Harvest of Shame

judgement towards humans who act in an unnatural manner. For example, Hester was judged by almost all of the population around her, “Here she said to herself, had been the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul and work out another purity…” (77). Due to this, she was forced among severe punishments. However, in the present time period, our discipline doesn’t meet the austerity it had met back in the day. Despite the…

In Tthe Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne paints a descriptive picture of sin and its consequences particularly through the character Pearl. After becoming pregnant, Hester Prynne is ostracized from her Puritan community and forced to wear a scarlet letter for her sin. She gives birth to her child of infidelity, and names her Pearl “as being of great price—purchased with all she had—her mother’s only treasure!“ (Hawthorne, 1994, p. 61). The community sees Pearl as a child of sin; therefore, she must…

heavily persecuted. In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, this is depicted through the character, crime, and punishment of Hester Prynne, who has committed adultery and is sentenced to wear the scarlet letter to publicly show her shame. This scarlet letter A plays a key role throughout Hawthorne’s novel as it is vividly described throughout it, it symbolizes multiple people, places, and objects, and it is central to the main theme illustrated in the novel. Hawthorne’s usage…

Sin in the Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter, a historical fiction novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a hopeless tale of one Hester Prynne, who committed adultery and now has to pay for her crime, and her relationship with the rest of the characters in the book; this reveals how a harsh society can ruin lives. The negative impact of committing sin and secret-keeping is seen throughout the entire tale of The Scarlet Letter; it is portrayed through Hester’s fate, the intertwined lives of…

The Scarlet Letter “Guilt is the most painful companion of death,” said the Coco Channel. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s essay, The Scarlet Letter, this is but one of the major themes he explores in a Puritan society. For throughout his story, we see the major theme of a Puritan society, and how this society meshes with the idea of sin, guilt, and hypocrisy. Hawthorne gives us his representation on the ideas of a Puritan society by associating a number of themes within his story, making The Scarlet…

Contrary to popular belief, punishments can be beneficial. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter displays one example of this situation. The Scarlet Letter is about Hester Prynne, who committed adultery, and now must wear a scarlet letter. Guilt is consuming Arthur Dimmesdale, who also committed adultery, and remains unidentified until the end. The child that was borne from Hester, named Pearl, is an exact representation of the scarlet letter. The symbol of the “A” represents Pearl’s sinful…

originates from Hester’s affair with Arthur Dimmesdale while she is married to Roger Chillingworth, resulting in her pregnancy. Although the “A” worn by Hester Prynne initially stands for adultery to represent her sins, nevertheless Hester ignores the shame society inflicts upon her because she strives to change the symbolic meaning of the “A” to something that showcases her ability to raise her daughter. After learning of her sinful actions, the town sought to publicly punish Hester by forcing…

We as a collective often has a desire of fitting in a certain group, and being ostracized may make us discover ourselves to a further extent. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, portrays the protagonist, Hester Prynne, besmirched with a letter ‘A’ on her chest symbolizing her adultery and a sign of her sin. Throughout the play, Hester’s hardships of judgment and discrimination of the letter transitions her to a remarkable strength and courage. This individuals transition throughout the…

From the point during which Hester and Pearl first stood on the scaffold until seven years later when she contemplated leaving the hostile town, the scarlet letter Hester wore upon her bosom changed in meaning. The antagonistic townspeople outside the prison where Hester first stood on the scaffold were so disgusted by her sin they suggested harsh punishments including branding her and claiming she, “ought to die” (Hawthorne 36). This was the first encounter that demonstrated the society was…

Michael Jackson once said, “The meaning of life is contained in every single expression of life. It is present in the infinity of forms and phenomena that exist in all of creation.” Everyone on this earth has a sole purpose for existing. The reason sometimes comes at a young or old age. Even if someone feels as if they do not serve a purpose on this earth, a reason is there but not always visible. In the Scarlet Letter Pearl is an everyday reminder for Hester and Dimmesdale that they committed…