John Winthrop

The Significant Effects of Sin in The Scarlet Letter The Scarlet Letter is a novel, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, that is mainly about sin and the consequences that come along with it. The three main characters of this novel all commit sins that change their perspective of life. Hester Prynne committing adultery with Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth feeling pleasure by torturing Dimmesdale. Throughout the novel, Heter Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth are affected significantly…

Love and hate have seemingly battled each other since the dawn of humanity. But which one prevails in the end? In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses parallelism between symbols and characters, along with fulfilling of the rosebush motif to portray that stoicism can outlast both love and hate. Hawthorne employed three different symbols throughout The Scarlet Letter: a rosebush, iron, and wood. This clever repetition acts as a double-edged blade within the story. In the first chapter,…

Hester’s Self- Made Identity, and The Identity Society Burdens Her With: In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main turmoil of the story follows a young woman who is burdened by the austere constraints of the Puritanical society she lives in. For her punishment of adultery, she is forced to wear a scarlet letter on her chest at all times representing her shame for the world to see. Throughout the novel, the letter, among other things, gains a vulgar reputation in the town to which…

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne and her young daughter, Pearl, are publicly outcasted by society as a result of Hester’s sin of adultery. Because of this, she no longer lives what can be defined as a ‘normal’ life. She lives away from the other members of her community, and wears a scarlet letter on her chest to make her stand out from the crowd. The idea of a Puritan society is established in the roots of Hester’s community, and wandering from the societal norms would…

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter”, Chillingworth is guilty of Dimmesdale’s death. For one he tries to poison Dimmesdale with some medicine, he makes him suffer mentally, and he tortures him for it all and tries to make him feel guilty for all that he’s done. Chillingworth believes that Dimmesdale was the father of Pearl, Prynne’s baby after he found out that she got pregnant from Dimmesdale. Chillingworth came to visit Hester, only to find out she was in prison for committing…

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is an exploration into the protagonist, Hester Prynne. It further examines her intrinsic persona and how internal and external forces affect her and how it transforms the mindsets of those later. Very little is revealed about Hester previous to her affair. Released from prison, Hester appears before the puritan community on a platform where she is to be publicly scorned, exposing the scarlet “A” for adulterer is embroidered on the breast of her garment.…

The concept of natural law allows one to express yourself however you please in society because you have the right to. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the entity of two different laws of nature, Puritan and natural are represented by Hester’s instinct to follow the laws of nature rather than the laws of the Puritans and their society, to earn her own contentment. A woman named Hester has a baby with someone who is not her husband, gets locked up, put in jail and is forced to wear…

The narrator’s attitude towards the Puritans is very negative. He portrays them as unforgiving and cold-hearted people. The Puritans believe that people who have sinned must confess their sins and be punished for them. They punish anybody who has sinned and use them as an example to others. This is the case with Hester Prynne because she has committed adultery and is condemned to wear a scarlet letter on all of her clothing to show the crime she has committed. She was also forced to stand on a…

Sassy Pants The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines sassy as having or showing a rude lack of respect, very stylish, and confident and energetic. The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, shows the life of Hester Prynne. The novel begins with Hester being forced to stand on top of a scaffold in front of the townspeople because she committed adultery. After that, for a long period of her life, she lives with being shunned without inclusion with her community. Not only that, but she must…

Arjun Srivatsa Chad Hayden 12 October 2015 The Scarlet Letter Essay (2015 FRQ 3) The Scarlet Letter is a novel centered on contrasts. Contrasts between outward reputation and inner guilt, puritanical law and true sin, and intentions and actions, create a dynamic of hypocrisy, a hypocrisy that infects and slowly debilitates all those involved. Specifically, acts of cruelty are used as vehicles through which Hawthorne delivers his indictment of duplicity and hypocrisy. In The Scarlet Letter…