of hatred towards the Lord - something that she's been trying to cover. The last stanza of the poem becomes more of revenge than hatred.
Her sin is revealed and it hurts her mentally and physically while affecting others. “All the light and foliage of her character had been withered up by this red-hot brand…”(pg 184). Hester is no longer the passionate, devoted woman she was at the beginning of the book. She is now a bare outline of her former self, not the woman we first knew her as. The letter upon her has made her more able but left her intangible spirit amiss.
Petry discusses how Grace is left in shock after realizing that the letter she cherishes isn't from Delphin: “Her bag, her knitting, and gloves slid in a panic-stricken heap to the ground” (Petry 165). She stands up in shock, dropping the knitting material which symbolizes the wreckage of their relationship. The objects’ falling signifies the mental state of Grace, and her anxiety has also fallen away. At this point Grace begins to realize that she does not need to hide behind her knitting and feel guilty for her affair with Delphin. Therefore, leading her to lose her anxiety and stand up for herself.
The scarlet letter was an important symbol to the storyline of the Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter. It held many significant meanings that the reader learns as they did deeper into the novel and use their imagination. The scarlet letter was not only a symbol of adultery but also a symbol of power and of
Hawthorne’s Use of Symbolism Symbolism is using a character or object to represent an idea. Hawthorne displayed much of it in his novel, The Scarlet Letter. He displays it in his characters and objects in the novel. He even symbolizes the book by calling it, “A tale of human frailty and sorrow.” Other displays of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter, are like, the rosebush, the scaffold, and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Symbolism can sometimes be hard to understand, or difficult to figure out what a character or object is symbolizing.
During the onset of the novel, Hester was shunned from the community as this prostitute that was viewed as the epitome of the Devil’s work. By the middle of the plot, “Hester Prynne did not now occupy precisely the same position in which we beheld her during the earlier periods of her disgrace. Her mother… had long been a familiar object to the townspeople.” (Hawthorne 126) Her scarlet letter is later represented as “Hatred, by a gradual and quiet process, will even be transformed to love.” (126) Hester is slowly becoming a martyr that symbolized the absolute wrongdoings of society. She is to the point that the townspeople started to feel pity for her and wanted her to remove the scarlet letter. Even until the end, the scarlet letter is even engraved on her grave to serve as a legacy for generations
After seven years of punishment, Hester wears a cap and her face becomes dark, and she is hidden by the burden of her sin. Once she removed her scarlet letter, and it seemed as if her beauty came back to life. Yet when Pearl, Hester’s daughter, sees her, she becomes angry and forces her ... ... middle of paper ... ...be taken away from her, she asks Dimmesdale to help her. This is an example of irony because the audience knows that Dimmesdale and Hester are partners in sin, but the characters do not. The last example of irony is when Hester implies that Dimmesdale knows her best since he is her pastor, while one later understands that Dimmesdale knows her well because they committed adultery together.
Hawthorne describes Hester as “self-ordained a Sister of Mercy” (104) where her scarlet letter is no longer perceived as an icon for her sin, but rather a “symbol of her calling” (104). After conquering her shame, she learns to help others--those who had fallen -- recover from their own conflicts. Hester still lives with the shame of her sin every time she looks at her daughter, but manages to beat the pain and guilt that tries to overwhelm her. Roger Chillingworth is consumed by rage and driven by an evil vengeance. Upon returning to his wife aft... ... middle of paper ... ...r Dimmesdale to die because he must repent for his sin by appealing to God.