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Character analysis on hester prynne in the scarlet letter
Character analysis on hester prynne in the scarlet letter
Character analysis on hester prynne in the scarlet letter
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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.
Make the Most of It Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter house a similar theme; impediments exhibit an individual’s resiliency. Although it is effortless for the “underdog” to sympathize with themselves and play the victim card, Hester Prynne surprises us. She owns up to the humiliating punishment that comes with her personal choices, but with bounteous pride.
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.
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
.They at first suggest “This women has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die.” (Hawthorne 46) When the government refrains from giving Hester the death sentence, they then suggest “At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hesters forehead.” (Hawthorne 48) These quotes emphasize the punishment they think Hester should have to endure without receiving the entirety of the story behind the sin she has committed. Although this is closer to the punishment that Hester obtains, she then has to wear a scarlet letter “A” on her bosom for everyone to see.
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.
“Hester Prynne’s Case: Justice Then and Now” The Scarlet Letter, a book written by Nathaniel Hawthorne during the mid-1800s, is about an adulterous woman’s life in Boston; during the early mid-17th century in New England, the Puritans already had imposed strict laws for the people to acquiesce. Many centuries later, penalties for adultery became less severe; in fact twenty-nine out of fifty states of America don’t federally admonish their residents for adultery. If Hester Prynne, the adulterous from the novel, lived during the late nineties or the third millennium— now a more liberal society— she could have had a more lenient punishment or could have gotten off scot-free without having to endure the punishment and shame she endured during the 1750s.
In Practical Ethics, Peter Singer successfully refutes objections to his argument that take only the actual characteristics of the foetus into account in determining the morality of abortion and not its potential characteristics. While some opponents of abortion recognise that on the basis of the foetus’ actual characteristics, the foetus compares unfavourably with many non-human animals; They claim that it is when we consider its potential to become a mature human being that membership of the species Homo sapiens becomes important, and the ‘foetus far surpasses any chicken, pig or calf’. The common argument for the potential of the foetus can be stated as follows: First premise: It is wrong to kill a potential human being. Second premise: A human foetus is a potential human being.
Towards the end of chapter five in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne, in addition to her personal guilt as a result of her sin, is subjugated to humiliation due to the townspeople’s actions. Isolation caused by the behavior of people around her prompts Hester to reseed into herself, which leads Hester to a realization that not only disgusts her, but provides evidence of hypocrisy within the practice of beliefs that the Puritan town is structured. In this section, Hawthorn describes Hester’s submission to pain inflicted by humiliation cast upon her by townspeople: Hester resists the urge to fight back, instead pushing down her reaction and accepting the punishments doled out by her community. For example Hester “[schools] herself long and well”
“At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead… “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. (Hawthorne, 36)” This quote gives readers a deeper look in puritan believes, society, and what was expected of women at that time. Another important aspect of chapter two is the scarlet letter A sewn onto Hester’s dress. The letter is red and outlined with golden thread.
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.”
So when she was attracted to a man in the town, they commit adultery and Hester becomes pregnant. When the town learns of her sin, they become outraged and are determined to teach her a lesson. First she was jailed, then forced to wear the scarlet letter and become subject to public shamings. The scarlet letter was a red ‘A’ that Hester had to wear on her chest until the Puritans felt that she learned from her sin. All through this punishment, the town wanted Hester to reveal the man who she committed adultery with and her baby’s father but Hester
Hester stood in front of a crowd to receive her punishment and when she got her punishment the goodwives did not think fondly of her. “When the young woman-the mother of this child- stood fully revealed before the crowd, it seemed to be her first impulse to clasp the infant closely to her bosom; not so much by an impulse of motherly affection, as that she might thereby conceal a certain token, which was wrought or fastened into her dress” (Hawthorne 60). When Hester received her punishment she was very self conscience about her scarlet letter. She felt that she had to
TheHer sudden aptitude for sewing was attributed to her guilt. After receiving her punishment, Hester declared, “Here… had been the scene of her guilt… and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul” (Hawthorne 55). Hester used her guilt and resentment to improve upon herself. In time, the town began to see the assuage of the letter. Hester was no longer denied the town’s attention, but she surely was not accepted into the society.
In the “Scarlet Letter,” Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays hypocrisy of the Puritan society, where the protagonist Hester Prynne face many consequences of her actions and the how she tries to redeem herself to the society. During the seventeenth puritans believe that it is their mission to punish the ones who do not follow God’s word and it is their job to stop those from sinning. Therefore, the hypercritical puritan society punishes Hester harshly for committing adultery, but in Hester’s mind, she believes that what she did was not a sin but acts of love for her man. Eventually, she redeems herself by turning her crime into an advantage to help those in need, yet the Puritan society still view her as a “naughty bagger.” (Hawthorne 78)
