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Puritan society the scarlet letter
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Scarlet provides a remarkable insight into the specification and the 17th century, if the United States Puritan social behavior. The basic conflict, the main features of the problem, however, familiar to current readers. Heroine, she has borne a bastard, and had been detained for more than three months, a symbol of adultery and sentenced her to wear her clothes at all times a scarlet "A". It relates to the impact of the crime on the average person 's moral, emotional and psychological. This is not a simple love story, or the story of atonement.
Erin Joel Mrs. Janosy English 2H P 5 22 October 2015 Quote Explication Dimmesdale is trying to overcome a conflict within his own soul, defying his own religion, and choosing to do wrong by keeping his sin to himself. In a theocracy type community like Dimmesdale's, God is known as the supreme civil ruler, and a crime would be known as a sin. On the other hand, Hester’s sin was made known to the public, receiving the public shame and ridicule she deserved. During the duration of time when the public knew Dimmesdale was hiding his sin, “the agony with which this public tortured him” (Hawthorne 119).
Reverend Dimmesdale’s physical condition diminishes the longer he keeps his sin a secret. He feels so guilty, he tortures himself by fasting and whipping in addition to feeling like a hypocrite when his gives sermons. Reverend Dimmesdale expresses, “Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret!” (Hawthorne 107).
Dimmesdale is self reflecting his sin by thinking about it with longs walk on the shore. the final way Dimmesdale shows his sin is through talking. “Has the mother not expressed this through in the dress of the poor child, so strongly reminding us of that red symbol burning on her bosom?’ (68). the minister is standing up for Hester because they both share the sin.
Hawthorne uses several similes to express the magnitude of Dimmesdale’s deception of the Puritan churchgoers, comparing Dimmesdale’s face to one that has “the light of heaven beaming from it”. In this comparison, Hawthorne asserts that the churchgoers not only respect Dimmesdale, but they idolize him, making his pain and guilt worse by reminding him of his deception. He also compares Dimmesdale’s words to those of the Holy Spirit, who descends from heaven during the Christian Pentecost, which is ironically a sort of “grace” for sinners such as Dimmesdale. Additionally, Hawthorne uses strong diction with a connotation of guilt and shame, such as “misery”,”delusion”,”ruined”, and “polluted” to accurately describe how Dimmesdale’s sin and resulting moral hypocrisy has been weighing him down. Hawthorne then uses a rhetorical question in which he juxtaposes Dimmesdale’s “ruined” and “polluted” soul and the “redeemed” and “purified” ones of his audience to imply that due to the hypocrisy brought on by his sin, Dimmesdale doesn’t think that he has the right to be a minister or to be a holy figure to the Puritans.
The exploration of societal pressures. Life can be separated into two equal parts totally independent from one another. The inner self, being the innermost thoughts and feelings of the individual, and the outer self, how the individual decides to conduct itself around the others in society. Often times one of these parts takes control of the other, suppressing its partner. The suppression is often not of equal frequency because of the obligation humans feel to be liked and to fit in causes the outermost self to be given the most thought and worry.
One may believe that the laws of society are a necessity in order to live in a tranquil society. Yet, under certain circumstances, people will break these laws, even if they conform to them. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a religious Puritan minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, breaks the strict laws of Puritan society by sleeping with a married woman, Hester Prynne. Committing an adulteress act, or having premarital sex, is breaking the laws of Puritan society because of Puritanism’s emphasis on religion. Furthermore, Dimmesdale’s position as a minister causes him to strongly believe that the laws of Puritan society should be acknowledged and followed.
The world is a very judgmental place. Imagine a world where we all had to wear a sign stating our worst faults. It is hard enough to go through a day without being judged or feeling alone and nobody even knows our worst faults. The world would be a very interesting and harsh place to live if everybody knew our sins. It is hard to know if there would be more or less judgement coming from other people because of the signs we would have to wear.
Hawthorne uses several different types of irony in the story to illustrate the hypocrisy of the Puritans. The first type of irony he uses is dramatic irony which is shown in the beginning of the story. When Goodman Brown heads on his journey to find out some answers about the good versus evil he encounters an old man, a traveler who represents evilness. Goodman Brown had failed to see that the old man was evil. Even after the fact Goody Cloyse cried out “The Devil!”
Have you felt the need to exculpate your sins, for your guilt is eating you inside? The Scarlet Letter gives you the experience to suffer with the characters and their desire to expiate their sinful selves and at the end you would think that all of their suffering would be mollified and they would live happily ever after like every other popular story, but it had a different twist. To be candor ,when I finished reading the book I was pretty disappointed, for the characters in the story who suffered from beginning to end didn’t really liberate and feel repentance for their sins or restart their life like the human beams they were. I love twist endings, but I feel like the story could’ve of ended differently. I felt like Hester didn’t really
He comes close to uncover Arthur Dimmesdale participation in Hester’s sin but never fully succeeds. The gilt stricken pastor tries to find forgiveness for his sins, but in the end dies, after confessing his love to Hester. Hawthorne’s novel is about sin, repentance, dignity, and
The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne has a very interesting plot that hooks you right away. The protagonist of the story is Hester Prynne, the mother of Pearl. She has to wear the scarlet letter A on her body as punishment for her affair with Arthur Dimmesdale, the town minister. Hester’s main conflict is that she has to live with a badge of shame while she does not feel at all shameful. She has to struggle against a population of people who act like they are holier than her in every way and use her as a scapegoat for their own damage.
According to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the author argues that sin and suffering exists even in Utopian society. First, Hester Prynne commits the sin of adultery. Adultery is a person having sex with someone that he/ she is not married to (Merriam Webster).The townspeople know that Hester has commit adultery because they saw her pregnant when her husband was away on a ship for two years.
The “A’” significance and manifestation all pertain to sin. The Scarlet Letter is a Book written by Nathaniel Hawthorne that shows the true meaning of sin and guilt through another person's life in puritan society. Hester Prynne a lonely women departed from her ugly husband in england,commits infidelity or adultery with local preacher Dimmsdale and has a daughter out of the sin that was committed. To punish Hester she was forced to where a Large “A’” on her breast,to let everyone know what she has done. The Letter “A’” has different meaning to different people throughout the book.
Amanda Vicente The Scarlet Letter Reading Response AP English Language Period J 16 August 2016 Journal Entry 1: Chapters 1-2 In The Scarlet Letter, the author sets a mood from the beginning of the book. The setting is old and beat up in front of an aged wooden prison with judgmental Puritans ready to tear a women apart. The Puritans are hypocrites and the author portrays that in the story.
