How Does Hester Prynne Change In The Scarlet Letter
The Scarlet Letter opens with Hester Prynne, a young woman who has committed adultery and is being punished. She is shown to be a proud, confident woman but is quickly forced to mature under the burden of public humiliation. Hester becomes an unhappy and bitter woman, her mind and body hardened by the stress of her punishment and her inability to forgive herself and move on. Throughout the story, she struggles to come to terms with what she has done and only when she finally does, can she return to her former happy, unburdened self and regain her former beauty.
At the start of the novel, Hester has just received her sentencing for her crime of adultery. Despite the condemnation being thrown on her, she remains undaunted and does not attempt to hide the result of her perceived sin. The book states "...she took the baby on her arm, and with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbours (Hawthorne 80)." Special emphasis is taken of her looks which are elegant and dignified. Her hair is a noted part of her appearance and is said to be "...dark and abundant...so glossy that it threw off the sunshine with a gleam... (Hawthorne 81)."
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The constant reminder of her sin for seven years withers away the softer part of her character. She covers her hair up with a cap and her appearance becomes severe and hard (Hawthorne 245). A shadow follows Hester and Pearl remarks to her that "...the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom (Hawthorne
Overcoming Stereotypes In The Scarlet Letter And The Crucible By Nathaniel Hawthorne
927 Words | 4 PagesAs the crowd watches, Hester Prynn, holding an infant, walks down from the prison door and makes her way to the scaffold, where she is to be publicly condemned. Both The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible were intended to teach and instruct through didactic texts. The authors conveyed this through bringing attention to specific details and the decisions of the characters in their writing. Three lessons that were included in both the play and the novel were the overcoming of the stereotypes and bias of characters in The Scarlet Letter, the corruption of not only the ones who govern, but also susceptible to even the common citizens in The Crucible, and the perspective of faith and morality of the characters in the story who determine good versus evil through irony. First in The Scarlet Letter, we were taught by Hawthorne about overcoming the initial stereotypes and biases of specific characters in the novel including himself.
Hester Prynne's Deception In Scarlet Letter
937 Words | 4 PagesNathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter takes place in the Massachusetts Bay colony during the 17th century. The story revolves around a young woman, named Hester Prynne, who is forced by her community to bestow a scarlet “A” on her chest for the rest of her life in order to remind her of the adulterous sin and crime she has committed. As her punishment, in the form of public humiliation, Hester is constrained to stand upon a scaffold in the town square while holding her illegitimate baby, Pearl. In the midst of the townspeople, she recognizes a familiar face; her long, lost husband who had been presumed dead at sea.
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.
Hester Prynne Analysis
919 Words | 4 PagesJohn Updike described Hester Prynne, the main protagonist, as “a mythic version of every woman’s attempt to integrate her sexuality with societal demands.” In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne was used as a symbol of women’s struggle and acceptance to meet society’s expectations as a woman and especially as a wife. These expectations being; loyal, the proper mom for her child and following the guidelines of the Bible by not committing any sins, etc. She was labeled as an adulterer but above everything else she became a power identity and a symbol of bravery. Before understanding why Hester was a mythic version for all these reasons, it is important to first understand who Hester is, what she did and why she is such a crucial character in this 1850 romance novel.
How Does Hester Change Throughout The Scarlet Letter
686 Words | 3 PagesAs two main characters in The Scarlet Letter, which is written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester and Dimmesdale are committed adultery, therefore, the scarlet letter is patched on Hester’s chest. Accordingly, Hester and Dimmesdale have some similarities and differences. Both of the characters have the same sin, love each other, love Pearl , and indeed, they have been changed by their sin. On the other hand, the way that Hester and Dimmesdale deal with their sin is totally different, and it brings them to different ending as well. Hester and Dimmesdale love each other deeply, even though they have changed totally since their identical sin has revealed.
Hester Prynne Pride Quotes
618 Words | 3 PagesMy first introduction of Hester Prynne, from what the author described, showed that she wore the Scarlet Letter on her chest with pride and she showed no sense of remorse on her face. “In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and, with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbors.” (pg.46) My response would be “how could she commit an act so unholy as a mother, and display pride?” The comparison and contrast that Hawthorne makes between Hester and her baby is that her baby is a sin-born infant but never committed an act of adultery.
Hester Prynne Symbolism In Scarlet Letter
665 Words | 3 PagesShe is a beautiful, young woman who has sinned, but is forgiven. Hawthorne portrays Hester as "divine maternity" and she can do no wrong. Not only Hester, but also the physical scarlet letter, a sign of shame, is shown as a beautiful, gold and colorful piece which
The Madonna/Whore Complex In The Scarlet Letter
1266 Words | 6 PagesHer beauty is lost as “her rich and luxuriant hair had either been cut off, or was so completely hidden by a cap, that not a shining lock of it ever once gushed into the sunshine” (Hawthorne 515). Hester has stopped being a woman, which the narrator even confirms. She is able to reclaim her womanhood briefly when she takes off her cap and letter in an intimate moment with Arthur Dimmesdale. She is finally allowed to be beautiful since “the burden of shame and anguish [depart] from her spirit” (Hawthorne 536). However, when she has to put her hair back in the cap and fasten on the letter “her beauty, the warmth and richness of her womanhood, [depart], like fading sunshine; and a gray shadow seemed to fall across her” (Hawthorne 541).
Hester's Punishment In The Scarlet Letter
640 Words | 3 PagesHester was sentenced to wear the scarlet letter "A" for the rest of her life and Hester was forced to stand on the scaffold, so she could be publicly humiliated for her sin. Hester and Pearl will go through life, being shamed by others. The townspeople want to see Hester suffer. Hester and Pearl are strong enough to receive the looks and the talks that they will be getting from the
Analysis Of Hester Prynne In The Scarlet Letter
896 Words | 4 PagesAlthough publicly admitting to sin can be a challenging task, time will heal the initial pain. Hester Prynne, of the Scarlet Letter, lives this lesson as she commits the sin of adultery. Her punishment for the sin is to wear the letter “A” on her bosom until she is allowed to remove it by the Puritan authorities wishes. Initially, Hester feels guilt and shame as she wears it. As Hester’s character grows in strength, she overcomes the letter’s original purpose of punishment.
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.
Hester Prynne Sacrifice In Scarlet Letter
1213 Words | 5 PagesThis shows that Hester does not necessarily need to worry about what the people of Boston think of her or how she needs to redeem herself in order to fit back into the society. When Hawthorne says “The angel and apostle of the coming revelation must be a woman, indeed, but lofty, pure, and beautiful; and wise, moreover, not through dusky grief, but the ethereal medium of joy; and showing how sacred love should make us happy, by the truest test of a life successful to such an end!” he is showing how there is no way for Hester to change her society. She should have love and joy, but instead she is faced with guilt, which leads to her downfall. Along with this, Hawthorne demonstrates how the people of Boston are actually the sinners while Hester and Dimmesdale represent the Angel and the Saint of the city.
Sympathization Of Hester Prynne In 'The Scarlet Letter'
972 Words | 4 PagesHester Prynne is the heroine of “The scarlet Letter”, and it is possible for us to fully sympathize with her because Through reading the text “The Scarlet Letter” we can find out Hester Prynne had a difficult life and had been suffering very much comparing to other characters because she handles her situation by keeping Dimmesdale a secret even under pressure refusing to let them take her daughter Pearl from her and not hiding from the public after her sin of adultery is revealed and she is punished. Though Hester Prynne does faced her situation better than the other characters it is still she who sufferers the most. The another reason which compel the reader to sympathize on Hester Prynne is because she had to under gone the worse consequences of her sin that she must live with her relationships and interactions with Chillingworth and Dimmesdale, and the way she deal with her sin and the results of it.
What Does The Deep Red Symbolize In The Scarlet Letter
940 Words | 4 PagesHawthorne uses symbolism throughout the Scarlet letter to display the sin and indecency people see Hester as. The detail represents ,the deep beauty Hester has inside although most people do not see her as a beutiful women. The deep red is a representation of adultery which shows her being an oncast from society. The symbol of the letter “A” is repetitive throughout the novel and grows with Hester and overcomes this with time as people start to see her as a person again and not just a adulterer. Hester acknowledges her sin in her puritan faith but swears to secrecy on the father of Pearl.
The Role Of Hester Prynne In The Scarlet Letter
466 Words | 2 PagesFeminism is the philosophy advocating equal political, economic, and social rights for women. The idea of feminism was not at all prevalent during the 1850s when Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter was published. In spite of this, Hawthorne wrote one of the most influential feminist novels of his time: The Scarlet Letter. This novel was hailed as an important feminist novel because of the main character: Hester Prynne.
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