A Bleak World’s Best Citizen: Rewrite #1 Mark Van Doren’s essay “Hester Prynne” expresses Van Doren’s warm admiration for Hester Prynne’s character in The Scarlet Letter. In Van Doren’s essay, the author elevates Hester Prynne, using his analysis to illustrate his belief in her morality, despite her harsh circumstances. He explores the reasons behind Hester’s strength throughout the novel, and in relation to other characters such as Dimmesdale and Chillingsworth. Van Doren effectively builds his argument by employing historical allusion, repetition, and emotional diction in his case for Hester Prynne.
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.
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hester Prynne is seen as a disgrace for the town. The “A” on Hester’s chest forces her to feel like she has no independence, since she is not seen like a typical person; she does not feel like she
Hester is a strong woman, but she is no match for the political monsters who take advantage of her gender and made her live in shame for an act that was out of love, not hate. Though they tried to take her child away, Hester persevered. The men do not listen to the woman’s pleas for her one and only treasure in her life, her daughter, Pearl. Instead, they listen to Dimmesdale and his suggestion to let Hester keep her own daughter. These men have no sympathy, and only by the suggestion of the Reverend, do they let the mother keep her child. This book is full of anti-feminism, but Hester remains strong and keeps fighting against all odds.
Symbolism Within The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne created symbolism throughout The Scarlet Letter in order to develop the theme throughout Hester’s life. Hester is portrayed as a sheltered soul, shunned from society due to her adulterous acts. The red A and her daughter, Pearl, are symbols of Hester’s shame which she bares proudly despite society's harsh judgements. Hawthorne is able to use symbolism to develop themes, characters, and analogies in the Scarlet Letter.
However, as you dig deeper, you will see Hawthorne’s true purpose for writing the novel. In the Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses irony to criticize the Puritan ideals. Hester’s Scarlet “A” is used to show how imperfect the Puritans are. The narrator describes Hester’s scarlet letter when he says: “On the breast of her gown,
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
Taisha Pacheco 9/14/2015 Mrs. Bauman AP Lit Block F It’s almost beyond belief that this woman would stay in a place where she’s in conflict with shame. The circumstance of her sentence didn’t make her stay in the Puritan settlement.
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.
Hawthorne uses symbolism throughout the Scarlet letter to display the sin and indecency people see Hester as. The detail represents ,the deep beauty Hester has inside although most people do not see her as a beutiful women. The deep red is a representation of adultery which shows her being an oncast from society. The symbol of the letter “A” is repetitive throughout the novel and grows with Hester and overcomes this with time as people start to see her as a person again and not just a adulterer. Hester acknowledges her sin in her puritan faith but swears to secrecy on the father of Pearl.
This quote is insightful because Hester hopes that, by remaining in Boston, the process of atonement of her shame and public punishment will be complete, so she can purify herself as a result. By wiping clean the sin from her soul, her choice to remain will bring her a different kind of clarity and goodness. Her refusal to live a life of lies also reveals Hester’s courage in which she not only refuses to acknowledge society’s power over her while also resisting the judgements placed against her. Hester also acknowledge her faults but make do with her best through Pearl. Her sewing was also a way of restraining her willfulness and passion.
There are various examples of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter, but one of them wraps the whole story together: the meaning of the scarlet letter A. In this passage, Hester Prynne wears an embroidered letter A on her bosom as punishment. At first the A stood for “adulterer”, but the townspeople later gained respect for her and said “Such helpfulness was found in her-so much power to do and to sympathize-that many people refused to interpret the scarlet “A” by its original significance. They said it meant ‘Able’” (Hawthorne 107).
Noting that Hester is the focal point of the novel, the antagonist role is not that of a single entity representation; the antagonist features in the novel are personified throughout the Puritan society itself. No singular person in the novel is solely to blame for problems, but rather, every person in the novel is to blame in some form. The villain of the society is the society itself; a recurring idea in many cases throughout modern and ancient history. Despite such claims, the definition of what makes someone or something a villain can be defined differently depending upon which of the myriad angles and lenses of views are being used to contemplate a situation. What is to be exemplification of a villain in the referenced novel is any individual
Hester doesn´t reflect that when she wears it. At first, for Hester the scarlet letter represents the loneliness that she feels, the sense of guilt and how society is judging her for her sin. Later, however, she comes to terms with her fate and accepts it. This is when the letter “A” becomes something secondary because Hester finds the strength and confidence inside her, to a point where she refuses to take the scarlet letter off, saying that is has grown too deep in her. It has become part of
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.
