meanings that are especially important to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s writing in The Scarlet Letter. Many natural aspects signify important details that reveal hidden context to give a better understanding of the storyline or plot. Pearl is an important character because not only does most of the natural world relate to her, she helps the plot give meaning. Constantly in the book, Pearl is associated with nature because she is considered a natural figure herself. Hawthorne relates these aspects to…
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, signs of guilt, shame, sin, and redemption occur many times, but especially through the symbols of roses and rosebushes. Hester Prynne, the main sinner, is represented by these roses bushes when she walks out of the jail and a rosebush is flourishing. Through the novel Pearl and Hester are both referred to as “a wild rose-bush” at some point (Hawthorne 46). Unlike her mother, Pearl is not a sinner, but merely a symbol of Hester’s sin. Pearl also is…
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, three different reactions to a crisis are presented. The first of these, Roger Chillingworth, upon learning his wife has committed adultery spirals out of control and lets his jealousy consume him in the search for the other adulterer. Reverend Dimmesdale, the adulterer, fares no better slowly wasting away due to his guilt until his final confession and death. While the two men crumble in the face of adversity Hester Prynne is able to overcome her…
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…
In “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the difficult time many people went through is seen. It is mostly seen how women did not have as many choices as men did, it shows how women were judged and watched for every little thing that they did. Their actions spoke louder than their words, because no one was willing to hear what they had to say, they were just willing to see the outcome. The beliefs that society had, compared to the ones that society has today were very different yet in a…
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a long story (novel) called “The Scarlet Letter” which he tells the reader how a newbie mother commits a long lifetime sin to which she bursts out of in her own way. Hawthorne's father died as a sea captain in Dutch Guiana when he was four years old. He changed his name from William Hathorne to Nathaniel Hawthorne. He died in his hotel room on vacation in New Hampshire in May of 1864. The Scarlet Letter gives the reader a powerful message through how Hester Prynne…
novel The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is known for bringing a color of romance back into the dark times of New England. The critics are either keying in on how this novel stands out from the rest, or saying he is not giving enough information for this even to have a story. The Scarlet Letter has lead to be one of his most popular works by many critics emphasizing his style of writing to be like “nothing they have came across” this is why Hawthorne became such an well known…
In the modern psychological debate of nature vs nurture many psychologists believe that people are shaped by their genetic predispositions and environment. Novelist, Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his gothic romance, The Scarlet Letter, fictionalizes the seventeenth century shameful epoch of the Puritan adulteress Hester Prynne. Hawthorne himself descended from the Massachusetts Puritan John Hathorne and his motivation to write developed as a result of his conflicting feelings of shame and pride for…
Culture of Shaming In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne develops the dynamic characterization of Hester Prynne from a beautiful, innocent girl into a somber, hardened woman to showcase the evils and hypocrisy of Puritan New England’s culture of shaming. Hawthorne employs rhetorical devices such as metaphor and juxtaposition to further develop the characterization of Hester and his critique of Puritan society. When initially describing Hester, Hawthorne emphasizes her incredible beauty, and…
then the guilt will continue to linger and grow. Thus, when left alone too long, that monster can evolve and completely consume the person’s mind, eating them alive. One novel that most notably explains the consequences of a guilty conscience is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne’s novel describes the tragic tale of the benevolent adulteress Hester Prynne and the pious minister Arthur Dimmesdale. Their stories begin in a strict Puritan community in Boston, Massachusetts, where…