The novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne follows the life of Hester Prynne, a woman living in Puritan America and forced to wear a scarlet letter that represents her sin of adultery. Although faced with hate, Hester manages to rise above it and help others. The novel classifies as a feminist novel because it shows a woman, alone in a world filled with discrimination, battle against society’s judgement and not giving into peer pressure. A feminist is someone who stands up for the equal treatment of men and women.…
The Scarlet Letter is essentially a story of crime, sin, and punishment. It tells a story of a woman who has broken both Biblical and statutory law. Richard Bellingham portrays the puritan justice system as he is the chief magistrate who sentences Hester Prynne. Many elements of The Scarlet Letter are accurate to that time, although Hawthorne does steer away from some realities in his fictional tale. The whole rule of the law in the story is signified by a small group of men; which is all that stands between Hester and the gallows.…
In “The Scarlet Letter,” the Puritan’s cruelty towards Hester Prynne functions as a mean to develop Hawthorne’s idea of how people naturally react negatively towards others and in this case, those who have made mistakes. Hester’s mistake unfolds the plot and reveals truths about how Puritans, who were people that were persecuted due to their religion, punished her for breaking one of their rules given by God, which was to not commit adultery. This mistake also sparks the interest of another person, Chillingworth, who seeks revenge against Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, who is a protagonist alongside Prynne. In the beginning of the book, Hester Prynne is made to stand in front of the townspeople to receive her punishment.…
A one eighty change It is ironic how one mistake can lead to the demise of the main characters in The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In the novel, the reader experiences the drastic changes the main characters go through after the adultery the adulterous act of by Hester and Dimmesdale. Since Hester had committed a sin, she must endure the punishment of wearing the scarlet letter. The sin caused Dimmesdale to become sick with guilt and her ex-husband Chillingworth to be consume with idea of revenge. Hester and Dimmesdale’s adultery physically and mentally alter the lives of themselves and Chillingworth’s.…
The scarlet letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a well known book, between the scandals and lies within it. It starts out with Hester prynne, a women from a small puritan community. Hester is forced to stand out in front of the people of her community for a few hours as punishment for breaking one of them many laws of the people. What law did she break to be forced to do this? She committed adultery, having a child with another man while still married to her husband back in amsterdam.…
Today, people punished by law get sent to jail, but imagine unique circumstances where punishments from the past were allowed to be used in present day. The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is an American classic. Set in New England, Hawthorne brings in the aspects of a pioneer settlement during the 1700s. Though the book was written in the 1800s, it more closely relates to life in the 1700s. Religion played a very important role in society during the 1700s.…
The Scarlet Letter as Hypocritical Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet letter is a book of great symbolism. This book is about how society treats, and punishes a woman who have committed adultery. The plot of the book that follows the life of the main character, Hester and her daughter, Pearl. In the meantime, there are a few other main characters that are play a big role in hester’s life.…
From the beginning of time, as seen in Christianity, sin has plagued the earth. From eve taking of the forbidden fruit and being cast from paradise to someone robbing an elderly woman down the street, sin is always present. The consequences of sin should have taught us to avoid it at all costs, yet we still fall victim to it. Sin is never the solution yet it is almost always the inevitable answer. Every person sins, and in turn they are judged and besieged with consequences.…
The Scarlet Letter was written By Nathaniel Hawthorne and was published in 1850. The introductory chapter of the Scarlet Letter is called “The Custom House” which tells of hawthorns time working in the Salem, Mass. Government Custom House. He finds a Scarlet Letter in the Custom House. This a Scarlet Letter tells the story Hester of Prynne. In this novel, it becomes evident that Hawthorne is not just telling a story about a woman’s life and her sins, but an critique about the hypocrisy of the Bible abiding society and their strict, unforgiving way of life.…
Prompt one, Do you consider Hester to be a strong female character? Is the Scarlet Letter a feminist novel? Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, is a classic novel set in seventeenth- century Boston, in a Puritan settlement. The story is full of love, crime, deceit, and revenge.…
It was her depression that led her to seek comfort from her local minister Reverend Dimmesdale. Reverend Dimmesdale comes to her rescue, not knowing that he would only be causing…
After being released from prison, she was outcast by the people, so she went to live in a cottage along the sea shore. The cottage was old and abandoned and had no signs of life anywhere around it. Every time she had to go to town, people would…
As has been well established in The Scarlet Letter, there are sins and sinners galore, no matter your definition of it. Who is actually at fault for these sins, though? Should we put more blame on the sinner themselves, or maybe turn to look at the enforcers and the ones who encouraged and even perhaps helped the sinner commit their crime? Is there only one side to the story, or are there several?…
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter, sin and repentance are recurring topics, depicted in the novel’s three main characters. Each can be accused of immorality, and each suffers differently as a result of their offenses, however, only one individual clearly repents of his sins. Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the theme of sin and repentance is apparent in the characters of Hester Prynne, Roger Chillingworth, and Arthur Dimmesdale.…
The romance, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne takes place in Boston Massachusetts during the seventeenth century. In his romance, Hawthorne discusses the turbulent life of Hester Prynne, a Puritan woman who has been convicted of adultery. Hester is sentenced to wear a scarlet “A” on her chest to publicly shame her for her sin. Hester and her daughter Pearl become outcasts of society. Hester refuses to reveal Pearl’s father’s identity, her partner in sin.…