Nathaniel Hawthorne’s rosebush in The Scarlet Letter represents the prisoners who are living within the shadows of the prison. Throughout the novel Hester, a prisoner, is seeking redemption, so she’s willing to sacrifice her reputation for the sake of her daughter. The rosebush is a symbol for those who are suffering or going through a difficult time. The rosebush is growing in the shadows of the prison, as are the prisoners who have a chance at redeeming themselves. Throughout The Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne overcomes several challenging obstacles that come her way and try preventing her redemption.
The definition of integrity in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is a firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values. A character with integrity is willing to sacrifice anything of sentimental or physical value, even their life or reputation, to defend the moral system they govern themselves by. It takes someone of strong character to possess integrity, because the temptation to give in is every so often immensely appealing. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is a character of such integrity, because she upholds her promise with Chillingworth and refuses to flee from the punishment of the scarlet letter “A”.
Guilt Obsession Within the novel The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathanial Hawthorne Reverend Dimmesdale drastically develops throughout the novel, from being a symbol of Puritan religion to displeasing the population of the Puritan expectations through his actions. His appearance as well as his privilege and prominence within the community alters radically. He begins the novel as the town reverend, and later, the shame of Hester accepting the entirety of the blame and the fact that he escaped with no punishment or shame from the town ultimately consumed him. Throughout the novel, it was revealed that he had a red mark on his chest in correlation to the “A” that was displayed on Hester’s chest.
In my project, I depicted the symbolism of Jack and the pig in William Golding’s Lord Of The Flies. In the beginning, Jack names himself a hunter; this illustrates the savage side of human nature. As the novel continues, and the desire to hunt and kill increases, and Jack finds himself not only a hunter but also feeling like he is being hunted. This change represents how fear overpowers hope and fuels the dominance of savagery. In the end of the novel, Jack turns from hunting pigs to hunting Ralph.
As stated by Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which one may be true”. The Scarlet Letter takes place in Puritan times, where tolerance was at an all time low, and where women were publicly humiliated for adultery, which is in fact what the scarlet letter “A” represented. Also, during this period of time, due to the religious background, customs, and the mindset adopted by people, there was a lot of superstition on the origins and consequences of evil. Thus, through this quote, Nathaniel Hawthorne expressed his personal belief regarding on the topic of corruption, honesty and deception. Hawthorne
Mistakes and the Guilty Herman Melville said in Moby Dick, “To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme…”(chptr. 104).This is a statement that can fit any story or book, even The Scarlet Letter. The three prominent themes in The Scarlet Letter show that people are unforgiving, will judge, and their opinions will always mean something. The mistakes of others can make you feel guilty. The quintessential themes of The Scarlet Letter revolve around personal guilt and the judgments of others.
Secrets, everyone has them, they seem enjoyable. Shameful truth that has become public haunts one’s mind. On the long run however, the opposite seems more common, in The Scarlet Letter at least. In The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne conveys the theme of truth in the three main characters, to show how public truth makes characters thrive, while secrets make everyone suffer.
In the time of Puritans, the law was not only of state but of religion. Thus, crime not only had a connection with breaking earthly law, but also committing a sin in the eyes of the heavenly law. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Scarlet Letter fulfills its office, an office of bringing her and her community closer to God, as evident by Hester’s increase in compassion and service to the community, the way in which people view her, and by the suffering which she encounters in numerous ways. The guilt felt from the Scarlet Letter leads Hester to a life as a public servant, fulfilling her penance through service.
The Guilt of Hidden Sin Everyone has that one secret or problem that makes them feel as if they are the only one that will ever understand, so they suffer through it alone. Many times they feel like “That secret” is specific to each person; that they are the only one that can relate and that they alone must live with the weight on their shoulders. It is on them to fix or cover up for as long as they can. “...if truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom...” (Hawthorne 82).
In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses the Rose Bush, Hester Prynne, and Hester’s Cabin to prove it is natural for good and evil to co-exist in balance. To begin, Hawthorne uses the Wild Rosebush to show that it is natural for good and evil to coexist. At the beginning of The Scarlet Letter, the reader is immediately introduced to this Rosebush. We are told that this Rosebush is placed outside the prison where Hester Prynne is living. This Rosebush symbolizes pain and beauty.
Response Is there a secret good to the scarlet “A” or is it as atrocious as the legend is known for today? The scarlet letter is known as a bad symbol that means that the wearer has committed adultery and should be ashamed. According to Goggle.com “Adultery is voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and a person who is not his or her spouse”. This against the law today and against the law in past times. The bible says “He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.
The Effects of Weakness How is a reverend, who has destroyed his own ticket through the magnificent gates of Heaven with sin, supposed to provide spiritual guidance to acquire that same ticket to the denizens of the community? Correct answer: He is not. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dimmesdale, the reverend, undergoes a transformation that leaves him dead and the Puritan society in disbelief. This transformation leads him to perform acts with unnatural strength from the usually very weak man.
In 1692, Massachusetts was churning with accusations of witchcraft and sorcery under the pointing fingers of its puritan occupants. Among those unsettling personages was John Hathorne, great great grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne and impenitent prosecutor of sorceresses. Nathaniel was haunted by his ancestor’s presence on his tree and added a “w” to his surname to avoid any awkward associations to the passionately misguided puritan. His aversion to puritan sentiments is also reflected in the pool of his literary works-- notably The Scarlet Letter --by his equation of the ideal puritan woman to death (as in of the individual). He likewise condemns the puritan’s use of regret to mold a vulnerable human being into something drearily unnatural.
The Scarlet Letter begins with a group of Puritans building a small town in Northeastern America. When colonizing the area, two things are built: a graveyard and a prison. On the door of the prison grows a wild rose bush. This wild rose bush has not been planted by anybody, nor has it been tended to by anyone, but it seems to grow lusciously. Our narrator, who is presumed to be Hawthorne, describes these roses as being "delicate gems, which might be imagined to offer their in, and to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart of nature could pity and be kind to them."
If it was not for secrets, The Scarlet Letter would not be a story. Throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book many characters are dealing with something they have to keep quiet. It may be a sin they have committed or something they know, but the way they deal with their secret determines how they feel about themselves. The two main secrets in The Scarlet Letter are who the father of Pearl is and who Hester Prynne’s husband was. As the secrets get revealed, many lives are changed drastically.
