In a society of neutral colors, the child dressed all in scarlet and gold appeared to be an alien in a foreign land. As she pranced through the cemetery with her mother, also wearing the colors of scarlet and gold, the daughter stood as a reminder of the adultery that the mother had committed. The daughter, Pearl, and the mother, Hester Prynne, are characters in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, a novel about sin and how people deal with the after effects of sin. Hawthorne uses Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the other adulterer, to show the effects of both private and public remedies of dealing with sin. Hester’s public shame in front of the entire town and wearing a scarlet letter A, as well as her private remedies
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Dimmesdale is introduced to the reader as a young clergyman that had “already [been] given the highest eminence in his profession”(63). As the other adulterer, Dimmesdale was not publicly shamed and was not ostracized from the community like Hester because it was not known that he was Pearl’s father. This gave him the ability to continue to make an impact, through his intensified sermons that were able to reach more people, as well as, his ability to understand the pain that people are feeling from sin. In a meeting with Hester, Pearl, the Governor and several others, Hester pleads her case to the Governor and attempts to use Dimmesdale to help save her child: “I will not lose my child! Speak for me! Thou knowest”(107). Dimmesdale responds with the fact that Pearl will be there to “remind her, at every moment, of her fall”, and this is very similar to the same feeling that he has, but only with his personal conscience and private guilt (108). In a similar way, after his sin, the reverend gained an ability for him to sermonize with “sympathies so intimate” that the community connected with his sermons to a level that they were unable to with the other clergymen (134). He was said to have the “tongue of flame” from the Pentecost and was able to understand the community so well …show more content…
Her public punishment that was given to her by the community was to stand on a scaffold and be publicly shamed for three hours. This is such an embarrassing and torturous event that Hester said she felt, “at moments, as if she needs to shriek out with the full power of her lungs and cast herself from the scaffold down upon the ground” (55). This moment leads to her living outside of town, and both her and Pearl are outcasts in the society. This meant that Hester would have no chance to make a positive impact on society except through her daughter Pearl by raising her to be a faithful Puritan. Hester when describing Pearl said, “she is my torture[...and] Pearl punishes me too” (106). This is her private punishment that was given to her by God and is what she feels is her best chance at getting into heaven. She could accomplish this by “bring[ing] the child to heaven [and] the child also will bring its parent thither”(108). To achieve this goal, she works very hard with Pearl on teaching her religion and how to be a contributing member of society in the Puritan
Dimmesdale is introduced to the reader as a young clergyman that had “already [been] given the highest eminence in his profession”(63). As the other adulterer, Dimmesdale was not publicly shamed and was not ostracized from the community like Hester because it was not known that he was Pearl’s father. This gave him the ability to continue to make an impact, through his intensified sermons that were able to reach more people, as well as, his ability to understand the pain that people are feeling from sin. In a meeting with Hester, Pearl, the Governor and several others, Hester pleads her case to the Governor and attempts to use Dimmesdale to help save her child: “I will not lose my child! Speak for me! Thou knowest”(107). Dimmesdale responds with the fact that Pearl will be there to “remind her, at every moment, of her fall”, and this is very similar to the same feeling that he has, but only with his personal conscience and private guilt (108). In a similar way, after his sin, the reverend gained an ability for him to sermonize with “sympathies so intimate” that the community connected with his sermons to a level that they were unable to with the other clergymen (134). He was said to have the “tongue of flame” from the Pentecost and was able to understand the community so well …show more content…
Her public punishment that was given to her by the community was to stand on a scaffold and be publicly shamed for three hours. This is such an embarrassing and torturous event that Hester said she felt, “at moments, as if she needs to shriek out with the full power of her lungs and cast herself from the scaffold down upon the ground” (55). This moment leads to her living outside of town, and both her and Pearl are outcasts in the society. This meant that Hester would have no chance to make a positive impact on society except through her daughter Pearl by raising her to be a faithful Puritan. Hester when describing Pearl said, “she is my torture[...and] Pearl punishes me too” (106). This is her private punishment that was given to her by God and is what she feels is her best chance at getting into heaven. She could accomplish this by “bring[ing] the child to heaven [and] the child also will bring its parent thither”(108). To achieve this goal, she works very hard with Pearl on teaching her religion and how to be a contributing member of society in the Puritan