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Who Is Hester Prynne's Alienation In The Scarlet Letter

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In the novel, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the protagonist Hester Prynne is accused of adultery. The Puritan society has no tolerance for her sin; therefore, the punishment affects Hester for the rest of her life. Hester Prynne’s act of adultery results in a conflict between her faith and pride.

Hester Prynne’s alienation from her Puritan home town caused her to constantly think about her sin. She was not scorned by the town and her only close friends.. The Puritan society in Hester’s hometown set high standards and adultery falls under their worst sins. Hester must now deal with the letter “A” stitched on her clothes to stand for adulteress. The author makes this clear to show that the clothes she wears everyday will now constantly have an effect on her for her sin. This letter represents how unholy she was to her community. This alienation is a way to force Hester to live with her sin and ultimately …show more content…

However, Hester was able to embrace her sinful act by keeping and raising her child Pearl. The author does this to show how Hester is filled with courage. Hester’s sinful act brings much tension to the town full of Puritans which creates a hard life for Hester and Pearl. Hester was in no way ashamed of her daughter. The birth of her daughter represents Hester’s pride and the conflict exemplified. Although she knew the consequences were high, she still followed through with the birth of her daughter. This is the authors’ way of showing her pride. In response to the constant criticism and humiliation, Hester kept her head up and never once let it ruin her or take her down. As long as Pearl was in her life, she would not let her sin take over her life. Hester was greatly affected by the Puritan society and the harsh life that comes along with her sin, yet in the mist of it all she maintains her

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Hester Prynne is punished in front of the whole Puritan community, with her daughter Pearl. Together Hester holds baby Pearl in her arms while being publicly ridiculed on a scaffold in the center of the town. To escape the constant mockery from the society, she can easily leave and move to a place where no one knows her sin, and where she would be free to live without punishment. Hester knows she has done wrong though, so she decides to stay where her sin takes place and where her punishment is established. Hester believes “The torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul and work our another purity than that which she had lost.”

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Hester’s adulterous affair affected her life and image, it put her in isolation and led to shame and guilt. Although the scarlet letter bears remorse, throughout the novel Hester’s changes from a negative and unholy ego to a positive and favorable ego due to her actions. As Hester Prynne is faced with critisism and judgement, she continues to stay strong which eventually leads to people interpreting her scarlet letter “A” from “adultery” to “Able”. The change in Hester Prynne’s character exhibits that although some people may never stop their pessimistic critisism, we can overcome our sins with a strong relationship with God and a growth mindset, as Hester does. Hester Prynne’s actions demonstrate that sin is natural and should only be judged by

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Her defiance becomes stronger and will carry her through different hardships. Her determination and lonely stand repeats again when she confronts Governor Bellingham over the issue of Pearl’s guardianship. When Bellingham wants to take Pearl away from Hester, Hester reply’s with, “God gave me the child! I will die first!”(Ch.). When also pressured even more for the child’s care, Hester pleads, “God gave her into my keeping.

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Lillian Ricci Ms Williams Honors English III 2/28/2023 Scarlet Letter “But a man or woman who commits adultery has no sense; whoever does so destroys himself or herself.” -Proverbs 6:32. This quote describes Hester Prynne in the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hester Prynne sins this book out of wedlock with Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and has Pearl. Pearl Prynne, the daughter of Hester Prynne, is the most changed character in this story, from being accused of witchcraft to being a happy wife to her own family.

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791 Words | 4 Pages

Considering the townspeople’s reactions toward Hester’s sin of adultery, it can be concluded that in the Puritan era, religion was of utmost importance, and the Puritans met sins with extremely harsh punishments. Because the majority of the Puritan town viewed Hester as a disgrace, she became “Lonely . . . and without a friend on earth” (56). This made it effortless for the inhabitants of the town to continue to insult and degrade Hester because they did not care to learn her true personality. While a few civilians had sympathy for Hester, the town mostly regarded her as shameful and

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1037 Words | 5 Pages

Within a Puritan society, there is a strict set of rules that have to be followed in order to avoid conflict and punishment. In the novel, Hester Prynne goes against one of the many puritan ideals, by committing adultery. This results in the wearing of the scarlet letter on her chest as an act of punishment for what she has done. When Hester’s appearance is first introduced she is seen as a beautiful young woman, “characterized by a certain state and dignity” (48). People began to admire her as she stepped out of the prison doors, but it is all veiled by the scarlet letter.

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Hester Prynne is guilty as charged for committing a sin towards her Puritan religion, committing adultery, and refusing to give up the identity of Pearl’s father. Hester deserved the punishment she was given. She knew what cheating would turn into, and the consequences of it, but she did it anyway. Thank you for taking the time to read this

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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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“Hester Prynne, therefore, did not flee” Boston since she had felt attached to her home and believe it was the perfect place for her punishment of all the guilt she had (Hawthorne 74). Hester has been banished from society but feels that if she was at least near her hometown, she has a shot a redeeming herself in society. She chose to stay to face reality and turn her life around for the better. Hester is reminded everyday when she sees Pearl, to rethink her life because she wants what is best for her daughter. Pearl presence to her mom symbolizes, a precious valuable for making her see things differently and reminds her mother of because of her act, she has been also being shunned by

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400 Words | 2 Pages

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel The Scarlet Letter describes the story of Hester Prynne, an adulteress who conceived a child with reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Throughout the story the condemnation, punishment, and repercussions of the affair that she endures are depicted. For the duration of this novel, Hawthorne portrays the lives lead by Puritan society as hypocritical and sanctimonious.

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764 Words | 4 Pages

This guilt causes her to isolate both herself and her daughter in an attempt to reconcile with what she has done. Not only does her guilt play a major role in why she isolates herself and her daughter, it also plays a major role in her daughter’s actions towards her. Hester’s guilt does not lead to her daughter’s somewhat cunning and almost evil spirit, but does however play a role in Pearl’s actions. At one instance in the Hawthorne’s novel, Pearl, of three years old went on to, “At the most inopportune moment… After putting her fingers in her mouth, with many ungracious refusals to answer good Mr. Wilson’s questions, the child finally announced that she had not been made at all, but had been plucked by her mother off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison door,” (102). Pearl’s action of not pronouncing God as her father could lead to her being removed from her mother’s custody.

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980 Words | 4 Pages

This sin is seen as an act of rebellion against the society that she lives in and she is quickly punished for stepping out of line. The first part of Hester’s punishment is being forced to stand upon the scaffold in the center of town with her infant daughter, giving the townsfolk an opportunity to critique her and gossip. At this moment, Hawthorne compares her to “...the image of Divine Maternity…something which should remind him, indeed, but only by contrast, of that sacred image of sinless motherhood, whose infant was to redeem the world. Here, there was the taint of deepest sin in the most sacred quality of human life, working such effect, that the world was only the darker for this woman’s beauty, and the more lost for the infant that she had borne” (Hawthorne 55). This comparison to the Virgin Mary is a sort of foreshadowing of Hester’s future, as she is turned away and shunned just like Mary is before the birth of christ.

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494 Words | 2 Pages

The issue here is that she can not enjoy her own daughter, Pearl’s, growing day by day. She no longer had a normal life, she had to live with the Scarlet letter on her chest, because of this child, for the rest of her life. This issue makes the entire novel, Hester and Pearl Prynne’s life's make the entire novel in general. Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey

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1368 Words | 6 Pages

Hester embraces Pearl as her daughter despite being a product of sin. Also against the will of the meaning of the scarlet letter, Hester starts helping the very Puritans that condemned her. Hawthorne describes that “Such helpfulness was found in her… that many people refuse to interpret the scarlet A by its original signification. They said that it meant Able;” (69). Hester chooses to help those in need as her alienation gave her empathy for outcasts after seeing from their point of view, and spending time on her own led her into becoming a freethinker.

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1338 Words | 6 Pages

She found that Pearl gave her hope and forced her to make the best of her situation no matter how difficult. After threats of having the one thing that still meant something to her suddenly taken away Hester still remained strong, one positive outcome of bearing the dreadful “A” for years. She even began to change the meaning of the “A” from adultery to abled. It drove her to be a better person for herself and her daughter. Hester learned the cruelties of the world and people living in it, a lesson not possible without first experiencing isolation.

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