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Hester Prynne Exile Quotes

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Edward Said wrote, “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience.” Hester Prynne cheated on her husband with the head minister of the town and had a bastard child. In 16th century Puritan Massachusetts, this is essentially one of the worst possible things you can do. As a result, the town forces Hester to wear Scarlet A on her chest and shuns her. She worsens the situation by refusing to tell anyone who is the father of the bastard child. The people of Hester’s community loved to shun and ridicule her and her daughter and they all loved to view their exile. Hester’s experience with exile was alienating and enriching, and this experience illuminated the meaning of the work as a whole. Hester Prynne was an adulteress and this caused her to become separated from her community. …show more content…

In committing adultery, Hester caused the community to shun and ridicule her. “So that both men and women, who had been acquainted with Hester Prynne, were now impressed as if they beheld her for the first time, was that Scarlet Letter… It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity and inclosing her by herself” (51). This quote is stating because of the Scarlet A, Hester is alienated from the rest of the community. The Scarlet A separates Hester from everyone else, even her child Pearl. It stands out because it is colorful and this convoys that Hester is a sinner because in the Puritan religion it is believed that colorful clothing is only to be worn by the Lord. If you follow the Puritan faith, you have ti wear dark and dreary clothing. Therefore, wearing a Scarlet A on her bosom instantly makes her different than everyone else in the community and causes everyone who sees it instantly know she is different from everyone else. The Scarlet A written on Hester’s bosom alienates her from the

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Hester Prynne Shame Quotes

1140 Words | 5 Pages

Hester's divine beauty outshines others corrupt beliefs of her. While Hester walks stumbles out the prison doors and onto the dreaded scaffold, Hawthorne describes Hester as "the young woman [who] was tall, with a figure of perfect elegance, on a large scale" (40). Hester Prynne is being publicly shamed for the act of adultery she committed along with the minister who condemns her. She is forced to stand on the scaffold and beat the sorrow of he sins with the scarlet letter "A" on her bosom to represent her shameful acts. This mark of embarrassment serves a purpose to make her appear unrighteous, but the author chooses to focus on her beauty, which outshines this emblem.

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How Hester Prynne Changes In Scarlet Letter

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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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To Kill A Mockingbird Quote Analysis

548 Words | 3 Pages

Scout, in the beginning, dramatizes her life occurrences while being naive towards realistic issues such as racism. From the near beginning, page 16, “Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained – if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off.” As shown in the excerpt, scout believed in childish tall-tales and rumors at the start of the story. She did not notice, or care, how dramatized these rumors were. Another example from pages 20 and 21, “Jem was careful to explain that during school hours I was not to bother him, I was not to approach him with requests to reenact a chapter of Tarzan and the Ant Men, to embarrass him with references to his private life, or tag along behind him at noon.”

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Analysis Of Hester Prynne In The Scarlet Letter

896 Words | 4 Pages

By wearing the “A,” Hester was publicly humiliated, however, her development in character causes a change in the meaning of the Scarlet Letter, which leads her to taking pride in the letter as it grows a part of her. After Hester’s sin the Puritan community places a false

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Hester Prynne Punishment In Scarlet Letter

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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Essay About The Mistakes Hester Prynne Ever Made

599 Words | 3 Pages

In the beginning the scarlet letter represented adultery and shame, but then the A represented “able.” Hester Prynne showed people that greatness can come out of huge mistake. One bad chapter does not mean your story is over. Willingly, Hester wanted to pick herself up again and move on with her life and eventually people noticed that. They began to respect her and think of her as strong and commendable

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Blindness In The Scarlet Letter

1270 Words | 6 Pages

She receives three punishments from the townspeople, who claim they will free her from her sin. The community orders Hester to go to jail, wear a scarlet letter on her chest, and stand on the town scaffold for hours. Hester wears her scarlet letter proudly on her chest, and endures much suffering because of her public ridicule. Hester is “kept by no restrictive clause of her condemnation within the limits of the Puritan settlement” after she was released from prison, but she chooses to stay (Hawthorne 71). Later, Hester’s child, Pearl, symbolizes the Puritan view of Hester.

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Separate Spheres

892 Words | 4 Pages

She was so strong and powerful she changed the symbol of iniquity itself. It was the “helpfulness found in [Hester]- 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” (Hawthorne 152). The scarlet letter was a mark of adultery meant to bring shame and guilt upon those who bore it. Hester lived her life with strength even under the weight of the public eye, that she altered the view of the scarlet letter.

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Essay On Evil In The Scarlet Letter

719 Words | 3 Pages

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

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Essay On Literary Devices In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

499 Words | 2 Pages

Literary Devices in The Scarlet Letter Literary devices are often used to capture a reader’s attention in a text. Nathaniel Hawthorne used many different types of literary devices in his book The Scarlet Letter. He uses symbolism to give hidden meaning to elements in the story, conflict to make the story interesting, and allusion to make references to historical events (ex. biblical references). While reading The Scarlet Letter, the literary devices did not jump out at me, but now as I reflect upon them they help me understand the book well. Literary devices can make a passage have a whole different meaning.

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Hester Prynne: A Romantic Hero

796 Words | 4 Pages

In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter, the protagonist, Hester Prynne is a Romantic Hero. Throughout The Scarlet Letter, we see Hester Prynne’s struggle in Colonial America after she is condemned by the Puritan society. She is sent to America by her husband, but he never returns, and Hester later conceives a child with the local minister. She is convicted with the crime of adultery, but refuses to identify the father, she is then forced to wear the Scarlet Letter. The novel captures her experience as she struggles to survive the guilt, sin, and revenge.

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Scarlet Letter Symbolism

1322 Words | 6 Pages

At the beginning of the story, the scarlet “A” is considered as a badge of shame. Hester doesn´t show the scarlet letter as a symbol of shame when she wears it, because she wears a beautiful scarlet “A” embroidered with gold, that she made herself thanks to her ability in making precious needle works. Hester is capable of wearing the scarlet letter in a very determined and secure way. This is why, at the beginning of the story, the townspeople think she is “proud” of her sin. The puritan beliefs say that the scarlet letter should not be pretty, because it is a “punishment” for the sinners to feel ashamed.

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Hester Prynne Pride Quotes

618 Words | 3 Pages

My first introduction of Hester Prynne, from what the author described, showed that she wore the Scarlet Letter on her chest with pride and she showed no sense of remorse on her face. “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.” (pg.46) My response would be “how could she commit an act so unholy as a mother, and display pride?” The comparison and contrast that Hawthorne makes between Hester and her baby is that her baby is a sin-born infant but never committed an act of adultery.

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The Symbolism Of 'A' In The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne

959 Words | 4 Pages

Receiving the scarlet letter changed every aspect of Hester’s life. Especially at the start of the story, the letter symbolized the solitude and great suffering Hester faced just because of a letter placed on her bosom. The “A” also depicted how no one viewed Hester the same way as before her peccant actions. “…she saw that, owing to the peculiar effect of this convex mirror, the scarlet letter was represented in exaggerated and gigantic proportions, so as to be greatly the most prominent feature of her appearance” (Hawthorne 109). The pejorative community Hester lived in never saw Hester as the beautiful, young woman she was, but now, as a horrible fiend.

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Redemption In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter

1035 Words | 5 Pages

“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.

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