The Importance of the Meteor in The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, is considered by many to be a masterpiece. It was a culmination of everything Hawthorne experienced in his life. He grew up in a household that held fast to Puritan ideals. This affected him in ways he himself may not have even realized. “Nathaniel Hawthorne placed many undercurrents of meaning in this novel”(Tucker 16). At the climax of the story, a meteor flashes through the night sky. The appearance of this meteor at this particular moment in time contributes to the plot in many ways.
First, Reverend Dimsdale thinks the meteor is a message from God specifically for him. "Nothing was more common in those days than to interpret all meteoric appearances, and other natural phenomena that occurred with less regularity than the rise and set of the sun and moon, as so many revelations from a supernatural source"(149). Any person of that day would have assumed that something of that nature applied to some portion of his or her life. "Then, and there, before the judgment seat, thy mother, and thou, and I, must stand together. But the daylight of this world shall not see our meeting"(149)! Just after those words leave Reverend Dimsdale's mouth, the meteor lights up the sky as bright as day. It's as if God is proving Reverend Dimsdale's words to be false. The light of the meteor resembles the letter "A" to Reverend Dimsdale because his conscience is pricking at him. Subconsciencely he wants to punish himself for his sin since the townspeople can't punish him for a sin of which they were unaware. Therefore, his guilty feelings twist a natural part of creation into a punishment of sorts. He believed the meteor resembled the letter "A" to convict him further of his sinfulness. "...a great red letter in the sky-the letter 'A' which we interpret to stand for 'Angel.' For, as our good Governor Winthrop was made an angel this past night, it was doubtless held fit that there should be some notice thereof"(153). The fact that a member of his congregation also believes that the meteor resembles the letter "A" is ironic because of his belief that it stands for "Angel" in honor of the departed governor rather than something with a negative connotation. The mind can make one event appear as something to one person while another person observing the same event will consider it the complete opposite of the first.
Results: The experiments required the starting, ending, and total times of each run number. To keep the units for time similar, seconds were used. An example of how to convert minutes to seconds is: 2 "minutes" x "60 seconds" /"1 minute" ="120" "seconds" (+ number of seconds past the minute mark)
The step test was conducted in the lab room. The first participant measured her pulse rate for 30 seconds before starting the exercise. Her pulse rate was calculated to determine the number of beats per minute. She then stepped on the platform (up and down) and continued at a...
Our project required our car to go at least 3 meters. Our initial trials were successful because our car went 7,8, and then 9 meters. The car went 7 meters in 8 seconds with a speed of 0.875 m/s. It went 8 meters in 10 seconds with a speed of 0.8 m/s. It finally went 9 meters in 12
good. To give you an idea of how well that is, you need to examine the averages.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter introduces themes within the story that recur in several settings and serve as metaphors for the underlying conflicts. The trouble in interpreting The Scarlet Letter is the fact that the story is packed full of symbolism that can be either overlooked, or misinterpreted. From the actual letter ‘A’, down to the use of colors, Hawthorne wrote his story with the intention of making the reader work harder and read deeper into the characters and actual meaning of the story.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic The Scarlet Letter, nature plays a very important and symbolic role. Hawthorne uses nature to convey the mood of a scene, to describe characters, and to link the natural elements with human nature. Many of the passages that have to do with nature accomplish more than one of these ideas. All throughout the book, nature is incorporated into the story line. The deep symbolism conveyed by certain aspects of nature helps the reader gain a deeper understanding of the plight and inner emotions of the characters in the novel.
Every movement of everyday must be functional. He timed himself buttoning his shirt to see which way was faster, top-bottom, or bottom-top. He timed himself shaving to see which way took longer, using to brushes to apply the shaving cream, or one.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is unquestionably a great piece of American literature. It can be analyzed and interpreted in many different ways because of the plot’s intensity and characters’ diversity. Two aspects that stand out above the others in Hawthorne’s work are nature and society. With the use of Hester Prynne and her daughter Pearl Hawthorn successfully proves that a relationship with nature, which embodies purity and freedom, can draw one’s mind away from the corruption and enslavement of a cruel society.
Nathaniel Hawthorne. The name strikes fear in the hearts of high school students everywhere because Hawthorne's 'wordy' novels, especially his 1849 The Scarlet Letter, have been at the top of English classes' required reading lists for years and will continue to be for years to come. In general, students have grown accustomed to superficial analyses of books, which encompasses reading and regurgitating 'literary facts' on multiple choice tests. However, when reading engaging, well-written, stylistic and ambiguous novels, such as The Scarlet Letter, one must go deeper and actually examine the novel and the elements that the author so effectively uses. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses a wide range of symbols, such as: aspects of nature, for example the forest, sunshine and water; things, like the scarlet letter itself and places like the scaffold.
Hawthorne uses nature as symbols throughout The Scarlet Letter. The novels extensive use of symbols in nature helps to compare Hester and her moral character to the merciless standards of the culture she lives in. Each symbol reveals characteristics of Hester that differ
Health as a Social Construction In my essay, I aim to find out why social construction affects the health of our society. Ill health may be defined as 'a bodily or mental state that is deemed undesirable'. This means that health is the condition of the body both physically and mentally. Social construction of health refers to the way health varies from one society to another.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter silhouettes the human experience as being intricately woven with equal parts loving bliss and guilty anguish. He describes, from different characters’ perspectives, that only through one does the other have meaning. That living is a sensation fully encountered exclusively from naked emotion which is tended toward, the liberty to articulate those truths, and solidarity. Pearl becomes the embodiment of the former, who is described from the very beginning as an unearthly “creature”, the second by Arthur Dimmesdale, slowly killed by his secret sin, and the latter by both as they discover the lawless triumph of pleasure and pain. Over the course of the novel’s
His inward trouble drove him more in accordance with the old, corrupted faith of Rome, than with the better light of the church in which he had been born and bred. In Mr. Dimmesdale's secret closet, under lock and key, there was a bloody scourge. Oftentimes, this Protestant and Puritan divine had plied it on his own shoulders; laughing bitterly at himself all the while.
distance, and will continue to do so for infinity. In this way, the runner can
Hawthorne not only displays excellent characterization, symbolism, and irony, but he also exhibits a good message for all. The characters (not including the antagonist) all learned valuable lessons. Hawthorne’s symbolism proved that there are deeper meanings to things than one might expect. The irony of the story pulls it all together. Hawthorne’s creative uses of all three of these elements, characterization, symbolism, and irony, make The Scarlet Letter, a must-read novel.