Thomas Hutchinson

Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlett Letter illustrates his expertise of style in his portrayal of a sanctimonious period of American history in the mid-seventeenth century. Taking place in a strict Puritan colony in New England, Hawthorne displays the brutal, unforgiving, and ultimately fatal impact a single indiscretion has on three characters in the colony: Hester Prynne, Reverend Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses powerful symbols and motifs to…

In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne is publicly put to shame for committing adultery. Other than being isolated from the town, she is given the letter ‘A’ to wear permanently. As the novel continues, Hawthorn highlights her strong characteristics as she manages being a sinner. John Updike established the character of Hester as a “mythic version of every woman’s attempt to integrate her sexuality with societal demands.” It can be concluded that Updike intended to say that…

Anne Hutchinson was raised on the ideas of the typical Puritan theology. This theology believed that God originally established a covenant with Adam specifying that firm obedience of God’s law would result in salvation. After the fall, humanity sank into sin until God formed a second covenant with Abraham. Because post-Lapserian man could not abide by a covenant of works, God established a covenant of grace whereby certain individuals were preordained as the spiritually elect, but were concealed…

Red v. Black The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is full of symbolism especially in regards to the use of the colors red and black. This symbolism is important to the story and how we perceive the characters in it. Hawthorne uses color association throughout the novel to help accentuate the importance or meaning of a person, event, or object. Red symbolizes many things throughout the novel such as love, passion, lust, and sin. The most important use of red in the novel is the…

Society vs. Intuition: Which is Right to Follow? Societal influence on people is a highly discussed topic today, and evidently was in the past, as Nathaniel Hawthorne makes comments on how society should affect people in The Scarlet Letter. This book is about a woman named Hester Prynne, who is condemned to wearing a scarlet letter A by the Puritan society, in which she lives. The symbol being explored is the way Hawthorne uses nature throughout the novel. Nature is found everywhere, no matter…

How does Hawthorne use Dimmesdale's character to help emphasize the hypocrisy of the puritan society? Puritan society of the 1800s saw the world in black and white, good or bad, right or wrong. In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Dimmesdale’s character, who is a minister in a puritan society, to highlight how this simplistic view of the world is full of hypocrisy. In a society that does not see people for the multiple dimensions they have, individuals are easily painted in…

Overcoming Sin and Shame Nathaniel Hawthorne conveys the theme of overcoming sin and shame by benevolent actions and deeds in The Scarlet Letter through the use of different symbols like the scarlet letter, Pearl, and the forest. Hester’s scarlet letter “A” starts off with being a symbol of sin, shame, and wrong doing but, by the end of the novel turned into a symbol of her identity that people came to respect. Pearl is like a living symbol of Hester’s scarlet letter where at first was the…

Sin and guilt are two recurring themes not only found in The Minister’s Black Veil, but are also recurring themes found in many works by Hawthorne. The Scarlet Letter is one of Hawthorne’s most famous writings and it is closely related to the theme of sin, specifically sin in secrecy, as proven to be true in Hawthorne’s The Minister’s Black Veil. The Scarlet Letter is also based during the Puritan time period therefore, sin is something that mostly all individuals frown upon and punishment is…

The Mysterious Being! The first chapter of “The Scarlet Letter” sets in motion the rest of the story in a few aspects including; the setting, an imagined world, and hidden in the text, is Mother Nature. Something that one may overlook throughout simple daily life is the gift, protection, and unforgiveable powers of nature. However, when the society of man dishes out a harsh, unwanted fate to someone while turning their back in disappointment, such as the Puritan Society did to Hester Prynne,…

"On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A" ( Hawthorne 45). In the book, The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is a woman convicted of adultery and who must wear the letter A upon her chest for her sin. The reader may assume that Hester is a coward who refuses to show her face in town after this incident but instead, Hester is a strong leader because of her ability to be honest about her sin…