How Does Hester Prynne's Clothes Symbolize In The Scarlett Letter

To begin, Hawthorne uses the Scarlet Letter to portray the theme of guilt. In this scene Hester Prynne is walking onto the scaffold for the punishment of the sin she has committed. The women in the crowd are talking about how Hester deserves a worse punishment. The Scarlet Letter is the A on Hester’s bosom to tell the public she is an adulterer, bringing her judgement and guilt everyday. “-was that SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminate upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and enclosing her in a sphere by herself.” (Hawthorne 51). This means that Hester’s Scarlet Letter is made beautifully but it makes her isolated from the townspeople. She is so guilty from her sin and judged from the people of the

Often times, we interpret a novel at its face value, only reading the text on the page instead of really delving into the true meaning behind that text. Since that meaning is not explicitly stated, different readers can develop different interpretations of the same text. This idea of repeated hidden meanings throughout a novel is classified as a motif, and most of the time motifs are used in order to subtly convey ideas to the reader through seemingly plain text. In the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses motifs and symbols to convey subtle ideas, one example being his harsh criticism of Puritan culture. One of the most prominent motifs in his novel is the Black Man, an imaginary being who Hawthorne equates to the devil. Hawthorne employs

In The Scarlet Letter, Hester transforms into a stronger, more confident woman through the experiences she encounters because of the scarlet letter she wears. At the beginning of the novel when Hester is ordered to wear the scarlet letter, she suffers from feelings of hopelessness and despair; feelings that trigger the thought of suicide as an option to end her suffering. While newly wearing the letter, Hester feels as though it is only a burden; however, that changes as the letter soon reveals to be a gift in disguise. The scarlet letter allows Hester to sense the guilt of those who appear to be the purest and sinless, showing her the true hypocrisy of her society. By eventually learning of the hypocrisy of her society, Hester realizes that her fellow men and women should not have the power to ruin her life. By knowing this and continuing to not let the insults she hears from affecting her, Hester grows into a much stronger person who can ignore the ill-spirited words of the poor whom she helps and the citizens whom she has to interact with. Hester’s continual wearing of this letter makes the letter itself “her passport into regions where other women [dare] not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These [are] her teachers, —stern and wild ones, —and they [make] her strong, but [teach] her much amiss" (Hawthorne, 300). Despite the many hardships Hester

Although she is looked down upon by the society in the beginning of the novel, she is transformed into a symbol of strength, something typically reserved for men, towards the end of the novel. “The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her,—so much power to do, and power to sympathize,—that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (Hawthorne 146). Through her suffering, Hester had become an inspiring symbol of strength for the community. Women were typically unable to be a symbol of strength because they were largely oppressed. Yamin Wang furthers this by saying, “By the novel’s end, Hester has become a proto-feminist mother figure to the women of the community. Meng (2003) describes that the shame attached to her scarlet letter is long gone. Women recognize that her punishment stemmed in part from the town father’s sexism, and they come to Hester seeking shelter from the sexist forces under which they themselves suffer” (Wang 897). Wang is saying that other women in the society look up to Hester and realize that she was punished by the sexist males of the society. They confide in her for the strength they need to stand up to the male leaders. This shows a big change in gender roles because previously women were too fearful to stand up to

There are various examples of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter, but one of them wraps the whole story together: the meaning of the scarlet letter A. In this passage, Hester Prynne wears an embroidered letter A on her bosom as punishment. At first the A stood for “adulterer”, but the townspeople later gained respect for her and said “Such helpfulness was found in her-so much power to do and to sympathize-that many people refused to interpret the scarlet “A” by its original significance. They said it meant ‘Able’” (Hawthorne 107). To me the “A” symbolizes hard work, morality, and poise. Hester came a long way in the Puritan town.

Hester became known as the woman who was able to do anything. In the beginning the scarlet letter represented adultery and shame, but then the A represented “able.” Hester Prynne showed people that greatness can come out of huge mistake. One bad chapter does not mean your story is over. Willingly, Hester wanted to pick herself up again and move on with her life and eventually people noticed that. They began to respect her and think of her as strong and commendable

In the novel The Scarlet Letter the letter “A” was originally intended to be a punishment for the main character Hester Prynne. She committed adultery as was branded with the “A” as public humiliation. Although she was branded as an adulteress, she continued to help others. Her good deeds toward others changed the letter “A” from Adulteress to Able as she was able to assist others. She continued to help others and began to feel good about herself. Finally, after an “A” appeared in the night sky, the townspeople believed they had witnessed an act of divine intervention and labeled the “A” as an Angel.

Hawthorne 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.

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s highly acclaimed novel, The Scarlet Letter, a Puritan town’s reaction is described after Hester Prynne raises a scandal that goes against the town’s religious views. The Puritans believe the Bible should be translated into their life and that God should be the center of it. Many of them think of Hester as a sinful woman without virtue. They treat her as an outcast and consider that she is somehow affiliated with the Devil. However, after reading Proverbs 31 and analyzing the novel, a conclusion can be determined that Hester Prynne does in fact have virtue.

“At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead… “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. (Hawthorne, 36)” This quote gives readers a deeper look in puritan believes, society, and what was expected of women at that time. Another important aspect of chapter two is the scarlet letter A sewn onto Hester’s dress. The letter is red and outlined with golden thread. This indicates that Hester took the symbol of shame and made it beautifully embroidered letter, which she wears without anguish or

Towards the end of chapter five in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne, in addition to her personal guilt as a result of her sin, is subjugated to humiliation due to the townspeople’s actions. Isolation caused by the behavior of people around her prompts Hester to reseed into herself, which leads Hester to a realization that not only disgusts her, but provides evidence of hypocrisy within the practice of beliefs that the Puritan town is structured.

Pearl is an Impish child that people believe to be the impish devil’s spawn. She is the sole company of the scarlet letter’s host, her mother Hester. She is the sole company of Hester, who is her mother and the scarlet letter’s host. Both Hester and Pearl are alienated from their community due to Hester’s sin and are treated with hostile when Hester first became an adulterer. But as time passes, the clear line of a sin and respect begin to blur. Hawthorne shows the reader how Hester, who is being consumed by her sin, finds her purpose in her little Pearl.

The townspeople “[began] to look upon the scarlet letter as a token, not of that one sin, for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds since.” This quote exemplifies how sin is not a death sentence for Hester. Through hard work and charity it allowed the rigid Puritan society to see her as something different, and as someone who would not let society define who she was.

There are a few different ways that scarlet letter can be interpreted. Hester has been able to reconnect to society and get through her troubled past. She has become a woman who devotes her time to helping the less fortunate and the needy gaining her more respect. Many people are starting to interpret the scarlet letter as “that is meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength.” (Hawthorne, 113). This is saying a lot considering the Puritan people are very strict with sinners. When she was first given the letter, they told her that she would only ever be able to be forgiven by God. Now the people see her and the letter in a completely different way. Although Hester is being very kind to others, she feels different about the letter than the others do.

However, in The Scarlet Letter, after Hester had committed her sin of adultery and received her punishment (the “A”), the women were anything but polite. If Hester was seen in public, her existence was shunned, she was criticized, yelled at, and things were even thrown at her. In the Bible, which the Puritans strictly followed, Jesus said to his followers, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Instead of being merciful and kind towards Hester, the women were scornful and could care less about her. To repent for her sin, Hester started to commit herself to serving the less fortunate of the society, such as the poor. Although Hester started to act in a completely selfless way, she still received the same amount of hatred she did years ago when she stood upon the scaffold and received her scarlet letter. As seen above, the evidence proves that the Puritan women were going against the polite etiquette they were supposed to follow and the lesson Jesus taught in the