Drapier's Letters

The Mysterious Being! The first chapter of “The Scarlet Letter” sets in motion the rest of the story in a few aspects including; the setting, an imagined world, and hidden in the text, is Mother Nature. Something that one may overlook throughout simple daily life is the gift, protection, and unforgiveable powers of nature. However, when the society of man dishes out a harsh, unwanted fate to someone while turning their back in disappointment, such as the Puritan Society did to Hester Prynne,…

Throughout The Scarlet Letter, judgement is displayed quite often. Hester Prynne, the main character in The Scarlet Letter, commits a sin that is heavily looked down upon, and she is forced to adjust to her new life of constant judgement and ridicule. Hester Prynne was considered a malefactress and was required to spend time in jail and be publicly shamed and humiliated on the scaffold in the center of the town. Nathaniel Hawthorne…

approach as today’s society. It also may have been advanced in some people’s opinion keeping the men’s image as a continuous view throughout time. The two different viewpoints of both women and men are portrayed in Nathaniel Hawthorns novel “The Scarlet Letter”, published in the 1850’s and Margaret Atwood’s feminist poems, “The Siren Song” and “Marrying the Hangman”. Both authors explore humiliation and suppression to disintegrate women’s perception…

new colonies. During this time, the number of Puritans grew in the colony of Massachusetts, starting to use politics and social standards heavily based on their religious beliefs. Nathaniel Hawthorne captured their society in his book, The Scarlet Letter, which is considered a literary classic, through showing the life of an outcast of the culture based on the severity of her sins. The story portrays the influence of Puritan’s religion and politics on the culture of their world, and affected the…

Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Pearl isn’t meant to be a realistic character but a complicated symbol that portrays an act of love and passion. Hester and Dimmesdale loved each other very much and through their love they produced a pearl. A pearl is a very beautiful and rare object that can be made from something dirty and unwanted, but that can flourish into something beautiful and their Pearl is exactly that. Hester will forever love and cherish her Pearl, “But she named the infant “Pearl,” as…

The Worst Sinner “... here, in the sunny day… he knows us not; nor must we know him.” In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, we are approached by three sin stricken persons, all burning , whether inwardly or outwardly, with their deeds. With whom therein lies the worst sin? The answer is disclosed within the seemingly most pure of the three, Arthur Dimmesdale, the young, heaven blessed minister of the small Puritan society. For one who is supposed to be the epitome of a perfect, cherished…

The introduction of The Scarlet Letter, titled ‘The Custom House’ is seen as somewhat irrelevant to the story of Hester Prynne by many. They usually end up feeling it was unnecessary to have it as an introduction, and skip the reading of it. In Hsiou-ling Lyu’s case, it is greatly relevant to The Scarlet Letter as it does not tell us a lot about the story itself, but about the author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and his decision to write The Scarlet Letter. Lyu starts out her essay by stating that…

Chillingworth’s True Worth “Shouldst thou fail me in this, beware! His fame, his position, his life will be in my hands. Beware!”, Chillingworth promises (73). In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne described a world where Roger Chillingworth lives a life built purely on vengeance. Although, originally revered as a skilled physician, a beneficial asset to the town, and a loving husband to Hester, he slowly shed that image and transformed into somewhat of a black devil to those…

self-centered minister who is drowning in his guilt from a sin? Neither have I. Most ministers one can think of is a God-like figure who no one would think would sin like themselves because of the ministers’ devotion to their faith and God. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Puritan community thought their beloved minister could never sin, but in fact Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is a devoted minister who has done the sin of adultery with his secret lover Hester whose sin is…

The Scarlet Letter written in 1850 by Nathaniel Hawthorne was about what happens when you commit one of the greatest sins and it starts to eat you up inside because you don’t want to confess. The book is set in seventeenth century Boston, Massachusetts. In this time period the Puritans were extremely religious and they believed if you did good deeds you would be sent to Heaven and if you committed a sin you would be condemned to Hell. When men commit a sin in the Puritan society they are less…