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What Is The Symbolism Of Sunshine In The Scarlet Letter

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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book The Scarlet Letter follows the development of a young out of place Puritan woman, Hester Prynne, and her scandalous affair with the young Arthur Dimmesdale. Shrouded in secrecy, this ultimately leads to the degradation of the well being of both Arthur and Hester, as well as the shunning of their daughter Pearl, and the tragic, and dramatic, death of Dimmesdale himself. Throughout the novel Hawthorne frequently uses sunshine as a symbol. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s use of sunshine in The Scarlet Letter is used to symbolize the revelation of truth, ultimately removing all veils of dishonesty and revealing all hidden circumstances.

As the book begins, the lack of revelation and inherent lies are symbolized by an extreme
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In the novel the scarlet letter, the scarlet letter is shown through the use of imagery and figurative language to demonstrate that judgment through society as well as sin is bad while the scarlet is a symbol of sin wrapped in good and beauty. Hester is able to take something that was meant to be a punishment for a crime she committed and turn it into something absolutely stunning. Hawthorne portrayed Pearl

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The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, focuses on the life of Hester Prynne—the unlucky soul who is caught committing adultery and forced to live a life of shame and ignominy. The scaffold is not only the start of her predicament, but it is also the end of the once seemingly perfect Reverend Dimmesdale’s own guilt. The scaffold is the setting of a scene three times throughout the novel: the beginning, middle, and end. For such a lifeless object, it is difficult to recognize its significance in the novel; however, the scaffold is used by Hawthorne to portray the changing relationship between the characters, specifically Hester, Dimmesdale, and Pearl.

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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a novel that focuses on sin in the Puritan society. Hawthorne revolves the theme around the four main characters Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth., and Pearl. Hester Prynne is forced to wear the scarlet letter ‘A’ after committing adultery against her husband Roger Chillingworth, with the minister Arthur Dimmesdale. As a result an odd child is born.

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Chapter 18 of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is titled A Flood Of Sunshine. In this chapter, Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne resolve to leave the Puritan colony together along with Pearl. Sunshine and floods are both elements of nature yet one brings light and sunshine and the other brings destruction and grief. Similarly, Arthur Dimmesdale is caught in a struggle with two parts of his nature that juxtapose each other.

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Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter follows Hester Prynne, a young woman living in puritan Massachusetts in the mid-1600s, and how the label of being an “adulterer” considerably impacts her life for years after the crime. Arthur Dimmesdale, an unmarried man and the town’s respected minister, is secretly the father of Hester’s newly born daughter, and the guilt he experiences slowly kills him throughout the novel. The Scarlet Letter was never meant to be a love story; Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale would never have ended up together due to their positions in society and how their lives were affected following the scandal.

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The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is one of the most famous and influential novels written in American literature. The story takes place in the seventeenth century in the Puritan settlement of Boston where a young woman named Hester Prynne is punished after having a daughter with a man who was not her husband. Though, instead of hanging Hester they spare her life because of her beauty. She is then shunned and forced to wear a scarlet “A” (for adultery) on her breast for the rest of her life, while, the “unknown” man who Hester had an affair with moves on with a guilt-filled life. The novel is a classic romance with it’s countless symbols tossed throughout the book.

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The book The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne has symbolism all throughout it. People and objects are symbolic of events and thoughts. Throughout the book, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Hester, Pearl, and Arthur Dimmesdale to signify philosophies that are evident during this time period. Hester Prynne, through the eyes of the Puritans, is an extreme sinner; she has gone against their ways, committing adultery. For this sin, she must wear a symbol of shame for the rest of her life.

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The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, describes the experiences of a woman, Hester Prynne, who is publicly shamed for adulterous actions, which resulted in a child. The book shows the progression of her life and her daughter’s in addition to the life of Arthur Dimmesdale, who is the father of Hester’s daughter, but never revealed it publicly in fear of being viewed differently by his peers. Dimmesdale and Hester, connected by the act of adultery, have both experienced stress and unforgiveness, resulting in negative changes to their mental states. Troubled by this stress and unforgiveness, both Dimmesdale and Hester reflect the negative changes through internal struggle, yet in slightly different manners. Suffering from stress

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In the eighteenth through twenty fourth chapters of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, various elements and events are established that are crucial to the final moments taking place in the novel. These events and elements determine the destiny of the fictional family created by an act of adultery, between Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. One distinct aspect that Hawthorne uses to describe Hester Prynne and Pearl, is nature. The recurring characteristic that is used to compare nature to Hester and Pearl is sunshine.

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Propaganda has been a part of history ever since one could carve a picture onto a stone. It was, and still is, used to develop a relationship with a viewer. Back in ancient days, propaganda was an easy way to get an opinion to the public, and to have them believe what is written, for the writing had been all there was to believe. Pharaohs of ancient Egypt could say feed the public whatever information they wished, and naturally the people would believe what they say because they had become known as credible sources. Pharaohs were said to have been linked to the gods, and given the ability to interpret the gods’ will, therefore being very knowledgeable.

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It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom” (Hawthorne 191). This something upon Hester’s bosom is the scarlet letter, which is already interpreted as the outward indication of her past sin. Hawthorne uses “sunshine” to symbolize happiness, purity, and truth. He then uses the symbolic imagery of the light hiding from Hester, to represent her constant denial to forgive herself of her sin and develop as an uncommon member of society. Hawthorne uses this symbolic imagery of darkness to represent concealment and evil, thus validating that one cannot prosper under society’s pressure, so they must dispose themselves from

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1737 Words | 7 Pages

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter explores the parallel between light and dark in many ways. In 17th century New England, Hester Prynne, the protagonist, is imprisoned for adultery, resulting in a child. Consequently, she’s forced to wear an embroidered red A on her chest for the rest of her life. Throughout the following years, Hester realizes that the scarlet letter isn’t as terrible a punishment as it seemed.

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Some secrets changed characters in many different ways throughout the story. A person reading this book could feel that from the beginning, it was going to be a dark, evil story in many aspects. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, he set out to write a story in the early settlements of Massachusetts, and all of the religious aspects that came with it. Light and dark imagery, alluding to the larger conflict between good and evil, is present throughout the novel in the characters of Hester Prynne, Pearl

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Colors in life can represent many things feelings, happiness, good, and evil. Hyatt Howe Waggoner’s review of “The Scarlet Letter” in his scholarly journal says that Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the colors of pure, mixed, and drained in “The Scarlet Letter” to contribute as an additional character in “The Scarlet Letter”. Hyatt Howe Waggoner’s review of the colors being used as a character is very correct, the colors of pure symbolize the good during the puritan era, as well as mixed being the good conflicting with bad and drained as the evil during the puritan era. Together using the colors in “The Scarlet Letter” Nathaniel Hawthorne creates an additional character that contributes to the plot of the story greatly. Nathaniel Hawthorne uses pure

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1653 Words | 7 Pages

The Scarlet Letter, a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a hopeless tale of one Hester Prynne, who committed adultery and now has to pay for her crime, and her relationship with the rest of the characters in the book; this reveals how a harsh society can ruin lives. The negative impact of committing sin and secret-keeping is seen throughout the entire story of The Scarlet Letter; it is portrayed through Hester’s fate, the intertwined lives of Chillingworth and Dimmesdale, and the ultimate end. The scarlet letter Hester Prynne now bears on her chest will unfairly rule the rest of her life. Her own sin led to the attainment of the scarlet letter.

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