In 1850, novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne published a book that is still studied today due to its abundance of moral ambiguity. The book takes place in the 17th century Puritan town of Salem. His main character, Hester Prynne, causes widespread clamor due to her unloyal ways to her husband, Roger Chillingworth. To escape the hate of the town she spends time with her illegitimate child, Pearl in the forest. This is where she can release her wild side.
Chapters 5-11 __________1. Hester chooses to stay in Boston even though she is permitted to leave. __________2. The cottage she moves into is located by the sea.
In 17th century Boston, Hester Prynne has just been sentenced to prison after being on trial for committing an act of adultery, which caused the arrival of her daughter, Pearl. In addition to jail time, she was doomed to wear a scarlet, embroidered letter A. When Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth, arrives back from his mysterious adventure, asks her to tell the name of her secret lover to repay him for the sin she committed; however, she refuses once again and Roger vows to force her lover out of hiding since she would not tell him herself. Seven years after this incident, the extremely ill Reverend Dimmesdale meets in the woods with Hester and Pearl. After a heartfelt conversation between the reverend and Hester, they develop a plan to
The D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944, was one of the most significant events in World War II. Codenamed “Operation Overlord", the invasion was a coordinated effort between Allied forces to liberate German-occupied France and ultimately bring an end to the war in Europe. D-Day was known as the largest assault ever carried out. The success of the invasion relied heavily on technological advancements that enabled the Allies to overcome the formidable German defenses, such as amphibious tanks, water-landing crafts, and artillery and air raids. Amphibious tanks were one of the most critical technological advancements that played a significant role in the D-Day invasion.
The Scarlet Letter opens with Hester Prynne, a young woman who has committed adultery and is being punished. She is shown to be a proud, confident woman but is quickly forced to mature under the burden of public humiliation. Hester becomes an unhappy and bitter woman, her mind and body hardened by the stress of her punishment and her inability to forgive herself and move on. Throughout the story, she struggles to come to terms with what she has done and only when she finally does, can she return to her former happy, unburdened self and regain her former beauty. At the start of the novel, Hester has just received her sentencing for her crime of adultery.
Her defiance becomes stronger and will carry her through different hardships. Her determination and lonely stand repeats again when she confronts Governor Bellingham over the issue of Pearl’s guardianship. When Bellingham wants to take Pearl away from Hester, Hester reply’s with, “God gave me the child! I will die first!”(Ch.). When also pressured even more for the child’s care, Hester pleads, “God gave her into my keeping.
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
The author of The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne, uses the sacrifices of Hester Prynne in order to demonstrate her values as well as give the reader a deeper understanding of the novel overall. Hawthorne shows Hester’s sacrifices which leads to how she is able to fortify her desires, this in turn allows Hawthorne to point out the main themes of the novel. Hester not only accepts and deals with the punishments of her sins for herself, but also for the people she loves. This makes it able so Hester is able to solidify her relationships with the people she loves and cares about. As a result of Hester’s independence and respect for the people she loves, Hawthorne is able to demonstrate how she is actually the angel in a city of sinners.
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.
In the Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is forced to wear a scarlet “A” at all times because of her sin of adultery, to simulate wearing the letter, I decided to wear fake earrings. Similarly to how Hester is judged by others due to her letter, I also felt judged because of the earrings. While in public, I felt that people were constantly looking at my earrings and judging me based off of them. In almost every chapter, random members of Hester’s community assumed that due to the letter on her, that she was a terrible person. When I wore the earrings, I began to feel that everyone looking at them had made assumptions about me because I was a male wearing earrings.
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.
Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale have both committed a dreadful sin with torturous consequences. They contrast one another by their different responses to the outcome. Hester courageously accepted sin and the punishments, causing her to be content in living her life. On the other hand, Dimmesdale denied his sin, which triggered an illness that eventually leads to his death. This denial of sin induces effects of guilt that can be lethal and detrimental to a person.
Feminism is the philosophy advocating equal political, economic, and social rights for women. The idea of feminism was not at all prevalent during the 1850s when Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter was published. In spite of this, Hawthorne wrote one of the most influential feminist novels of his time: The Scarlet Letter. This novel was hailed as an important feminist novel because of the main character: Hester Prynne.
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).
Hester Prynne, the Worst Sinner Three different people, all with different stories but all have something in common; they’re all sinners but the question is who is the biggest sinner? In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, many characters are portrayed as sinners like Dimmesdale, Hester, and Chillingworth. But overall the biggest sinner in the story was Hester Prynne and there are many reasons for it. Obviously the reason for the scarlet letter, she was an adulteress. Hester caused many problems with people in the town including the most holy man Dimmesdale and a man that should've never been involved, Chillingworth.
