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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.
Though Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter two hundred years after the Puritan era, an insight into their community is still seen. Though some characters embody the Puritan era, others are the opposite. Pearl’s strong bond with nature connects her to Romanticism and individualistic spirit disconnects her from Puritanism, and Hester, like her daughter, does not reflect the Puritan era through her indulgence in clothing and emotional characteristics. Pearl’s bond with nature connects her to Romanticism. Pearl’s connection with nature is demonstrated when she is described to be as wild as a bird (Hawthorne 139).
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a novel that focuses on sin in the Puritan society. Hawthorne revolves the theme around the four main characters Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth., and Pearl. Hester Prynne is forced to wear the scarlet letter ‘A’ after committing adultery against her husband Roger Chillingworth, with the minister Arthur Dimmesdale. As a result an odd child is born.
The Scarlet Letter is a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne about the weight of sin and guilt. The story begins in Massachusetts during the 1600’s. Hester Prynne, the protagonist of the story, has committed adultery with someone in the town, but no one knows who her lover is. As punishment for her sins, she must wear an embroidered scarlet “A” on her chest. Arthur Dimmesdale, the town's preacher, noticeably becomes quite ill once the scandal breaks out.
THESIS: In the literary pieces The Scarlet Letter and “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Nathaniel Hawthorne emphasizes the negative effects of guilt and sin through the presence of Puritan ideals, the symbolism of sin, and the motif of the nature of evil. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s experiences within the Puritan community greatly impacted his writing style. The Scarlet Letter and “The Minister’s Black Veil” each contain Puritan ideals that are used to convey the negative effects of guilt and sin. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne uses Puritan ideals to create a strict, judgmental community where sins are taken very seriously.
The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is one of the most famous and influential novels written in American literature. The story takes place in the seventeenth century in the Puritan settlement of Boston where a young woman named Hester Prynne is punished after having a daughter with a man who was not her husband. Though, instead of hanging Hester they spare her life because of her beauty. She is then shunned and forced to wear a scarlet “A” (for adultery) on her breast for the rest of her life, while, the “unknown” man who Hester had an affair with moves on with a guilt-filled life. The novel is a classic romance with it’s countless symbols tossed throughout the book.
Hester Prynne, the heroine of The Scarlet Letter is forced to wear a red "A" on her chest as punishment for committing adultery. This penance was decided by the all male leaders of her strict Puritan society. They aim to make an example of her by ostracizing her for "sin". As a transcendentalist Hawthorne is highly critical of Puritan society and their values. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter simultaneously rejects the rigidity and patriarchal values of Puritan society, while praising the enlightening power of transcendentalism.
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.
“At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne’s forehead… “This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. (Hawthorne, 36)” This quote gives readers a deeper look in puritan believes, society, and what was expected of women at that time. Another important aspect of chapter two is the scarlet letter A sewn onto Hester’s dress. The letter is red and outlined with golden thread.
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter tells the tale of Hester Prynne as she is led from a towns prison to the scaffold with her infant in her arms with the Scarlet Letter which is an A, on her chest which symbolized the crime she as committed. When a man in the crowd asked why Hester Prynne is on the scaffold. The man answers that Hester has committed the sin of adultery. The father of Pearl Arthur Dimmesdale must live with the guilt of the sin he has committed.
Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the story of The Scarlet Letter abridged through a woman named Hester Prynne who has conceived a child with a man other than her husband. Hester must wear the capital letter A on her bosom and is often looked down upon by the townspeople. Although her husband disappeared for two years, the Puritan culture was not tolerant when it came to adultery. Hawthorne uses a great deal of symbolism and foreshadowing throughout the story to tell the reader about the life of the Puritans in Massachusetts between the years 1642 and 1649. Symbolism is the idea of using a symbol, or an object in a story, to represent a deeper meaning, idea, or quality.
A favored illustration of Gothic Romanticism, The Scarlet Letter, is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s critically acclaimed depiction of Puritan society. This consists of an exploration of isolation and hypocrisy through Hawthorne’s rich characters and their complex inner psychological turmoil. To start, it is urgent to know information about the author. Hawthorne was “steeped in the Puritan legacy”( as cited in Nathaniel Hawthorne Biography, 2018). Both of his ancestors turned out to be strict judges during a time where persons got arrested for practicing witchcraft.
In “The Scarlet Letter” he depicts it as an oppressive 17th – century Puritan society. “The style of Puritanism that Hawthorne presents is drab and gloomy, preoccupied with judgment and punishment, unrelenting and dogmatic,”1 writes Deborah L. Madsen in her book, “American Exceptionalism.” Hester Prynne, the main character accused of adultery, is persecuted by Boston community. Not only adults despise her, but also children who, blinded by the decayed values and norms, humiliate her and her child, Pearl. The character of Hester symbolizes the fight against Puritan enslavement, the need to modernize the prevailing norms that cause nothing but harm to American society.
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.
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)
