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Hester Prynne Guilt Quotes In Scarlet Letter

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In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, adulteress Hester Prynne must wear a scarlet A to mark her shame. Her lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, remains unidentified and is wracked with guilt, while her husband, Roger Chillingworth who seeks revenge.

In June 1642, A young woman named Hester Prynne was found guilty of adultery in the Puritan town of Boston. Then a crowd gathered to witness the punishment and now she must wear a scarlet A on her dress as a sign of shame. Also, she must stand on the scaffold for three hours for public humiliation. As Hester approaches the scaffold, many of the women in the crowd are angered by her beauty and quiet dignity. When demanded and cajoled to name the father of her child, Hester refuses. …show more content…

With him are Reverends Wilson and Dimmesdale. When Wilson questions Pearl about her catechism, she refuses to answer, even though she knows the correct response, thus jeopardizing her guardianship. Hester appeals to Reverend Dimmesdale in desperation, and the minister persuades the governor to let Pearl remain in Hester's care.

Because Reverend Dimmesdale's health has begun to fail, the townspeople are happy to have Chillingworth, a newly arrived physician, take up lodgings with their beloved minister. Being in such close contact with Dimmesdale, Chillingworth begins to suspect that the minister's illness is the result of some unconfessed guilt. He applies psychological pressure to the minister because he suspects Dimmesdale to be Pearl's father. One evening, pulling the sleeping Dimmesdale's vestment aside, Chillingworth sees something startling on the sleeping minister's pale chest: a scarlet …show more content…

Climbing the scaffold, he sees Hester and Pearl and calls to them to join him. He admits his guilt to them but cannot find the courage to do so publicly. Suddenly Dimmesdale sees a meteor forming what appears to be a gigantic A in the sky; simultaneously, Pearl points toward the shadowy figure of Roger Chillingworth. Hester, shocked by Dimmesdale's deterioration, decides to obtain a release from her vow of silence to her husband. In her discussion of this with Chillingworth, she tells him his obsession with revenge must be stopped in order to save his own soul.

Several days later, Hester meets Dimmesdale in the forest, where she removes the scarlet letter from her dress and identifies her husband and his desire for revenge. In this conversation, she convinces Dimmesdale to leave Boston in secret on a ship to Europe where they can start life anew. Renewed by this plan, the minister seems to gain new energy. Pearl, however, refuses to acknowledge either of them until Hester replaces her symbol of shame on her

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361 Words | 2 Pages

Dimmesdale and Chillingworth both have secrets that make them look and act differently, their secrets affect their character and how they do their job. Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl but he doesn 't want to face the same humiliation as Hester did for his sins. Because of his secret he self punishes and fasts, he also preaches better than he did before although his health is failing. Chillingworth’s secret is that he was the husband of Hester while he was away, before she cheated on him. Chillingworth gets uglier and uglier driven by the need to get revenge on Pearl’s father.

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762 Words | 4 Pages

This occurs after multiple sources continually badgered and convinced Dimmesdale to seek aid for his appearance ailments, from Chillingworth who is the only practicing physician in town. Throughout the treatment the two men become good friends, sharing their different views on subjects, but also becoming more intimate with each other. Chillingworth believes that many physical illnesses stem from the mind and heart (“bosom”), so he must become acquainted with his patients thoughts, motives, and ethics. However, Chillingworth is depicted as a “treasure-seeker”, alluding to the notion that there might be other subjects he seeks to attain. The author's portrayal of Dimmesdale as a “dark cavern”, elicits that the man has blackened his bosom with sin, but also that Chillingworth must be careful in his probing or he may injure himself (lose Dimmesdale’s

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551 Words | 3 Pages

Consequently, Arthur Dimmesdale is the cause of Hester Prynne's shame for he is the man whom Hester loves. No one knows he is the father of Pearl, Hester won't say and he isn't strong enough to speak up. He struggles with this knowledge that Hester is being punished and not him. The only truth that continued to give Mr. Dimmesdale a real existence on this earth was the anguish in his inmost soul, and the undissembled expression of it in his aspect, (Hawthorne 142). Being a minister of God the citizens look up to him, and he feels guilty about his hidden sin.

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707 Words | 3 Pages

Pearl.” (Hawthorne 248). When urging Pearl and Hester to join him, Dimmesdale redeemed himself of his sin while upon the scaffold a second time. As Dimmesdale, Hester, and Pearl ascended the scaffold, Chillingworth urged the reverend to not confess and live the rest of his life with this sin “followed. . .

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Dimmesdale starts living with Chillingworth so the doctor can keep the feeble minister ‘healthy’; the doctor, reversely, tries to make Dimmesdale feel conflicted about his morals which leads to Dimmesdale obsessively whipping himself “...on his own shoulders” and“... fast[ing]...in order to purify [his] body… rigorously...until his knees trembled beneath him[self]...” (132). He is enveloped in his sin, and cannot escape it unless he tells the truth. In fact, Dimmesdale could not stop thinking about his sin which “...continued to give Mr. Dimmesdale a real existence [which] was the anguish in his inmost soul” (133).

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941 Words | 4 Pages

I will not give her up!”(Ch.). Hester turns to Dimmesdale for help, the one time in the novel where she does not stand alone. Hester is able to still take, and care for little Pearl. Through the course of the years, Pearl has gotten familiar with Hester, and having the scarlet letter on her bosom. Hester can only have a certain amount of time without the scarlet letter before Pearl angrily demands that she resumes wearing the scarlet “A”.

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Although publicly admitting to sin can be a challenging task, time will heal the initial pain. Hester Prynne, of the Scarlet Letter, lives this lesson as she commits the sin of adultery. Her punishment for the sin is to wear the letter “A” on her bosom until she is allowed to remove it by the Puritan authorities wishes. Initially, Hester feels guilt and shame as she wears it. As Hester’s character grows in strength, she overcomes the letter’s original purpose of punishment.

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791 Words | 4 Pages

Punishment of Puritans for their sins occurred harshly and frequently, and these punishments ranged from fines, branding, and severe whippings to hanging and death. Many of these penalties involved public humiliation of some kind, which made it extremely difficult for townspeople to accept by their peers after they had sinned. Because the Puritans believed religion was immensely important, the community was often reluctant to allow citizens that exhibited sinful behavior to achieve redemption (Cox). However, in the case of Hester Prynne, an adulterer in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's The Scarlet Letter, the townspeople eagerly made amends with her. This novel narrates the life of Hester Prynne, who committed adultery and courageously accepted the repercussions

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648 Words | 3 Pages

As the story progresses, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is revealed as her adulterer. Dimmesdale, about halfway through the novel, starts to grow very ill and befriends a man named Roger Chillingworth who is a doctor and becomes Dimmesdale's roommate. Chillingworth is eventually revelaed as Hester's husband whom is plotting agaisnt Dimmesdale and Hester to try and reveal their secret to thre public. Dimmesdale grows to an even more ill and starts to bear a scar on his chest that is never revealed but, by collecting context clues the reader can easily come to the conclusion that the scar is an A as is Hesters patch that she bears on her dress. Dimmesdale also starts to torture himself mentally and physically and gives very uplifting sermons to the people that also play a part in his self torture through

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735 Words | 3 Pages

Meanwhile, Hester had learned that Chillingworth knew about their plan and had planned to get on the same ship. While Dimmesdale was leaving the church after his sermon, He seen Hester and Pearl standing before the town scaffold. He then gets on the scaffold with Hester and Pearl, then confessed his love publicly, exposing the scarlet letter carved into his chest. He then fell dead, as Pearl kissed

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693 Words | 3 Pages

In the scarlet letter, we see how everything falls into place. Hester comes out of the prison and stands on the scaffold in the middle of the town in front of everyone holding her child and wearing a shirt with the letter “A” printed on the shirt, standing for adultery. " Not a stitch in that embroidered letter, but she has felt it in her heart”(*Fitzgerald 46). The scarlet letter is a sign of adultery and in this time period it was very frowned upon.

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459 Words | 2 Pages

Soon enough, Reverend Dimmesdale allows Roger Chillingworth to move in with him because of his illness. He did not know that Roger Chillingworth has a plan; he, therefore, becomes “[d]oomed by his own choice…” (Hawthorne 76) because Chillingworth displays adequate behaviors at first, but plans revenge on Reverend Dimmesdale in secret. For instance, Roger Chillingworth plans on breaking up Reverend Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne, so he can have Hester Prynne for himself. After Reverend Dimmesdale confesses to his sin on the scaffold, he “...hast escaped [Chillingworth]” (Hawthorne 210), he becomes a real father to Pearl Prynne and accepts his sin.

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973 Words | 4 Pages

The town had no doubt that Pearl was the product of sin as Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth, never arrived in Boston. Hester and Pearl were then brought before the town, including Dimmesdale, to confess the sin that she committed and with whom. Hester refused to speak Dimmesdale’s name even after hearing that they would remove the scarlet letter, saying, “... It is too deeply branded. Ye cannot take it off.

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The Consequences of Sin Sin is defined as “an offense against religious or moral law”. The idea of sin and being ostracized for your sins was extremely relevant during the Puritan period when religion was the greatest component of daily life. The Puritans believed that they had entered a covenant with God and therefore any sin, such as crime and adultery were considered a breach of their covenant with God. This view led to the church punishing people who committed sin in order for God not to punish the church as a whole. The consequences and effects of sin is shown through the character development in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter.

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Even though she is supposed to be humiliated in front of the town as punishment for her adultery, she smiles proudly and wears her scarlet letter as a badge. In this instance, Hester refuses to accept her punishment thereby nullifying the punishment. If Hester were to be embarrassed on the scaffold, she would give her punishment the power to be a punishment. However, when Hester instead smiles on the scaffold, she shows that she won’t let her sin control her, no matter what the other townspeople think of her. Another example of how Hester denies her punishment is how she designed the scarlet letter.

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