Anne Hutchinson

The past of America is portrayed in both The Devil in the Shape of a Woman by Carol F. Karlsen and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, giving us a better perspective into our past. Puritan New England sets the stage for the two novels because the society is what shapes the characters and the events of both novels. Both novels show relations with Puritan society, sin, and women 's sexuality. However, the portrayal of the different sides of Puritan America and the focus of the novels are…

The justification behind the concept of punishment takes many different forms. In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the primary rationale behind the Puritans’ punishment of Hester Prynne, the accused adulteress, is retributive, in proportional to the nature of the transgression. The Puritans intend their punishment of ostracism and forced visibility of the letter “A” to match Hester’s crime of adultery by shaming her with a sense of damnation. However, ironically this punishment brings an…

Nathaniel Hawthorne in his gothic romance novel, The Scarlet Letter (1850), depicts the life and the hypocrisy of the Puritan communities in the colonial days. In the novel, protagonist Hester Prynne must wear a scarlet A on her bosom to mark the guilt adulterous sin she committed with Arthur Dimmesdale, a Puritan minister, while her thought-to-be long gone husband, Roger Chillingworth, is on the hunt to seek revenge. Hawthorne’s use of dramatic irony builds suspense and tension as he divulges…

Scarlet Letter: a story of sin, shame, and eventual vindication. This narrative, taking place in a conservative and rigid Puritan Society, shows various characters handle guilt, vengeance, and alienation, with the strange and eerie image of a scarlet letter. As the novel progresses, the Scarlet letter, in all of its embodiments, becomes a burning symbol of the guilt of the protagonist. The humiliation and shame brought by it become a part of Hester Prynne’s punishment and repentance; because of…

Owning up to the truth is a difficult task that most people struggle to do. It is often easier for humans to hide their wrongdoings from their peers, rather than being truthful. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, both main characters, Dimmesdale and Hester commit an act that is regarded by their peers, the Puritans, as a sin. The Puritans were a Protestant religious group that sailed to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in order to practice their religion in peace. They had strict moral and…

In the novel , The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the symbol of the letter “A” changes due to feminist ideas from adultery, to able, to angel, and finally to the independence of her daughter. Body 1 Hester was forced to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her chest to show that she had committed adultery. The scarlet letter is a sign of her sin, so that everyone is able to see and judge her for what she did. Women in this town were expected to follow strict rules and be very religious.…

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne displays how one sin can ruin the lives of many. His purpose is to show how holding in a sin and not being truthful can haunt you and lead to your end. Hawthorne uses several rhetorical device to convey this message, including: antithesis, anaphora, and metaphor. Throughout the text, antithesis is commonly used, especially comparing life and death. For example, Dimmesdale states “Many, many poor soul hath given its confidence to me, not only…

“The Scarlet Letter” was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, the actual story takes places in the 1600’s in a Puritan society. Hawthorne was an anti-transcendentalist. An anti-transcendentalist means that humans are naturally evil , society keeps them in check and nature is evil. Hawthorne used symbols throughout the story to represent his ideas, symbols are a representation of qualities or ideas. In his novel “The Scarlet Letter”, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of the wild rosebush,…

What is your impression on how puritan world view is taken up and treated by Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter? The Scarlet Letter is an indictment on the follies of the puritans featuring the rigid values and beliefs of the society. Hawthorne criticizes various aspects of the puritan confraternity through the lives of the characters and the punishsment one is made to undergo because of the sin committed. Hawthorne took the puritan view seriously in the scarlet letter by depicting the gender…

The Scarlet Letter, an overview of the Puritans taken up and treated by Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet letter is a Gothic Romantic novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. The novel is a historical fiction in a historical setting Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony, of the 17th Century depicting a story of a woman named Hester Prynne who gives birth to an illegitimate child and her punishment for her sin. According to the views of Nathaniel Hawthorne on the Puritan society, he portrayed…