The Importance Of Time In The Scarlet Letter

Improved Essays
In The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne helps the reader understand the actions of the Townspeople through giving an understanding of the time period and the setting. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s piece The Scarlet Letter narrates a story that is based in the New England Colonies during the mid-17th century. During this time the puritans were running from religious prosecution and came to the New World to further reform The Church of England. The Town is a setting in The Scarlet Letter that is based of puritan beliefs. This town is fictional I believe… you should talk about that. Puritan beliefs are highly strict which means that anything is punished severely. Puritans are strict, therefore, punishments are severe. Hester is unlucky …show more content…
This second scene is important in both the location and the time of day. During this scene the reader reads that Dimmesdale stands on the scaffold. This is an attempt by Dimmesdale to reveal his sins and remove the guilt from his tormented heart. Although he stands on the scaffold, it is let known to the reader that Dimmesdale does not stand during the day but at night when the townspeople are sleeping. The time plays an important factor in this scene as the night was believed by the puritans to be the time when witches and other evil entities came out of hiding. This is important as though Dimmesdale had let out a wail that he was sure they heard but later mentioned that the townsfolk thought it to be the wail of a …show more content…
The cabin allows for Hester to be outside of the “rules” of the town and allows for Hester to raise Pearl in the manner she sees fit. The cabin allows for Pearl as well to grow up “wild” and outside of certain Puritanical biases. This allows for Pearl to see the world through her own eyes and allows for her to learn the differences between good and evil without the any outside influence. Examples of Pearls intuitiveness would be how she is able to spot out the difference between good and evil in both Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. Pearl in one chapter says to her mother that the minister has already been caught by “The black man” which refers to Chillingworth. When Hester is sent to live in this Cabin it also allows Hester to develop her own sense of right and wrong and her own lifestyle. This develops Hester’s personality into one that cares little for the thoughts of others, which backfires on the puritans. Because Hester was isolated from the Town she also grows a strong bond with her daughter Pearl. The Cabin outside of town allows for both their bonds to develop in a way it would not have if they had lived inside the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Unlike Hester’s scene, Hawthorne presents Dimmesdale as shyly creeping to scaffold at nighttime when the marketplace is vacant of people in a time when he could not be humiliated. However, even with this lack of a tangible audience to shame him, Hawthorne describes Dimmesdale as being “overcome with a great horror of mind” from reacting to the “ gnawing and poisonous tooth”(102) and the resulting shame and judgement of society. He is incapable of maintaining power over himself and therefore cannot be strong when faced with even the adversity of confronting the judgement of the scaffold, which is the fundamental test of inner fortitude. Furthermore, in disparity with Hester’s quiet strength while fighting off these “venomous” animals of the public, Dimmesdale is powerless to defend himself even against the concept the scaffold embodies when he loses control and “he shrieks aloud”(102).…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    People make decisions every day that can affect someone’s life in many different ways depending on the severity of the decision. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne showcases the decisions in the form of sin in the Puritan lifestyle. The novel goes through the daily lives of New England Puritans as they struggle through the harsh punishment of sin. One of the main characters, Hester Prynne, is the first character shown to receive consequences for the sin she commits. Hester has an adulterous relationship with the minister Arthur Dimmesdale; who is idolized in the community for his holiness.…

    • 1224 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Scarlet Letter Journal Analysis Journal #2: In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the scarlet letter negatively affects Hester because it excludes her from society, labels her as the embodiment of sin in the town, and grants her a lot of disrespect among the people. Hester lived in a cottage that was far away from the whole town and completely surrounded by woods, which already made her feel separate from the community. Not only that, but every time she went to the busy Boston area, her contact with society made her feel “banished, and as much alone as if she inhabited another sphere” (Hawthorne 78). Hester is obviously suffering from isolation already, due to her sin and the scarlet letter setting her apart from everyone…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    As Dimmesdale suffers greatly from his pain, he decides to unrestrain, and go on the scaffold at night where he wants to drain his pain, and his actions he would not have to explain. His efforts are in vain however when he encounter Pearl, and Hester on a lane home from a funeral. As Dimmesdale states “all the dread of public exposure, that had been so long the anguish of his life, had returned upon him” (139). Dimmesdale creates a major theme of hypocrisy within the novel as a whole. He’s is trying to save his own soul, but that the same time won’t even stand with Hester, and Pearl in public with whom he condoles.…

    • 1087 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlett Letter illustrates his expertise of style in his portrayal of a sanctimonious period of American history in the mid-seventeenth century. Taking place in a strict Puritan colony in New England, Hawthorne displays the brutal, unforgiving, and ultimately fatal impact a single indiscretion has on three characters in the colony: Hester Prynne, Reverend Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses powerful symbols and motifs to convey a character's behavior, attitude, a foreshadowing of one's fate, and even flashbacks of past events. By cleverly utilizing the forest as a place of refuge, Hawthorne suggests the forest serves as a place for empowerment, development, and an escape…

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hester is sent to Jail and publically humiliated because of a sin. The townspeople are the ones who should be punished for their brutality and their ignorance. Hester’s thoughts and actions are in the wrong place according to the people yet the peoples thoughts and actions are wrong according to Hester. Even though Hester is shunned and alienated she stays humble and…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    While growing up, Pearl had always seen the letter and saw it as a part of her mother. This symbolizes the insignificance of the cities and community's judgment and punishment. Pearl is a gift from God, but also a curse because she is a constant reminder to Hester and Dimmesdale of their sin. Pearl is not only a vital character in the book, but a great symbol. Ever since Pearl was a toddler, she always had a strange way of thinking and acting.…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As a way of being shamed, Hester Prynne is forced to wear a bright red “A” upon her breast at all times, because she committed adultery. After Hester moved to Boston without her husband, Roger Chillingworth who was living in England at the time, Hester meets Mr. Dimmesdale. Hester then becomes pregnant, with her daughter Pearl, and refuses to tell the community or the church who the father of her child is, “Madam Hester absolutely refuseth to speak” (Hawthorne 75). In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the author shows the reader that some perceived bad things, like the scarlet letter, can bring about happiness and joy in some individuals.…

    • 969 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I can passionately and adamantly tell you that Nathaniel Hawthorne has a God given talent of prolonging a story that could be told in five chapters or less. In reading The Scarlet Letter I have developed grey hair, a dislike for words such as ignominy and sagacious and intense abdominal pain. On the other hand, The Scarlet Letter didn’t totally set me off of literature written before the 1900’s; I’ll give it another try in 40 years or so. Yet, on a serious note Nathaniel Hawthorne was able to create a beautiful yet tragic story. When creating this famous piece of literature his attention to detail, use of foreshadowing, as well as symbolism brought the conflicts, theme and characters to life.…

    • 1026 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    "On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A" ( Hawthorne 45). In the book, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is a woman convicted of adultery and who must wear the letter A upon her chest for her sin. The reader may assume that Hester is a coward who refuses to show her face in town after this incident but instead, Hester is a strong leader because of her ability to be honest about her sin through the symbol of the scarlet letter. Because of her ability to show her sin through scarlet letter that she must wear, she becomes a leader in the way she continues to take charge of her daughter, help the poor, and improve herself for the community.…

    • 1179 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hester's Cottage Symbolism

    • 1200 Words
    • 5 Pages

    As for the cottage was a sanctuary for Hester and Pearl, a place in which they are not judged by noone and are able to live their lives in peace. This was also a place where Hester was able to discover her true self and learned to accept the “A” not as punishment or curse ,but as a blessing since Pearl was her gift from…

    • 1200 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Scarlet Letter, a book written by the nephew of Hathorne, who goes by the name of Hawthorne is about a woman who committed adultery, but also has a main point of good vs.evil. Written in the 1800’s by a puritan author and taking place in the New World during the 1600’s. The Scarlet Letter is mainly about a town that revolves around punishment and a woman that who sinned. But it all symbolizes good and evil. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of the Wild Rosebush, Pearl, and the Forest and Sunlight to contribute to the overall theme of imperfection.…

    • 953 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    "Ah, but," interposed, more softly, a young wife, holding a child by the hand, "let her cover the mark as she will, the pang of it will be always in her heart", claimed a townswomen in The Scarlet Letter (Hawthorne p. 36). Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, her lover, are punished publicly and privately because of the sins they committed. In the Scarlet Letter, the use of the characterization of Hester and Dimmesdale demonstrate that private punishment is stronger than personal punishment. Hester suffers from many forms of public punishment, it begins with the prison.…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. The sin Hester Prynne commits is adultery, one of the gravest sins a person could commit in the 17th century puritan society of New England. Hester’s immediate punishment is that she has to wear the scarlet letter, and face the social ridicule that comes with it. Hester will never be able to blend in with the society around her, and instead be required to bear the consequences of her sin at all times. Hester, being cut off from mainstream society moves in to a small cottage outside of town.…

    • 2210 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many think of alienation and isolation as very similar concepts, if not the same thing. The terms are commonly used interchangeably when describing one who is separated from society. However, alienation and isolation are two widely different concepts, as alienation is separation from society caused by others ' deliberate avoidance, by believing that they are foreign, while isolation is the conscious choice to stay aloof from society. The differences between the two concepts are revealed in Chapter Five of Nathaniel Hawthorne 's novel The Scarlet Letter, where Hawthorne portrays Hester Prynne as a strong and charitable woman after committing a sin and being publicly punished for it. By portraying Hester as fallen and strong, Hawthorne describes…

    • 1020 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays