When someone makes a mistake, they usually try to hide the truth to avoid the consequences. The Puritans had a very stringent society in which all sins were met with harsh punishment. In The Scarlet letter, by Nathanial Hawthorn, Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale commit adultery, but the public only knows about Hester’s sin; Dimmesdale’s remains hidden. However, by hiding his sin, Dimmesdale suffers much more than Hester does. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorn shows that the repercussions of a “secret sin” are much worse than those of a revealed sin.
Hester’s punishment comes from society, so it is not nearly as painful as it could be. One part of Hester’s punishment is to stand on the scaffold – in shame – for three hours. The scaffold is a place where “iniquity is dragged out into the sunlight” (57) and the truth is revealed, so everyone in the Puritan town knows that Hester is guilty of the sin. While her punishment is denigrating, it is not as bad as the punishments usually are, for she does not have to undergo “that gripe around the neck” (58). The other part of her punishment is to wear, for the rest of her life, a scarlet “A” on her dress. The A, for adulterer, is meant to be a stigma for everyone to see and mock. However, Hester beautifully embroiders the mark with gold-thread and wears it with pride. The mark stays with her after she leaves the scaffold and finds a home on the edge of town. She is originally scorned and avoided, but she is needed: She sews for the governor and soldiers for public ceremonies. Due to the passage of time, her usefulness, and her acceptable behavior (she never battles with the public nor complains), Hester is forgiven and her sin is forgotten. Seven years after receiving the “A,” people change the meaning of the letter from “adulterer” to “able,” and instead of referring to her as a sinner, the townspeople refer to her as one who is “so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted” (169). Society feels that Hester had already served enough punishment, and she eventually becomes a respected woman in the town. Since the truth about her sin is known, Hester is able to overcome society’s punishment; eventually she regains the acceptance, and even the admiration, of the Puritan townspeople.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was a truly outstanding author. His detailed descriptions and imagery will surely keep people interested in reading The Scarlet Letter for years to come. In writing this book he used themes evident throughout the entirety of the novel. These themes are illustrated in what happens to the characters and how they react. By examining how these themes affect the main characters, Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, one can obtain a better understanding of what Hawthorne was trying to impress upon his readers.
After the death of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s character Dimmesdale from the book the Scarlet Letter, there have been many theories about the cause of his death. Some literary analyzers claim that his guilt was the cause of his death. Others say that Roger Chillingworth, a physician, poisoned him with Atropine and Scopolamine. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale’s guilt appears to be the cause of his death, but his symptoms point towards Atropine and Scopolamine poisoning.
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne has introduced a character that has been judged harshly. Because, she has been misinformed of her husband’s death; therefore, she was greave and had sought comfort resulting in a baby from the lover whom gave her comfort. When her secret had been discovered she was isolated for committing a treacherous crime of adultery, as one of her punishments she was forced to wear an A on her chest. The novel presents a structure of a society, using symbolism and diction to give underline meaning to the themes, portraying religious tendencies ruled by the philosophy of good and evil.
This letter A was done artistically and with fertility. This made the people think that she was not ashamed of her sin.
'Among many morals which press upon us from the poor minister's miserable experience, we put only this into a sentence: Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!';(Ch.24: 236) Hawthorne expresses the purpose of writing this novel in that short sentence. He creates characters who have sin and disguise these sins for their own salvation. Slowly these sins evolve the characters, it strengthens Hester, humanizes Dimmesdale, and turns Chillingworth into a demon. The story is Hawthorne's depiction of the effects of sin on the hearts and minds of humanity during the Puritan society through the characters Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth.
In the book, Chillingworth is a physician who had been captured by Native Americans sometime ago and subsequently released by them into Boston, Massachusetts, who was strictly a Puritan settlement at the time. In the years of his imprisonment by the Indians, he was taught many native herbs and plants of the New World, and their uses on the human body. Through this, he entered Boston as a physician, known to have "gathered herbs, and the blossoms of wild-flowers, and dug up roots, and plucked off twigs from the forest-trees, like one acquainted with hidden virtues in what was valueless to common eyes." ( The Scarlet Letter , p. 120). Chillingworth had the knowledge of a particular drug, Atropine, which caused a sickness that closely resembled the condition of Dimmesdale. Chillingworth's motive for retribution to Dimmesdale for his adultery was very clear throughout the book, "There is a sympathy that will make me conscious of him. I shall see him tremble. I shall feel myself shudder, suddenly and unawares. Sooner or later, he must needs be mine." (p. 80). Chillingworth's vengeful nature consumed his life and his only goal in life became the torment of Hester's adulterous husband, Dimmesdale. He was already showing signs of sickness, assumed by the reader to be attributed to his guilty conscience, and these were only amplified by the poisoning Chillingworth had inflicted upon him.
Every individual in the world is frail. Everyone experiences sorrow. In the classical literature novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author describes the book as "a tale of human frailty and sorrow". Hawthorne uses the novel to depict Arthur Dimmesdale's "human frailty and sorrow" through his physical appearance, emotional state, and words spoken to other characters throughout the novel.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic, The Scarlett Letter, has become one of the most discussed novels of all time. A great deal of` controversy streams from the obvious gender-related issues throughout the story. Considering the setting of seventeenth-century Boston, the plot takes place in a conservative Puritan society. Because of this, Hester Prynne, the protagonist, spends the seven years, over the course of which the book takes place, dealing with the repercussions of what is believed to be a “crime” against God and her community. The situation she is put in is one very few people could truly endure. Yet, she is able to beat all odds and surpass peoples’ expectations of an “ordinary Puritan women.” The complexity of the story goes into the depths of gender equality and the unconventional position this woman has in society. Hawthorne is able to depict conflicting gender roles in The Scarlett Letter by illustrating the expected persona of a Puritan woman and directly contrasting that norm with his very complicated and well-developed character, Hester Prynne.
Nathaniel Hawthorne"s, The Scarlet Letter is a book about a woman, Hester, who moves to Boston from England during the Puritan times. She has a husband, and tells the colonists of Boston he will be arriving to be with her soon. After years go by and he doesn"t arrive, Hester finds another man whom she becomes close to. She becomes pregnant and the town finds out she has committed adultery. She is forced to wear a letter "A," meaning "adulteress," on her bosom for the rest of her life. The book focuses mainly on the sin that was committed because it effected the whole community. The scarlet letter had one basic meaning, "adultery," but to the characters of Hester and Dimmesdale it was a constant reminder of the sin; and to Pearl it was a symbol of curiosity.
Letter while discovering that a hidden lie left to fester causes more grief and pain than he
"She was ladylike, too, after the manner of the feminine gentility of those days; characterized by a certain state and dignity, rather than by the delicate, evanescent, and indescribable grace which is now recognized as its indication. And never had Hester Prynne appeared more ladylike, in the antique interpretation of the term, than as she issued from the prison. Those who had before known her, and had expected to behold her dimmed and obscured by a disastrous cloud, were astonished, and even startled, to perceive how her beauty shone out, and made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped" - this is almost the first description of the main heroine that the reader gets. Hester Prynne is not dispirited by the grave crime that she is claimed with. She is going her way to the scaffold with a high lifted head and confident look. But why? Didn’t she committed an adulterous act, that came to light to all the society she had lived in? Didn’t she give birth to illegitimate child? Didn’t she have to wear on her breast the immutable sign of her disgrace – scarlet letter A? She did, but she still had a reason to be proud and graceful. Hester was in the middle of her journey to self discovery.
In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne analyzes Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. In the story, Hester is the main character of the story and was called Mistress Prynne (Hawthorne 70). Dimmesdale, in the story was referred to as Reverend Dimmesdale (Hawthorne 90). Chillingworth was originally named, Roger Prynne but later in the story he changed his name to Roger Chillingworth. In the story, Hester committed adultery with Dimmesdale against Chillingworth and in the beginning she got punished and sent to prison and later she got to get out of prison but with the exception of having to wear the letter A on her breast every time she went out in to town.
Nathaniel Hawthorne was not a Puritan. But Hawthrone’s forefathers were Puritans, so he had an understanding of their belief system and their basis behind it. He stated that he hoped the sins of his forefathers had been forgiven. Hoping to expose those ideas which he understood, yet despised, Hawthorne purposely presented many important Puritan beliefs as import aspects to the Scarlet Letter. In the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne addresses three main Puritan beliefs: providence, predestination, and the strict code of ethics that the settlers of New Englanders lived by.
Without an honorable reputation a person is not worthy of respect from others in their society. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the struggle to shake off the past is an underlying theme throughout the novel. Characters in this novel go through their lives struggling with trying to cope with the guilt and shame associated with actions that lost them their honorable reputation. Particularly, Hawthorne shows the lasting effect that sin and guilt has on two of the main characters in the book: Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale.
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.