Sophia Hawthorne

and what Hawthorne was trying to interpret. Out of many analyses the novel has to find what the story says to us; we must apply the experiences…

of guilt can be seen at the beginning of the story in regards to the way that individuals in the colony perceive inappropriate actions. By first setting the stage by providing a context in which adultery is viewed as an extremely odious offense, Hawthorne creates an apt world which sets the stage for the rest of the story. As Puritan ideals that emphasize the need to remain accepted in society according to a strict set of values exist, so does the greater potential to be judged harshly for…

era in American history, the religious Puritans had no tolerance for those who did not live by their rules and punished those individuals in an effort to keep Puritan morals in line. In the historical fiction novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne writes in satire about the iron spikes of Puritan law and conforming to such a society. Three of the main characters, Hester Prynne, her daughter, Pearl, and her lover, Reverend Dimmesdale, stand out from Puritan expectations and must endure…

seeing her as an offender and a disgusting human being to a person of kind heart. They began to accept her, and their view of the “A” went from “adulteress” to “able.” However, this change of public view did not change the way Hester viewed herself. Hawthorne described the scarlet letter upon Hester’s dress as “an internal fire” and “her piece of shame” (The Scarlet Letter 91). Of course, judges would no longer require a letter to be sewn to the clothes of an offender so that it could be seen at…

Mature or Responsible “In Analysis: Should the Government Change the Driving Age” When you look around the world all you see is regulations after regulations. For a while the state wanted to put a curfew on the teenagers. Is there such a thing as freedom? Why does the government want to control and change things? Things are going well enough as they are, why change? Although there are pros to changing the driving age to eighteen, there are more pros to keeping it the same and not changing it…

To create a modern adaptation out of an older work is a challenging task. Talented writers must devise different ways to keep a story faithful without turning the audience’s attention away. One adaptation that successfully captures and takes a creative approach is Easy A. Easy A is an American teen comedy film partially inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter. Written by Bert V. Royal and directed by Will Gluck, the story follows a teenage girl after telling a white lie about…

The rights of women were nonexistent and were far away to be prevalent. For a male author like Nathaniel Hawthorne to write a novel in which the main character is a strong female was unheard of. Egalitarian feminism was “centered on women as independent agents rather than wives and mothers” (Sommers 2). This is the type of feminism that is portrayed in The Scarlet…

human. Thesis Statement: In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “The Birthmark,” the main character Aylmer pursuit for perfection conflicts directly with human mortality, ultimately resulting in the death of his wife, Georgiana. Through her death Hawthorne argues that the pursuit for perfection will ultimately leave one to nothing. His argument is revealed through the concepts that humanity is flawed because they are mortal, science cannot replace God, and perfection ultimately comes with a cost.…

time valued the intention of an action above the result of an action. The pieces of literature found in the Romanticism period show that the people of the time valued intention over action. The story of Young Goodman Brown, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, demonstrate such an attitude. Young Goodman Brown follows the adventure of the titular character, Goodman Brown, and he and his companion travel into dreary woods and discover the truth of the humble town the man lives in. However, the whole…

the burden of the scarlet letter. Hester always remains strong in public, never faltering. Her spirit is also shown through the lavishly decorated scarlet letter, “It had been wrought, as was easy to perceive, with wonderful skill of needlework” (Hawthorne 30), as if to draw attention to the letter as opposed to drawing shame from it. The lavish scarlet letter branded on her chest represents both her strength as a woman and her standing up to the people who were putting her down. In public…