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What Is The Secrecy In The Scarlet Letter

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The Scarlet Letter begins in 1642 Boston, Massachusetts with the Puritan society punishing Hester Prynne for her sins against God. The puritans believe that any crime is a crime or a sin against God and the Puritan leaders take this very seriously. Hester committed adultery with an unknown man.She was living out her punishment peacefully with her child Pearl until Roger Chillingworth appears back in town. No one knows that Chillingworth is Hester 's husband except for Hester. Everyone wants to know who the father of Pearl is but Hester is keeping his identity a secret. From the beginning Chillingworth is determined to figure out who the unknown man is. The secrecy in The Scarlet Letter affects them in both physical and mental ways. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne demonstrates how secrecy effects Hester Prynne, Roger chillingworth , and Arthur Dimmesdale. Hester is the sole person that knows the secrets that Dimmesdale and Chillingworth are hiding from the townspeople.Hester’s character is formed and shown as she goes through great ignominy from wearing the scarlet letter A to having her the reminder of her sin by her side. Hester has promised both of these men not to share their secrets with the world and throughout the novel she stays true. Since she keeps the identity of her …show more content…

Secrets play a big role in the plot of the story. Dimmesdale and Chillingworth both die as a result of secrecy. Dimmesdale finally comes clean and claims pearl as his daughter and then “holds his hand over his heart” and dies. Chillingworth dies shortly after because his only will to live was when he wanted to find out the father and then punish him but now Dimmesdale is dead therefore he has nothing to live for. He strangely leaves everything he has to Pearl. Pearl is the only one who came out of all of these secrets to live a happy and normal

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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.

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The Scarlet Letter In The Scarlet Letter by Daniel Hawthorne many villainous acts occur that contribute to the plot and direction of the text. One antagonist in the novel is Chillingworth, the “departed” husband of Hester Prynne. Chillingworth and his constant mission to gain his wife's love and to reveal the father with whom Hester's baby was conceived by leads him to take some villainous actions. Chillingworth took many actions to obtain his goals, examples of this are constantly exemplified throughout the novel, one example is Chillingworth’s unrelenting hatred towards Dimmesdale.

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He takes up the alias “Roger Chillingworth” to disguise any connection he has to Hester and to aid in his plan of revenge he has for Pearl’s father. Reverend John Wilson and the minister of her church, Arthur Dimmesdale, question Hester of the father’s identity, but she refuses to name her lover. As Pearl grows up, her behavior becomes more unruly; it is used as a motive for

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While exploring the power of love and, manipulating people 's emotions the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne was written on the battle of someone who was convicted of being a sinner living in a puritan society. The Scarlet Letter was a very influential novel because it was like a change in time, because it’s so different from what we see today. The story talks about Hester, who committed adultery and instead of giving her the punishment of death, she got the leeway of public humiliation. Throughout the novel the author uses characterization, tone and symbolism to help the readers better understand. First, there were the characters that helped to connect the theme sin, crime, and punishment.

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In the beginning the scarlet letter represented adultery and shame, but then the A represented “able.” Hester Prynne showed people that greatness can come out of huge mistake. One bad chapter does not mean your story is over. Willingly, Hester wanted to pick herself up again and move on with her life and eventually people noticed that. They began to respect her and think of her as strong and commendable

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The place of isolation can become the place of revelation. The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne tells the story of Hester Prynne's life after having a child, Pearl, while her husband, Roger Chillingworth, was away and having to live with an A on her chest for adultery. The father of the child, Arthur Dimmesdale, had to live with the guilt and beat himself because of it and the truth remained a secret to almost everyone, except Chillingworth, who planned to get revenge on him because of his sin. Chillingworth became evil and changed because he wanted revenge on Dimmesdale and the guilt made Dimmesdale feel sick. Dimmesdale died after he told everyone the truth and Pearl gained a sense of compassion when she saw him dying.

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