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Hester Prynne: A Sinner Or Saint

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Recommended: Study on Hester Prynne of the Scarlet Letter

In a legalistic society, people adhere to strict moral codes, punishing and isolating transgressors. Hester Prynne, in the fiction that I have read recently--The Scarlet Letter is an example of the transgressor-adulteress. Hester breaks the social laws, and thus, is considered a sinner, condemned to wearing the stigmatizing ‘A’, lying in her bosom for Adultery. With this symbol of sin, Hester suffers despise and isolation. Yet, later, Hester Prynne has done charitable acts due to her repentance, achieving saintliness. In terms of saint and sinner, people think that Hester Prynne must cater to one or the other. However, based on the reading and research, I believe Hester Prynne is neither a sinner nor a saint because she was so helpful and kind …show more content…

A famous example would be Mary Magdalene. In a research paper conducted about her, Mary is identified as both a beloved follower of Jesus--the first to whom Jesus appeared after he was resurrected, and a sinner--a prostitute. In the paper, Lisa Merry eventually favors one side and claim that Mary is a saint not sinner. (3) Yet, in spite of the effort Lisa offered to portray Mary as a Saint, the counterargument of Mary Magdalene as a sinner continues.

Same debate applies to the ‘saint and sinner’ theme of Hester Prynne, many people would surly stand on one of the extremes of the thread. Some people may point out that Hester is an ultimate sinner. It sounds pretty reasonable. In puritans’ views, repentance is a life-long activity—it goes deeper than remorse into an essential change. In an article The Puritan View of Holiness, repentance is “ a hating the thing I loved before” (Beeke). Obviously, Hester disobeyed the rule of repentance.

However, sanctification of the puritan times is paradoxical, emphasizing both repentance and righteousness. While, Hester is not truly repentant, she seems to compensate for her sin through the doctrine of righteousness. “What you do and say reflects who you are within” (Beeke). Through all the kind acts, Hester’s inside should be as pristine as that of a

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511 Words | 3 Pages

The exception indicated the ever relentless vigour with which society frowned upon her sin.” (Hawthorn, pg 48.) Even years after she committed adultery, her reputation was still so foul that the townsfolk would not allow her to make things deemed “pure.” They thought it was inappropriate. Still later, seven years after Hester was forced to stand upon the scaffold, the minister Arthur Dimmesdale announced that he was the one Hester committed adultery with, and then fell down, dead.

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Hester is clearly forgiven for the fact the Puritan society says she is. In chapter 14, Chillingworth on page 264 tells Hester that he has heard good “good tidings” of her and the town's fathers have considered removing her scarlet letter from her bosom. In the book it says, “Why, mistress, I hear, good tidings of you on all hands.” “No longer ago than Yester-eve, a

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The definition of integrity in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is a firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values. A character with integrity is willing to sacrifice anything of sentimental or physical value, even their life or reputation, to defend the moral system they govern themselves by. It takes someone of strong character to possess integrity, because the temptation to give in is every so often immensely appealing. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is a character of such integrity, because she upholds her promise with Chillingworth and refuses to flee from the punishment of the scarlet letter “A”.

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941 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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867 Words | 4 Pages

However, in The Scarlet Letter Hester accepts her sin: “Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul, and work out another purity than that which she had lost; more saint-like, because the result of martyrdom” (Hawthorne 56).

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791 Words | 4 Pages

Considering the townspeople’s reactions toward Hester’s sin of adultery, it can be concluded that in the Puritan era, religion was of utmost importance, and the Puritans met sins with extremely harsh punishments. Because the majority of the Puritan town viewed Hester as a disgrace, she became “Lonely . . . and without a friend on earth” (56). This made it effortless for the inhabitants of the town to continue to insult and degrade Hester because they did not care to learn her true personality. While a few civilians had sympathy for Hester, the town mostly regarded her as shameful and

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715 Words | 3 Pages

Some may say Hester's sin was justifiable, some may say not. Either was, no one is free of sin. In this Puritan society mans law is God's law. They can’t speak to God, but they still hand out punishments for him. Roger Chillingworth’s wife that he sent ahead of him to the new world, cheated on him and had a child

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1863 Words | 8 Pages

Through this process, she developed a strong sense of self and learned to reject the limitations society imposed on her because she was a woman. Hester started to doubt the tight gender roles and suppression of female independence that were a result of Puritanical principles. Hester resisted being reduced to nothing more than her sin, despite the Puritan community's efforts to silence and shame her. Hester is described as wild in her personality, imagination, intellect, and will, due to the fact that he holds both feminine and masculine attributes. She doesn't conform to Puritan society, and through the isolation from society, she was able to think for herself and form feminist

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389 Words | 2 Pages

Although this is a very serious sin, Hester’s reputation is redeemable. One of the ways she can achieve redemption is by serving the punishment of being stared at by “. . . a thousand relenting eyes. . .” (Hawthorne 54) on the scaffold in the town square. By serving the socially accepted punishment, Hester is able to start redeeming her reputation in the eyes of society.

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445 Words | 2 Pages

Hester knew everything would come down to this. She was born and raised just like most Puritans, she knows what is against her religion. She knows very well what she would get herself into committing certain sins. She has gone against people of her kind. “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die; is there not law for it?

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762 Words | 4 Pages

Introduction In the novel “The Scarlet Letter”, Hester is constantly reminded of her sin and put down for it. The Puritans look down upon her because she has committed a sin. Thesis: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter” can be seen as criticism of the beliefs of puritans and how symbolism is used to show Hester’s sin and how she is defined. Body Paragraph 1 Topic Sentence: When the Puritans had found out that Hester had conceived a child with another man, the Puritans saw this as a sin that deserved punishment.

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719 Words | 3 Pages

The townspeople “[began] to look upon the scarlet letter as a token, not of that one sin, for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds since.” This quote exemplifies how sin is not a death sentence for Hester. Through hard work and charity it allowed the rigid Puritan society to see her as something different, and as someone who would not let society define who she was. Hester, thus, was not only able to change herself, but also the image in which society viewed her by working hard to benefit the public. Likewise, the scarlet letter which was supposed to represent sin was instead “fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom.”

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825 Words | 4 Pages

When Hester Prynne committed adultery she was punished greatly. She was made to stand in front of the town on a pedestal being shamed. Not to mention the scarlet letter A on her chest representing the crime that she had committed “That Scarlet Letter, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom. It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity” (Hawthrone pg.

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1662 Words | 7 Pages

In order to overcome her sin, Hester needs to endure, “the torture of her daily shame.” The

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936 Words | 4 Pages

The Puritan society thinks that it was their job to punish people who committed crime severely because they believe they were doing god’s work. They persecuted Hester for committing adultery while they are blinded by

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