...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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...In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne portrays Reverend Dimmesdale as a man who cowardly strays away from the truth and, consequently, cannot manage the shame that he has brought upon himself. In a state of vulnerability, Dimmesdale has an affair with Hester Prynne, who then bores his child out of wedlock. In the eyes of this puritanical community, Hester has sinned against God. To punish her, the heads of the town force her to wear a scarlet “A” for adulteress. She must stand upon a scaffold, a raised wooden platform that is used for public executions, in front of the whole town. While Hester is punished for her sin, Dimmesdale is too apprehensive to admit to his sin and receive his punishment. Because he does not admit or accept his...
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...Many people commit wrongdoings at some point in their life. Hester Prynne, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth from Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter are no exception. These wrongdoings contribute to an overall theme of the novel. This theme is sin. There are many symbols in the novel that draw attention to this theme, such as color and the scarlet letter. There is more symbols that are present in the novel and have high importance, however these two stand out significantly. Through instances involving Hester, Dimmesdale, and Chillingworth, color and the mark of the scarlet letter drive the theme of sin within the novel. Hester’s relationship with her scarlet letter is a distinct example of how the symbol of the...
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...AnnaLeis Dibert Mrs. Eron English 2330 April 9, 2014 Each Sin Letter Humans are naturally sinful. With that being said, just because every human being knows he or she is sinful does not mean the entire human race needs to know of our sins; however, in “The Scarlet Letter” the reader learns the importance of his or her sin coming forth in ways they did not expect. The letter represents the ways our sins come forth in the world. Reverend Dimmesdale lives in constant fear of his letter being exposed for the entire world to see. Yet, Hester Prynne tries countless times to hide her letter from the world but cannot because her letter is pinned on the outside for the world to see and judge. In “The Scarlet Letter”, Hawthorne’s choice of characters and their sinful nature is a perfect example of human’s sinful nature and the ways we try to hide. Hawthorne chooses the character of Reverend Dimmesdale to represent the humans who are prideful, and “too perfect to sin”. In the religious community, the reverend is someone the citizens look up to; someone they want to follow and in their footsteps to mirror. After all, a reverend or outspoken religious leader should be someone who mirrors Christ’s image on a consistent basis. With that being said, hypocrisy plays a major role is Dimmesdale’s sins. He realizes he is being watched by the citizens and takes pride in knowing the town is looking to him for religious advice or encouragement; however, Dimmesdale’s sin could never be found...
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...In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne explored the superficially-Christian ideals of Boston's Puritan society by revealing the sins committed by many individuals in the community. In this novel, Hester Prynne was an obvious sinner, forced by the community to forever harbor the scarlet letter on her chest as a reminder of her sin. Roger Chillingworth could also be considered a sinner for lying about his identity and mentally torturing his patient, Arthur Dimmesdale. However, one would be surprised to find that the worst sinner in this novel was one of the most pious men in the community. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale was the most sinful in this novel, because he committed adultery with Hester, lived a hypocritical life, and doubted God's ability...
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...The impossible became possible in The Scarlet Letter, a story set back in the Puritan Times. In this response, I will give my reactions in writing to different aspects of the novel;the characchters, my likes and dislikes, my questions, and my opinion of the harsh Puritain lifestyle. Hester Prynne, the Reverend Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth each suffered guilt in their own way in the novel The Scarlet Letter. In the beginning of the novel, Hester Prynne should have not suffered the way she did on the scaffold alone. She was forced to be intergated by the high-officials of the town, while holding her little Pearl in arms. Making matters worse, the father of the child was in that very group of officals. She was then sentenced to wear the scarlet letter "A", showing her guilt "externally". Unable to take it off, she was forced to show her guilt to the entire settlement. However, the Reverend Dimmesdale suffered "internally", with a scarlet letter of his own engraved in his mind, and on his chest as well. He felt like he betrayed God, and beat himself in a frenzy to prove his wrongdoing. He often questioned wheather his authority was true or not. Roger Chillingworth suffered the least, because he only failed to reveal the secret that he knew, the father of the child who Hester Prynne was forced to live with. This small restriction to his life forced him to suffer "internally". I had different likes and dislikes in the novel The Scarlet Letter. There were many things that needed...
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...Dimmesdale vs. John Proctor Heroes are often thought as the superior and perfect people in society. However, The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible illustrates that everyone, including sinners, can be a hero in certain situations. The Scarlet Letter, a book about the consequence and change of identity after committing adultery between the main characters, Hester and Dimmesdale, has many similarities with The Crucible, a story about an unfair witch-hunt in Salem, Massachusetts. In the two books, Dimmesdale and John Proctor are depicted as heroes despite their critical flaws in their lives. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Arthur Miller, the authors of The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible, portray contrasting symbolism such as hypocrisy and justice through similar but different characters: Reverend Dimmesdale and John Proctor. Identified as an adulterer in the story, Dimmesdale’s hypocrisy is clearly shown through the context. The story starts off with the punishment of Hester for her sin, adultery that she had committed with Dimmesdale. As Hester does not blurt the name of the child’s father when questioned about the crime, Dimmesdale as a Reverend, the holy man, speaks up. He states, “though [the man that has sinned] were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart.” (Hawthorne 58). He continues that the “silence” of Hester is just “[adding] hypocrisy to sin.” (Hawthorne 58). Ironically, his statements...
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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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...Although A Lesson Before Dying and The Scarlet Letter were written in different time periods, the concept of women, community (did somebody say?), hypocrisy, symbolism, and man’s dehumanization and cruelty to man are similar many ways, In our first novel, A Lesson Before Dying written by Ernest J. Gaines, we meet our main character named Grant Wiggins. Wiggins is a young black man that “ran away” from Louisiana to go to college. Although he wished to “stay away”, Wiggins was pulled back to his small religious Cajun community. Grant Wiggins is seen as a man who has a “way with words” similar to a man like Reverend Dimmesdale. Although Wiggins is not religious like the prestigious Dimmesdale, their pessimistic look on life and “finding a way out” is similar. Wiggins wonders in Chapter Eight if he is “reaching them (school children) at all.” or if he’s “doing anything at all” (Gaines 62). Reverend Dimmesdale has a predicament of his own during his time in his labyrinthine mind. In Chapter Fourteen of The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Dimmesdale states, rather grimly, that “There is no path to guide us out of this dismal...
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...Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale wage a constant mental and physical battle throughout the Scarlet Letter. Chillingworth, a man of noble purpose and strong dispositions, falls further and further into his obsession of revenge. While at the same time, Dimmesdale, a respected reverend, suffers mentally and physically from his affair with Hester Prynne. As we progress through the novel, a question materializes: who deserves the blame for Hester Prynne’s affair, Chillingworth, Dimmesdale, or Hester Prynne herself? All three main characters believe they hold some sort of responsibility for the affair between Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale. Ultimately, Hester Prynne wrongs both Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale. Mrs. Prynne’s sin led to Roger Chillingworth’s and Arthur Dimmesdale’s demise both mentally and physically. Arthur Dimmesdale, a religious man respected by the community, ironically has an affair with Hester Prynne. Dimmesdale understands the sin he commits. He realizes all too well that he must confess publicly, but he cannot bring himself to do so. Instead, he begs Hester to announce what he has done: Be not silent from any mistaken pity and tenderness for him; for, believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee on thy pedestal of shame, yet better were it so, than to hide a guilty heart through life. What can thy silence do for him, except tempt him…(64). Dimmesdale feels nothing but shame for falling...
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...The Scarlet Letter, is far more complex than some simple morality tale about Hester Prynne's public shaming at the hands of the Puritan community in 1640's Massachusetts Bay. One of the big topics in this book is guilt. In his novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the symbolism of the scarlet letter, the scaffold, and Dimmesdale. Hawthorne shows us that the scarlet 'A', (which Hester wears to single her out as an adulteress and sinner), is really just a token of her humanity. Because the truth is that we all have our secret sins. It is just that Hester's sin was caught, while most of the rest of us writhe beneath the guilt of secret shame. And it is this hidden guilt which eats Hester's lover, Reverend Dimmesdale, alive. Guilt and Redemption; Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale experience very different life trajectories after their affair. Hester's pregnancy with her much beloved daughter pearl is a direct coralarion with guilt for pearl was conceived with a man who wasn’t Hesters’ husband. Her husband has been missing and presumed dead for years. Poor Dimmesdale’ life started to “dim” at the very time and moment he saw pearl with Hester standing on the scaffold. It was his first time seeing her since pearl was concieved. But Hester's lover and Pearl's father,...
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...The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, its plot is developed around the characters of Hester Prynne, Pearl, Roger Chillingworth, and Arthur Dimmesdale. At the beginning of chapter IX: The Leech, takes place when Chillingworth was wondering on the outskirts of a crowd exactly on the day Hester was set up in front of the pillory. He did not want anyone to know who he was so placed his finger to his lip so Hester would not reveal his identity. Later, Chillingworth tells Hester he forgives her but makes her promise to not reveal who he is and swears he will find out Pearl’s real father. Chillingworth builds a new identity as a doctor in where he picks Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale as his spiritual guide and reveals great concern for his health but Mr. Dimmesdale seems to refuse Chillingworth offer of care. In Chapter XV: Hester and Pearl, Hester admits to herself that she hates her husband, it was all a self-delusion. Pearl’s curiosity about the letter A on her chest grows, and would not drop the subject regardless. Pearl is an intelligent child so she questions her mother about the connection between the scarlet letter and the minister’s hand always over his heart. However, Hester feels ashamed and refuses to answer Pearl’s suspicion since she thinks Pearl is too young to understand the situation. One of the evident relationships is between Roger Chillingworth and Reverend Dimmesdale. Chillingworth settles in a Puritan town under the disguise in helping Revered Mr. Dimmesdale with...
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...The Scarlet Letter: Dimmesdale’s Guilt In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale grows weaker, whilst dealing with the insufferable guilt brought on by his adulterous temptations. Dimmesdale’s sinful counterpart, Hester Prynne, faces her shame externally, while the reverend suffers from the inside. Dimmesdale, hypocritically, would rather be highly regarded by his peers than being truthful to himself, and in turn, God who would easily be able to see the transparent acts of hypocrisy that Dimmesdale tries to fool himself with by subconsciously convincing himself of its purity. Dimmesdale's guilt eats him from the inside out and eventually leads to his demise. Hawthorne sets the stage for Dimmesdale’s character in the first scaffold scene, where the reverend’s uncomfortable attitude condones suspicion. Dimmesdale anxiously watches Hester and Pearl on the scaffold from his balcony and is eventually asked to try to pry out the father’s name from Hester, which he hesitantly attempts and uses it as a coded message for Hester. Dimmesdale says to her I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer...believe me, Hester, though he were to step down from a high place, and stand there beside thee, on thy pedestal of...
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...Secrecy In The Scarlet Letter Hawthorne reveals that while guilt and secrecy will ultimately have a negative effect on your life, guilt and secrecy can also make you a better person for a short while. Dimmesdale is the reverend of the town, and he is also the man Hester had an affair with. While Dimmesdale forces himself to keep his affair a secret, “the health of Mr. Dimmesdale [has] evidently begun to fail” because the self-condemnation and guilt he is bestowing upon himself is eating him alive (Hawthorne 99). Dimmesdale’s health is failing to the self-condemnation he is bestowing upon himself. Hawthorne is trying to convey to the reader that they usually judge themselves more harshly than anyone else would probably judge them. However, the guilt and self-condemnation has also had a positive effect on Dimmesdale too. Because of the affair, Dimmesdale has become a better reverend in that he is “devot[ed] to study, … scrupulous[ly] fulfill[s] parochial duty, and … fasts” (99). Dimmesdale’s guilt has caused him to focus on his religion, for he feels that he can fix the sin he has committed if he focuses on being a good Christian. Because of his serious devotion to religion, many believed that they were “not worthy to be any longer trodden by his feet” (100). Dimmesdale’s secrecy and guilt has cause the town to love him even more as a reverend. They are able to connect with Dimmesdale because they feel like he can actually understand their sin. Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne...
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...LEssay: Imagine living in a world where all sins are viewed as equal, this is the society of the Puritans, where people received the same punishment for murder as they would for theft. In The Scarlet Letter, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is affected by the secret of his adultery with Hester Prynne, that he must keep hidden. This secrecy has affected Dimmesdale, from him having a mental break down and punishing himself to him constantly being weak and lethargic. Overall, The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, presents the negative impact of secrecy on the physical and spiritual state of the character Arthur Dimmesdale, who is forced by society to keep his secret hidden. Throughout The Scarlet Letter, the self punishment Dimmesdale performs is used to engrave into the audience the negative effect of secrecy. Dimmesdale has a constant inner turmoil between the fact that he really needs to reveal his secret...
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