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What are the themes in scarlet letter by nathaniel hawthorne
Major themes of Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter
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The Scarlet Letter: Two Faces
"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally becoming bewildered as to which may be true”. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, this quote applies to the two main characters of the novel. It applies to Arthur Dimmesdale in a literal way; he clearly is not the man that he appears to be, and the guilt that goes along with such deception consumes his entire life. The quote also applies to Hester Prynne, but in quite a different way because it was not her choice to wear the “face” that she was forced to wear. The mark of the scarlet letter on her bosom determined how others perceived her and, in turn, how she was expected to perceive herself. At first, Hester did not consider the sin that she committed as blasphemous and horrible as the people of Boston did, but she was forced to wear the “face” of a sinner.
Neither Hester or Arthur could live their lives concealing their true emotions. Arthur literally could not live with it, while Hester changed the way she felt on the inside to correspond to her guilty external image. At the court house, when Arthur Dimmesdale was pleading for Hester to reveal the name of the man with whom she had an affair, it was clear that a part of him actually wanted everyone to know that it was he who was the guilty one.
Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place...better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life…(47).
When this plea is made, it appears to be quite ironic. The man who participated in the sin is trying to convince his accomplice to do him in. However, this ...
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...t with the sin in a completely different way not only because she was a different person, but because there was no additional weight of a secret that went along with the sin. Instead of trying to figure out her identity, the way Arthur had, and clinging onto the belief that what she had done was not a sin, she allowed herself to surrender and believe what the rest of society believed at that time. The people of Boston saw adultery as a sin, and there was no way that any good or love could come out of it. When Arthur's character is tested, he struggles to find the answer but is unable to, and literally dies trying. Hester, on the other hand, does not give such a noble attempt, but rather chooses, whether consciously or not, to go along with society’s views of adultery.
Works Cited:
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
The punishments that the characters must undergo are worsened by the fact that they do not tell the whole truth. Hester has been found guilty of adultery but when she is asked to tell whom it was that she committed the sin with she refuses saying "Never.
For example, Roger Chillingworth desperately tried to find out who committed the act of adultery with his wife Hester Prynne and explained what his response will be: “… the man lives who has wronged us both! Who is he? ... I shall see him tremble … Sooner or later, he must … be mine!” (Hawthorne 27-28).Chillingworth’s feeling of deceit and the reaction is the polar opposite of the reaction from Hester Prynne. Hester Prynne wanted to be noticed by Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, her secret lover; she did not want to harm the Reverend. Unlike Chillingworth, Hester’s feeling of deceit is caused when Dimmesdale refused to tell the truth or recognize her. Even though Hester never ...
Hester is indeed a sinner, adultery is no light matter, even today. On the other hand, her sin has brought her not evil, but good. Her charity to the poor, her comfort to the broken-hearted, her unquestionable presence in times of trouble are all direct results of her quest for repe...
Guilt and shame haunt all three of the main characters in The Scarlet Letter, but how they each handle their sin will change their lives forever. Hester Prynne’s guilt is publicly exploited. She has to live with her shame for the rest of her life by wearing a scarlet letter on the breast of her gown. Arthur Dimmesdale, on the other hand, is just as guilty of adultery as Hester, but he allows his guilt to remain a secret. Instead of telling the people of his vile sin, the Reverend allows it to eat away at his rotting soul. The shame of what he has done slowly kills him. The last sinner in this guilty trio is Rodger Chillingworth. This evil man not only hides his true identity as Hester’s husband, but also mentally torments Arthur Dimmesdale. The vile physician offers his ‘help’ to the sickly Reverend, but he gives the exact opposite. Chillingworth inflicts daily, mental tortures upon Arthur Dimmesdale for seven long years, and he enjoys it. Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth are all connected by their sins and shame, but what they do in regards to those sins is what sets them apart from each other.
Hester, although not happy for her act of wickedness, can come to terms with the fact that her life will never be the same. Although difficult to do this at the time, revealing her crime to the public allowed for her to live out the rest of her life with more happiness than she would have without committing a crime. Hester is described as having “a burning blush,” showing her embarrassment and guilt. But, as the story goes on, she is always said to have held her head high. The guilt, once spent, didn’t affect her physically. She now knows people will forever see her as the woman with the Scarlet Letter- but that understanding is what keeps the guilt from infecting her life. On the other hand, Dimmesdale doesn’t admit his sin, which slowly ruins his life. The closest Dimmesdale ever comes to admitting his sin, is in the middle of the night- only in the presence of Hester and Pearl. He climbs the scaffold, and upon seeing Hester and Pearl, invite them to the stage with him. He hold
Hull, E., Jackson, K. and Dick, J. (2010) Requirements Engineering. 3rd ed. London: University of Ulster.
Although Hester accepts the Puritan’s punishment like putting her in jail and standing on the scaffold, she does not allow her emotions to show on the outside. Instead she keeps the guilt she feels inside in the same way John Proctor hides his guilt from the Puritan community.
In fact, much of the suffering incurred from Hester’s sin results from her own actions. She, by her own choice, wears humble, dismal clothes; she moves to the outskirts of her town, but refuses to run away to a place where no one knows of her crime; she excludes herself from society, while society does not always exclude her. Instead of escaping her crime, Hester embraces it. She declares, “It lies not in the pleasure of the magistrates to take off this badge... Were I worthy to be quit of it, it would fall away of its own nature, or be transformed into something that should speak a different purport,” realizing the crime she committed and the fairness of her punishment—the scarlet letter (163).
Hester had to deal with her guilt in a whole different method than that of Arthur’s and therefore chose to ignore it rather than to be overcome by it.
The guilt that now rests in Hester is overwhelming to her and is a reason for her change in personality. The secrets Hester keeps are because she is silent and hardly talks to anyone. “Various critics have interpreted her silence. as both empowering. and disempowering. Yet silence, in Hester’s case, offers a type of passive resistance to male probing”
Hester and Dimmesdale both bear a scarlet letter but the way they handle it is different. Hester’s scarlet letter is a piece of clothing, the “SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom” (Hawthorn 51). Dimmesdale on the other hand, has a scarlet letter carved in his chest. This is revealed when Dimmesdale was giving his revelation, in which “he tore away the ministerial band from before his breast. It was revealed!” (Hawthorn 232). Since the Scarlet Letter on Hester is visible to the public, she was criticized and looked down on. “This women has brought same upon us all, and ought to die” (Hawthorn 49) is said by a female in the market place talking about Hester. She becomes a stronger person through living this hard life. Dimmesdale instead has to live “a life of cowardly and selfish meanness, that added tenfold disgrace and ignominy to his original crime” (Loring 185). He becomes weaker and weaker by time, “neither growing wiser nor stronger, but, day after day, paler and paler, more and more abject” (Loring 186). Their courage is also weak.
Throughout the novel, Arthur Dimmesdale constantly struggled to live two different lives. To the public, Arthur was an admired minister. His famous sermons spoke about sin and additionally how egregious committing sin was. Dimmesdale’s community thought he was a brilliant man who would in return never do anything inappropriate. On the inside Dimmesdale was a sinner. After committing adultery with Hester Prynne he attempted to bury the sin inside of him hoping that it would not affect him. His physical and mental health was suffering due to the feeling of guilt. If Dimmesdale would have confessed this sin, his life would not have been so awful and as a result he could have moved on, but then again he did not have enough willpower to admit.
After the systems planning is complete, the next course of action is the systems analysis phase. This phase includes defining the requirements of the system. This means that the team must conclude what the system needs to do in order to satisfy the users. This is done by forming a requirements...
On the other hand, revisionists found the cause of the after-war tensions in the steps of the United States that was unnecessarily aggressive.
Requirements engineering begins during the communication activity, continues into the modeling activity, and builds a bridge from the system requirements into software design and construction. Through requirements engineering, there is an examination of the context of software work performed. It is essential for the software engineering team to understand all requirements of a problem before the team tries to solve the problem. An identification of specific needs that the design and construction must address is also included. Further is a need for the identification of the priorities that guides the order for the completion of work. This i...