Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter is a novel about the power of shame and redemption. Hester Prynne, the protagonist, is a woman who has committed adultery and must wear a scarlet letter “A” on her dress as punishment. Throughout the novel, she exhibits great strength and heroism in spite of her circumstances. Hester Prynne’s heroism … Read more
The Scarlet Letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The novel is about Hester Prynne, a woman who is shunned by her Puritan community after she has an affair and gives birth to a child out of wedlock. The novel follows Hester as she struggles to survive in her small town while raising her … Read more
In The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne explores the great sins of three Puritans secretly tied together by their sins, living in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Hester Prynne begins by committing adultery with Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale shares this sin with her, but he continues to sin as the next seven years pass. Roger … Read more
Life is like a book. Within these books a person’s story goes through trials of finding themselves, seeking answers, and going through wrong paths. Life is a book full of lessons that one applies from one stage to the next. A person applies one lesson from their past to new experience. Young Goodman Brown represents … Read more
In The Scarlet Letter, there are many scenes that are important to the plot and help reveal the story’s theme of sin and its consequences. The story is presented differently than most novels, however, Hawthorne presents the story as an omniscient feeling towards all characters, rather than a chronological explanation in order to show a … Read more
Nathaniel Hawthorne chose such a controversial topic as adultery for The Scarlet Letter, his nineteenth century novel of “seventeenth century sexual repression and hypocrisy”, demonstrates a delicate yet changing climate with regard to infidelity. Historically, carrying on an adulterous affair back in such an era of Puritanism and traditional values was not taken lightly; in … Read more
Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne were close friends when they were both writing their famous novels. The two shared their ideas with each other through letters and meetings, one could imagine; however, this may not have been so perfect. It is likely that they agreed on each other’s ideas but also disagreed on some of … Read more
Although he is known as one of the greatest painters of all time, Vincent van Gogh perceived himself as a failure throughout his life, which he himself would later cut short. He is known as a tortured artist as he went through many setbacks in his love life and career. Although these difficult experiences brought … Read more
Module Eight Lesson Four Mastery Assignment: The Scarlet Letter Chapters 13-19 a. What do many townspeople now say the A represents? The townspeople now believe the A stands for “able” rather than the real intention being “adulterer” b. Why does Hester feel she is to blame for Dimmesdale’s poor condition? Hester feels that she is … Read more
Pretending to be somebody else, by acting like them, in order to fit in or be popular is something that most people have done in their lives; however, this has always come back to bite them in the end. Similarly to how Dimmesdale did not show his true feelings and emotions in The Scarlet Letter … Read more
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a novel that was written over a series of months and published in March 1850. The book is based on the Puritan movement in the early 1600’s as immigration to the new found land of America was becoming popular. The protagonist of this work is Hester Prynn. Prynn … Read more
Everyone is born with their own unique identity; these identities are largely influenced by the society and culture around them. Society shapes people to believe what is and what isn’t acceptable. All throughout history humans have battled with what they believe is their true identity, and what society believes their identity should be. A common … Read more
Throughout the year’s society’s have developed their own standard way of thinking creating traditional norms. Norms are conventional and are expected to be fulfilled by the individuals in that society. If a norm were to be violated, it would bring severe consequences to those individuals. In The Scarlet Letter and The Minister’s Black Veil by … Read more
“Thou hast escaped me! ”-Chillingworth says. Throughout the course of the Scarlet Letter many of the characters suffer personal struggle and make choices that affect the lives of others. All characters experience this but one such character is Roger Chillingworth or Mr. Prynne, as he is also known. The choices and character changes of Roger … Read more
Mr. Hopper, a man who was a minister in a village in a town of Milford, somewhere in England. He was usually the person who would always be leading citizens, looked up to by everyone, including civil authorities. Of course, everyone knew Mr. Hooper in town. Every Sunday the whole village went to church. This … Read more
In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the five main characters were faced with the immense challenge of forgiving the people who had committed wrongs against them. Whether those indiscretions be the sin of adultery or the act of revenge, each were equally as hard to forgive. Hester’s challenge was to forgive the townspeople. Reverend … Read more
In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes Puritan ideology to convey a philosophical reflection on sin and redemption. Adulteress Hester Prynne must wear a scarlet A to mark her shame, and while her lover, Arthur Dimmesdale, remains unidentified and is wracked with guilt, her husband, Roger Chillingworth, seeks revenge. Although all three characters contemplate redemption, … Read more
Sin creates a feeling of shame and anguish that is not incited by the sin itself, but from the scorn of others, and thus, it imbues secrecy within the host. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Pearl is endowed with the proclivity to unveil the truth that shrouds the sinners of the Puritan society, especially … Read more
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, the forest means different things to different people. To the honorable and respectable members of Puritan , the forest is an evil and frightening place where witches lurk and the devil resides. To Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, two people unable to speak their minds in Puritan community, the forest … Read more
The Scarlet Letter is a novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This essay discusses how Hester is a victim of her social pressure. She was punished for something she did to achieve her dream of having someone that loves her. Hester committed adultery with minister Dimmesdale and had a child with him, Pearl. Her punishment was … Read more
“Original sin”: is the Puritan belief that all sin developed from women due to the fact that Eve, the first woman, made the first sin by giving in to temptation and offering it to men. This sin made the belief that all children created are a sinner and should take responsibility for the act of … Read more
In a community full of judgemental sinners one decides to face the truth. Throughout the short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”, Reverend Hooper was treated as an outcast for confessing to his sins. Although Hooper was doing the right thing in God’s eyes the community thought of Hooper’s sacrifices as evil. In “The Minister’s Black … Read more
In The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne presents three main characters that commit evil and sinful acts, where each act is at a different degree of sinfulness. These three sinners (in the eyes of the Puritan community) are: the beautiful Hester Prynne, the esteemed Reverend Dimmesdale, and the cold-hearted doctor Roger Chillingworth. Hawthorn believes that evil … Read more
“Young Goodman Brown”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a story that is thick with allegory. “Young Goodman Brown” is a moral story which is told through the perversion of a religious leader. In “Young Goodman Brown”, Goodman Brown is a Puritan minister who lets his excessive pride in himself interfere with his relations with the community … Read more
In “The Birthmark,” Hawthorne described a young scientist who killed his own wife by pursuing “perfect future” (Hawthorne, 220) while trying to remove a birthmark on his wife? s face. His name was Aylmer. He was a good scientist according to any standard. He was smart, diligent, and “an eminent proficient” (Hawthorne, 203) in natural … Read more
Hester Prynne, a member of a once affluent and prosperous family, was arranged to marry a physician by the name of Roger Chillingworth. Although not out of love, they are married and live successful lives in Amsterdam. When they eventually decide to settle in America, Hester is set on ahead of Roger so that he … Read more
In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne utilizes imagery to convey that Dimmesdale can represent Puritan Society rather than the round character that can be seen on the surface level. This is seen through the imagery and symbolism of hypocrisy, Dimmesdale as a Christ figure, and the scarlet letter. First of all, Hawthorne parallels the hypocrisy … Read more
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, life is centered around a rigid Puritan society in which one is unable to divulge his or her innermost thoughts and secrets. Every human being needs the opportunity to express how he or she truly feels, otherwise the emotions are bottled up until they become volatile. Unfortunately, Puritan society … Read more
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne expresses the aspects of relationships, religion, community, discipline and punishment in the puritan community of 17th century Boston. Relationships between men and women were very constrained and that is what made adultery such a bad sin in the eyes of everyone in the community. Religion seemed to govern over … Read more