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How Does Nathaniel Hawthorne Create Guilt In The Scarlet Letter

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Punishment should not always be associated with creating guilt within oneself. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, set in Puritan New England during the 1600s, is a love story filled with guilt and punishment, while simultaneously exposing the hypocrisy of Puritan beliefs. The Puritan’s rigidity and intolerance, as well as their tendency toward gossip and hypocrisy are made clear through their treatment of protagonist Hester Prynne. As punishment for committing adultery, Prynne is ordered to embroider and wear a scarlet A while on display for all the puritans to see as an example of a dissident. Hawthorne expresses the idea that a society should not be able to guilt a person into becoming someone they’re not through the use of obscure …show more content…

When Prynne is exhibited on the scaffold, rather than allow her shame to consume her, as was the intended purpose of this punishment, Prynne embraces her flaws and presents a proud, unfazed front to the crowd. Aware of her actions and the repercussions that would come with them, “with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed,” Prynne openly deys Puritan beliefs. Through this act of sedition, Prynne reinforces the idea that she should not succumb to how society wants to make her feel and that if she believes in something so strongly, then that should not be taken away from her. Prynne “made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which” her punishment enveloped her and “the desperate recklessness of her mood, by its wild and picturesque peculiarity” rejected the guilt she was pressured into feeling. The way that Prynne showcases herself, is her way of defying her society and attempting to make a change to the outdated regulations of Puritan …show more content…

The most obvious symbol of this being the scarlet letter A which dictates the entire premise in which this novel was set. The letter comes to symbolize Prynne’s triumph over the very forces that were meant to punish her. The Puritans expected Prynne’s wearing of the letter “to behold her dimmed and obscured by a disastrous cloud,” while it ended up doing the opposite, all because of how it was “so fantastically embroidered”. Intended to brand and shame Prynne, the scarlet letter comes to represent Prynne prevailing over the overly restrictive and controlling society she was brought up in. “It had the effect of a spell, taking her out of the ordinary relations with humanity, and inclosing her in a sphere by herself”. This letter represents the extent to which a society will take measures ensuring that their members blindly follow them. However, Prynne is able to surpass these ploys, only demonstrating her strength and willpower, especially when it comes to something she’s passionate

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Humans have a tendency to conform and often neglect the potential consequences of doing so. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author introduces those consequences through a respected clergyman and sinner named Arthur Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale struggles with his guilty conscience and cowardice to confess his sin which prompts him to abide by societal rules but question himself in private. Dimmesdale’s conflict between outward conformity and inward questioning contributes to the novel’s message that everybody must confront their sins or they will fall victim to some form of retribution.

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The Scarlet Letter, shows how badly people were treated for committed a sin in that time period. The main character, Hester Prynne committed lechery and in puritan society, which was very closely related to religion breaking the commandment that forbid adultery earned a very big punishment. It was even worse for Hester because she ended up conceiving a child. One way Hester was shunned by people was by having to wear the scarlet letter that would bring her public shame. Hester knew that because of the letter “young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast,—at her, the child of honorable parents,—at her, the mother of a babe, that would hereafter be a woman, —at her, who had once been innocent, —as the figure, the body, the reality of sin”

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Chris Ocampo Period 4A October 18,2015 Character Analysis/symbolism/Theme Identification-Analysis Essay Nathaniel Hawthorne’s use of symbolic commentary and conventional themes in The Scarlet Letter, The Ministers Black Veil, and The Birthmark, characterizes sin and judgment as deformations within us all. Within each of Hawthorne’s’ works sin reflects internal and exposed sins, as well in people’s flaws. However, there deformations expand further than the objects that they wear. All of the major symbols and themes in Hawthorns selected works embody Alienation. Hester Prynne, Aylmer, and Mr. Hooper are linked to the ambiguity of Puritan morals.

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Sin in puritan times was not taken lightly. Ignominy was how sinners were punished, and in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the protagonist Hester Prynne was no exception. She was publicly shamed, and forced to wear the letter “A” on her chest. Everything that was meant to be ugly in Hester’s life, turned into something beautiful.

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Sin and Revenge in Massachusetts The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, taking place in colonial Massachusetts, depicts the life of Hester Prynne. A women shunned by her society for committing adultery and a mother to her newborn child, she must bear a large red “A” upon her dress as her punishment. However, her punishment does not satisfy the colony -- the majority believes she deserves a worse punishment. In contrast, an inopportune traveler hears of Hester’s transgression on the day of her public trial and decides that she does not deserve punishment.

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Individualism alongside critical thinking were seen as the main “enemies” of Bradbury’s conformist society. In his novel, Clarisse for one was the embodiment of “a free soul”. She came from a family of questionnaires and not followers. In a society where one of the biggest punishments is being removed from it or cast out, her acting out of norm made others find her antisocial. "I'm antisocial, they say.

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In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne, a Puritan woman, commits adultery with Reverend Dimmesdale. As a form of punishment, the judge forces Hester to wear a scarlet letter to signify her wrongdoing. The purpose of the scarlet letter is to correct Hester’s conduct. With the symbol of the scarlet letter, Hester’s Puritan community publicly judges and ridicules her. Today, judges sometimes still use public shaming as a form of punishment.

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Punishment of Puritans for their sins occurred harshly and frequently, and these punishments ranged from fines, branding, and severe whippings to hanging and death. Many of these penalties involved public humiliation of some kind, which made it extremely difficult for townspeople to accept by their peers after they had sinned. Because the Puritans believed religion was immensely important, the community was often reluctant to allow citizens that exhibited sinful behavior to achieve redemption (Cox). However, in the case of Hester Prynne, an adulterer in Nathaniel Hawthorne 's The Scarlet Letter, the townspeople eagerly made amends with her. This novel narrates the life of Hester Prynne, who committed adultery and courageously accepted the repercussions

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The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, conveys many objects and characters that are used as a symbol of a trait or deed, this, in literary terms, is called symbolism. Symbolism allows writers and authors to explicate their works in a more complex way. An example of an object that Nathaniel Hawthorne uses as a symbol in The Scarlet Letter, is simply the scarlet letter A. This letter A was sewn onto one of the characters’ clothing as a symbol of her past. This character’s name was Hester Prynne.

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Throughout the novel, Hawthorne’s implication that private suffering is worse than public shame is apparent through the development of Arthur Dimmesdale’s

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Adriana Miller Miss O’Reilly Honors American Literature, period 2 15 December 2022 Guilt is the Theif of Life In Puritan society, shame and guilt are universal feelings citizens experience. These two domineering traits of Puritan society become prevalent when an individual's actions do not adhere to societal command. The critical difference between the two is that shame is a public feeling while guilt is private. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter goes in-depth about the negative consequences associated with sin.

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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.

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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)

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