The Scarlet Letter Essay

The novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, has many symbols. One of the most important symbols is Hester’s daughter, Pearl. Her purpose changes throughout the novel. Although in the beginning she is nothing but another reminder of Hester’s sin, she goes on to be an intelligent character who becomes a key part to the story. She helps the reader connect ideas that are not obvious. She also tries to bring Hester and Dimmesdale together. When there is a resolution to her purpose, she is…

The iconic Scarlet Letter has been depicted throughout several literary and visual works within history. The Scarlet Letter has become a well-known symbol in society and has been the basis of both vocational and recreational spectacles. The several works that discuss this topic have numerous commonalities, especially in regards to The Scarlet Letter and the movie Easy A. Easy A manifests several mutual themes from The Scarlet Letter, such as sin, religion- oriented hypocrisy, and conformity,…

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the wilderness acts as a place free from societal judgement, where characters can express their true personalities. Throughout the story forbidden meetings and revelations of truth take place in the forest, where people are free from the threat of prosecution by puritan beliefs. While the forest acts as this safe space, the town acts as its counterpart, being a place of judgement and exposure. The town in the Scarlet Letter is the epicenter of…

placed before my bosom, the scarlet letter. My heart was pumping out of my chest, palms beginning to sweat as I walked up the creaky, vintage stairs on the way to my punishment. Public shaming. There are many long lasting effects as shown in Source A, The Scarlet Letter, Source B, Monica Lewinsky’s TED Talk, and Source C, an article entitled “Is the Internet a Mob Without Consequence?” In The Scarlet Letter, Governor Bellingham requires Hester Prynne to wear a scarlet letter A on her bosom to…

The Scarlet Letter was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. Nathaniel Hawthorne was an anti-transcendentalist which is a person who thinks all humans are natural evil and sick. When Hawthorne wrote this story he based it off of a time period that took place in the 1600’s in a puritan society, that later starts to turn to an utopian society later on. In this particular puritan society, they were extremely strict when it came to morals and religion. The main characters were Hester, Dimmesdale,…

and guilt, two topics emphasized heavily throughout The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, play huge roles in the destruction of Dimmesdale, the corruption of Chillingworth, as well as Hester’s sense of motherhood and the way Pearl is treated. Hawthorne incorporates his use of rhetorical strategies to depict the effects sin and guilt have on these characters and how the characters choose to handle the stress of it all. In The Scarlet Letter a heavy stress concentrated on guilt and sin plays…

One theme is that sin must be confessed or it will grow and fester like a disease and will eventually consume the sinner from the inside, out. This theme is expanded upon throughout The Scarlet Letter, and especially during the events leading up to the second scaffold scene. Dimmesdale "kept vigils...sometimes viewing his own face in a looking glass...tortured" (Hawthorne 152). His visions of an unforgiving god and of what that god will do to him because of his sin drive him to a…

think and develop a deeper understanding of the book. The Scarlet Letter is set in a Puritan society where God is the center of all things and in choosing to do wrong, punishments are public and humiliating. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester bears a child made with a man she is not married to. Living in a Puritan society, this is a sin looked down upon and Hester must suffer the consequences. The punishment she must face is to wear a scarlet colored A on her bosom so the rest of society knows she…

In the novels, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne , and The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, both novels are very similar to each other, Both involved in adultier. Abigail has an amorous feeling for John Proctor. Hester is married to Roger Chillingworth but Hester also had an amorous feeling for Dimmesdale. Both Hester and Abigail kept secrets from the villagers/towns and their love ones die at the end when Mr. Proctor and Mr. Dimmesdale confessed their sinful ways. Hester Prynne the main…

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is the story of Hester Prynne overcoming her sin, shame, and isolation from Puritan society. The novel is prefaced by “the Custom House” which introduces the narrator and tells of how he came to find the scarlet letter. Hester’s story begins with her leaving the Boston jail where she was imprisoned for adultery. She is forced to stand on a scaffold in the middle of town while holding her child Pearl so everyone can see her ignominy. While on the scaffold…