Hawthorne's Relationship With The Puritan Society In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hawthorne is in relation to the Puritan society through his ancestors in addition to a long line of judges preceding him; whom were known for cruel sentencing during the salem witch trials. 20 or more witches were convicted of a crime under the judgement of Hawthorne's grandfather. Considering the correlation between the Puritans and Hawthorne himself- being more open minded- many see why he chose to separate himself with them. (The Scarlet Letter) Among all the Hawthorns were known for judging people and deciding their fate, similar to the Puritan people. They felt very strongly about people getting what they so deserved in return of their sins. In The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne uses his background knowledge and familiarity with the Puritan …show more content…
Hester has strong belief that her husband has deceased while away, she begins a relationship with Dimmesdale and falls in love with him, thinking that her husband is dead she allows herself to fall more for him during …show more content…
Hester's secret is revealed when the town learns she is bearing a child. Although upon questioning Hester doesn’t deny her sin, she doesn’t announce the name of her lover. Hester protects his identity because of his status within the community. The town sentences Hester to jail time for her wrongdoing, upon release she is to wear a scarlet letter A. Doing this Hester is publically humiliated in her hometown. “The Scarlet letter burned on Hester Prynne’s bosom. Here was another ruin, the responsibility of which came partly home to her.” (Hawthorne, p.116) Later is it learned that Hester’s lover was in fact Dimmsdale the town’s minister, whom himself sins by keeping this secret and continuing to preach and teach the ways of the bible. (The Scarlet Letter Analysis) Hawthorne exploits sin by utilizing the characters mistakes and putting emphasis on the fact that during this time period sin was against everything the Puritans stood for. Hawthorne occasionally reminds the reader sin isn’t easily forgotten. In Hester’s
Blindness In The Scarlet Letter
1270 Words | 6 PagesThroughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne exposes the blindness of the Puritan people through the treatment of Hester, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale’s external characters. Hester Prynne is labeled as an adulteress and mistreated by society because of their unwillingness to see her true character. Chillingworth, the husband of Hester, leads the town to believe he is an honorable man and skillful doctor, when his true intents root from his vindictive nature Finally, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, Hester’s lover and the father of her baby, acts as the perfect man therefore the town views him as an exemplar model, while he is truly a sinner. In the novel, Hawthorne portrays Hester as a strong, resilient woman, though the members of her community
Scarlet Letter Dbq
1547 Words | 7 PagesNathaniel Hawthorne was a transcendentalist. He judged his Puritan ancestors in their deeds, especially the witch persecutions. Transcendentalism, Puritanism and the idea of witchcraft were reflected in his novel The Scarlet Letter. Although The Scarlet Letter doesn‘t address witchcraft directly, witchcraft saturates the background of the novel. Many factors factors had their influence on the Puritan society, be it positive or negative.
Summary Of Arthur Dimmesdale In Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter
745 Words | 3 PagesReverend Arthur Dimmesdale, a brilliant spokesperson and a devout and wise Puritan minister in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, is the lover of a woman who commits adultery, Hester Prynne. Hester, a recognizable adulteress, wears the scarlet letter and lives as an outcast. Contradicting, Reverend Dimmesdale’s sin stays hidden from the Puritan community, know only to Hester and himself. As a minister, Dimmesdale believes he should suffer from punishments the way Hester did for committing the same crime, which leads him to fall into a terrible mental and physical state.
Consequences Of Sin In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthrone
446 Words | 2 PagesThe Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthrone demonstrates the consequences of sin and the effect it brings upon the individual and in the community in Boston 1840s. Throughout the Scarlet Letter, readers are constantly reminded of hypocrisy through characters such as Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth. Hester Prynne, the main character, was a strong, independent woman who dealt with her sin of adultery very well. Instead of running away from it, she lives with it and accepts her punishment to be publicly shamed in the town. However, while struggling to accept the will of the court, she did not believe that she truly committed a sin.
Hester Prynne And Arthur Dimmesdale
437 Words | 2 PagesNathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter depicts the flaws in the human nature of both Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Although each character possesses their own belief and values, both played their part in the sin committed. However, there is always a cause for an individual’s wrong doing and in the case of both Hester and Dimmesdale it, “had been a sin of passion, not principle, nor even purpose” (Hawthorne 152).
Character Changes In The Scarlet Letter
583 Words | 3 PagesPeople change for many reasons, the change may affect each person differently and over time a person can heal at their own pace. Depending on what has occurred to them and their actions towards themselves, helps to portray their reason to be and how it changed them into who they are now. Nathaniel Hawthorne depicts this in his novel the Scarlet Letter, many of Hawthorne’s characters undergo several changes because of the scarlet letter. Hester Prynne, the one who wears the letter A, is haunted by her crime as well as by her town. Pearl grows up knowing the scarlet letter and being a part of it, she does not know any of her town nor as religious Puritan, like everyone else.
Scarlet Letter Guilt Quotes
1464 Words | 6 PagesArezu Lotfi Mr. Burd, Block A American Lit 11 November, 2015 Fight or Flight With the inner struggle of guilt, a person can either be redeemed or destroyed. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne Hester Prynne is ridiculed publicly by the Puritan community for adultery. Mr. Dimmesdale, the man Hester cheats with is a young minister in the town, and hides his sin from the community. Together the two have a daughter named Pearl, that Hester raises.
Who Is Dimmesdale's Punishment In The Scarlet Letter
1362 Words | 6 PagesWhile Hester is forced to publicly wear a scarlet letter A as her punishment, Dimmesdale refuses to reveal his sin. He instead continues to perform his duties as the town’s well respected minister. Hester moves away from the grasp of the townspeople
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.
Scarlet Letter Worst Sinner
1105 Words | 5 PagesIn the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, sin is an issue that is brought up frequently. The story takes place in the seventeenth century in a strict Puritan community in America. Hester Prynne is sent to America from Europe by her husband, Roger Chillingworth. Chillingworth finally goes to America after two years, but Hester thinks he is dead since he does not arrive afters she does. Thinking her husband is dead, Hester decides to have an affair with the town minister, Arthur Dimmesdale.
How Does Arthur Dimmesdale Present The Community In The Scarlet Letter
859 Words | 4 PagesThroughout the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne illustrates the Puritan community as judgemental. Naturally, humans attempt to hide their mistakes and imperfections from the world. The protagonists of the story battle with concealing their feelings of shame from the town. Hawthorne shows that self-isolation will inevitably lead to the destruction of one’s character, suggesting that those who admit to their sins are able to thrive. He accomplishes this by contrasting character changes between Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth, and Hester Prynne.
How Arthur Dimmesdale's 'Transforms Hester In The Scarlet Letter'
1006 Words | 5 PagesHow the Scarlet Letter Transforms Hester In The Scarlet Letter, when Hester is first brought out on the scaffold to by publically shamed for her ignominy, Arthur Dimmesdale pleads with her to name him as her fellow sinner so that he will not have to reveal himself when he exclaims, "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, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life.” Hester refuses him and Dimmesdale goes unnamed and unpunished until the very end of the story. While Dimmesdale refuses to accept responsibility for his sin, Hester embraces the shame of the community. It is this difference which causes Dimmesdale enormous amounts of guilt and pain while Hester in able to find peace with herself and with her situation.
Secret Sin And Guilt Theme In The Scarlet Letter
523 Words | 3 PagesThis is illustrated when the narrator says, “Man had marked this woman’s sin by a scarlet letter, which had such a potent and disastrous efficacy that no human sympathy could reach her save it were sinful like” (Hawthorne 81). This is because the word potent and disastrous means having great power and causing damage. The people didn’t have any sympathy for Hester for her sin. She was supposed to be put to death. In addition, the narrator says, “most of the spectators testified to having seen, on the breast of the minister, a Scarlet Letter the very semblance of that worn by Hester Prynne imprinted in the flesh” (Hawthorne 230).
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)
Gothic Elements In Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter'
1284 Words | 6 PagesIn The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne effectively conforms to the conventions of the gothic genre for the purpose of characterizing the Puritan society as oppressive, portraying the hypocrisy found within the society and highlighting the consequences for not confessing
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