The Scarlet Letter, written in 1850 by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story based on the punishment of sin, exclusively, adultery. During this time Hawthorne was moved by the transcendentalist ideas and beliefs, which is evident in his work. The story analyzes Hester Prynn’s committed sin of adultery and the hardships she faced in the Puritan society. Hester went through many hard times; however, nothing could compare to the joy she felt when looking at her daughter, Pearl. Pearl is a...
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In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne created a story about a woman who was to endure the disgrace of the scarlet letter “A” that sewed on her garments as a symbol of her adultery. This character’s name is Hester Prynne. Nathaniel Hawthorne created this story after he was fired from his job working in the Custom House in Salem. Hawthorne is from a strong Puritan background, but some say he is canonized as a feminists writer. Even though Hawthorne originated...
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The creation of “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne was written at a time when the advocacy of women’s rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes became a huge movement in America. Femenist authors such as Mary Wollstonecraft and Margaret Fuller had circulating works of literature, making women’s rights a cultural discussion. Hawthorne had previously been labeled as a misogynist due to sexist comments about Wollstonecraft and Fuller when he called them a “damned mob of scribbling...
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This paper focuses on a construction of a women in ‘Scarlet Letter’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne and the way the woman is shown as a fallen one. Specific methodologies have been chosen to explain, identify and analyse information about this topic – gender, feminist as well as historical methodology. Human beings are differentiated into a man and a woman, women are judged by their looks and actions, and the public never likes them to be even slightly different, sinful or impure....
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Both The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Scarlet Letter written by Margaret Atwood, and Nathaniel Hawthorne respectively are novels that explore self-development within a dystopian society through a feminist lens. They also examine the idea of having self-consciousness under an extremely controlling and oppressive environments. Both of the protagonists, Offred from The Handmaid’s Tale and Hester from The Scarlet Letter derive their idea of the “self” and “self-consciousness” through more secular beliefs, over a higher spiritual world. R.D. Laing in Self...
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In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne details the account of a tale of sin and redemption within a small Puritan community located in Boston during the seventeenth century. Hawthorne explores the entangled relationship between Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth through the scarlet letter and personal passions to illuminate the presence of hidden truths and motives within all aspects of society. A contrast between appearance versus reality is illustrated through the scarlet letter’s evolving appearance, signifying the complexity of human nature, and...
2 Pages
726 Words
The Scarlet Letter mainly covers the sin of adultery, while The Crucible covers witchcraft. Both have obvious similarities like the setting and the crime, but both have major differences. The author of The Scarlet Letter is Nathenial Hawthorne and the playwright of The Crucible is Arthur Miller. The Scarlet Letter is about Hester Prynne committing adultery with Arthur Dimmesdale and becoming pregnant with his child, while she had a husband known has Roger Chillingsworth. Roger discovers who the father of...
3 Pages
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The Scarlet Letter, written by Natheniel Hawthorne, reflects the literary movement of Romanticism through three distinguished characters within the novel to show the connection between the natural world and human emotions. Dimmesdale, who is disclosed to be the father of Pearl, is used by Hawthorne to embody the struggle of man between one’s inner emotions and one’s outer look in society’s eyes. At the end of the novel, Dimmesdale confesses his sins and divulges the truth to the community as...
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Hawthorne presents in the Scarlet Letter, that wrongdoing is uncovered because of the puritan culture who for the most part is God-center around during this time, a greater amount of God-focused than man-focused. Hawthorne is attempting to search out if the idea of wrongdoing can truly influence one individual’s mentality towards the individuals around them. This point contends if Hester were to ever have her transgression (infidelity) expelled, the Scarlet letter would stay with her. One key idea worried here...
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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is more complex than a simplistic story of an adulterous woman. Nonetheless, if we study the piece in depth, we will find different points of view standing out. Due to its complexity, which makes it a great piece of the American Romantic Literature, it has been given several interpretations. The novel set in New England shows how the puritan community judges Hester Prynne by her act of adultery. The patriarchs decide to punish her, forcing...
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Hester Prynne is the most important character around whom all the events and incidents of the novel ‘The Scarlet Letter’ center. She committed the sin of adultery and fell a cruel victim to the stern Puritan law. The Puritan moralists find Hester guilty of an unpardonable sin. Hester, on the other hand, does not think herself guilty as she responded to a natural urge only. She seems to be a free-will agent and defies the Puritan strictures. But at the...
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Mistress Hibbins is based on a historical figure, Ann Hibbins. Ann Hibbins was the sister-in-law of Governor Belligham and she was also executed in 1659 after being accused and found guilty of witchcraft. Her function in the novel is to be the exact opposite of the character of Hester. She symbolizes supernatural knowledge and evil powers. “Wilt thou go with us tonight? There will be merry company in the forest; and I well-nigh promised the Black Man that comely Hester...
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In most cases, it is easy to conform to an idea considered normal by society. Those who contradict these standards are often thought of as brave, but what if this wasn’t the case? If everyone was courageous enough to walk their own path, how different would the world be? Hester Prynne does just this, going against rules her society has put on her, she leads by example and serves as a guide for others to hopefully follow in her footsteps....
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Hawthrone begins The Scarlet Letter with a long introductory essay that generally functions as a prologue, but more specifically, achieves four significant objectives: outlines autobiographical information about the author, describes the conflict between artistic impulse and the commercial environment, define the romance novel and adds an imaginative literary device, the romantic pretense of having discovered the manuscript of The Scarlet Letter in the custom-house. The connection between Hawthrone’s introductory essay and his novel has frequently puzzled readers, and several critics...
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The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a piece of fiction that illustrates an environment heavily luring religious themes that can portray a character’s morality and actions with such reasoning behind them. With the constant usage of sin, Hawthorne implements many mutual dilemmas for Puritan society and their outlook on the protagonists of the plot. Hawthorne suggests that sin is not a simple, black-or-white, either/or proposition. Sin is messy and complicated, but all too often we humans fear what we...
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Explain how the setting and mood are immediately established within the first few pages of each novel. Cite specific words and phrases that situate the reader. In the novels, the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Awakening By Kate Chopin, the authors illustrate the mood and setting in the first chapter. In the Scarlet Letter, the mood had been set to be dull. Hawthorne had to pave the tone to be that way since it started in a prison....
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Puritanism arose in the late 16th century within the Church of England. Puritans wanted to stay with the Church of England but change the ceremonies to make them more traditional. Their church services were extremely simple, were centered around the bible, and no musical instruments could be played in the church. They believed that faith, not works or deeds, was the key to salvation. Puritanism is still being preached today and its history told in many books. The Scarlet Letter...
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Tryon Edwards once said, “Sin with the multitude, and your responsibility and guilt are as great and as truly personal, as if you alone had done the wrong.” Everyone sins, and everyone has been guilty of sin. Guilt can even drive people insane. In The Scarlet Letter the three main characters, Reverend Dimmesdale, Hester Prynne, and Roger Chillingworth, are portrayed as sinners. However, some sins are greater than others, and Nathaniel Hawthorne demonstrates this through the different sins of the...
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In the iconic book The Scarlet Letter the reader comes across a vague understanding of what it means to be an adulterer. A person who truly represents and shows a sin that most believe to be the absolute uncrossable line that should not even be spoken of unless necessary. Very few readers and fans of the novel understand what it means to be beautiful. A rosebush is merely a beautiful masterpiece created by nature. And in The Scarlet Letter the...
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We all have a best friend, and that person is your best friend because you are so much alike. You spend every minute with that person getting to know then and after spending time with them, you start becoming like them. If they hurt you, you forgive them. However, the puritans were cruel when it came to sin, its punishment, and forgiveness. They established this belief that when you committed a crime that would define who you are now. When...
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In the first scaffold scene, Hester is led out of prison and has to stand with her baby on the scaffold to be publicly humiliated for committing adultery, in the second scaffold scene, Dimmesdale goes to the scaffold where he comes clean to his sin in private and later Hester and Pearl join him on the scaffold, and in the third scaffold scene, Dimmesdale confesses to his sin to the town with Hester and Pearl on the scaffold. The first...
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The word and meaning of sin is a very prominent subject in the book The Scarlet Letter. Nathaniel Hawthorne the author likes to delve deep on the meaning comparing it to the context of Puritan society. In puritan society, sin was taken as a bigger deal and a heavy burden on the soul. There was sin going on in Puritan society but it would be dealt with very publicly or privately. It is important how to deal with sin and...
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Have you ever reminisced about a bad doing that you had committed? If so how did you deal with it? How did others around you react and treat you afterwards? In The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne uses the character Pearl as a representation of the sin that Hester had committed. Due to her actions the townspeople looked upon her with disgust and shamed her for her wrong doings. Hawthorne attempts to show how the guilt one has, and carries with themselves,...
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Guilt, hypocrisy, love, pain, hidden secrets, these are just a few of the main points that Nathaniel Hawthorne seeks to bring to light in The Scarlet Letter. In a time when The Red Scare was sweeping the nation; Hawthorne dared to defy the groups of accusers in such a time. His use of Hester, Dimmesdale and the costly effect of their actions, is presented in a way to hold a mirror to society and accentuate the prevalent and often ignored...
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One factor that Pearl exhibits is her family background which is parallel to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s. Hawthorne’s ancestor, John Hathorne was a judge from the Salem Witch Trials. The ancestral ties with Salem heavily impacted Hawthorne as he was ashamed of his family. Similarly, Pearl, like Hawthorne, was born into disgrace as Hester Prynne bore her as a result of adultery. Throughout the novel, Pearl is perceived as the living crimson “A”. Society describes Pearl as , “a demon offspring; such...
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Two Truths and a Lie: An analysis of the Scaffold as a symbol in The Scarlet Letter Two truths and a lie have been a common team-building exercise used for various types of collaborative groups. The purpose of the activity is for people to get to know each other in a fun way, by deciphering what is truthful and what is fictional about some fun facts they have shared about themselves. It always proves to be both comical and telling....
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Sin is as old as Adam and Eve, moreover there is no world without sin. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Genesis 3:1-24 ) The Puritans adopt that theory and believe that every person is born as a sinner but God has chosen to save the elected few. This essay deals with the topic of sin in the life of Hester...
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The fresco painting, The Fall and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, created by Michelangelo and painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, depicts the biblical story of Adam and Eve and their sin against God, due to the temptation in the form of a forbidden apple tree known for granting knowledge. The painting presents the viewer with the story all in one piece. On the right side, Adam and Eve are living in a plentiful environment. They...
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In The Scarlet Letter, not only is Pearl Hester’s daughter, but it is clear that she is also a wicked reminder of the past. In the novel, Pearl symbolizes the scarlet letter itself. The scarlet letter is meant to be a symbol of shame. That means, Pearl happens to be the punishment for Hester’s sin of adultery. Hester received this “A” on her bosom because of the crime she committed. Hester wouldn’t be able to walk the streets without being...
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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s famous The Scarlet Letter is a composition that held a lot of meaningful perspectives exploring the seventeenth century. The Scarlet Letter was originally published in 1850 by Hawthorne pointing out the hypocrisy that the Puritans did and the number of people who were condemned for life because of their sins. The novel The Scarlet Letter invokes the pretense of the term “lawful” and arouses the heart of every people to look more closely to the double standard society...
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