The Virtue Of Hester Prynne In The Scarlet Letter

Through a multitude of quotations, Hawthorne strategically implies how the Puritans justify their harsh judgments. Though the judgments were relatively harsh, some quotations suggest that the judgments of the Puritans could be a low level considering the judgment sinners will receive when judgment day comes. For instance Dimmensdale says, “Then, and there, before the judgment-sear, thy mother, and thou, and I, must stand together” (Hawthorne, 535). He then continues with “But the daylight of this world shall not see our meeting” (Hawthorne, 535). It seems as if Hawthorne suggests that the judgment that occur here on earth are mild in comparison to the intensity of the judgment of those in Heaven. Essentially, it seems that Hawthorne is drawing

Furthermore, The Scarlet Letter and 1984 both show the reader how an individual can use their personal, sometimes unfortunate, situation to their advantage thereby making both novels, that are set in different historical time periods, very similar.

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. By confessing her sin, Hester is able to move on and uses her punishment as a means to grow and improve

Hester Prynne changed dramatically throughout the course of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter. Initially she was viewed as the antagonist and was a destructive character to those around her. After being confined in her cottage with Pearl, she began to develop a sense of who she needed to become in order to efficiently raise Pearl. Hester’s ability to do what was necessary for her improvement made her into a respectable role model for women to shadow. Hester chose to isolate she and Pearl to create a wave of self-improvement. Because of Hester’s mysterious, seductive, and rebellious actions, she demonstrated the characteristics of a byronic hero.

The definition of integrity in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is a firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values. A character with integrity is willing to sacrifice anything of sentimental or physical value, even their life or reputation, to defend the moral system they govern themselves by. It takes someone of strong character to possess integrity, because the temptation to give in is every so often immensely appealing. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is a character of such integrity, because she upholds her promise with Chillingworth and refuses to flee from the punishment of the scarlet letter “A”. (Hawthorne 55) On the other hand, Dimmesdale was a man of low integrity, because he would not confess the truth about

Hester Prynne is first introduced as a tall, dark haired woman with perfect elegance. Described as beautiful and ladylike, Hester appears more graceful than ever. I think Hester seems scared and apprehensive, but also willing to take responsibility for her actions and do anything necessary to protect her baby. The fact that Hester’s scarlet letter is so beautifully designed suggests that she accepts her consequences and this symbol as a part of herself and her new life moving forward. Hawthorne notes that Hester and her babe are similar due to the fact that they are both outcasts from society. In contrast, however, Hester has sinned and Pearl is pure, but now they are both paying the consequences of Hester’s adultery. Overall, the response

Many tend to focus on either the consequences of sins, or the causes of them. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the protagonist Hester Prynne is widely considered as the most controversial character in the piece. D.H. Lawrence’s criticism “On the Scarlet Letter” displays his views of how Hester Prynne is depicted, as well as how she should have been depicted, in the novel. Lawrence utilizes the literary devices of choppy syntax, biblical allusions, and satirical tone to emphasize his opinions on the characterization of Hester Prynne.

In the same way, the characters in The Scarlet Letter determine their fate through their own actions. Similarly to The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the theme of doing what one wants versus living up to societal expectations is, shown through the scenes that happen in the town of Boston, and the scenes that happen outside of it. The first instance where this occurs while inside of Boston is when Hester decides to defy her society by having a child with the man she truly loves. Even though the affair was with a man whom Hester loves, since she is already married when she has the affair, she is being publicly questioned, on a scaffold; about the name of the man, she had the affair. While on the scaffold, Hester felt “as if her heart [has] been

Everyone makes mistakes, it is a part of being a human. It can come in different forms, from a quick look at a paper during a test, being tempted to do something, or even saying something with no intention. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and the movie, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the main characters attempt to achieve redemption from God after committing adultery and earn the respect of fellow members of their Puritan society while also finding good in themselves. In which, the author ties his message through the main character’s redemption by others, but nothing is more freeing than redemption that is self-realized.

People often say sins are the deepest and darkest part of a person, but are they really the deepest? Don't some people wear their sins on their sleeve for everyone to see? Yes they do, but then others bury their sins hiding them from humanity. These are the two types of people in the world: those that openly admit their sins and those who hide and deny their sins. In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorn, both of these types of people are represented in two of the main characters, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Throughout the novel, Hester Prynne suffers less than Dimmesdale, Arthur Dimmesdale tries to hide his sin causing him too suffer more than Hester, and their personality types play a significant role in their suffering.

In the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester makes the right decision to remain in the town because by doing so she serves an example of why Puritan rationale is defective, and the town is where Dimmesdale lives.

In 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)

We 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.

Feminism is the philosophy advocating equal political, economic, and social rights for women. The idea of feminism was not at all prevalent during the 1850s when Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter was published. In spite of this, Hawthorne wrote one of the most influential feminist novels of his time: The Scarlet Letter. This novel was hailed as an important feminist novel because of the main character: Hester Prynne. Hester Prynne is the very embodiment of feminism because of her refusal to adhere to the societal norms, her independence in thought, and how the view of the society around her changes through the novel.

Hawthorne described three things in The Scarlet Letter. Sin, guilt, and redemption. Hawthorne uses people to symbolize them. Hester Prynne was one. Hawthorne allows the reader to get a better understanding by using biblical references.