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Literary analyis on Hawthorne's Human Nature
Hawthorne's view of human condition
Nathaniel hawthorne's worldview
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Dimmesdale and Chillingworth both have secrets that make them look and act differently, their secrets affect their character and how they do their job. Dimmesdale is the father of Pearl but he doesn 't want to face the same humiliation as Hester did for his sins. Because of his secret he self punishes and fasts, he also preaches better than he did before although his health is failing. Chillingworth’s secret is that he was the husband of Hester while he was away, before she cheated on him. Chillingworth gets uglier and uglier driven by the need to get revenge on Pearl’s father.
Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, one of the protagonists of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter, stands as a highly conflicted character. The source of his divide stems from the consequences of private sins, and is prevalent within the first paragraphs of Chapter 12, “The Minister’s Vigil,” where the narration chronicles Dimmesdale’s surroundings as he dream walks through the town in a state of limbo. He is portrayed as a model citizen who lacks moral imperfections to the general public yet suffers privately from the juxtaposition of his sins to his position within the community. In this specific passage, Hawthorne uses somber diction and imagery to illustrate Dimmesdale’s strife, while portraying his internal conflict through the formation
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.
Puritan’s harsh beliefs represented the beginning of the Nineteenth Century in the newly colonized America. Their community ruled with an iron fist: unforgiving, pitiless, stern. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne expresses his disagreement with puritan priorities by revealing the hypocrisy widely practiced throughout their community. Hawthorne’s utilization of dim diction aids in the establishment of his scornful tone, while inclusion of symbols and intricate juxtaposition all serve to accentuate the Puritan’s duplicity. All these factors combine to develop a critical tone which rebukes puritan society.
The Scarlet Letter Essay “All that guilty sorrow, hidden from the world, whose great heart would have pitied and forgiven, to be revealed to him, the Pitiless, to him, the Unforgiving! All that dark treasure to be lavished on the very man, to whom nothing else could so adequately pay the debt of vengeance!” (Hawthorne 111). Without doubt, throughout The Scarlet Letter Roger Chillingworth is been a very flat character in the sense that even from his first appearance in chapter three until chapter twenty-four when he drops dead his mission was to get revenge on Pearl's father.
In “The Scarlet Letter,” the author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, depicts Roger Chillingworth as a man that is out for revenge. Chillingworth comes into the story and immediately comes to realize that his ex-wife has betrayed him by sleeping with another man. Chillingworth wants to avenge his pride by finding the man that did him wrong by sneaking into his personal life and torturing him under his nose. Throughout this book, Chillingworth changes in many different ways, physically and emotionally. Driven by his lust for revenge, Roger Chillingworth uses his personal background to hide his intent of torturing his wife’s hidden lover, and changes his being throughout the book.
The Puritan definition of truth was the word of God or every verse contained in the scripture, and the truth is believed to be “the self-expression of God”. Puritans took the word of God very serious and depended on it for their life lessons. In The Scarlet Letter Roger Chillingworth identifies Mr. Dimmesdale’s faults and want to uncover the secret that’s destroying him inside. Chillingworth makes it his purpose to find the truth. Chillingworth has an opportunity to do so while Dimmesdale is asleep from the drugs that Chillingworth gave him.
During the time at which the novel The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was written, people were help to higher standards regarding what was viewed as acceptable in a society, mostly shown through religious moral standards. Hawthorne was also able to show the effects of guilt specifically during that time, following a sin that was seen as completely unacceptable in this society, and how it would affect someone in their life, especially if kept private. Hawthorne uses literary devices to show how private guilt causes more personal damage than public guilt and how it can become an everlasting punishment. Through the use of diction, Hawthorne is able to show how private guilt causes more personal damage and can have a great internal punishment
For example, When Francis Nurse tells Judge Danforth that he believes the girls are lying to him about the witchcraft accusations, he responds, “Do you know who I am, Mr. Nurse? … And do you know that near to four hundred are in the jails from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature? … And seventy-two condemned to hang by that signature?” (Miller 90). Here the characterization of Hawthorne is shown to be arrogant and audacious because he is very confident about his decision to condemn that many people, and will not listen to others opinion.
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Reverend Dimmesdale experiences a distressing situation where his ability to make the correct choice is tested. The choice that haunts him is whether to admit to his sin of adultery, or to continue to conceal it from the public eye in order to preserve his reputation. Hawthorne’s portrayal of Dimmesdale shows that when faced with difficult situations, people tend to choose to bury the truth as it seems like the easier thing to do. However, as we learn from Dimmesdale’s experience, failing to admit to our misdeeds eventually causes even more distress than the transgression itself.
In essence, it is conveying that if the first four “if”s are true, then any man who is burdened with a secret must avoid the physician. It is necessary for Hawthorne to focus his reader’s attention on this criteria because it contributes the an important relationship conflict between two main characters in his novel: Roger Chillingworth and Reverend
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.
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
Identify 3 journal articles (published within the past 10 years) that deal with your research topic. For each article, answer the following questions: • Reference article in proper APA format AND attach to assignment • Reason: What aspect of your research question is this paper addressing? • Summary : What is the main focus on this research article?
The Scarlet Letter Essay Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale were two of the main sinners in The Scarlet Letter. Both characters kept their sins secrete throughout the story. These sins included adultery, revenge, and even murder. Out of the two sinners, Chillingworth was the worst, because he never felt guilt for the terrible things he was doing. Dimmesdale spent his entire life in guilt and remorse for the sins he had committed (“Who”).
