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The Hypocrisy Of Hester Prynne's View Of Sin

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This is the first big example of a sinful action mentioned in the book, setting the tone for the view of sin. The comments made by several of the women in the crowd demonstrate how self-righteous they are. Their brashness sets the reader up with an idea of the attitude of the general community. When Hester is on the scaffold, a stranger, Chillingworth, asks someone what she did and receives this reply, “You must needs be a stranger in this region, friend, else you would surely have heard of Mistress Hester Prynne, and her evil doings. She hath raised a great scandal, I promise you, in godly Master Dimmesdale's church” (58). Even though she has been the subject of sinful actions and wicked talk for last chapter and a half, there is still …show more content…

“Goodwives, I'll tell ye a piece of my mind. It would be greatly for the public behoof, if we women, being of mature age and church members in good repute, should have the handling of such malefactresses as this Hester Prynne. What think ye, gossips? If the hussy stood up for judgment before us five, that are now here in a knot together, would she come off with such a sentence as the worshipful magistrates have awarded? Marry, I trow not!” (49). “He looked like the darkly engraved portraits which we see prefixed to old volumes of sermons; and had no more right than one of those portraits would have, to step forth, as he now did, and meddle with a question of human guilt, passion, and anguish” (62). “Hester Prynne, I have striven with my young brother here, under whose preaching of the word you have been privileged to sit” (62). Through the exposure of their wicked doings, Hawthorne reveals the ever-present hypocrisy within the …show more content…

Throughout The Scarlet Letter, there are so many people who are so quick to judge others and their actions before even considering all the things that they have done themselves, which are often worse than the actions of those who they judge. That is one of the biggest ways in which the book is still relevant today. Another aspect of the book that is applicable to today’s society is that while most of today’s churches may not be as hypocritical as the Puritan community in Hawthorne’s novel, there are many of them that present themselves as being much more righteous than they actually are. Nathaniel Hawthorne proves that even teachers and leaders have secret sin by displaying how guilt affects an individual that is living a lie. Even though it was written 200 years ago, The Scarlet Letter is a book that is still relevant today. Its commentary on hypocrisy in the church, hidden sin, and the illusion of righteousness have stood the test of time and are applicable to life today. By showing the manifestation of guilt, sin, and hypocrisy everywhere in the world, Nathaniel’s Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter is a testament to the continuous draining effects they have on

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In the book The scarlet letter , Nathaniel Hawthorne questions the reader by questioning whether it is okay to punish sinners since we all have committed sins. Scarlet letter takes place in massachustes in new england in the time of colonization of the new world.at the time massachustes is very religious and the church has alot of power over the people, they control almost evry aspect of their life and punish thoose who commit sins. Dimmesdale is the head of the church in salem massachusetts and he is defined by how people admired him and how people liked him, this traits affect the theme and other characters in the story because it makes dimmesdale look pure and sin free making people make wrong assumption and decisions when it come to dimmesdale. At the beginning of the book Dimmesdale is liked by his community and is well respected.

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Sin is an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law. Despite the moral principles recognized in everyone, it is so often that individuals succumb to the instant gratification of sin. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the plot is centered around a group of Puritans living in Boston Massachusetts, where the avoidance of sin is one of their most absolute doctrines. He truly captures how sin affects individuals in a strict civilization through the use of various rhetorical devices, focusing on the symbolism of the characters, the distinct tone employed to convey specific messages, and the analogies further that emphasize and develop the effects of sin on individuals.

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By negatively depicting the Puritans with his depressing diction, Hawthorne establishes a scornful tone that highlights the Puritan’s

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Hawthorne uses many forms of rhetoric to portray his characters, but relies heavily on pathos in the instance of Hester Prynne. She’s a member of an inherently misogynistic society, and because she’s a woman, her every act is scrutinized. As punishment for her act of adultery, Hester is ordered to adorn her chest with a permanent scarlet letter. Although the audience is well aware of the atrocity of the sin she’s committed, Hawthorne’s writing sparks a feeling of empathy within the reader. Throughout the novel, the reader is exposed to several clear uses of pathos.

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The hypocrisy of 1600s Puritan society was often disguised behind a facade of moral righteousness. Puritans claimed to use public shaming as a way to better the morals of society and lead people to repent; however, it was highly hypocritical as the Puritans found pure entertainment in the downfall of others and completely neglected sinners rather than educating them. Puritan society thrived off of gossip and rumors, which goes against many biblical morals. Nathaniel Hawthorne, a 19th century transcendentalist, tells the story of how 1600s colonial Puritan society reacts to a woman who commits the sin of adultery in the 1850 The Scarlet Letter. In an excerpt from Chapter 13, the transcendentalist ideals of Nathaniel Hawthorne are reflected through

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The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, reveals many aspects of human nature. One of Hawthorne’s prevalent themes is the way in which hidden sin affects the human soul. Through the progression of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, Hawthorne explores the dynamic way in which hidden sin ultimately induces more suffering than open ignominy, using figurative language and contrast to convey his message. Immediately before Dimmesdale gives an impassioned plea for Hester to reveal her partner in sin, Hawthorne indicates through imagery and contrast that Dimmesdale’s sin does not yet have a great impact on his livelihood. Hawthorne notes that Dimmesdale’s “eloquence and religious fervor had already given the earnest of high eminence (46).”

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(Hawthorne 57). Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter proves to be a “tale of human frailty and sorrow” by demonstrating that mistakes define human nature and portraying the idea that those mistakes also act as blessings (Hawthorne 2). He argues that sins are inevitable, natural forces that cannot be suppressed, but must be expressed in order to learn from them.

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This shows that Hester does not necessarily need to worry about what the people of Boston think of her or how she needs to redeem herself in order to fit back into the society. When Hawthorne says “The angel and apostle of the coming revelation must be a woman, indeed, but lofty, pure, and beautiful; and wise, moreover, not through dusky grief, but the ethereal medium of joy; and showing how sacred love should make us happy, by the truest test of a life successful to such an end!” he is showing how there is no way for Hester to change her society. She should have love and joy, but instead she is faced with guilt, which leads to her downfall. Along with this, Hawthorne demonstrates how the people of Boston are actually the sinners while Hester and Dimmesdale represent the Angel and the Saint of the city.

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The Puritan society openly scorns her for her sin. Hester Prynne, portrayed as a symbol of sin within the puritan society, is an illustration of solidity through her determination, seclusion with the scarlet letter, and hard work ethic. Through all of the mocking and humiliation caused by the colony’s response to Hester’s sin, Hester continues to show strength for Pearl’s sake. “When the young woman--the mother of this child--stood fully revealed before the crowd, it seemed to be her first impulse to clasp the infant closely to her bosom; not so much by an impulse of motherly affection, as

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The Scarlet Letter questions the human fallacy regarding sin and knowledge. The novel asks its readers whether they believe in their ability to comprehend the difference between right and wrong. Through the depiction of the prude mindset of the Puritan society - exaggerated in a way which truly emphasizes the idea of this fallacy, readers receive this question shockingly to where the message is indirectly concise, yet easily translated. Biblically, sin represents a lack of proper execution of one's knowledge.

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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.

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However, he also uses these allusions to create a new side to his narrative as evident when he describes Hester’s resilience, and to create a new element in the plot as evident in his description of Dimmesdale’s penance and need for redemption. Therefore, Hawthorne demonstrates an effective use of allusions to craft a religious and detailed narrative for The Scarlet Letter by reviewing on parallels between the Bible and the novel’s main characters. There’s more to The Scarlet Letter than these allusions though, and there are many questions to answer about this book. These questions may never be answered fully, but by reading the novel itself, we might find the right places to start searching for answers and formulate our own opinions on the matter. What’s important from this novel is the realistic warning about what might happens when an individual place themselves too highly among others, a message Hawthorne writes to warn against the fervor of transcendentalism of his time.

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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.

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I want to study Chemical engineering because it not only involves solving theoretical problems but it also incorporates the challenge of transferring ideas from chemistry and physics into reality. It is very important to to find new, more effective ways and refine old techniques of harnessing the power of chemical reactions as this is essential for lowering the waste and costs and to increase the output in value and quantity. In Chemistry I enjoy the diversity of topics and their application in real world. I find thermochemistry, its laws and how energy released and transferred in chemical reactions, very interesting.

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In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne effectively conforms to the conventions of the gothic genre for the purpose of characterizing the Puritan society as oppressive, portraying the hypocrisy found within the society and highlighting the consequences for not confessing

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