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The Significant Effects of Sin in The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter is a novel, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, that is mainly about sin and the consequences that come along with it. The three main characters of this novel all commit sins that change their perspective of life. Hester Prynne committing adultery with Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth feeling pleasure by torturing Dimmesdale. Throughout the novel, Heter Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth are affected significantly…

Hester’s Self- Made Identity, and The Identity Society Burdens Her With: In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main turmoil of the story follows a young woman who is burdened by the austere constraints of the Puritanical society she lives in. For her punishment of adultery, she is forced to wear a scarlet letter on her chest at all times representing her shame for the world to see. Throughout the novel, the letter, among other things, gains a vulgar reputation in the town to which…

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is an exploration into the protagonist, Hester Prynne. It further examines her intrinsic persona and how internal and external forces affect her and how it transforms the mindsets of those later. Very little is revealed about Hester previous to her affair. Released from prison, Hester appears before the puritan community on a platform where she is to be publicly scorned, exposing the scarlet “A” for adulterer is embroidered on the breast of her garment.…

The narrator’s attitude towards the Puritans is very negative. He portrays them as unforgiving and cold-hearted people. The Puritans believe that people who have sinned must confess their sins and be punished for them. They punish anybody who has sinned and use them as an example to others. This is the case with Hester Prynne because she has committed adultery and is condemned to wear a scarlet letter on all of her clothing to show the crime she has committed. She was also forced to stand on a…

The past is an unchangeable occurrence that plays a major role in the development of human character. It involves triumphant memories and mistakes that completely alter self-portrayal and societal reputation. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter, the past ignominious love affair between Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale shapes not only Hester's character and lifestyle, but also those close to her to suggest that the past contains positivity, should be accepted openly, and…

During the 1600's there was a type of punishment in Puritan society where someone would have to wear a scarlet letter on their shirt. This was for the reason of public humiliation so people would be discouraged to do anything bad. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne the main character Hester Prynne is being punished for a crime she committed and the punishment was public humiliation so she was forced to wear a scarlet letter. She was being discriminated and left out of society. In this…

The Scarlet Letter, written in 1850, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, functions as a critique of organized religion. Karl Marx states "the question of God’s existence is not the fundamental issue for Marxist analysis; rather, what human beings do in God’s name organized religion is the focus" (Tyson 76). Also, in the text, religion functioned to keep characters from resisting socioeconomic oppression along with other types. In chapter 1, The Scarlet Letter functions as a critique of organized religion,…

The Letter “A” At the start of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, the “A” acted as a symbol for Hester’s sin of adultery. In fact, her Puritan community punished her by forcing her to don a scarlet letter “A” upon her chest. Wearing this letter labelled her as a fallen woman. This caused her to stand out in such a way that numerous community members looked down at her and judged her for her sin. However, as time elapsed, the community gradually saw Hester for her contributions to…

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is resembled as the rosebush. The rosebush is shown to represent hope for the prisoners to have hope to leave a place of sins, the rosebush also resembles Hester’s life in which flowers sometimes blossom and fall apart at times. Hester Prynne was invented by Nathaniel Hawthorne who created Prynne to be a woman who commits adultery and gets punished. Prynne is taken to prison in which Hawthorne explains it as a sad, dark, and depressing…

As Hester Prynne prepares to walk upon the scaffold for the townspeople to publicly shame her for committing adultery in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the narrator introduces not only the characteristics of Puritan society, but also how Puritan beliefs and ideologies affect Hester’s punishment and reputation within the community. Many townspeople believe that Hester’s punishment is not enough, one woman even going as far as to suggest that Hester “...has brought shame upon us all,…