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People in Puritan society were taught to think and live a certain way all according to the Bible, yet author Nathaniel Hawthorne creates a novel that goes against the views he has been forced to live by. Hawthorne uses the main character Hester Prynne to depict his inner struggles in writing, of what he sees as the hypocrisy of puritan society. Hawthorne uses syntax, tone and imagery to convey this hypocrisy through Hester’s supposed “sin”. Hawthorne utilizes syntax to structure The Scarlet…

Alex Canaday Mrs. Wood English Honors III 3A 2 October 2015 Word Count: 641 Scarlet Letter Final Essay Assignment In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is forced to wear the letter “A” due to a crime she committed. She is forced to wear the letter on every piece of clothing and is required to show it at all times to show people what she had done. Throughout the story, the letter changes meaning. It was supposed to be a symbol of shame and guilt, but ended up being a powerful…

Branded on her chest for all to see, Hester Prynne has to wear the letter A for the duration of the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Although it is not explicitly stated, Hawthorne makes it apparent that the letter stands for adultery. Her fellow sinner, Arthur Dimmesdale, her husband, Roger Chillingsworth, and her daughter, Pearl, are all physical manifestations of the letter A. Dimmesdale represents her guilt, Chillingworth represents her fear, and Pearl represents the good that…

person. Hester displays heroic qualities through her trials and tribulations by the town of Boston. She is shunned from the community, distances herself from the world she once knew, but by the end, has become a symbol of good deeds and charity. Her badge of shame had now taken on a new meaning, “Such helpfulness was found in her--so much power to do, and power to sympathise--that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Abel, so…

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter, is a story about sin and redemption, the light and darkness of these areas, and the appearance of to what something means and what significance it carries with it. The Scarlet Letter, takes place within a puritan community in Massachusetts during the Seventeenth century. Where a young woman moves into this community and waits for 2 years for her husband to return, while her husband is away she has an affair with the reverend Dimmesdale. The young woman…

The Scarlet Letter, created by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850 is story about a strong young women named Hester Prynne who is being punished in front of her entire Puritan community in Massachusetts Bay Colony for committing adultery with a town minister. Because of her sins committed, she is now sentenced to wear a scarlet letter A on her bosom to mark her shame because of her choice to have a love affair with a minister named Arthur Dimmesdale. Throughout the whole story, Hester can be seen as a…

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne is forced to wear a scarlet “A” on her clothing in order to broadcast to the community that she has sinned. Throughout the novel the letter’s meaning begins to change. While it originally stood for “Adulterer”, it has begun to stand for “Able” instead, due to Hester’s acceptance of her sin and talent in embroidery. In the beginning of the novel after Hester is convicted and forced to wear the “A”, she is entirely shunned and scorned…

As with her lover and her partner in sin, the life of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter gives key insights to idea that shame varies from individual to individual, and from society to society. Like Dimmesdale, she experiences a deep shame for her previous actions. Unlike Dimmesdale however, she is punished for her crime and is forced to wear an embroidered scarlet ‘A’, as a token of her shame, “the same reason that the minister keeps his hand over his heart” (Hawthorne 122). From here, her…

sick and the letter helped everyone recognize that it was her doing so. The townspeople “had begun to look upon the scarlet letter as the token, not of that one sin... but of her many good deeds since. ‘Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge’ they would say to strangers.’It is our Hester,—the town’s own Hester,—who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted!”’ (Hawthorne 168-169) The Scarlet Letter secured to her breast was now seen as love and…

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne adulteress Hester Prynne must wear the scarlet ‘’A’’ to mark her shame. Her lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, remains unidentified and is filled with gilt, while her husband, Roger Chillingworth seeks revenge. Even though Hester ends the story as a heroine,she plays a victim throughout via extreme societal judgement. After all, she is forced to wear the scarlet ‘’A’’ Hester wears it on her chest with her head held high on the scaffold. As she walks through the…