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Critical analysis of scarlet letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Literary review of The Scarlet Letter
Essay on scarlet letter summary
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Hawthorne uses chapter twenty-two, “The Procession”, to put all the pieces of the puzzle of the conflict together. This is where the reader remotely begins to understand how the ending of the novel will come to an end. To reveal the conclusion to the reader, Hawthorne uses rhetorical devices such as, irony, simile, and diction. To expose the irony in this chapter, Hawthorne writes of Dimmesdale’s sermon. As Dimmesdale speaks, “if the auditor listened intently, and for the purpose, he could detect the same cry of pain.”
Character Foils In The Scarlet Letter Those who contrast each other make for engrossing storytelling. Nathaniel Hawthorne demonstrates this truth often in his romantic narrative, “The Scarlet Letter”.
One spontaneous but significant mistake made by Arther Dimmesdale caused him to live the rest of his life crawling with guilt. Arthur Dimmesdale, in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, had an affair with a married woman, and that crime ruined the lives of almost everyone in the novel. The Scarlet Letter remains a classic to this day because it emphasizes harsh penance which highlights the difference between the treatment of sinners today and those during the 17th century. The way Puritans view sin and guilt cause Dimmesdale’s life to come to an unfortunate end.
When you think of a Puritan society, what comes to your mind? Perfect, flawless, and a religion based on following God? Well, that is what it says on paper, but is it really that perfect? Throughout the Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne jabs at the Puritans in an attempt to portray just how flawed they really are. After reading the book, you want to think that Hawthorne is telling the story of sinning in a Puritan society.
The Puritan definition of truth was the word of God or every verse contained in the scripture, and the truth is believed to be “the self-expression of God”. Puritans took the word of God very serious and depended on it for their life lessons. In The Scarlet Letter Roger Chillingworth identifies Mr. Dimmesdale’s faults and want to uncover the secret that’s destroying him inside. Chillingworth makes it his purpose to find the truth. Chillingworth has an opportunity to do so while Dimmesdale is asleep from the drugs that Chillingworth gave him.
During the time at which the novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was written, people were help to higher standards regarding what was viewed as acceptable in a society, mostly shown through religious moral standards. Hawthorne was also able to show the effects of guilt specifically during that time, following a sin that was seen as completely unacceptable in this society, and how it would affect someone in their life, especially if kept private. Hawthorne uses literary devices to show how private guilt causes more personal damage than public guilt and how it can become an everlasting punishment. Through the use of diction, Hawthorne is able to show how private guilt causes more personal damage and can have a great internal punishment
One action, a split second decision can undo all good deeds in a person 's life. This often occurs in novels such as The Crucible by Arthur Miller or The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne where characters make a life altering decision that causes them pain in the end. These character traits are used so often it becomes something of a stereotype, similar to the characters’ personalities in these iconic novels. The authors use cliches to express the idea that kind hearted people can become sinners despite their goodness.
The exploration of societal pressures. Life can be separated into two equal parts totally independent from one another. The inner self, being the innermost thoughts and feelings of the individual, and the outer self, how the individual decides to conduct itself around the others in society. Often times one of these parts takes control of the other, suppressing its partner. The suppression is often not of equal frequency because of the obligation humans feel to be liked and to fit in causes the outermost self to be given the most thought and worry.
Was is right that the puritan community began to care for Hester and Pearl’s wellbeing after shunning them? What do you think Pearl meant when she said she was plucked from the rose bush just outside the prison door? In the author’s eyes, was putting Chillingworth and Dimmesdale a good or bad choice?
(Hawthorne 148). She made herself a reliable person to her community, and by doing this, she redeemed herself from her sin. Humans eventually fall from grace. How they respond to this can either strengthen their character or lead them to ruin. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne vividly portrays the different ways people can deal with their failures.
Imagine living in a place where one small sin could define who you are for the rest of your life. That is what happened in The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. The novel is set in a seventeenth-century Puritan community in Boston, Massachusetts. A young woman by the name of Hester Prynne commits a small act of adultery and is shamed for the rest of her life, by wearing a scarlet letter “A” on her breast. The book is centered around the theme of justice and judgement.
However, he also uses these allusions to create a new side to his narrative as evident when he describes Hester’s resilience, and to create a new element in the plot as evident in his description of Dimmesdale’s penance and need for redemption. Therefore, Hawthorne demonstrates an effective use of allusions to craft a religious and detailed narrative for The Scarlet Letter by reviewing on parallels between the Bible and the novel’s main characters. There’s more to The Scarlet Letter than these allusions though, and there are many questions to answer about this book. These questions may never be answered fully, but by reading the novel itself, we might find the right places to start searching for answers and formulate our own opinions on the matter. What’s important from this novel is the realistic warning about what might happens when an individual place themselves too highly among others, a message Hawthorne writes to warn against the fervor of transcendentalism of his time.
The Scarlet Letter, a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, functions as an evaluation of Puritan ideas, customs, and culture during the 17th century. Through this evaluation, we can get a good idea of what core values and beliefs the Puritans possessed, as well as the actions they take in cases of adversity brought about by “sinners”. Some Puritan virtues created stark divisions between groups of people, some of which led to discrimination under certain circumstances. One of the most prominent of these is the treatment and standards of men and women, a concept that surfaced during some of the major points in The Scarlet Letter. The divisions that were created by Puritan standards of men and women played a great role in shaping the plot of The Scarlet Letter, determining the fate of many of the characters.
Amanda Vicente The Scarlet Letter Reading Response AP English Language Period J 16 August 2016 Journal Entry 1: Chapters 1-2 In The Scarlet Letter, the author sets a mood from the beginning of the book. The setting is old and beat up in front of an aged wooden prison with judgmental Puritans ready to tear a women apart. The Puritans are hypocrites and the author portrays that in the story.
Puritans felt redemption could not be achieved because the sins were so wrong and so evil. Hawthorne used redemption to help develop the characters and the ideas the reader had on them. The whole book happened because of a sin that occurred, and that sin was the cause of many actions of the characters. Throughout “The Scarlet Letter,” Hawthorne
