Harvest of Shame

“But she [Hester] had named the infant “Pearl,” as being of great price, - purchased with all she had, - her mother's only treasure!” writes Nathaniel Hawthorne in the Scarlet Letter about Pearl, the most complex character present in the novel thus far, who continues being seen as a misunderstood child due to her association with her mother and the the child of the scarlet “A”. Hester pays the greatest price in giving birth to Pearl, as she receives a lifelong, physical reminder of her faults.…

able to escape. In the Scarlet Letter it mentioned how much of regret Hester felt and the torture she had to suffer. “She turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter and even touched it with her finger to assure herself that the infant and the shame were reality” (57). Hawthorne…

by Herman Melville, one may seem to find similarities between the two. The Scarlet Letter is about a young, married woman named Hester Prynne, who becomes pregnant and has a child by another man out of wedlock; she is then forced to live with her shame and wear the letter “A” on her bosom to symbolize “adultery.” After her husband comes to town and finds out the life changing news, he fixates his main goal on divulging her baby’s father. Roger Chillingworth wishes to torture the secretive man…

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a story entirely focused on public shame. During the time of the Puritans in the mid-1600s, ignominy was one way punishment was granted unto those who had committed sins. Ignominy, though a foreign word to many, is no old topic. Seen in nearly every aspect of society today, public shaming nearly completely controls the image society gives to those who have done wrong. The reputation of a poor action is on the shoulders of the wrongdoer for nearly the…

meaningful and powerful. Ironically by punishing and spurning Hester from the community they actually strengthen her relationship with it, she is now seen as a living symbol in the town, she has overcome her hardships and refuses to bow in the face of shame and shares this with her daughter and continues to be imperturbable to humiliation and integrates their roles as the ‘outsider’ and sin into their identity. In disparity Dimmesdale whose sense of…

Good Always Overpowers Evil “Good can exist without evil, whereas evil cannot exist without good” (Brainy Quotes). In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the story of Hester Prynne, a woman who is accused of committing adultery, and to eternally remind her of her sin she has to wear a scarlet letter on her bosom and gives birth to her daughter Pearl, who was the product of her affair. Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister of the town, and Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s secret husband, are…

“A mockery at which angels blushed and wept, while fiends rejoiced, with jeering laughter” (Hawthorne 101). The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and the article “Concerns Raised on ‘Scarlet Letter’ for Drunk Drivers,” by Toni Locy, both provided very different examples of public shaming. Both show the pros and cons of shaming by either telling a story or explaining people’s opinions. The Scarlet Letter provides a historic view on shaming during the Puritan times. A woman named Hester is…

"On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A" ( Hawthorne 45). In the book, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is a woman convicted of adultery and who must wear the letter A upon her chest for her sin. The reader may assume that Hester is a coward who refuses to show her face in town after this incident but instead, Hester is a strong leader because of her ability to be honest about her sin…

Throughout The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne faced an adultery scandal. While reading the novel you discover that towards the end the meaning of her sin has changed. Hester committed a sin with Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and had a baby. Once that sin was committed she has to wear the letter ‘A’ on her chest and face public humiliation. In a small town in Boston it's wrong to have interactions with someone while you are married. Fortunately for Hester, her and Dimmesdale perpetrated this sin and…

In this riveting novel, Nathaniel Hawthorne explored the ideas of Adultery and he chose different quotes to express the meanings of the story. In this quote they are talking about the puritan prisoners and how they were when they were in prison and not just that but there are roses growing just beside the door and its explaining that even though they are prisoners there’s still roses growing near the door. Hester Prynne wears the scarlet letter for being accused of sleeping with a married man;…