Essay On Severity, Purity And Purity In The Scarlet Letter

Improved Essays
In the Puritan society of the 18th century, everything is focused around God and being pure. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, a main character of the novel, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the protagonist illustrates how not to be pure. Henry F. Chorley’s article, Severity, Purity and Sympathy analyzes the transformation of the town and Hester throughout the novel. Hester Prynne, a motherly woman in the Puritan society, is shunned from her community because of her actions. Hester transforms from being shunned in the community, to being a person who everybody feels bad for because of the way she is humiliated. In Chorley’s (adjective) article he makes three claims about the themes of The Scarlet Letter; severity, purity, and sympathy, and …show more content…
The community starts to look at her as a person who is very helpful to everybody instead of somebody who commits adultery. In Chorley’s article he states, “-her slow and painful purification through repentance is crowned by no perfect happiness, such as awaits the decline of those who have no dark and bitter past to remember” (Chorley 184). Chorley is claiming that Hester becoming more accepted in the eyes of the community is not going to be easy, and she is going to struggle for a very long time to overcome her shame. It is going to take time for the (adjective)people in the community to not define her by the “A” but by her integrity and true character. In The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne states, “Such helpfulness was found in her, --so much power to do, and power to sympathize, --that many people refused to interpret the Scarlet “A” by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a women’s strength” (Hawthorne 111). Here, Hathorne is (adverb) demonstrating In this quote it helps demonstrate how the communities(sp) view of Hester changes throughout her actions during the novel. The town is forgiving Hester for her adulterous ways, and while that is happening, she is starting to become normal again--the same person she was before she commits adultery. I believe this important …show more content…
Chorley’s article demonstrates three key claims in The Scarlet Letter, severity, purity, and sympathy that help realize key points from the novel. Even though Hester is rejected by her friends and the whole community, Hester Prynne is still able to handle and learn from her experiences to eventually become a person who is accepted into the community. The three points that Henry F. Chorley makes about The Scarlet Letter, I still see in everyday society with women. Even at our school I see girls go through these three stages, from being disliked by everybody to eventually the person that everybody feels bad for because of how bad she was treated. Hester Prynne, the main character in The Scarlet Letter, strength’s is not in giving up when the going gets tough, sets a great example in the world, more than Nathaniel Hawthorne could have ever

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In The Scarlet Letter, the protagonist, Hester Prynne, commits adultery so she is publicly humiliated and shunned from the Puritan society. Before Hester is isolated from the society, she is forced to wear a scarlet A so that she is displayed to the Puritan society as an adulteress and a sinner. Despite the humiliation and the pain she suffered, she stands strong, bold and holds herself with exquisite dignity. She was ready to pay the price for her sin and never let guilt consume her. Unlike most people of her society, she confesses her sin and turns the scarlet A into a symbol of positivity and hope.…

    • 197 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    LETTER Y Scarlet Letter Essay The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a text, that makes a profound comment on many aspects of the human condition. While there are many important topics that are broached within the novel, the character of Hester Prynne is shown by Hawthorne in a unique way that is very applicable in modern society. Within the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne establishes the character of Hester Prynne through a multitude of rhetorical devices. The juxtaposition between Hawthorn’s characterization of Hester as a willful young woman and her humble repentance for her crime allow Hester to better herself in society and establish her as a role model for modern women and allow her character to be understood in the…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was written in a time when conformity was necessary for survival, while individuality was condemned. Those who conform to society do so because they fear being different and value being accepted. Those who choose not to conform, are often punished, whether that meaning literally or socially. Those who fear differences, humiliate and ridicule those who are different and use them to scare others to stick to the social norm. It is necessary for societies to possess strong individuals even though they struggle against it.…

    • 1663 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Rhetoric of Respect The nature of an individual’s actions often dictate one’s moral value and respectability. Although one may be burdened by unfortunate situations, the courses of actions taken in accordance with a situation often determine one’s reputation. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, although a woman of disgraceful standing in society, earns respect through her actions that embody her ethical resoluteness. Hawthorne portrays Hester’s moral behavior with literary devices that build her into an admirable character.…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Her fancy threading of the scarlet letter is an act of defiance, showing that she’s a bold person. Even though the occupants of the town expected her to come out of her prison to be “dimmed and obscured by a disastrous cloud” (Hawthorne 51), she had astonished everyone with her spirit, which she expresses through her attitude of her punishment. Hawthorne’s syntactic descriptions of people’s views of Hester creates an image of an empowering woman who appeared strong and confident despite having been stained with a defiling reputation. Hester’s beauty seems to parallel with her strength and humbleness, which does not break with the constant battering and demeaning words of her…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the book, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the ignominious characters, Hester Prynne, Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth, all commit sins. However, the sin and the guilt of that sin, all have a different impact on their lives. Hester is able to find strength in herself…

    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hester demonstrates her strength by her ability to bear the shame of confessing her sin and wearing the scarlet letter, the way she deals with her…

    • 1098 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength" (Hawthorne 148). After Hester's fight with a hypocritical society, she finally finds herself and becomes stronger through her battles using characteristics such as humility and compassion, and never giving…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Started From the Bottom Now We Here: The Story of Hester Prynne After reading Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter,” I have come to the conclusion that Hester Prynne had the most positive moral development of the characters in the book. In the Scarlet Letter, a Hester Prynne is sent overseas to the new colonies by her husband. However, she traveled there alone, which led to her adultery sentence, which is why she is required by law to wear the scarlet letter A for the rest of her life. Hester started out the novel as an adulteress who was shunned by the entirety of the Puritan Society, and by the end of the story had transformed into a symbol of strength for the women of the society.…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Isolation from society can be physically and emotional as well. Society, which encompasses the people whom one shares a particular “standard of living or conduct” with, plays a prominent role in the Puritan community in which Hester lives (“Society”). The Puritan community, which influences the lives and actions of everyone in the society, has a strict sense of what is right and wrong. Any violation of the moral code can result in physical and emotion isolation, as it did for Hester. The novel…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Hester Prynne’s actions that represent the beauty in “wilderness” and difference, has a positive effect on her fellow women once they are able to see that she is a strong, independent woman that can assist them in their own troubles. This idea is made evident when the author comments the following at the end of the novel: “the scarlet letter… became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too… Women, more especially, - in the continually recurring trials of wounded, wasted… came to Hester’s cottage, demanding why they were so wretched, and what the remedy” (Hawthorne 241). Through this passage, it is revealed that women of the society are able to accept Hester’s difference because they have cleared their minds of what they believe women should be. Furthermore, through Hester’s powerful actions of dealing with hardship, she is able to instill in them a feeling of self-empowerment and the idea of becoming the best people they could be after their most meager actions in society have been viewed “wretched[ly],” because of the expectations that women should be perfect and act according to the laws of God.…

    • 1621 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne there are many concepts that show throughout the book. Some of the concepts are judgment and isolation, these two concepts show up the most throughout the book mostly with Hester. It is either that Hester is being judged about her crime and sin she had committed. Also Hester sometimes feels that she has to isolate herself from the rest of the colony because she is sort of an outcast. Hester Prynne is not the only character in the book that shows these concepts so does Pearl, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth.…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hester Prynne, Guilty As Sin Despite what Hawthorne intends us to think, D.H. Lawrence writes to expose the malicious side of Hester Prynne in his critical essay, “On The Scarlet Letter”. To convey his reasoning, he provides context and analysis of her character and her actions throughout the novel. Lawrence uses sarcastic tone, biblical allusions, and choppy and repetitive syntax to prove that Hester Prynne is not a heroine in the Scarlet Letter.…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    By intertwining with Hester in a barbaric act, yet escaping public recognition, he accepts a sorrowful lifestyle without forceful resistance and sinks into a funnel of gloom, which leaves physical and emotional scars, such as the pain in Dimmesdale’s chest. Without the limitations of a set path, Hester implements her own free will and resists inferiority. While walking to the scaffold, Hester “stood fully revealed before the crowd,” not once shedding a tear or lowering her face in shame (45). Prior to reading The Scarlet Letter, the audience must comprehend the Puritan’s…

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Her beauty is out of the normal, but this is portrayed in a good way as she levels up to the brightest thing on earth- the sun. This description makes it difficult to classify Hester as an “evil” sinner. As the novel progresses, the meaning behind the scarlet letter begins to morph as does the Puritan’s hostility towards Hester as she uses her role in the community for good. Hester’s reputation begins to improve as society begins to see her as an asset to themselves, “Such helpfulness was found in her… many people refused to interpret the scarlet ‘A’ by its original signification. They said that it meant ‘Able’”…

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays