The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter tells the story of a woman, Hester Prynne, who had to live with the shame of defying one of the Ten Commandments in a strict religious community. The reader follows her as she is excluded from the community and punished. Not only does this affect her but it also affects a reverend and her husband. Hester Prynne lives in a Puritan community. They believe in having a “pure” community and having a population that believes in the same thing. Puritans have a literal interpretation of the Bible and their lives are based around God. God has absolute power over everyone, including their destiny. Hester breaks one of the Ten Commandments, which is, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” By going against the community’s …show more content…
She … resumed the symbol of which we have related so dark a tale. Never afterwards did it quit her bosom. But … the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world’s scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too” (Hawthorne 234). This quote was said when Hester decided to return to New England. When she got there, she began to wear the “A” again. The scarlet letter was originally meant to shame her. Now, she identifies the letter with her past and herself. Hester has now changed the meaning of the letter from something to be guilty about to something that she overcame. This also shows Hester’s character development when compared to the beginning of the book. Something I learned while reading The Scarlet Letter was that withholding emotions, especially those of guilt, can have a huge effect on your mental and physical health. Dimmesdale really demonstrated this lesson. He didn’t want anyone to know about his affair with Hester and he kept it hidden for seven years. His guilt began to consume him and since he refused to talk to anyone he began to have visions about Hester and his child. He would even whip himself and
In the beginning, the scarlet letter represents the sinful nature of Hester’s crime, as revealed through the thoughts and feelings of Hester and the townspeople towards the letter. When first wearing the letter in public, Hester portrays herself as indifferent towards the town’s harsh language and detest for her, despite still feeling the intensity of her punishment internally. Hester portrays herself as indifferent towards the town’s harsh language and detest for her, and strong in the difficult conditions. By “wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she…with a burning blush, and…haughty smile…looked around at her townspeople and neighbours” (Hawthorne, 80).
In the beginning of the novel, Hester Prynne exits the prison of the Puritan community of Boston, a large letter “A” clearly visible on her chest and a child in her arms. This is the first time the letter makes an appearance, and it is here where readers realize Hester has done something terribly wrong. The letter “A” sewn onto her clothes initially represents “adulterer”, but who exactly is the father of Pearl, the child Hester is holding, if her husband has been missing for two years? The townspeople would love to know the answer to that question, too, but it is only revealed to readers a few chapters into the story as being the unexpected Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale faces an
The Scarlet Letter is a story about human reaction to circumstances and the justification behind these actions. Each of the central characters in the novel represents a side of an extremely serious situation, adultery. Each of the characters has a certain amount of justification behind their actions and each searches for a way to rise out of his/her condition.
"Lovely ladies ready for the call. Standing up or lying down or any way at all. Bargain prices up against the wall" (Boublil). The selling of one's body is consensual. When a woman decides to put herself for sale, she will be given the cold shoulder by her peers. Many women make the decision to sell themselves solely to provide for a child. The song "Lovely Ladies" from the musical Les Misérables, involves whores in France selling themselves to men in a Parisian back ally. The musical Les Misérables was based on a book written by Victor Hugo. One character in this book goes by the name of Fantine. She had a child out of wedlock to a man who left her and their child alone. She had to work to support not only herself but also her daughter, Cosette.
The scarlet letter is more than just an “A” that Hester Prynne wears as punishment. The “A” on Hester’s clothing is a symbol for adultery, but under the hand stitched “A” it is much more. The “A” tells a story of how one mistake can make a big impact on life. Throughout the book there have been many scenarios that the “A” has affected different characters, in a positive and negative way. This little letter has many meanings to many people, some people that did not know it would even affect them. The simple letter is much more powerful than what anybody thought.
In Hester’s community it is looked down to have an affair while you are married even if you do feel alone and otherwise able to do so. Hester Prynne was having an affair with Arthur Dimmesdale while her husband, Roger Chillingworth, was away. While she was having the affair she was commiting a sin that will lead to severe consequences. This can also relate to the movie film Chicago where Roxie
Internal Conflicts: Internally, Hester Prynne deals with the belief of impurity, isolation from fellow members of the community, and self-identity. Hester Prynne believes that her sin of adultery tainted her soul, marking her impure. Prynne ultimately feels as if she lost her faith and ruined her relationship with her God. She is alone as other members of the community separate themselves from her. Hester
The Scarlet letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The plot focuses on sin in the Puritan society. Hester Prynne, the protagonist, has an affair with Reverend Dimmesdale, which means they are adulterers and sinners. As a result, Pearl is born and Hester is forced to where the scarlet letter. Pearl is a unique character. She is Hester’s human form of her scarlet letter, which constantly reminds her of her sin, yet at the same time, Pearl is a blessing to have since she represents the passion that Hester once had.
Hester and the Puritan Society of The Scarlet Letter. & nbsp; Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, focuses on the Puritan society. The Puritan society molded itself and created a government based upon the Bible and implemented it with force. The crime of adultery committed by Hester generated rage, and was qualified for serious punishment according to Puritan beliefs. Ultimately the town of Boston became intensely involved with Hester's life and her crime of adultery, and saw to it that she be publicly punished and tortured. Based upon the religious, governmental, and social design of the Puritan society, Hester's entire existence revolved around her sin and the Puritan perception.
Hester Pryne of The Scarlet Letter Hester Pryne, after being punished for her sin, lived an important life. In "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester was convicted of adultery. However, after her conviction, she managed to raise a daughter, became an important seamstress in her community, and set an example for her close-knit community. Pearl, the daughter of a convicted sex offender, grew up living a different life from her peers.
The Scarlet Letter is a unified, masterfully written novel. It is structured around three crucial scaffold scenes and three major characters that are all related. The story is about Hester Prynne, who is given a scarlet letter to wear as a symbol of her adultery. Her life is closely tied to two men, Roger Chillingworth, her husband, and Arthur Dimmesdale, her minister and the father of her child. Her husband is an old, misshapen man who Hester married while still in Europe. Chillingworth sends her ahead of him to New England, and then does not follow her or correspond with her for two years.
Now, Hester may have been successful in her lack of common sense, but she wore the letter “A” proudly, as is shown in the following quotation from the novel: “... The point which drew all eyes and, as it were, transfigured the wearer-so that both men and women, who had been familiarly aquainted with Hester Prynne, were now impressed as if they beheld her for the first time--was the Scarlet Letter, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and enclosing her in a sphere by herself (61).” I believe that although it caused her much pain and suffering it could also be a token of her love for Dimmesdale. She wears the letter as a consequence from loving Dimmesdale. She might have made the letter so lovely as to vibrate positive feelings from it, however, which may or may not have been a good thing.
As Hester wears the scarlet letter, the reader can feel how much of an outcast Hester becomes. When walking through town, “…she never raised her head to receive their greeting. If they were resolute to accost her, she laid her finger on the scarlet letter and passed on” (Hawthorne, 127).She believes that she is not worthy of the towns acknowledgments and chooses to ignore them. The guilt that now rests in Hester is overwhelming to her and is a reason of her change in personality.
Hester Prynne committed a crime so severe that it changed her life into coils of torment and defeat. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester is publicly recognized as an adulteress and expelled from society. Alongside the theme of isolation, the scarlet letter, or symbol of sin, is meant to shame Hester but instead transforms her from a woman of ordinary living into a stronger person.
In the first chapters of the novel, Hester was punished to wear an "A" on her chest at all times. The "A" is a punishment for the adultery she committed with the towns own Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Instead of making it into something that people looked down upon, as something horrific and disgusting on her chest, she made it look like a beautiful, gleaming gem. She made it out of the most gorgeous sparkling gold threads that caught everyone's eye. A quote in chapter two described the scarlet letter as "so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself." That shows how she is a confident and very individual person. No other woman would have as much courage as she did to make a punishment into an attraction.