All children bless their parents in their own unique way. Hester’s only daughter Pearl continues as a true blessing in Hester’s life. Hester the wearer of the Scarlet letter is punished for committing adultery with the minister. The setting in the book takes place in the 1600s Boston in a Puritan society so the people remain extremely harsh and treat her like a disgrace to the town. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter, portrays Pearl as a blessing to Hester’s life...
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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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The Scarlet Letter and 'The Minister's Black Veil' were written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The main character in The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, and the main character in 'The Minister's Black Veil,' Reverend Hooper, are both treated as outcasts for the same reason; they are thought to have committed a terrible sin. The two literary works lack similarities pertaining to genre, but they display a variety of similar themes portrayed through the use of symbolism and character interaction. The Scarlet Letter...
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Imagine living a life, in today’s society, having one single letter define and determine everything you are and will be. Hester Prynne, a main character in the novel, The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, experiences this tragic feeling of judgment, guilt, dignity, confidence, and much more. She endures this because of an affair, causing her to bear a child, resulting in her becoming the face of sin and guilt by wearing the scarlet letter “A”. As Hester continues to...
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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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The fictional novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story of adultery, guilt and sin involving a New England puritan woman and her infant daughter that was a result of an affair. The start of this American Masterpiece of literature, explains the birthing of the story told by a narrator whom was the surveyor of the customhouse in Salem, Massachusetts. This person had been in the attic of the customhouse when he had stumbled upon a manuscript dated...
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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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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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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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“The best way to learn to be an honest, responsible adult is to live with adults who act honestly and responsibly” (Jarrett Web). These words are announced by Claudia Jewett Jarrett, author of Adopting the Older Child. She is a popular author of books about how to raise difficult children. This quote connotes that children that do not develop with honest and responsible adults will likely not grow up to be honest and responsible themselves. Comparable issues are discussed in...
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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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The scarlet letter is an American romantic drama film. It is an adaptation of Nathaniel Howthorne’s book that was written in 1850. The movie was directed by Roland Joffe and stars Demi Moore as Hester Prynne, Gary Olman as Dimmesdale, and Roland Duvall as Roguer Chillingworth. There are many similarities and differences in the novel as in the film, and also themes like sin, love and revenge appear. One of the central themes is the sin with which Hester Prynne...
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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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From courage, to sin, and even identity, the main character in the novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, had to face many objectifying situations from her mistakes. Although real places and possible real events occured in the novel, the genre is considered historical fiction. The time period in which the novel was told in was the 17th century, and the author described to be in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This time period was also known as the colonial...
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In the contemporary era, people hold stereotypes toward the people they don’t know well and labeling them into certain characteristics, so it is necessary for us to learn about an ethnic group that is usually misunderstood by other people. Native Americans, however, as the original residence of America, often being portrayed in a prejudicial description. There are pieces of evidence that make people think in such ways. To begin with, the main stereotype of Europeans about the Indigenous Americans is...
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Written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter primarily centers around the deed of sinning, and the effect it has on those surrounding. Initially, we are presented with Hester Prynne, a young woman who essentially commits the immoral act of adultery. Consequently, those associated with this act of sin ultimately are further consumed by immorality than the sinner herself. Sin in the Scarlet Letter presents itself in two forms; guilt and revenge. Guilt in the novel, is directly proportional to the...
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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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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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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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All throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book, The Scarlet Letter, the recurrence of key settings such as the town, the forest, and the scaffold help shape the plot. By repeating main scenes, the significance of these settings are stressed. Resilient to the constant adversity, main character Hester Prynne overcomes all challenges presented to her. The scaffold scenes provide a majority of the framework for the entire novel, while simultaneously being one of the most dramatically structured scenes. With the book holding a...
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Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Pearl evolves from a mere portrayal of Hester Prynne’s scandal to the accomplishment of Hester’s endurance of contempt from their Puritan community. Hester gives birth to Pearl out of wedlock, therefore branding them as unethical and disgraceful. Hester raises impish Pearl all while wearing the scarlet “A” on her chest as punishment. Pearl constantly reminds Hester of her sin. Multiple times throughout the novel, Pearl is referred to as the human form of the scarlet letter....
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The Scarlett Letter is somewhat considered romance novel written in 1850 and set in Puritan Colonial America. Nathanial Hawthorne, its author, invites us on a journey that follows the life and death of Hester Prynne, a young woman left alone by her husband who has long been gone, and feared to have been killed by native Americans during war. She ends up having a child through the crime of adultery, leading to much judgement and her eventual ostracization from the...
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Pearl's Symbolism and Introduction in 'The Scarlet Letter' Throughout the novel many characters represent and symbolize many different things. One of the most dynamic character’s when it comes to symbolism is Pearl. Although many have analyzed Pearl as simply a symbol and not a character within the novel, the argument that she is in fact a true character that symbolizes many things is up for discussion. Hawthorne consciously uses Pearl’s character to amplify the many themes of the novel. The...
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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter published in 1850 was a notably acclaimed novel that was one of the first mass-produced books in the United States, sold out just a few days after its initial printing. The book portrayed its protagonist, Hester Prynne’s story of guilt and repentance after she conceived an illegitimate daughter through an affair with the town’s clergyman. The well-renowned romanticist novel has much literary merit and themes that displays significant value for the reader, yet it was...
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Located in Boston Massachusetts, during the 17th century, the Scarlet Letter begins with a gathering of Puritan colonists around a local prison. The colonists in the story seem to be waiting for some sort of public punishment of a prisoner. The mood expressed during this very first chapter of the Scarlet Letter is filled with melancholy and somberness. The only sense of beauty in this chapter is from the wild rose bush rooted at the threshold of the prison door,...
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A recurring idea of an individual and a society in the American Romanticism made its presence throughout this collection. Emily Dickinson's poem “Much Madness Is Divinest Sense, has a base formality that resonates with how individuals may react to their current societies standards. Hawthorne uses Hester Prynne and pearl in The Scarlet Letter, and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”, to demonstrate certain interpretations of madness derived from Emily Dickinson In “Much Madness Is Divinest Sense” by Emily Dickinson, the author...
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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 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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In Arther Cleveland Coxe’s review of The Scarlet Letter, he attacks the great American classic by claiming it is offensive towards morality and marriage. Coxe is baffled at how Hawthorne, the author of the book, wrote a story that he believes to be degrading to other pieces of ‘actual’ literature. He even insinuated he thinks the book was written to solely sell copies and to gain riches. Coxe believes the novel to be corrupting to young Christian women of present-day...
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A tale as old as time, the role of both man and women have long been set. These roles have been given that if not met, are faced with serious judgement. Standards have been held for as long as time has been recorded. Recent years the severity of meeting these roles have become much less important and more of a personal choice. Whereas, in the past these were crucial to survive in a cruel society that demands certain standards to...
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