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Hester Prynne Character Development

571 Words3 Pages

The Scarlet Letter is a fictional story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The story shows excellent character and development through the use of the unique concept surrounding the idea of hiding sin, like Reverend Arthur DImmesdale, and being publicly humiliated for it, like Hester Prynne. The book takes place in colonial Boston during the 17th century, revolving mainly around Hester Prynne, a new mother. The story opens with Hester standing in front of the colony on a pedestal of sorts, holding her newborn baby girl, Pearl. It is revealed that the baby was born as an act of adultery after Hester’s husband was presumed to be dead at sea. Hester is forced to wear the letter ‘A’ as an indicator of her acts to let everyone around them know of her sin. Whether people would like to admit it or not, this act is an act of …show more content…

Her husband then entered the cell as her doctor and confronted Hester about her sin. This resulted in the two engaging in an argument. him swearing to find the father before exiting the cell, leaving the two behind. After a few days, Hester was released from prison and left to go to her cottage in the woods where she spent her days making clothes for the homeless. She dressed Pearl in the finest of fabrics and clothed her in red just like the letter embroidered on her chest. Being one of the first things Pearl saw coming into this world, and it never leaving her sight, Pearl uses the embroidered ‘A’ as sign of recognition towards her mother. When she would be held by Hester, Pearl would often grab the letter and gaze into her mother’s fearful eyes. Hester believed this to be an indication that Pearl was a result of great sin and Pearl was to torment her as a form of atonement. Later, Hester was requested to visit by the Mayor and Reverend Dimmesdale himself to speak about Pearl, as Hester has still refused to exploit the father and he has not shown his

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570 Words | 3 Pages

Hester now believes that Pearl was given to her as a means of comfort and that she is a creation of God’s mercy. As Hester is released from prison she continues to be alienated and functions as a living example of a fallen woman. She continues to support herself because of her great needlework talent, and although she’s an outcast, the townspeople acknowledge her talent enough to give her work. She gets a lot of customers for many different things but it is believed to be inappropriate for chaste brides to wear what she has made.

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765 Words | 4 Pages

Pearl was old enough where she of course can recognize her mother but she completely wanted to lock Hester back in the cage she was in and that was the worst thing done to Hester the whole

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1113 Words | 5 Pages

In the beginning of the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne introduces the main character Hester Prynne, a young, beautiful member of a Puritan society being punished for her sin of love, not lust. The opening chapters introduce the reader to gossips who deem her original punishment, death, too harsh and contrary to Puritan beliefs that unborn babies should be given a chance at life. Instead, Hester and her child are to be alienated and shunned. In addition she is to wear the letter ‘A’ (which stands for ‘adultery’) on her chest which will forever display her as a symbol of shame for her sin. Though a very resilient figure who soon overcomes this pain, Hester’s isolation takes a negative toll on her life.

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1051 Words | 5 Pages

“Again, as if her mother’s agonized gesture were meant only to make sport for her, did little Pearl look into her eyes, and smile!” (p 82). Pearl herself being the product of sin, is a constant reminder to her mother that the scarlet letter cannot be neglected. Hawthorne shows this symbolism various times throughout the story. In Chapter two, during the first scaffold scene when Hester tries to hide away her scarlet letter with Pearl, Hawthorne indicates how useless that would be, considering that Pearl is the personification of her sin.

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1581 Words | 7 Pages

Within Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, antagonist Hester Prynne is subjected to the opinions and treatment of 17th century’s Massachusetts Bay Colony as a result of her sinful act of adultery. In the Puritan colony, it was important to be faithful, both to thine spouse, and most importantly, to God. Hester’s adultery issued her public ridicule and shunning, and a physical reminder to be forever worn; an embroidered ‘A’ placed upon her bosom. The symbol served to alert all of her faithless act, “It had the affect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and enclosing her in a sphere by herself” (page 74). Throughout the novel, Hester’s treatment is obvious, and she makes many efforts to not let her choice, and her illegitimate child Pearl, define her.

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1294 Words | 6 Pages

Hester is accused of being unfaithful to her husband, Roger Chillingworth, despite his absence from her life for a long period of time. During one of Roger’s extended absences, Hester conceives a child born out of sin with Arthur Dimmesdale. Arthur Dimmesdale is a local holy man and is never exposed for his sin, while Hester is frequently mistreated, and eternally punished with a scarlet “A” marked on her clothing to represent Adulterer. Hester talks about wearing the “A”, and resents the fact that it may be pointed at as a sign of weakness. Hester says, “giving up her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivify and embody their images of woman's frailty and sinful passion” (91 Hawthorne).

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514 Words | 3 Pages

(Chapter 6, page 63) “..as a direct consequence of the sin which man thus punished, had given her a lovely child, whose place was that same dishonored bosom, to connect her to her parent forever…”. Pearl is connected to Hester forever and will live with the same sin as Hester. By that, even though Pearl did nothing wrong

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789 Words | 4 Pages

The Scarlet Letter is a book written in the 1800’s by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is set in a puritan town in the 1600’s. The book follows a young woman named Hester Prynne and her struggles in life, due to one sin she committed, adultery. Nathaniel Hawthorne is the nephew of John Hathorne, Nathaniel Hawthorne is an anti-transcendentalist. An anti-transcendentalist is someone who believes that people are mostly bead.

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712 Words | 3 Pages

The Scarlet Letter written by author Nathaniel Hawthorne is an American novel based on sin and the act of Adultery. This novel is based on the early days of the Massachusetts colony and shows how differently crimes are approached then from now. Hester Prynne commits the unfaithful crime of Adultery and not only does she have to serve for her punishment, but her daughter serves for it as well. Pearl, the symbol of an act of forbidden love and passion has to live with being the reminder of her mother 's misconduct for her entire life. Growing up in a small town with her reputation, it is hard for Pearl to have any kind of normality in her life.

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1503 Words | 7 Pages

As Hester stands upon the scaffold awaiting hertrial, the narrator states, “In a moment, however, wisely judging that one token of her shame would but poorly serve to hide another, she took the baby on her arm, and, with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbors. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the letter A" (Hawthorne 14). Hester is on the scaffold, being publicly embarrassed for her act of infidelity and she realizes how contradictory it would be to hide the embroidered A with Pearl, her baby. Hester does not want to be viewed as shy or afraid and with pride and courage, emposes the A for the town to see. She is accepting to the blame and guilt and refuses to surrender to the biased views of women in a sexist society by the people in her town.

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448 Words | 2 Pages

Hester and Pearl leave for Europe. Chillingworth dies shortly after, leaving his fortune to Pearl. Hester eventually returns to live in her small cottage and wears the scarlet A on

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412 Words | 2 Pages

Pearl is the result of the sin of adultery between Hester and her lover. Pearl’s darkness or immorality could be the consequence of having her. Even with all of this, Hester still views Pearl as her world. She loves Pearl very much and doesn’t know what to do without her. Hester gave up everything she had for Pearl.

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796 Words | 4 Pages

Hester proves that she has a higher understanding for people and life, also a sense of honor based on her own principles not society’s. This perfectly fits the mold for a romantic hero. Towards the end of the novel, we learn that Pearl became a great women and Hester could have lived a great life with her wealthy daughter, yet she chose to return to Boston and live out her punishment. Now the book describes Hester’s final resting place, “It bore a device, a herald's wording of which might serve for a motto and brief description of our now concluded legend; so somber is it, and relieved only by one ever-glowing point of light gloomier than the shadow:—"On a field, sable, the letter A, gules”(Hawthorne 259).

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1142 Words | 5 Pages

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was published in 1850. It focuses on the life of the main protagonist, Hester Prynne, living in a Puritan community. Both Yamin Wang and Maria Stromberg offer insight into The Scarlet Letter and analyze multiple aspects of the story.. Both Wang and Stromberg claim that there is an underlying ideology hidden in the texts of the book. Wang approaches the story from a feminist approach and states that Hester represents the feminism in the Puritan community, and she analyzes the Puritan’s outlook on women in their society.

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777 Words | 4 Pages

“The U.S. jewelry market earned $57.965 billion in annual revenue last year”(McCain 1). To some people this might seem like a crazy amount of wasted money. Not for Mathilde though. In the short story, The Necklace, Mathilde, a poor girl, longs for having a rich life filled with fancy food, clothes, and jewelry. When Mathilde has the chance to go to a fancy dance, she would love to go, but is missing one thing, a fancy necklace.

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