In the extraordinary book of Nathaniel Hawthorne, diction and symbolism are used to convey Hester Prynne's conflicts with herself and the townspeople, people on this book, including Hester, go through diverse emotions beacuase of the experince they are going through, the essential lesson is that people change emotionally depending on the circumstances they are in.…
“Truth was the one virtue which I might have held fast… save when thy good – thy life – thy fame – were put into question.” These words spoken by Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter display her practice of situational morals and hypocrisy. Hawthorne displays this major element of human nature, hypocrisy in all characters save young Pearl who is blatantly unique from most people. Dimmesdale, Hester, and the entire Puritan community are hypocrites, and their hypocrisy manifests itself in the conflict of this novel. Hawthorne created a drastic difference between the inward and outward lives of everyone in this story and they can be related to the hypocrisy present in modern society. People never change, hypocrisy will always be present both today in the past.…
Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter follows the life of Hester Prynne after she commits adultery and is forced to wear the scarlet letter upon her bosom for the rest of her life. Hawthorne uses setting, allusion, metaphor, irony, and diction to set a sombre tone. In chapter 9, Hawthorne reveals the evil qualities of Roger Chillingworth and Reverend Dimmesdale’s disposition. In the battle of good and evil, good does not always win.…
In The Scarlet letter, Dimmesdale was blaming himself and feeling guilty in keeping his secret and making Hester take all the blame for both their sins.…
After all, even though each character can be seen as a symbol, all of them have a negative understanding about them. Hester, having the scarlet letter, is publically shamed and is out casted near the forest, only to be ridiculed every time she goes into town. Pearl is seen as possessing witch like powers, and is considered a devil child. Dimmesdale is full of sorrow and agony, as keeping his sin inside him hurts him a lot. Chillingworth is full of hate towards both Hester and Dimmesdale, and is psychologically torturing Dimmesdale because of it.…
Nathaniel Hawthorne in the novel, the scarlet letter, portrays the level of wickedness that lives within humans. Pyle proves this to his audience by his precise and various strategies. Hawthorns dramatic irony both helps build suspense while foreshadowing how blind the Puritans are towards Chillingsworth true character, he foreshadows the pain and suffering Chillingworth will soon unravel upon dimmesdale; he does this through foreshadow, hyperbole and point of view.…
revenge and one of secrecy. He was not driven by an anger at his own sin, but…
Chillingworth visits Hester during her brief incarceration, where he berates her for having crushed his dreams of finding acceptance and love ("My heart was a great mansion with room for many souls, but cold and empty and without a parlor fire; I longed to light one!"). While he makes it obvious he will not take revenge upon her or the baby, he demands to know the name of Hester's lover. She refuses to tell him, but Chillingworth promises that he will find the man and destroy his soul.…
The scarlet letter the story of a young woman which committed what was considered to be one of the most vile sins of her time. That sin was adultery and for committing such a sin her punishment was public humiliation in the form of a scarlet letter a worn upon her bosom. Hester Pryne the wife of Roger Pryne (aka Chillingworth) was left waiting alone for two years for the arrival of her husband in the new world for two long lonesome years she waited in hopes of the arrival of her husband. Within these two long years she meets a man the accomplice to her adulterous act, this mans name is Author Dimmesdale the local reverend of the town, she found comfort within this man for she had longed for companionship for she had lost hope and believed her husband to have perished at sea. Within the midst of their taboo love they gave life to a child, this child named pearl was that which linked Hester and Dimmesdale and that which exposed the sin which she had committed. This is a tale of hypocrisy, conformity, vengeance, and forgiveness all of these expressed within the story through each character Reverend Dimmesdale has been made weak both physically and y by hypocrisy for having assisted in the act of adultery when he teaches others to act holy and just he lost himself. Hester and her daughter pearl faced the pressures of conformity by the church and community this pressure made Hester and Pearl in some ways rebel against the ideals of society. Roger Pryne (Chillingworth) is consumed by vengeance as he searches for the truth as to weather or not Dimmesdale is the father he becomes obsessed and depraved in search of the truth. Forgiveness is shown through both Hester and Dimmesdale, Hester is forgiven by the town, Dimmesdale is forgiven by the town after he has died. These four themes are the basis which creates and brings this story to life because they affect all characters throughout the story.…
The uses of blood-sucking leeches as medical tools are prevalent, but a lot of people still detest “leeches” and in The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne used both characteristics of a leech to epitomize Roger Chillingworth, the husband of Hester, the protagonist. In the story, to find the man who gave birth to Hester’s child, Chillingworth entered the Puritan town, where Hester and Dimmesdale lived in. In the town, people considered doctors as “leeches” and Chillingworth lived with Reverend Dimmesdale at another house to cure Dimmesdale’s deteriorating health. However, that wasn’t Chillingworth’s intention in the first place; he suspected Dimmesdale as the imposter. Like a parasite, Chillingworth settled into the house, and he tried to find out the hidden truth by delving into his room at night. Also, after finding out that Dimmesdale was the imposter, he slowly tortured Dimmesdale by making him feel guilty of his hidden sin and he tried to follow Dimmesdale and Hester when they attempted to leave the town after Dimmesdale delivered his sermon. In the end, when Dimmesdale confessed his secret, like a leech that lost its host, Chillingworth died. Although Chillingworth committed evil acts, Chillingworth showed a glimpse of good characteristics of leech; people were relieved to have a doctor because there weren’t many doctors in town. Also, he later found redemption for his act of retaliation in bequeathing his wealth to Pearl. In a nutshell, Hawthorne used the symbol “leech” to represent Roger Chillingworth’s two-sided personalities.…
In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne explores the idea of sin and how it affected those in the Puritan era. Hester Prynne, with her baby in her arms, is ridiculed in front of the entire town. Hester and her daughter are shunned to a house on the outskirts of town, isolating them from the Puritan community. Pearl and Hester grow up in the town alone as social outcasts, but they do have each other. Pearl is raised by her single mother, and soon becomes very mature for her age. She grows up without any fatherly figure, and only has her mother and her imagination. She is constantly being disappointed by the actions of her real father, Dimmesdale. Pearl grows up to be known as a witch baby and the demon child. Hawthorne uses Pearl to express how she is affected by her mother’s sin, even though she is innocent of sin.…
The Scarlet Letter. In the story, Hester Prime Committed Adultry, and her punishment was that she had to go through out her life for 7 years wearing a shinny scarlet red A. The book could be considered a Metaphor because the scarlet letter was Hester's symbol of punishment. It was a way for the townspeople to judge Hester literally and figuratively as a woman, when it is clearly shown that the townspeople were no better (if not much worse) than Hester. You find exapmles of The theme in the scarlett letter all over the book, For one the scarlet letter, it would be finding your true identity, and your real role in society. After Hester is publicly shamed and forced by the people to wear a The A, she never thought really to leave. Hester reacts with suprise when she is told the town fathers are considering letting her remove the letter. Hester’s behavior is based on her want to determine her own identity rather than to allow others to determine it for her. For Hester, running away or removing the letter would be an acknowledgment of society’s power over her. she would be admitting that the letter is a mark of shame and something from which she desires to escape. she stays, the scarlet letter is used as a symbol of her own experiences and character. Her past sin is who she is, to pretend that it never happened would mean denying a part of herself. Hester is determined to invite her sin into her life. Authors sometimes use symbols in their books to represent different objects, people, or ideas. In the beggining, Hester wears the "A" and was labeled on sin. As the book went the meaning as the "A"" made a change for the better in Hester's life. The "A" had negative meaning, Hawthorne turns the meaning around in the story to mean able. The fact that Hester was given many hours of time and service to the sick, poor and troubled Hester began to gain respect from some of the town's people. The "A" on her chest changed the…
This guilt tortured Dimmesdale to the point he carved his own scarlet letter into his breast. But both of the sins of Hester and Dimmesdale were done out of love. They loved each other when they had committed adultery and Hester thought Chillingworth to be dead due to his nine year…
In the novel of The Scarlet Letter, there were different types of themes which corresponded with the story. However, the theme that I choose is Revenge and Love. Revenge is one of the main lessons Hawthorne was trying to portray to the audience, because Chillingworth was up to no good in discovering Hester’s lover. The theme of love connected Dimmesdale and Hester together, which caused Chillingworth to have his revenge. The act of revenge began when Chillingworth returned from his journey and discovered that Hester had a baby for another man, he then vowed to have his revenge on Hester and her lover. According to an article of the “theme revenge in The Scarlet Letter” it quotes, “steadily influenced by his obsession for revenge against the…
The Scarlet Letter is a romanticism novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hester is a young lady in the seventeenth century that is constantly surrounded by her sin of adultery. Throughout the novel, Hester becomes more of her own person as she cares for her daughter Pearl on the edge of the woods. The format of the novel is written in a romanticists way; formal and fitting for the setting. The writer also expresses splashes of color in the story to retain a positive outlook or effect as the novel goes on. Symbols in the novel are naturalistic, such as roses; the symbol of hope for change. Pearl is also a symbol; a symbol of transgression and Hester’s reason for living. The setting of the novel is slightly depressing, but grows into this mystical-like town as the novel goes on. Hester redeems herself for her sin, the letter “A” in her bosom’s meaning turns into “Able”. The story reveals more secret, though each one brings Hester closer and closer to closure on her sin. There is an antagonist as there usually always is for romanticism novel, though it is usually never the actual main character that is the true antagonist. Chillingworth bogs down on Dimmesdale, mentally tearing Dimmesdale apart to find out the father until helped by Hester.…