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Full character analysis of hester prynne
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Symbolism of the Scarlet Letter
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In The War to End All Wars by Edward M. Coffman is a book about World War I and the challenges citizens, Armies and nations face. Coffman talks about how Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, the nations of Europe, the military alliances, famous battles and the experiences of troops. A conflict that sparked a series of accidents and misunderstandings. It was the first modern war with new weapons causing deadly effects. Millions were killed and empires were destroyed.
People often say sins are the deepest and darkest part of a person, but are they really the deepest? Don't some people wear their sins on their sleeve for everyone to see? Yes they do, but then others bury their sins hiding them from humanity. These are the two types of people in the world: those that openly admit their sins and those who hide and deny their sins.
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.
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
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.
The book The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne has symbolism all throughout it. People and objects are symbolic of events and thoughts. Throughout the book, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Hester, Pearl, and Arthur Dimmesdale to signify philosophies that are evident during this time period. Hester Prynne, through the eyes of the Puritans, is an extreme sinner; she has gone against their ways, committing adultery. For this sin, she must wear a symbol of shame for the rest of her life.
His embarrassment was overwhelming. Hester vowed not to tell anyone who her husband is, while he vowed to find Pearl’s father and expose him. In Hester’s situation, the easiest thing to do would have been to leave town. Het she stayed to protect Pearl’s father and stand by him, even if his identity was not known by the town.
My initial introduction of Hester Prynne is that she is a calm individual, who thinks about her kid. She 's extremely religious implying that she trusts in God to a considerable measure. She has confidence in herself and does not pass judgment on herself for what she did. She additionally, does not let the judgemental populace of New England influence the way she acts and feels about herself. Nonetheless, and in addition having a solid side, she additionally has a delicate and passionate times.
Although she is looked down upon by the society in the beginning of the novel, she is transformed into a symbol of strength, something typically reserved for men, towards the end of the novel. “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” (Hawthorne 146). Through her suffering, Hester had become an inspiring symbol of strength for the community.
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.”
The scarlet letter “A” first appeared in the second chapter of the novel. Hester Prynne stood up on the stage, a baby in her arms. Her chest wore a scarlet letter embroidered with gold thread, a scarlet A! This letter “fine cloth as the base, all decorated with elegant embroidery and ingenious patterns of cloth of gold, with magnificent whimsy and exquisite craftsmanship” (Wan Yuanai, 2006: 6). “The scarlet letter on her breast ‘A’” represents the English word “Adultery”.
Hester Prynne is the very embodiment of feminism because of her refusal to adhere to the societal norms, her independence in thought, and how the view of the society around her changes through the novel. One of the main reasons why Hester Prynne is an important and progressive feminist character in The Scarlet Letter is her refusal to follow societal norms or to be put down by her peers. A primary example of her refusal to be put down by her peers is when Hester brandishes her
Saint Augustine learns that everyone and everything is part of God’s creation (2,2). Augustine is now about 29 years old and he is still living in Carthage, but while he is living in Carthage he comes across a man named Faustus. Faustus happens t be a very respected sage of the Manichees (6,10). Augustine seemed to be questioning the long-winded myths of the Manichees because he was comparing his early readings of philosophy to their beliefs (3,3). Augustine had many debates with Faustus but to me it seemed as if Augustine couldn’t really get a word in or really question anything about what Faustus was saying (6,11).
My complaint here as Hester Prynne is this. I am a woman, yes a woman in the 1700’s in the Boston Massachusettes bay area and i know that doesn't count for much because women do not have a place in this time period. But i am a woman and i need to be seen more as a human with rights than just an object. Yes i did something that is unspeakable to some people because what i did makes me an Adulterer and making me walk around this town with a scarlet
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.
