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Scarlet Letter Response Essay

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The Scarlet Letter Authored by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter is a wonderful book set in the 1600s in Boston. With its fascinating and clear story line, Hawthorne's book gives the reader a glimpse into how the Puritans lived and has become one of the most highly read novels of it's time. The Scarlet Letter is as popular today as it was 150 years ago, because of it's universal message: sin's consequences are inescapable. It features Hester Prynne as the protagonist and shows how her actions have consequences and how they effect others. Hester started off lonely, then she felt unwanted. However, when she show kindness and selflessness, she received kindness and help in return. Throughout Hawthorne's book, Hester learns the valuable …show more content…

Hester traveled to America ahead of her husband, a crippled physician who was significantly older than herself. As time passed, her husband, Chillingsworth, didn't appear, and was presumed dead. Hester became very lonely without her family, who were still back in England, and without her supposedly deceased husband. It was this loneliness that caused Hester to sin. Being a elegant and beautiful lady, Hester was immediately noticed by Arthur Dimmesdale, the Puritan minister. Unfortunately because of her loneliness, Hester engaged in an affair with Dimmesdale and conceived a child. When the child was born, Hester realized her actions would have consequences. This sin is what changes Hester and Dimmesdale's live …show more content…

No longer did Hester feel like she didn't fit in or was unwanted. She began to see that what she sowed was also what she reaped. People began to see the scarlet letter 'A' ,that she had worn for so long, not as the word adultery, but instead the said it meant 'able'. As the years went by, people came to except Hester as she was and decided that they should learn from her mistake and not judge her. Happiness and exceptance returned to Hester's life. Dimmesdale finally confessed to the community that he was Pearl's father and Pearl, who had grow into a gorgeous young lady under her mother's wonderful care, became married. Even though Dimmesdale had remained silent for so long, he was forgiven but died not long after. Without Pearl to provided and watch for, Hester decided to return to England but soon came back to America to be with her daughter. Even though Hester felt lonely and unwanted at times, she realized that by showing kindness and humility she had overcome her mistake and became respected and

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260 Words | 2 Pages

Hester, Pearl, and Dimmesdale were all forgiven by god. Hester breaks free from all the negativity and her beauty finally shows. Dimmesdale is still lived by all the citizens. Pearl becomes rich and lives a great life. Hester and Dimmesdale were no longer tortured by god.

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405 Words | 2 Pages

He and Hester do not let the town know that he is the father of an illegitimate child. This causes him to commit many transgressions against God. In the story, Dimmesdale does not raise Hester the way he is supposed to. 1 Timothy 5:8 says “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.(NIV)” After being shamed by the town, Hester moves out to an old cottage in the forest and has to work very hard to provide for her.

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492 Words | 2 Pages

Dimmesdale is described as a persuasive speaker and exhibits his power to do so, as he sways the magistrates and Governor Billingham to change their mind. Dimmesdale is able to do so by in cooperating puritan ideals and prove how Hester’s parenting is sufficient. Dimmesdale uses religion to his advantage, first by stating that God bestowed Pearl to Hester, then explains why Hester chose to tell Pearl- her birth was a religious “Burden”. (Hester told pearl that she has no knowledge of an earthly father and instead a heavenly one – As Pearl is a Living “A” or a scarlet letter). Dimmesdale continues to use this as a reason for the community an example of sins and its affects.

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941 Words | 4 Pages

We are all sinners, no matter how hard we try to hide our faults, they always seem to come back, one way or another. Written in the 19th century, Nathaniel Hawthorne shows us Hester Prynne and how one sin can change her life completely. Hester Prynne changes a great deal throughout The Scarlet Letter. Through the view of the Puritans, Hester is an intense sinner; she has gone against the Puritan way of life committing the highest act of sin, adultery. For committing such a sinful act, Hester must wear the scarlet letter while also having to bear stares from those that gossip about her.

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1099 Words | 5 Pages

Besides an eternal escape from the oppression of Puritan society, her thoughts of suicide indicate an isolation from Dimmesdale, a dignified minister she can never love again. Hester’s surrender to the societal judgment, nevertheless, is also the reason for her suffering. When Dimmesdale admits the adulterous sin he commits with Hester, he does not think about the societal judgment. The fanatical minister instead triumphantly praises God, declaring, “By bringing me hither, to die this death of triumphant ignominy before the people!” (234).

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896 Words | 4 Pages

By wearing the “A,” Hester was publicly humiliated, however, her development in character causes a change in the meaning of the Scarlet Letter, which leads her to taking pride in the letter as it grows a part of her. After Hester’s sin the Puritan community places a false

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791 Words | 4 Pages

Although the community originally knew Hester as a disgrace, the town’s opinion of her changed over time as she began to do work for the poor and needy. After this shift in the town’s view of Hester, “many people refused to interpret the scarlet [letter] by its original signification” (111). Instead of Hester’s scarlet letter serving as a reminder of her scandalous sin, her peers “ had begun to look upon the scarlet letter as a token . . . of [Hester’s] many good deeds” (111). She became known for her charity and generosity, which caused the civilians to overlook her sinful behavior.

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878 Words | 4 Pages

Hester and Dimmesdale each are equivalent in the sin that they commit, but their lives and fates are different because Hester had to repent for her crimes while Dimmesdale bottled up his guilt inside. The indirect result of Dimmesdale’s concealment of the truth was Chillingworth’s torture, which played a large role in Dimmesdale’s untimely death. Chillingworth snapped when Hester did not reveal Dimmesdale’s crimes. Hester, in part, helped Dimmesdale in

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779 Words | 4 Pages

Hester is a woman who has moved from England to the United States. Her husband Chillingworth comes with her but she arrives first. Hester waits for Chillingworth for some time not knowing if he's alive or dead. She becomes lonely and has an affair with the town minister Dimmesdale. Hester has a daughter as a result of the affair.

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1646 Words | 7 Pages

Hester was initially married to a man whom she never loved and was thought to be dead after being lost at sea for five years. After waiting for the arrival of her husband which never came, Hester had an affair with another man and together they produced a child. When Hester had an affair with a man who was not her husband she had committed an act of adultery and had to be punished in the eyes of God and of her community. It was decided that Hester would have to serve time in jail and

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448 Words | 2 Pages

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne takes place in seventeenth century Puritan New England. A young woman by the name of Hester Prynne is found guilty of adultery and must wear a scarlet A as punishment to mark her infidelity. Because of her refusal to reveal the father’s name Hester endures hours of public ridicule. While standing on the scaffold, Hester recognizes a figure standing in the crowd as her husband who had been presumed lost at sea. Upon seeing his wife’s shame he vows to find the child’s father and vows to seek revenge.

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719 Words | 3 Pages

The townspeople “[began] to look upon the scarlet letter as a token, not of that one sin, for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds since.” This quote exemplifies how sin is not a death sentence for Hester. Through hard work and charity it allowed the rigid Puritan society to see her as something different, and as someone who would not let society define who she was. Hester, thus, was not only able to change herself, but also the image in which society viewed her by working hard to benefit the public. Likewise, the scarlet letter which was supposed to represent sin was instead “fantastically embroidered with gold thread, upon her bosom.”

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809 Words | 4 Pages

Hester is a sinner against herself. “Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast- at her, the child of honourable parents-

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825 Words | 4 Pages

Raegan Ware Mrs. Staber Honors English Two 24 March 2022 Able The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story that shows the other side of the American dream. It shines a light onto how this dream was corrupted. The Scarlet Letter shows us how Hester was treated unfairly despite this dream, she didn't have the same opportunity, and how she fought through these things to make a life for her and her daughter.

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936 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the novel, Hester is fraught by the Puritan society and her suffering is an effect of how evil society is. Hester continues to believe that the crime she committed was not wrong and she should not be punished for it. Her desire to protect and love Dimmesdale, turn her into a stronger person and become a heroine in the book. Although society still views her as a “naughty baggage” (Hawthorne 73) and is punished for her wrongdoing, Hester never thought to take revenge on them, yet she gives everything she has to the unfortunate and leaves herself with very little. She continues to stay positive no matter what society has for her.

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