Sin In Scarlet Letter
Sin is a prevalent theme throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter. The main character, Hester Pryne’s sin of adultery instigates the entire novel. The novel follows Hester’s journey in dealing with her sin in a strict Puritan town. Nathaniel Hawthorne provides an example of how someone’s sin can affect many individuals. Hester’s sin not only affects herself, but also affects many other characters including the Puritans, Roger Chillingworth, Arthur Dimmesdale and her daughter Pearl. Hester’s sin leads other characters to commit their own sins. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses The Scarlet Letter as clear testament to the effects of sin.
The Puritans in Boston are painted as judgmental and intolerant people. Consequently, in the Puritan’s
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Hester adores her daughter; however, Pearl serves as a constant reminder of her sin. Between the scarlet letter and her own daughter, Hester is reminded daily of the evil she has done. Pearl is born as a result of sin, therefore, she is undoubtedly forced to deal with her mothers’ sinful decisions. Due to Hester’s adulterous sin, Pearl is born into the world as an outcast. The Puritans taunt her by saying, “Pearl was a born outcast of the infantile world. An imp of evil, emblem and product of sin, she had no right among christened infants” (Hawthorne 434). Pearl grows up with a single parental figure. Pearl “has to grow up alone, and her only playmate is nature” (Wayne). Hawthorne writes, “the great black forest-became the playmate of the lonely infant” (537). Hester and Dimmesdale’s passion-driven sin causes consequences that Pearl is inevitably faced to live with.
Sin is a reoccurring and imperative theme in the Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne uses the theme of sin to weave the characters and the plot together. It is evident that Hester’s adulterous sin produces the plot in the remainder of the novel. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne displays the mental and physical affects of sin on individuals. Hester, Pearl, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale are all characters that are greatly affected by the adulterous sin committed by Hester and
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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.
Examples Of Secret Sin In The Scarlet Letter
806 Words | 4 PagesSecret Sin and Guilt In the book The Scarlet Letter which was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne descried Adultery in a different and extraordinary way. By writing about a woman named Hester Prynne who was compelled of Adultery. And Hawthorne also included a minister named Rev. Dimmesdale. And how Dimmesdale also has a secret sin that he can no longer bare in his heart, so he tells his congregation.
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Hidden Sin In Scarlet Letter
406 Words | 2 PagesHe would harm himself in many ways as penance for his sins. Although he had never revealed his sin, he was followed by guilt that turned his life into misery. The Scarlet letter demonstrated the moral consequences of both hidden as well as revealed sins through two prominent characters. Hester, whose sin had been revealed, went through a grueling life judged by her community for her sins until she was able to prove her compassionate nature.
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1295 Words | 6 PagesIn fact, the guilt of Reverend Dimmesdale seemed to magnify as time went on. Reverend Dimmesdale is exalted to a pious standard by the people of Boston but he is far from the perfect pastor that they think of him as. “They deemed the young clergyman a miracle of holiness. They fancied him the mouth-piece of Heaven’s messages of wisdom, and rebuke, and love” (129). The truth is that Dimmesdale is Hester Prynne’s secret lover, the father of her daughter Pearl, and her co-conspirator in adultery.
Theme Of Mental Illness In The Scarlet Letter
885 Words | 4 PagesThe Puritan belief and lifestyle plays a major role in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter. The story takes place in Puritan New England, and opens with a scene presenting to the audience that a young woman named Hester Prynne has committed adultery. Wearing her punishment proudly, a scarlet letter “A” on her breast, Hester continues to live in New England where she raises her daughter and creates an embroidering business for herself. All the while, in the heart of the town, Hester’s lover and the child’s father, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale silently suffers and is ultimately overcome with guilt from his secret sin until the point of death.
How Hester Prynne Changes In Scarlet Letter
941 Words | 4 PagesHer defiance becomes stronger and will carry her through different hardships. Her determination and lonely stand repeats again when she confronts Governor Bellingham over the issue of Pearl’s guardianship. When Bellingham wants to take Pearl away from Hester, Hester reply’s with, “God gave me the child! I will die first!”(Ch.). When also pressured even more for the child’s care, Hester pleads, “God gave her into my keeping.
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878 Words | 4 PagesHester and Dimmesdale each are equivalent in the sin that they commit, but their lives and fates are different because Hester had to repent for her crimes while Dimmesdale bottled up his guilt inside. The indirect result of Dimmesdale’s concealment of the truth was Chillingworth’s torture, which played a large role in Dimmesdale’s untimely death. Chillingworth snapped when Hester did not reveal Dimmesdale’s crimes. Hester, in part, helped Dimmesdale in
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.
Guilt And Sin In The Scarlet Letter
681 Words | 3 PagesGuilt and sin are main issues in the book The Scarlet Letter. Many characters in the scarlet letter experience these feelings. Also guilt and sin are highly important in this novel because they help the book and they create conflict between characters. However guilt and sin are also symbolized by characters and places in this book. The actions of the characters are caused by guilt and sin, and these actions they commit mold the
Essay On Evil In The Scarlet Letter
719 Words | 3 PagesWe are all sinners. Although one may try hard not to sin, all humans eventually succumb at some time or another to sin. While people may not able to avoid the fate which awaits them, the power of free will allows people to decide how they will respond to sin. While some may respond with guilt and regret, others may react with a sense of redemption and a renewed sense of responsibility. Nathaniel Hawthorne, an American author during the 19th century witnessed the power of sin to wreak havoc not only to an individual but a whole community.
Sin And Guilt In The Scarlet Letter
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Sin, Guilt And Redemption In The Scarlet Letter
433 Words | 2 PagesHester Prynne was an example of sin, guilt, and redemption. Hawthorne uses bible passages as examples. The consequences for our sins are determined by God and where we will go. Hester’s punishment is wearing the letter, ‘A’ on her breast. " God, as a direct consequence of the sin which man thus punished, had given her a lovely child, whose place was on that same dishonoured bosom, to connect her parent for ever with the race and descent of mortals, and to be finally a blessed soul in heaven!"- (pg 55).
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