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.
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.
The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a novel about how being a sinner led to a life of misery during the Puritan era. Hester Prynne, the sinner, commits adultery with a man, Arthur Dimmesdale, who is not her husband. She gives birth to a child named Pearl and is branded with a scarlet letter “A”. Her husband, Roger Chillingworth, disguises as a physician in order to unravel the truth behind the crime that his wife committed and to get revenge on the man who slept with his wife. Although Chillingworth appears as a calm man who only craved knowledge, he eventually turns into a malicious devil who is blind with getting revenge.
Adultery- In The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne Commits adultery. Once she has committed she gets shamed for life. Adultery is also a very important point throughout the story. It shows how it can wreak havoc on anyone’s life.
In 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne published his most well renown, fictitious novel, The Scarlett Letter. Hawthorne described the adversity Hester Prynne, his main character, encountered as a result of the child she birthed out of wedlock. He alluded to the Puritan views of the colony through their reaction to her affair, and the way they treated both Hester and her daughter, Pearl. Nathaniel Hawthorne demonstrated that the belief in predestination generated a lack of empathy to those labeled as sinners.
Scarlett Letter In the Scarlett Letter a book written by Nathaniel Hawthorne the main focus is about an adulteress, who has to wear a red letter A a.k.a the scarlett letter. So that being said the main character is Hester Prynne. Although she did have to wear the scarlett letter, that is not at all who she was; it didn 't define her. Hester Prynne cheated on her husband when he was said to be lost at sea.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is a twisted romance based on the strong-willed Hester Prynne and her lover Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale; although she is continuously persecuted for her sinful love, Hester Prynne's pride would not let her perish (Stone 26). The Scarlet Letter was written by Hawthorne as a reflection of his Protestant background (Unger 224). The story is based around one of the biblical Ten Commandments: "Thou shall not commit adultery". Hester Prynne broke the commandment when she and Dimmesdale had a child out of wedlock; Hester was married to a man who had not been seen for years, therefore, she believed he was dead. The townspeople knew that Hester had not seen her husband, so when she became pregnant they knew that
All men have sin on their conscience; however, sin without diffusion by mercy can grow and become a dangerous destructive entity. Nathaniel Hawthorne emphasizes this in his novel, The Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne seems to be a normal Puritan citizen until the discovery of her affair with an unknown man. As penance for her crime she has to wear a Scarlet Letter ‘A’ on her bosom for the rest of her life. This Scarlet Letter reveals other more than just her sin to Hester; it reveals the secret sins of others.
During the early 1600’s, Puritan groups migrated from Europe to the Massachusetts Bay Colony to establish a settlement based around very strict religious beliefs. The Scarlet Letter is set in this time period and settlement where it was considered a horrendous sin to commit adultery. Hester Prynne engaged in sexual relations with the minister, Dimmesdale, which resulted in a child named Pearl. This novel highlights Hester’s struggle to raise her child and protect herself from the societal attacks thrown at her, while overcoming the label bestowed upon her by society. In, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses specific diction, repetition, and denotative diction in order to convey the purpose of overcoming labels and protecting one’s image.
In his essay, “On the Scarlet Letter”, D.H. Lawrence critiques the character of Hester Prynne in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel, The Scarlet Letter. He believes that Hester, who commits adultery and is condemned by the Puritan community, is portrayed as a sympathetic character instead of an undeserving sinner. Lawrence’s negative depiction of Hester is demonstrated through his use of biblical allusions, uneven syntax, and a disapproving tone. Lawrence utilizes biblical allusions in order to portray Hester as unworthy.
This quote is insightful because Hester hopes that, by remaining in Boston, the process of atonement of her shame and public punishment will be complete, so she can purify herself as a result. By wiping clean the sin from her soul, her choice to remain will bring her a different kind of clarity and goodness. Her refusal to live a life of lies also reveals Hester’s courage in which she not only refuses to acknowledge society’s power over her while also resisting the judgements placed against her. Hester also acknowledge her faults but make do with her best through Pearl. Her sewing was also a way of restraining her willfulness and passion.
In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne develops the characterization of Hester Prynne, through his use of rhetorical strategies, in order to make a statement on his negative view of Puritan society. By establishing the transformation of Hester’s character as she deals with the guilt and public shame forced upon her for her sin, he depicts her being corrupted by Puritan society, demonstrating his pessimistic view of them. He successfully contrasts Hester with the other Puritan women along with her changed character when dealing with shame, in order to display the detrimental effects her public shame has on her. He continues by analyzing the letter as a direct symbol of Puritanism and describing the grave effect it, being society,
Hester Prynne, the Worst Sinner Three different people, all with different stories but all have something in common; they’re all sinners but the question is who is the biggest sinner? In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, many characters are portrayed as sinners like Dimmesdale, Hester, and Chillingworth. But overall the biggest sinner in the story was Hester Prynne and there are many reasons for it. Obviously the reason for the scarlet letter, she was an adulteress. Hester caused many problems with people in the town including the most holy man Dimmesdale and a man that should've never been involved, Chillingworth.
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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)
