The scarlet letter ‘A’ did not stand for “adultery” anymore. It stood for “able.” “The letter was the symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her, —so much power to do, and power to sympathize, —that many people refused to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength.”
We are all sinners, no matter how hard we try to hide our faults, they always seem to come back, one way or another. Written in the 19th century, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows us Hester Prynne and how one sin can change her life completely. Hester Prynne changes a great deal throughout The Scarlet Letter. Through the view of the Puritans, Hester is an intense sinner; she has gone against the Puritan way of life committing the highest act of sin, adultery. For committing such a sinful act, Hester must wear the scarlet letter while also having to bear stares from those that gossip about her.
Asrai Brainerd Ms. Morrison Identity & Society 23 March, 2016 In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester accepts their sin and uses it to help the townspeople that are struggling with their own transgressions, while Dimmesdale lets their sin drain him until he becomes weak and empty inside. The change we see in both major characters is actually who they are on the inside showing through their exterior facade. Hester goes from almost rebellious of what her religion has taught her, to someone that people in town go to advice to on how to be a good Puritan in their almost utopian society. While Dimmesdale starts out seeming morally strong because of his position in the town, he has secretly committed a crime that would get both him and Hester executed.
Hester Prynne is the heroine of “The scarlet Letter”, and it is possible for us to fully sympathize with her because Through reading the text “The Scarlet Letter” we can find out Hester Prynne had a difficult life and had been suffering very much comparing to other characters because she handles her situation by keeping Dimmesdale a secret even under pressure refusing to let them take her daughter Pearl from her and not hiding from the public after her sin of adultery is revealed and she is punished. Though Hester Prynne does faced her situation better than the other characters it is still she who sufferers the most. The another reason which compel the reader to sympathize on Hester Prynne is because she had to under gone the worse consequences of her sin that she must live with her relationships and interactions with Chillingworth and Dimmesdale, and the way she deal with her sin and the results of it.
Many people consider sin a horrible thing. Some believe that punishment is the only way to make up for sin. Many towns used to have a lot of possible punishments for sin, among them, public humiliation and death. In The Scarlet Letter, two of the main characters have sinned by committing adultery. While having done the same crime, these two characters, Hester and Dimmesdale, still have very different consequences.
“I live in sin, to kill myself I live; no longer my life my own, but sin’s; my good is given to me by heaven, my evil by myself, by my free will, oh which I am deprived” (Michelangelo). This describes Dimmesdale, a pastor and the father of an outcome of sin, Pearl. Pearls’ mother is Hester, the wife of Chillingworth, a man of evil. The characters of Hester, Chillingworth, and Dimmesdale are all connected by sin which alters the course his/her life. Hester is penalized for her act of adultery which leaves her publicly humiliated on the scaffold and forced to wear an A as an act of punishment.
Even though the Puritans may have designated the letter as a representation of sin, Hester’s renewed sense of pride does not want society to define the A for her. Rather Hester wants to define it herself and by doing so she develops responsibility and power over her own actions. Because Hester has the power to change who she is, she also has the power to change what the Scarlet Letter represents. By letting the letter be “embroidered with gold thread” readers are able to see how for Hester sin is not something to be fearful of; furthermore, it allows one to see how Hester has developed into an independent individual who accepts who she is and the situation she is presented with. Hester’s lover unfortunately
Feminism is the philosophy advocating equal political, economic, and social rights for women. The idea of feminism was not at all prevalent during the 1850s when Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter was published. In spite of this, Hawthorne wrote one of the most influential feminist novels of his time: The Scarlet Letter. This novel was hailed as an important feminist novel because of the main character: Hester Prynne.
On May 16th, my classmates and I all wore certain letters on our clothing in reference to The Scarlet Letter, one of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s most famous novels. In the novel, the protagonist, Hester Prynne, is punished for having an extramarital affair. After serving a time in prison, the Puritan judges order her to wear a scarlet ‘A’ on her clothing, every day, for the rest of her natural life, to inform everyone who glanced at her that she was an adulterer- a devastating social and psychological punishment. I wore a ‘P’ on my jacket. It stands for ‘procrastinator’.
College and the money Community college tuition should be free because It would help more people. Going to college has always been expensive. Clearly that doesn't help anyone but the upper class. It is not fair to those who have to work extra hard to get the money they need in order to get an education.
Hester Prynne, the Worst Sinner Three different people, all with different stories but all have something in common; they’re all sinners but the question is who is the biggest sinner? In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, many characters are portrayed as sinners like Dimmesdale, Hester, and Chillingworth. But overall the biggest sinner in the story was Hester Prynne and there are many reasons for it. Obviously the reason for the scarlet letter, she was an adulteress. Hester caused many problems with people in the town including the most holy man Dimmesdale and a man that should've never been involved, Chillingworth.
Hester's punishment was a judicial sentence; however, being forced to stand on the scaffold for three hours, and to wear the scarlet letter "A" for the rest of her life. It was socially humiliating. Hester was sent to prison for committing adultery. Hester was forced to live with the consequences by wearing the scarlet letter "A". Hester is physically and emotionally reminded of her sin, while wearing the scarlet letter "A".
Two of the main characters with many similarities as well as differences is Hester Prynne and Rvd. Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester and Dimmesdale are both characters in the book that had their identities set up in the beginning of the story, within the first 4 chapters. Hester and Dimmesdale are the parents of Pearl, who they had in an act of adultery and sin in the eyes of the townspeople. This book goes through the story of Hester and Dimmesdale's punishments, as well as repentance.
With Hester changing her ways and helping the poor, the community changed, “They said that it meant Able; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman’s strength” (Hawthorne 168). While the community originally viewed the “A” as a symbol of sin, they began to see it too as a symbol of being “Able” because all that Hester Prynne had overcome. The Scarlet Letter had many examples of symbolism, but none were more significant that the letter “A”
“Was that Scarlet Letter, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. ”(Hawthorne 51). Because Puritans were so against Hester’s sin, they made her wear an “A” on her chest that stands for adultery. The townspeople wanted everyone who sees her know what she did so that she would be humiliated by it for the rest of her life. Hester was basically rejected by the town, and was scorned by the people everyday.
