Puritan Culture In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
For generations, authors have written stories in order to exploit the actions of a certain group or person. The Scarlet letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is no exception to this. This novel takes place in 1850 and follows main character, Hester Prynn, as she endures life in The Massachusetts Bay Colony with her daughter. The novel focuses the struggle of a mother who had a child out of wedlock and the reaction of the Puritan society in which she resides. This plot was selected by Hawthorne in order to express his own social commentary on the Puritan Culture at the time. Nathaniel Hawthorne critiques the harsh rules and punishments of the Puritan colony through the symbolic nature of the characters, his grim diction, and
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First, the town reverend, Arthur Dimmesdale, is employed by Hawthorne to display the pressures that the strict rules of the colony have on its citizens. As a Religious Figure in his society, Dimmesdale is expect to follow the stern laws of Puritan Culture. However, he breaks these rules when he commits the sin impregnating Hester, causing the battle between his heart and religion to slowly tear apart his sole. This is significant to Hawthorne’s critique of Puritan Religion because Dimmesdale unable to express his true feeling due to his fear of public backlash. Hawthorne goes on to depict dimmesdale and the rest of the Puritans as, “stern and black-browed” (52), as they cannot truly express their inner beauty due to the standards of society. On the other hand, Hawthorne actually describes Hester as having a, “ charm of softness to her features”(304), contrasting the images 0f the rest of the characters in the novel. Hawthorne uses Hester’s beauty as a symbol of a free sole that is not confined to the constraints of Puritan society. Once Hester decides to leave behind the scarlet letter and the religion that had defined her for so many years, Hawthorne reveals that, “She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom” (308), demonstrating his perspective that Puritan society restricted a person 's god given
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The Puritan Community In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne
945 Words | 4 PagesHe is explaining that, by Hester not admitting to who the father is, she is condemning the father to being a hypocrite and an adulterer. “While thus suffering under bodily disease, and gnawed and tortured by some black trouble of the soul, and given over to the machinations of his deadliest enemy, the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale had achieved a brilliant popularity in his sacred office. He won it, indeed, in great part by his sorrows.” (Hawthorne ). This quote is proof that Dimmesdale has brought this pain and suffering upon himself as the result of hypocrisy.
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445 Words | 2 PagesArthur Dimmesdale, the minister, a clergyman had committed the horrid sin of adultery, the same sin as Hester. Dimmesdale’s holy affiliation gave him a kind and pure disposition and this was solidified by his dimwittedness, making him seem almost childlike. By having a character with these qualities, Hawthorne contradicts the stereotype he has set up by having Dimmesdale be “unworth... [y] to [complete his] humblest mission” (71), a quality virtually unheard of among ministers. The author then has Dimmesdale confess his “sin so awfully revealed!”(211) in order for both Hester and Dimmesdale to redeem themselves of sin and restore the goodness.
How Does Nathaniel Hawthorne Use Biblical Allusions In The Scarlet Letter
1458 Words | 6 PagesNathaniel Hawthorne, a famous American author from the antebellum period, notices the emphasis on individual freedoms in the works by Ralph Waldo Emerson and other Transcendentalists during his residency in the Brook Farm’s community. In response to these ideas, Hawthorne writes The Scarlet Letter, a historical novel about Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale’s lives as they go through ignominy, penance, and deprecation from their Puritan community to express their strong love for each other. Their love, even though it is true, is not considered as holy nor pure because of Hester past marriage to Roger Chillingworth, and thus Hester gained the Scarlet Letter for being an adulterer. Hawthorne utilizes biblical allusions, such as the stories of
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2184 Words | 9 PagesThe Scarlet Letter is a popular novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne which is mainly read during one's high school years. The Scarlet letter is set during the sixteenth century in Boston Massachusetts where a young woman named Hester Prynne is publicly shamed by the Puritans. When Hawthorne was writing this novel he described the puritans as a sad, bland society which had a reliance on the consequence of sin. His description of the Puritan society was not fully opinion-based since the Puritans that came over from England did dress simply. This leads the reader to wonder how much of his personal opinion made its way into the story and how much is historical fact.
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838 Words | 4 PagesBy negatively depicting the Puritans with his depressing diction, Hawthorne establishes a scornful tone that highlights the Puritan’s
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1142 Words | 5 PagesWhen Hester finally takes off the scarlet letter “A” and her cape in the wilderness, it not only represents the beauty she held despite the emotional punishment she underwent, but it also represents her removing the Puritan and patriarch society holding her back. Hester’s feminist conscious is intricately portrayed throughout the
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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.
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1146 Words | 5 PagesNathaniel Hawthorne did not always speak positively toward the Puritans, but he has respect for the group. The main symbol that stands out is the scarlet letter “A” that was stuck on Hester Prynne for her actions of adultery which is a theme for this book. Another symbol is the rose bush that grew right outside of the old, rusty, decaying prison
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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.
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)
Examples Of Justice In The Scarlet Letter
1646 Words | 7 PagesImagine living in a place where one small sin could define who you are for the rest of your life. That is what happened in The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. The novel is set in a seventeenth-century Puritan community in Boston, Massachusetts. A young woman by the name of Hester Prynne commits a small act of adultery and is shamed for the rest of her life, by wearing a scarlet letter “A” on her breast. The book is centered around the theme of justice and judgement.
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