How Is Prynne Portrayed In The Scarlet Letter

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We all like a good scandal and mystery right? Well, the Scarlet Letter is the story for you then. It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in the 1840’s. The book is set in Puritan time. This woman, Hester Prynne, went to jail because she had an affair with someone. Her husband was off at sea and she got pregnant while he was away. They sent her to prison and she had the baby in jail. She was forced to wear a scarlet A on her bosom. A man comes into town on the day of her punishment and it turns out it was her husband. He questions why the man is not also standing up there with her. The minister tells him that she refuses to tell. We get hints throughout the book about who the father is, but you do not find out until the end that it was Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. The scarlet letter has many things that represent it; three of those things are Hester, the clothes Hester makes, and Pearl. Hester is an example of the scarlet letter she has made. The …show more content…

She was naturally pretty. The letter was very fancy, intricate, and pretty. Pearl was naturally all of those things. “So magnificent was the the small figure, when thus arrayed, and such was the splendor of Pearl’s own proper beauty, shining through the gorgeous robes, which might have extinguished a paler loveliness, that there was an absolute circle of radiance around her (Hawthorne, 93). Hester made sure to emphasize on the beauty of her daughter by making sure she was very well dressed. Hester was a very good seamstress. She made all of Pearl’s dresses and they all looked fabulous. Even Hester realizes that Pearl is the living, breathing scarlet letter. She even said so in the book. “She is my happiness! — she is my torture . . . See ye not, she is the scarlet letter, only capable of being loved, and so endowed with a million-fold the power of retribution for my sin (Hawthorne,116)?” Hawthorne makes it very obvious that Pearl is represents the scarlet