She receives three punishments from the townspeople, who claim they will free her from her sin. The community orders Hester to go to jail, wear a scarlet letter on her chest, and stand on the town scaffold for hours. Hester wears her scarlet letter proudly on her chest, and endures much suffering because of her public ridicule. Hester is “kept by no restrictive clause of her condemnation within the limits of the Puritan settlement” after she was released from prison, but she chooses to stay (Hawthorne 71). Later, Hester’s child, Pearl, symbolizes the Puritan view of Hester.
Chris Ocampo Period 4A October 18,2015 Character Analysis/symbolism/Theme Identification-Analysis Essay Nathaniel Hawthorne’s use of symbolic commentary and conventional themes in The Scarlet Letter, The Ministers Black Veil, and The Birthmark, characterizes sin and judgment as deformations within us all. Within each of Hawthorne’s’ works sin reflects internal and exposed sins, as well in people’s flaws. However, there deformations expand further than the objects that they wear. All of the major symbols and themes in Hawthorns selected works embody Alienation. Hester Prynne, Aylmer, and Mr. Hooper are linked to the ambiguity of Puritan morals.
By analyzing the physical descriptions of Hester Prynne’s beauty, Arthur Dimmesdale’s weakness, and Roger Chillingworth’s ugliness, this essay explores how Hawthorne employs physiognomy to convey the inner character of each person. Hester Prynne’s beauty is a great representation of how Hawthorne uses physiognomy in The Scarlet Letter, by linking her appearance to her personality. The author describes Hester
He discusses Hester's daughter, Pearl, and how the fall of Hester would also affect Pearl's livelihood. Hawthorne explains, “often impelled Hester to ask, in bitterness of heart, whether it were for ill or good that the poor little creature had been born at all.” Hesters admittance of the fact that she has contemplated whether or not Pearl deserves to be alive signifies Hawthorne's use of a complex tone. Within the statement, he shows how Hester is recognizing that the life she has brought Pearl up in is not ideal. Out of the sorrow in her heart that she has for Pearl, Hester realizes that her daughter may have been better off never being born, as Hester has lost the abilities that she once had to be a loving mother.
1. A. Hester Prynne is a very bold and daring person. She is one that accepts her sin and doesn’t let it necessarily take over her life. She has a very wild, desperate and defiant soul and has a flightingness of her temper and her actions she is some times very capable at keeping in her emotions. She is one that tends to disobey society, she dresses pearl up on a scarlet dress with gold designs to show that she is also the scarlet letter. B. Arthur Dimmesdale is very ashamed of his sin that he committed but he does not want the people to know that he committed adultery
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, he explores the prodigy of love, crime, and revenge. It revolves around a sinful act of passion that impacts Hester Prynne, an adulteress forced to wear a scarlet letter “A”on her bosom; Reverend Dimmesdale, a respected minister in the puritans community; their daughter, Pearl; and Roger Chillingworth, Hester 's husband. Most of the characters portrayed can be analyzed as embodying both “good” and “evil” qualities. Dimmesdale is especially viewed as an ambiguous character. Dimmesdale’s moral ambiguity comes from his internal conflict between his devotion to the church and the guilt he feels for not receiving blame for his sinful act of co-adultery with Hester.
To begin, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes pathos throughout his writing to imprint the importance of individual conscience into the reader 's mind. Hawthorne begins the book by having the reader pity the main character, Hester Prynne, as she is a young, husbandless, mother in a society that shames her for her unfortunate circumstances: “haughty as her demeanor was, she perchance underwent an agony from every footstep of those that thronged to see her, as if her heart had been flung in the street for them all to spurn and trample upon” (Hawthorne, 53). The consistent misfortune of Prynne evokes emotion in the reader and stresses the weight of her decisions. Prynne manages her way through such a hostile society -“Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly on your bosom” (Hawthorne, 188)- in a way that is metaphorically applicable to the real world, allowing the reader to truly connect and understand the character for who they are.
However, he also uses these allusions to create a new side to his narrative as evident when he describes Hester’s resilience, and to create a new element in the plot as evident in his description of Dimmesdale’s penance and need for redemption. Therefore, Hawthorne demonstrates an effective use of allusions to craft a religious and detailed narrative for The Scarlet Letter by reviewing on parallels between the Bible and the novel’s main characters. There’s more to The Scarlet Letter than these allusions though, and there are many questions to answer about this book. These questions may never be answered fully, but by reading the novel itself, we might find the right places to start searching for answers and formulate our own opinions on the matter. What’s important from this novel is the realistic warning about what might happens when an individual place themselves too highly among others, a message Hawthorne writes to warn against the fervor of transcendentalism of his time.
Arthur Dimmesdale, the embodiment of “human frailty and sorrow” is one of the most interesting characters in The Scarlet Letter. Dimmesdale, a pastor revered by all around him, strong, but a cowardly individual. For example, Dimmesdale lived with the guilt of committing adultery with Hester Prinne for about seven years. Dimmesdale inward struggle mimicked his outward appearance of emaciation. Even though, Hester bore the cruel burden, punishment, and ostracized of their sin, he continued to keep their sin secret no matter how much it pained him.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is a novel that explores the theme of guilt and how it affects the three main characters, Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Through the use of physiognomy, Hawthorne conveys the inner qualities of these characters by describing their physical appearances. This essay argues that Hawthorne's use of physiognomy in The Scarlet Letter reinforces the theme of guilt and its impact on the characters. One example of this is Hawthorne's description of Hester Prynne. He writes, "The young woman was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance, on a large scale...
In D.H. Lawrence's critical essay “On the Scarlet Letter,” Hester Prynne is portrayed as Dimmesdale’s seducer. Hester Prynne is described as a “demon” and as the “greatest nemesis of woman” because she committed adultery. D.H. Lawrence focuses his essay around her sin rather than the consequences resulting from her sin. In order to display his purpose in a successful manner, he uses colloquial diction that involves repetition, terse syntax, and biblical and mythological allusions that stimulate ideas through imagery.
Fatal flaws have been shown in works of literature throughout the centuries, causing the destruction of many characters. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, three of the main characters each have a fatal flaw. The novel, set in Puritan Boston between 1642-1679, tells the story of Hester Prynne through third person narrative. Hester begins her journey in the novel when she is brought from jail for her punishment in having an affair with someone in the town, resulting in her pregnancy. Her husband, Roger Chillingworth, who she believed dead, sought out revenge against the unknown father of Hester’s child.
Nathaniel Hawthorne surely had the option to end The Scarlet Letter happily with Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl running off into the sunset together. However, he does not which should be predictable to the audience considering the overall characterization, tone, and purpose of this novel. Hawthorne’s setting is Puritan New England where odd women are accused and executed for witchcraft and children who play in the forest are considered diabolical. The tone is indubitably somber and it does not improve as the novel goes on.
The Scarlet Letter and the American Spirit Readers would look at the Scarlet Letter and they wouldn’t think of it as a way to describe the “American Spirit” because of all the hatred and the negativity that goes on in the novel. After reading an assortment of characters that comprise a living, breathing definition of the American identity, we gain an overview of just how vastly diverse and complicated the people of this country have always been and continue to be. Hester Prynne and Pearl are great examples of what the American experience and Spirit was and will continue to be. Hester Prynne screams out, heart and soul, american spirit.
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne explores recurring themes of suffering surrounding the main characters, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester and Dimmesdale both commit adultery with each other, and, as a result of this, both experience gruesome and occasionally unbearable forms of suffering. Though they undergo different forms of pain, both of their experiences are highly reliant on how the Puritan society treats them. Hester 's pain stems from the shame and estrangement she receives from the community, while Dimmesdale’s is due to the reverence with which the community regards him. Although, in spite of the fact that both Hester and Dimmesdale receive harsh penalty for their sin, by the end of the book, Hawthorne shows how their suffering is, in fact, the key to their salvation.
