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Suffering In The Scarlet Letter

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The Scarlet Letter is a book about Puritan Society, adultery, and punishment. The attainment of wisdom through suffering is the main theme developed by Nathaniel Hawthorn In his book The Scarlet Letter. However, in The Scarlet Letter, it seems that the attainment of wisdom through suffering only works if one fully accepts the root of their suffering - their sin. The theme is developed using the characters in the book, mostly through Hester Prynne who accepts her sin, but also through the failure of Minister Dimmesdale and Roger Chillingworth, who do not accept their sin.
It’s debatable whether Roger Chillingworth is suffering in The Scarlet Letter or is solely seeking revenge on Dimmesdale. However, it can be proposed that Chillingworth, in …show more content…

In the beginning, Hester is given a scarlet letter, separated from the Puritan community, and isolated with her daughter, Pearl, due to her sin of adultery. Hester suffers due to her isolation, the Scarlet Letter, public ridicule, and her own guilt. This isolation allows her to attain wisdom because she is no longer a part of the Puritan social structure and has to support herself and her daughter somehow. With time, Hester learns to depend on herself, assess her morals, and develops her own inner strength, leading to many of the townspeople seeing her scarlet letter “A” to mean “Able” in chapter 13. We see her wisdom shine through fully in her confrontation with Chillingworth in four chapters - chapters 14, 15, 19, and 24; In Chapter 14, Hester tells Chillingworth she is going to tell the truth about their relationship (husband and wife) and realizes that he has been afflicted by evil; In Chapter 15, she reflects and comes to the revelation that their marriage was loveless and filled with resentment; In chapter 19, She reacts to Pearl’s behavior in a motherly way, seeing it as childish fear of change as opposed to Dimmesdale who is afraid and wants Hester to do whatever it takes to pacify her; And in chapter 24, Hester returns to the colony and offers comfort, hope, and assistance to the

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285 Words | 2 Pages

Roger Chillingworth committed the greater sin in the Scarlet Letter. Chillingworth was a malicious man. After the news that Hester had committed adultery, he became more and more like the “Black Man.” He lied about being a doctor and his identity. Additionally, Chillingworth was the overall cause for Dimmesdale’s death, after seven years of torturing his mind.

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203 Words | 1 Pages

In Chapter 9 Hester and Pearl were going out to the forest to meet up with Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale has not found peace, only but pain and sadness. Even though Hester was suppose to keep secrets she told Dimmesdale right in his face that the doctor Chillingworth was Hester’s husband, then she went on and told Dimmesdale all about the doctor that she was suppose to keep a secret. Hester took off the scarlet letter and called out for Pearl to say that the minister was her father. She reacted very different because she wanted to be a public thing not a secret.

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1051 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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872 Words | 4 Pages

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne opens in a Puritan settlement, where Hester Prynne is being publicly shunned for adultery, in which she has to stand in front of a crowd for overt punishment and wear a scarlet ‘A’ on her chest. She holds her child, Pearl, who symbolizes her inability to hide her own past and her sins from the judgment of her settlement. The novel progresses in a way that further defines her mental strength and ability to endure this judgment. However, Arthur Dimmesdale, the town’s pastor, demonstrates a differing method in which he deals with his own personal judgment and fear of alienation. As The Scarlet Letter advances, his mental strength corrupts with the help of Chillingworth’s methods of trickery and Dimmesdale’s

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767 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the Scarlet Letter, Hester learned to handle her inner strength by accepting the “ SCARLET LETTER, so fantastically embroidered and illuminated upon her bosom” (Hawthorne 46) and letting it empower her instead of weaken her. This showed that she was attempting to redeem herself by accepting her sin before God. Hester also caused the town to recognize that she was changing the meaning of the “A” from adultery to “Able...so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength”(Hawthorne 127). This showed that despite being an outcast of the Puritan society, she was redeeming herself by using her inner strength and physical capability even in the face of the shame that came from committing adultery. Hawthorne’s message was that it is possible to persevere in a resentful and dark world if people rely on their inner strength.

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823 Words | 4 Pages

“While thus suffering under bodily disease, and gnawed and tortured by some black trouble of the soul, and given over to the machinations of his deadliest enemy, the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale…”(Hawthorne 97). Chillingworth tried very hard to hurt Dimmesdale, which made Dimmesdale suffer very much more than he would’ve if Chillingworth left him alone. Dimmesdale’s body slowly shut down by grief and being tortured, all because of the sin he committed. Essentially, Dimmesdale ended up dying because of the sin that was

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354 Words | 2 Pages

She is brave and does not deny that she sinned. She realizes that she needs to let go of the misery that the scarlet letter has brought upon her. Rather than letting it define her, Hester uses the letter. She helps out in the community. It does not define who she is.

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867 Words | 4 Pages

Sympathy for Characters in the Scarlet Letter First of all, Chillingworth arrived in Boston to reacquaint himself with his wife, Hester. Initially, Chillingworth sends Hester to America, so she can live a better life in the New World. Chillingworth promised he will meet Hester America, but is severely hindered by various issues. The first of the two main issues is trouble at sea, but this far less severe than the second issue.

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1270 Words | 6 Pages

She receives three punishments from the townspeople, who claim they will free her from her sin. The community orders Hester to go to jail, wear a scarlet letter on her chest, and stand on the town scaffold for hours. Hester wears her scarlet letter proudly on her chest, and endures much suffering because of her public ridicule. Hester is “kept by no restrictive clause of her condemnation within the limits of the Puritan settlement” after she was released from prison, but she chooses to stay (Hawthorne 71). Later, Hester’s child, Pearl, symbolizes the Puritan view of Hester.

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878 Words | 4 Pages

The book “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a complex novel that has underlying themes of sin and the responsibility for sin. The novel takes place in a Puritanical society, but two people, Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, fornicate with each other, even though Hester is married to someone else. Only Hester is punished, so Dimmesdale keeps his guilt inside, not revealing it to anyone. Hester’s husband, Chillingworth, then proceeds to ruin Hester’s partner in crime, corrupting his soul and being the ultimate cause for his death. Hester, on the other hand, leads a relatively happy life after she had repented for her sin.

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596 Words | 3 Pages

The soldiers rejoiced at this during the hangings, drinking and laughing, as we watched the communist dogs be put to death. We drank the schnapps from local bars. German liquor is much better and more potent! We laughed as one soldier drew a picture of the spectacle. We had a Dührer in our midst.

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1030 Words | 5 Pages

Both Dimmesdale and Chillingworth fell victim to their private suffering, and it led to their death. Chillingworth and Dimmesdale were unable to come to terms with their condition, and the overwhelming nature of their internal guilt brought them to their death. During the novel, Hawthorne conveys the message that internal suffering is a far worse form of punishment than external shame because both

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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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838 Words | 4 Pages

The narrator interprets the letter differently as, “The letter was a symbol of her calling. Such helpfulness was found in her, -so much power to do, and power to sympathize”(Hawthorne 111). Although the Puritan’s judgment of Hester is clouded by the scarlet letter, she is still the same generous and helpful person as before. The narrator continues to demonstrate her selfless actions, “It is our Hester, -the town’s own Hester, -who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted” (Hawthorne 111). The townspeople start to notice the kind deeds Hester has done and the way she cares for everyone.

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1022 Words | 5 Pages

In the romantic novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays Roger Chillingworth as the prime example of pure evil. Chillingworth is characterized as a symbol for evil because Hawthorne illustrates him and his thoughts as being associated with the devil and Hell. Through Hawthorne’s descriptions, Chillingworth’s malevolent ideas and eagerness to expose Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale are revealed. Consequently, Chillingworth serves as the antagonist in the novel because of his plot to seek vengeance on and torment Dimmesdale. Through the use of figurative language and syntax, Chillingworth’s description and his actions symbolize him as a mysterious and wild evil doing the devil’s bidding.

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