Hester Prynne Character Analysis
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne’s character is revealed through all of the punishments and hardships that are bestowed upon her. Hester Prynne commits the sin of adultery, however, the townspeople in the Puritan community discovers her sin. In her community, Hester’s actions are seen as a sin because she had a husband. Hester’s husband had been gone for several years, learning the art of alchemy and other medicinal properties. During this time, Hester believed her husband had died and ultimately that is what leads Hester to commit the sin of adultery and having a child with another man. Hester wanted nothing but to to move on with her life, just like anyone else would, and so she does. Because the community believed what she had done was wrong, they chose to mark Hester Prynne with the scarlet “A” upon her chest. If not for Hester’s strength, humbleness, and kindness, Hester could have been easily broken by her community.
Hester is a character of strength. Hawthorne reveals Hester’s strength in character through constant acts of strength. After the discovery of Hester’s sin of adultery, Hester is punished by being taken “out of the ordinary relations with humanity and enclosing her in a sphere by herself”, (Hawthorne, 51), by marking Hester with the Scarlet letter “A” upon her attire. The scarlet “A” is meant to label her as an “Adulterer”. The effect this letter had was significant. After being labeled as an adulterer and publicly humiliated,
Hester Prynne Shame Quotes
1140 Words | 5 PagesHester's True Side In committing an act of adultery, Hester Prynne, the primary character in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, finds herself a victim of harsh judgement and ridicule by her Puritan community. She becomes isolated as a result of this scandalous behavior and becomes emotionally involved in a love triangle between her husband and her lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, who is the town minister. As a result of her shameful history, the townspeople attempt to destroy and embarrass her by socially neglecting her and labeling her as an outcast and loner. Though the people of the community pursue several attempts to shame her, Hester Prynne's beauty, selflessness, and strength help her overcome this rejection from the townspeople and
Examples Of Adultery In The Great Gatsby
1557 Words | 7 PagesAdultery- In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne Commits adultery. Once she has committed she gets shamed for life. Adultery is also a very important point throughout the story. It shows how it can wreak havoc on anyone’s life.
Triads In The Scarlet Letter
891 Words | 4 PagesHester Prynne, being the main character of the novel and having the punishment of wearing the scarlet letter A on her bosom, was convicted of adultery after she had conceived a little girl. Hester was originally sent to Boston and was supposed to wait for her husband to finish up affairs in Europe, but instead had an affair with none other than Arthur Dimmesdale, one of the highest figures in the
Hester Prynne's Ignominy
264 Words | 2 PagesIn Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is an extreme outcast in her society following her public ignominy and being sinfully branded as the adulterer. Succeeding Hester’s removal of the “A” from her chest, she initially believes that “the burden of shame and anguish departed from her spirit” (182). Hester feels as though the removal of the “A” has removed the stigma pertaining to the “A”, as well as the constraints and disregard society has cast upon her. But whether or not Hester contains a physical marker of her ignominy, she will be abandoned within society. After seven years of being accustomed to Hester’s sin, townspeople still believe Hester was “dead, in respect to any claim of sympathy” (203).
Community In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
716 Words | 3 PagesIn The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne explores the relationship between the individual and society within a strict puritanical community. After committing adultery, Hester is stripped of her humanity and forced to wear an “A” for “adulterer” in order to appease the community. Her ignominy was lead by Dimmesdale, a minister for the community and later revealed to be the father of her daughter, Pearl. From the beginning of the novel, Hester maintains a commitment to her set of personal values. This is exhibited through her refusal to reveal Dimmesdale’s name, thriving outside the values of the community, and accepting the letter as a part of her identity.
The Madonna/Whore Complex In The Scarlet Letter
1266 Words | 6 PagesThis is just another example of how women and their bodies are policed under this dichotomy. Yet men are free from the being either the Madonna or the whore because that separation is exclusive to women. Throughout the story, Hester’s torment is contrasted with the man whom Hester had an affair with, Arthur Dimmesdale. Despite Arthur revealing his part in their adultery, the townspeople do not condemn him. In the conclusion, the narrator reveals how the spectators refused to believe that Arthur’s “dying words, acknowledged, nor even remotely implied, any, the slightest connection on his part, with the guilt for which Hester Prynne had so lone worn the scarlet letter” (Hawthorne 566).
Compare And Contrast Scarlet Letter Vs Crucible
1665 Words | 7 PagesIn Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne commits adultery with Reverend Dimmesdale. From this union, a child is born, and so the story revolves around how the child grows up, and the conflicts Hester faces because of her actions. “With these words she advanced to the margin of the brook, took up the scarlet letter, and fastened it again into her bosom… Hester next gathered up the heavy tresses of her hair and confined them beneath her cap. As if there were a withering spell in the sad letter, her beauty, the warmth and richness of her womanhood, departed like fading sunshine, and a gray shadow seemed to fall across her.”
Analysis Of Hester Prynne In The Scarlet Letter
896 Words | 4 PagesBy wearing the “A,” Hester was publicly humiliated, however, her development in character causes a change in the meaning of the Scarlet Letter, which leads her to taking pride in the letter as it grows a part of her. After Hester’s sin the Puritan community places a false
How Hester Prynne Changes In Scarlet Letter
941 Words | 4 PagesWe are all sinners, no matter how hard we try to hide our faults, they always seem to come back, one way or another. Written in the 19th century, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows us Hester Prynne and how one sin can change her life completely. Hester Prynne changes a great deal throughout The Scarlet Letter. Through the view of the Puritans, Hester is an intense sinner; she has gone against the Puritan way of life committing the highest act of sin, adultery. For committing such a sinful act, Hester must wear the scarlet letter while also having to bear stares from those that gossip about her.
1984 Vs Scarlet Letter
2424 Words | 10 PagesIn The Scarlet Letter, Hester uses her infamy as a way to change the Puritans’ mindset about those who have sinned. Throughout the novel, the Puritans of Boston treat Hester poorly due to the fact that she is a well-known adulteress. Despite her poor treatment, Hester does not allow the Puritans to control her life; in point of fact, she decides to interact with the Puritans through acts of charity so that she can eliminate the stigma associated with the scarlet letter. Originally, Hester never sinned so that she could go against god’s words. She sinned because she felt lonely, and she longed for someone who would love her and take care of her.
Hester Prynne Punishment In Scarlet Letter
791 Words | 4 PagesPunishment of Puritans for their sins occurred harshly and frequently, and these punishments ranged from fines, branding, and severe whippings to hanging and death. Many of these penalties involved public humiliation of some kind, which made it extremely difficult for townspeople to accept by their peers after they had sinned. Because the Puritans believed religion was immensely important, the community was often reluctant to allow citizens that exhibited sinful behavior to achieve redemption (Cox). However, in the case of Hester Prynne, an adulterer in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's The Scarlet Letter, the townspeople eagerly made amends with her. This novel narrates the life of Hester Prynne, who committed adultery and courageously accepted the repercussions
Isolation In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
963 Words | 4 PagesHawthorne also uses the Puritans harsh treatment of Hester as a way to critique and insult their harsh ways of life. For example, had Hester’s husband been believed to be alive at the time of her sin, Hester would most likely have been put to death for her sin. These kinds of harsh punishments shine a light on the injustices imposed on women in that time period. One Puritan went so far as to comment that “[Hester] has brought shame upon [them] all, and ought to die” and even argued that “[there is] law for it both in the Scripture and the statute-book” (Hawthorne 22). This overwhelming demand for Hester’s death simply because she fell in love after her husband was believed to be dead shows how harshly women, and Hester specifically, were forced into a sphere of isolation.
Essay On Evil In The Scarlet Letter
719 Words | 3 PagesEven though the Puritans may have designated the letter as a representation of sin, Hester’s renewed sense of pride does not want society to define the A for her. Rather Hester wants to define it herself and by doing so she develops responsibility and power over her own actions. Because Hester has the power to change who she is, she also has the power to change what the Scarlet Letter represents. By letting the letter be “embroidered with gold thread” readers are able to see how for Hester sin is not something to be fearful of; furthermore, it allows one to see how Hester has developed into an independent individual who accepts who she is and the situation she is presented with. Hester’s lover unfortunately
Hypocrisy Of The Puritan Society In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
936 Words | 4 PagesIn the “Scarlet Letter,” Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays hypocrisy of the Puritan society, where the protagonist Hester Prynne face many consequences of her actions and the how she tries to redeem herself to the society. During the seventeenth puritans believe that it is their mission to punish the ones who do not follow God’s word and it is their job to stop those from sinning. Therefore, the hypercritical puritan society punishes Hester harshly for committing adultery, but in Hester’s mind, she believes that what she did was not a sin but acts of love for her man. Eventually, she redeems herself by turning her crime into an advantage to help those in need, yet the Puritan society still view her as a “naughty bagger.” (Hawthorne 78)
The Symbolism Of 'A' In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
959 Words | 4 PagesReceiving the scarlet letter changed every aspect of Hester’s life. Especially at the start of the story, the letter symbolized the solitude and great suffering Hester faced just because of a letter placed on her bosom. The “A” also depicted how no one viewed Hester the same way as before her peccant actions. “…she saw that, owing to the peculiar effect of this convex mirror, the scarlet letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance” (Hawthorne 109). The pejorative community Hester lived in never saw Hester as the beautiful, young woman she was, but now, as a horrible fiend.
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