As the community comes together to witness the shaming of Hester Prynne for the grievous crime of producing a child without her husband’s presence, one of the women states, “At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead”(Hawthorne 42). The extreme sentiment demonstrates none of the compassion one might expect from a people who had set-forth on a perilous journey seeking freedom from tyranny and persecution. The venom with which it is spewed, which…
Hawthorne’s portrayal of the main character, Hester Prynne, whom Lawrence believes is a sinner. Lawrence believes Hester is the primary character at fault for the events in and preceding the novel. To illustrate the idea that Hester is a villain, Lawrence uses short, choppy syntax, repetition, and both Biblical and secular allusion to help him prove his point drawing attention to Hester’s role in the adulterous crime. Lawrence uses short, choppy syntax to explain Hester is at fault for an…
trap that the Black Man sets out for us. In this case Hester was his first victim. She was caught in an adulterous affair and pearl was the evidence. Adultery is a crime and whoever commits this action must be punished. She defied the court and went against her faith. Also Hester disrespected the letter A. Pearl should not be influenced by such bad behavior, so she must be taken from Hester’s care immediately! “The scarlet letter burned on Hester Prynne’s bosom. Here was another ruin,the…
A hero is one who displays actions which can be viewed as brave and courageous; something that separates one from an average person. Hester displays heroic qualities through her trials and tribulations by the town of Boston. She is shunned from the community, distances herself from the world she once knew, but by the end, has become a symbol of good deeds and charity. Her badge of shame had now taken on a new meaning, “Such helpfulness was found in her--so much power to do, and power to…
recognized and judged greater than before. Dealing with one's own sin committed and the complications it arises is a struggle for humans. In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses two of his main characters, Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne, to convey a message about sin to his readers. This message can be easily related to, as sin is hard to avoid throughout a lifetime. Moreover, not only can committing a sin negatively affect someone's persona, but it can also impact…
New England Puritans were known for being very religious and extremely hypocritical, and the fictional characters in The Scarlet Letter are no exception. Hester Prynne is a young, beautiful woman who left her home in England to live with her husband in Boston, however her husband never came. She married only because a woman like her was “supposed” to marry someone, not out of love. She waited years for her husband to come, but he never did, so when she found someone she loved and had a child out…
Literary Criticism of Hester Prynne as Repressed Artist in the Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne is a great woman artist who is repressed. She has a burden of shame displayed proudly on her chest. The scarlet letter shows more than the sin. It shows the isolation and disdain on a person. Hester is a being of great value in intellect and beauty being repressed by her own community. Nathanial Hawthorne brings in tragedy of a woman. It’s about the important life of this particular character and the…
We Here: The Story of Hester Prynne After reading Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter,” I have come to the conclusion that Hester Prynne had the most positive moral development of the characters in the book. In the Scarlet Letter, a Hester Prynne is sent overseas to the new colonies by her husband. However, she traveled there alone, which led to her adultery sentence, which is why she is required by law to wear the scarlet letter A for the rest of her life. Hester started out the…
taboo at the time of its original publication. Hester Prynne and her daughter, Pearl are two main characters in the novel and noticeably go through a constructive metamorphosis and growth together as a mother and daughter unit as the years go by. Hester evolves as a mother and as a woman while as a symbol, her daughter; Pearl influences her mother and as she begins to blossom and change into a young woman despite her burdensome upbringing. Hester Prynne is initially presented as a mysterious…
As a way of being shamed, Hester Prynne is forced to wear a bright red “A” upon her breast at all times, because she committed adultery. After Hester moved to Boston without her husband, Roger Chillingworth who was living in England at the time, Hester meets Mr. Dimmesdale. Hester then becomes pregnant, with her daughter Pearl, and refuses to tell the community or the church who the father of her child is, “Madam Hester absolutely refuseth to speak” (Hawthorne 75). In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The…