...The Scarlet Letter A: Write an analytical essay (900 - 1200 words) on the excerpt from Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter (1850). Part of your essay must focus on the narrative technique and the theme of Puritanism and slut shaming. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter”, a dark tale of shame and condemnation, centres on a small Puritan society of Boston during the 17th century. Set in Puritan New England, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, a Puritan woman who has a baby out of wedlock. Although written many years ago, Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter” covers themes and ideas related to modern readers. The themes of slut-shaming and breaking society’s expectations are ones to which many young people can relate to today. Seen in this context, the novel can be approached as the story of a young woman who let her heart rule her head and suffered the consequences. In a dedicated Puritan town, a young married woman named Hester Prynne conceives a child. There is a glitch, however; her husband, a doctor, has been missing for a long time. The society magistrates imprison her for this sin and commands that she must wear a scarlet “A” on her dress as a sign for adultery, shame and sins. Additionally, she must stand on a scaffold, exposed to public humiliation. The reason why is she had an affair with the local minister, Reverend Dimmesdale. The fact that he is a reverend makes the case much worse and also shows hypocrisy in the community, since the minister...
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...Things are not always what they seem. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter uses the central idea of duality to exemplify this. A key symbol of duality Hawthorne presents in The Scarlet Letter is Hester Prynne's embodiment of her sin: the beautifully embroidered scarlet letter. Forcibly placed upon Hester's bosom, the letter punishes her for committing adultery with the town reverend, Arthur Dimmesdale. The badge also intends to outcast her and her daughter, Pearl, from the Puritan society of Boston. Although the "A" originally acted as Hester's punishment, the interpretation of the scarlet letter varies for Dimmesdale and Pearl to juxtapose Hester's unwavering perspective. Besides Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale has the biggest personal...
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...In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, it is considered by many timeless and universal, which makes his novel a work of classic literature. Determining what makes a classic taken from his novel Why Read the Classics? Italo Calvino defines: “A classic is a book which each rereading offers as much of a sense of discovery as the first reading.” Hester Prynne is first introduced with her infant daughter, Pearl, and she is being displayed by the onlookers of Boston as sinful because she has committed adultery. Later, it is revealed that Hester and the young minister Arthur Dimmesdale had an affair. Although Dimmesdale did not know that he befriended Hester’s once lost husband Roger Chillingworth, Dimmesdale is also punished for his sin. Themes...
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...The Scarlet Letter In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, A young woman named Hester Prynne in Boston is prosecuted for adultery. To symbolize her crime, she has an “A” imprinted on her bosom. As a result of her committing adultery, she and Reverend Dimmesdale (his identity is not identified until later in the book) have a child. She is a very curious child, and her name is Pearl. Roger Chillingworth, comes to see Hester on the scaffold and he doesn’t want his identity revealed either but it does get revealed in later chapters. In the Scarlet letter, the author uses different symbols, literary devices, and themes that help Nathaniel’s purpose of writing. Symbolism A symbol in the Scarlet Letter is literally the Scarlet Letter...
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...Section #1: The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, starts off by introducing how the book was written. The anonymous narrator stumbled upon some manuscripts labeled with a red “A”, all of which happened some 200 years before his time. He decided to write a fictional story about the facts he found in the manuscripts and thus, The Scarlet Letter was born. The story begins in a Boston Puritan Settlement in the 17th century. Hester Prynne and her young daughter, Pearl, are being led from the town prison, bearing the infamous “scarlet letter”. A man in the crowd said she was being tried for adultery, after her husband left and was supposed to be “lost at sea”, and gave birth to a child. She will not, however, give the identity of her lover, and the red “A”, along with her public shame, is punishment for her sin and secrecy. The man in the crowd turns out to be Hester’s long lost husband, who is now practicing medicine and is going by the name Roger Chillingworth. Several years pass and, being banished by the town, Hester and Pearl live in a small cottage on the outskirts of Boston. The town repeatedly tries to take Pearl away from Hester, but with the help of the young minister, Arthur Dimmesdale, the two manage to stay together. Chillingworth has his suspicions about Dimmesdale’s health and the fact he may be hiding a secret, so he decided to move in with him to give him constant care. One afternoon, while the minister sleeps, Chillingworth discovers a mark on the man’s chest...
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...Megan Naylor Dr. DiCicco English 3664 March 29, 2011 Gender Roles in The Scarlet Letter and The Awakening During the Victorian era, the life a woman was immensely difficult. They were considered the property of their husband, and treated as such. Women were forbidden from owning their own property, even if they were given the property from their father. In such a case, the land would be transferred in ownership to her husband. A woman’s place was in the home, to dutifully care for her husband and children. Her job was to cook, clean, and bear children. Interestingly, a wife was treated similarly to her children. Obedience toward the man of the home was necessary from both the children and the mother. In contradiction to all of the restriction and repression, the nineteenth century produced two of literatures strongest women. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Kate Chopin gave American society two women who actively defied their husbands and who possessed their own strong moral codes. With The Scarlet Letter published in 1850 and set in the seventeenth century, Nathaniel Hawthorne was taking a large risk in creating a novel detailing a woman’s adultery with the town’s minister and producing an illegitimate child in the process. Despite the treatment she receives, Hester does not waver in her promise to keep her lover secret, proving that she is a strong willful woman. As the century is coming to a close, Kate Chopin produced a work that sent shock waves through American society. The...
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...North American Literature 2014-2015. Individual Freedom restricted by Puritans. Analysis of Hester, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. [Nathaniel Hawthorne; The Scarlet Letter] ABSTRACT: The aim of this paper is to analyze how Nathaniel Hawthorne deals with the theme of freedom focusing on the major characters such as Hester, Chillingworth and Dimmesdale. I argue that, there is a sign of individual freedom due to the fact that all the characters have the right to act in the way they do it but they will be always suppressed by the decisions of the Puritans. I also argue that, there is no collective freedom in terms of society because Puritanism restricts, punishes and judges individual actions. Key words: major characters, individual freedom, suppressed, no collective freedom. The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, is constructed by the main themes of isolation and suffering. Moreover, sin and the Puritan law are narrowly connected, making the wish of freedom almost an impossible achievement. Over the course of the novel, Hester is the only one who truly manifests her right of individual freedom. However, she has been punished by the Puritan law, which considers her attitude as a threat to the Puritan community and its religion. Hester’s freedom starts since the moment she decides to carry her punishment in New England and not going back to England, where she could have lived a new life without feeling guilty. Furthermore, her self-determination...
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...Individualism, although specific for each person, is extremely vague in different societies. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Puritan-era novel The Scarlet Letter intensely presents the contradicting representations of individualism and its effect on not only the individuals themselves but also on the entire society. In Puritan society, individualism is abhorred, yet many influential characters are strikingly different individuals. The Scarlet Letter presents individualism as an integral part of society due to the diversity of human personalities and passions, yet the strict society that Hawthorne depicts limits the true potential of individualism. Hester Prynne, an adulterer and supposed widow, mostly thrives on being an individual, yet is compelled...
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...Nathaniel Hawthorne's background influenced him to write the bold novel The Scarlet Letter. One important influence on the story is money. Hawthorne had never made much money as an author and the birth of his first daughter added to the financial burden ("Biographical Note" VII). He received a job at the Salem Custom House only to lose it three years later and be forced to write again to support his family (IX). Consequently, The Scarlet Letter was published a year later (IX). It was only intended to be a long short story, but the extra money a novel would bring in was needed ("Introduction" XVI). Hawthorne then wrote an introduction section titled "The Custom House" to extend the length of the book and The Scarlet Letter became a full novel (XVI). In addition to financial worries, another influence on the story is Hawthorne's rejection of his ancestors. His forefathers were strict Puritans, and John Hathorne, his great-great-grandfather, was a judge presiding during the Salem witch trials ("Biographical Note" VII). Hawthorne did not condone their acts and actually spent a great deal of his life renouncing the Puritans in general (VII). Similarly, The Scarlet Letter was a literal "soapbox" for Hawthorne to convey to the world that the majority of Puritans were strict and unfeeling. For example, before Hester emerges from the prison she is being scorned by a group of women who feel that she deserves a larger punishment than she actually receives. Instead of only being...
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...When it comes to the topic of struggle, most of us will promptly agree that it's not very easy to go through. Where this argument usually ends, however, is on the question of how we get through it. Whereas some are convinced that struggle is just a part of life that comes naturally, others maintain that with every struggle there is a lesson to be learned. The text Of Plymouth Plantation, The Scarlet Letter and The Whistle, they include a struggle they have to overcome. In the text Of Plymouth Plantation they struggle with disease and death, relating to early american identity by all the diseases and illnesses going around and killing many people, ¨...Infected with scurvy and other diseases...¨ (6). William Bradford recognizes the issues...
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...Parallels of The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter share common themes that create interesting parallels between the two texts. Although they were written in different time periods by means of two different authors, they both show striking similarities in many categories, including overlapping themes and settings. Interesting parallels among both texts include, but aren’t limited to, public confession, public humiliation, adultery, and setting. First, public confession is presented in each text. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, John Proctor is the epitome of this idea. Proctor asks “Why must it (his confession) be written?” to which Danforth “Why, for the good instruction of the village, Mister; this we shall...
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...English II Assigned Essay When Opposing Passions Merge In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, dualities vie for the soul of an emerging American generation. The novel proves that opposing passions, such as love and hate, paradoxically coexist in the human spirit, and they dictate the actions of Hawthorne’s multifaceted characters. Although such emotions may be similar, one transcends the other. Hawthorne’s novel, on the surface, often teems with hatred; but love is at the root, both driving and transforming destructive social interactions. Hatred is a superficial passion that develops in the character’s souls, emanating from—often perverse, confused, and hidden—love. In the novel, Roger Chillingworth’s life and spirit are dominated by his fierce desire to destroy the man who had an illicit affair with his wife. Chillingworth “digs into the poor clergyman’s heart, like a miner searching for gold” (113), scouring Dimmesdale’s psyche for hints of dishonesty. He becomes obsessed with his secret plot for revenge, and before long, his malicious intentions distort his physical appearance. The physician transforms into a walking emblem of hatred. The town realizes: “Now, there was something ugly and evil in his face, which they had not previously noticed” (112). Behind Chillingworth’s gloomy countenance, however, lies a motivation deeper than his desire for revenge: his enduring love for Hester. As he says to Hester while visiting her in prison, “I drew thee into my heart, into...
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...The Scarlet Letter Study Guide Published in 1850, The Scarlet Letter is considered Nathaniel Hawthorne's most famous novel--and the first quintessentially American novel in style, theme, and language. Set in seventeenth-century Puritan Massachusetts, the novel centers around the travails of Hester Prynne, who gives birth to a daughter Pearl after an adulterous affair. Hawthorne's novel is concerned with the effects of the affair rather than the affair itself, using Hester's public shaming as a springboard to explore the lingering taboos of Puritan New England in contemporary society. The Scarlet Letter was an immediate success for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the United States was still a relatively new society, less than one hundred years old at the time of the novel’s publication. Indeed, still tied to Britain in its cultural formation, Hawthorne's novel offered a uniquely American style, language, set of characters, and--most importantly--a uniquely American central dilemma. Besides entertainment, then, Hawthorne's novel had the possibility of goading change, since it addressed a topic that was still relatively controversial, even taboo. Certainly Puritan values had eased somewhat by 1850, but not enough to make the novel completely welcome. It was to some degree a career-threatening decision to center his novel around an adulterous affair (but compare the plot of Fielding's Tom Jones). But Hawthorne was not concerned with a prurient affair here, though the novel’s...
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...his time with him is shortened when Eliezer finds out that Moshe is being deported. Shortly after Moshe was deported, he successfully escaped to try and inform the people that the German secret police had taken over his train and butchered everyone. Moshe was not taken seriously because his state of mind was questioned. Soon after Moshe tried to warn the people about what was happening, the Jews from Sighet were being forced out of their own town. These people’s lives immediately were being changed. From Birkenau, Auschwitz, Buna, Gleiwitz, and Buchenwald, the Jewish men and women were being shipped to concentration camps where they lost all freedom to choose and a complete loss of identity. They become puppets in the hands of their brutal Nazi tormentors. The loss of his father, the loss of identity, the disappearance of his mother and siblings, the inhumanity towards others, and the silence of God were all themes in the novel that lead Eliezer to his total loss of faith. He questioned the existence of God. The book had a bittersweet ending. It all ends when the Americans arrive at the death camp. However, while the American’s could free his physical body, the allied forces offered no life for his dead heart. He was already an “empty shell of a man.” (Weisel) While Eliezer questions God, I can relate to him talking about why He would feel as if He was not there. A broken heart can cause someone to be in a lot of pain. A person whom is broken should fill their heart with God....
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...that the consequences of sin is the theme of Nathaniel Hawthorne's, The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne explored this theme by four distinctive levels of sin. Although each level was equally displayed throughout the novel, the communal sin of man's inhumanity to man outranked all else. The primary characters are each guilty of one or more of the following levels of sin; the sin of vengeance, the sin of hypocrisy, and the sin of adultery. In the beginning of the novel, it is revealed that Hester Prynne is guilty of adultery. One of the consequences for her sin is a prison term. Secondly, she had a child, a baby who was conceived from lust rather than love. Hester named this child Pearl, meaning of great value. Thirdly, Hester was condemned to wear the scarlet letter, upon her bosom, for all to recognize her as one who has met with the black man in the forest. Fourth, she was made to stand in public ignominy as the townsmen mocked her.(Bercovitch, S, 1991) Although the magistrates tried to make Hester Prynne reveal her accomplice, she kept his name unknown. As one may have guessed, from the hints given throughout the novel, Arthur Dimmesdale was also guilty of adultery. However, he did not confess his sin until it was too late. Dimmesdale continued his ministry in the church, as a hypocrite, concealing his sin. Nevertheless, his guilty conscience drove him to a manic-depressive state of mind. Dimmesdale became very ill, because the scarlet letter upon Hester's bosom seemingly burned through...
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