...Good vs. Evil The Scarlet Letter was a different book that I was used to reading. Even though the book was boring, I learned that no matter how long you try to hide the truth it will always come back to haunt you. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses the symbols of light and dark to depict good and evil among the characters Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Hawthorne uses sunshine to represent both light and dark for Hester. At one time Hester suddenly takes her letter off, “All at once, with a sudden smile of heaven, forth burst sunshine” (Hawthorne 186). When Hester took the letter off her bosom, the sunshine shown down on her. When her letter is on her bosom, “The sunshine does not touch her” (Hawthorne 168). Hester is in the woods with Pearl and the sunshine shows on Pearl but not herself. Pearl says the sunshine is scared of something on her bosom. Sunshine is used to show both sides of Hester, her sinful side and pure side....
Words: 458 - Pages: 2
...Good vs. Evil Symbols In The Scarlet Letter, the story is created by the sin of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale while Roger Chillingworth seeks for revenge of the adulterer. These three main characters will be highlighted in this essay. Throughout the novel, Hawthorne uses the symbols of light and dark to depict good and evil among the characters Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Hawthorne explains both Hester’s light and dark sides with sunshine. It was stated that, “she made a halo of the misfortune and ignominy in which she was enveloped” (Hawthorne 51). Nathaniel Hawthorne is telling us she made the best out of the punishment she had to go through. Hester brought light to all the darkness that she dealt with. Hawthorne said that Hester coming out of the jail was “like a black shadow emerging into sunshine” (49). Hester looked like a shadow with the sin she had committed. People did not recognize Hester when she had come out of the prison. Hester is described by the author with sunshine for her dark and light sides....
Words: 443 - Pages: 2
...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...
Words: 4546 - Pages: 19
...Symbols in the Scarlet Letter Colors can represent many things; for example it can represent the emotions someone is feeling or to describe something or to simply determine whether a food is going to be eaten. Another example would be a funeral; everyone knows that it’s appropriate to wear black because it’s a time to mourn and sorrow for a lost loved one, but if someone were to wear black to a wedding it would portray to be inappropriate because weddings are created to be a time full of joy and new beginnings. Colors are used in present day to represent things, yet they were just as useful hundreds of years ago, for instance; the 1600’s. In the 1600’s, the Puritan society represented a community that was gloomy and dark while also being full of strict rules and “perfect” people who did not sin. In The Scarlet Letter written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, he uses the main character, Hester Prynne, as a representation of the Puritan society by using symbolism in two ways: the scarlet letter itself and the forest. To begin with, Hester Prynne was accused of adultery while her husband was gone from Massachusetts, her home town. Because of this accusation, she was forced to pin a bright red scarlet letter on her chest. This scarlet letter stood out in front of people’s eyes whenever she was around. Now as a Puritan, it was forbidden to sin. They believed that sinners were working with the devil to finish any undone business he had left. It was a rule with the Puritans to have an...
Words: 1006 - Pages: 5
...Regis Hicks ENG 2223 JKYA March 29, 2015 Instructor: Mrs. Wiley Scarlet Letter Essay Some may think evil comes just from the devil and his accomplices. But in actuality, evil lives throughout mankind also. There are several points in “The Scarlet Letter” that reveal the nature of evil: Chillingworth “forcing” Hester to become his wife, Pearl being named a devil child, and Dimmesdale’s denial of Pearl. Chillingworth forced Hester to marry him and took away her youth. “Mine was the first wrong, when I betrayed thy budding youth into a false and unnatural relation with my decay.” (Ch.4) This may be the reason Hester committed the sin she did. While Chillingworth was away, Hester committed adultery with a man she was not to reveal until later on in the novel. It was also said that Chillingworth sent Hester to New England while he remained in Europe. Although Hester did not know if Chillingworth was alive or dead after being captured by Native Americans, when she first saw Chillingworth when he arrived in New England, she did not seem very excited to see him. This looks to be another reason why it is to be believed that Hester was forced to marry Chillingworth. She may not have been happy throughout the entire marriage. She seeks Dimmesdale for the happiness she never received. After the town discovered that Dimmesdale was the man Hester committed adultery with, the Puritans all began to look at Pearl differently. They began calling her the Devil’s Child. None of the children...
Words: 459 - Pages: 2
...FINAL WORD TRACK ANALYSIS- THE BLACK MAN In The scarlet letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne has used “Black Man “to signify evil and darkness. The Scarlet letter is based on the sins of the puritan society. The word “Black Man” refers to the “Satan” who is the devil. Many religions believe it to be an incarnation of God in a human or animal. Puritans and Christians believed it to be a devil dressed in black, who haunts the forest and tempts people into signing their name in his book with their own blood as ink. The word “Black Man” is used for the first time by Hester Prynne in chapter 4 while conversing with Roger Chillingworth. She says “art thou like the Black man that haunts the forest round about us? Hast thou enticed me into a bond that will prove the ruin of my soul?” .Hester Prynne doesn’t trusts Roger Chillingworth and believes he is trying to take his revenge. Roger Chillingworth has asked Hester to keep his identity a secret. Hester Prynne knows something will be wrong because of this bond but still she makes the deal because she has no choice. This is said in chapter 14 in another conversation between Hester and Roger. The bond here is referred to the Black man’s bond where Roger Chillingworth has been compared to the Black man and has made a deal with Hester. The word Black man is used once again by Mistress Hibbins in chapter 8. Mistress Hibbins has been suspected of being a witch. She says, “There will be a...
Words: 782 - Pages: 4
...violent and rude She is a living scarlet letter She is a wild rose-bush on the prison hall: an evil flower on the prison wall(1.a sin-born infant 2.the emblem of Hester’s guilt and torture 3.the source of Dimmesdale’s agony She is an innocent bush(1.a savor of Hester’s sin 2.a savor for Dimmesdale) Herman Melville title the largest brain and the greatest symbolism D.H. Lawrence Pearl the most modern child in all literature A devilish girl-child tender loving understanding give you a hit a grin of sheer diabolic jeering She is really a combination of good and evil. 2. 一朵野玫瑰 珠儿重要性分析 霍桑和红字：霍桑 红字 On page 81 and 82 Hawthorne describes her beauty very clearly. Pearl is vividly described by Hawthorn in page 81 as the infant whose guiltless life was the product of inscrutable decree of providence. On page 168 hawthorn talks about the light that happily lingers about the child that is lonely as if it is glad to have found such a loving playing mate. We are also told that the sunshine accepts pearl as an equal. The great forest also becomes the playmate of this lonely child. The natural things become her only friends and this in the end makes this child a very weird child. A good example is where Hester tells Dimmesdale that she hardly understands this child but she will love her to the end nevertheless. She goes on and states that sometimes she is afraid of little Pearl. her affinity1 withThe Scarlet Letteris stressed. She is its symbol...
Words: 553 - Pages: 3
...The Scarlet Letter offers an extraordinary insight into the norms and behavior of the 17th century if American Puritan society. The basic conflicts and problems of its main characters, however, are familiar to readers in the present. The female protagonist, has borne a child out of wedlock and has been jailed for over three months and sentenced to wear a symbol of her adultery, a scarlet “A” on her dress at all times. It concerns about the moral, emotional and psychological effect of the sin on people in general. It’s not simply a love story or a story of sin. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the scarlet letters to symbolize the harshness of Puritan society, showing how they brand sinners for life. The story happened in Boston about 200 years ago. It narrates love affairs between three persons. The punished woman. Hester Prynne and his husband. Who called himself Roger Chillingworth . He...
Words: 598 - Pages: 3
...In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne employs the theme of vengeance to strengthen the idea of Roger’s search for revenge. Roger becomes a symbol of the devil throughout the story because he becomes obsessed with the idea of getting back at Dimmesdale that he does not care if he hurts or even kills him. The sin that Hester and Dimmesdale committed betrayed Roger in the worst way possible. Roger begins to want to betray them the way he was. The search for revenge begins with Roger wanting to feel complete with himself and not allow Hester and Dimmesdale to feel content with each other. Roger’s search for revenge on Dimmesdale for the amount of betrayal he felt by the sin caused him to become a devil-like symbol in the novel, therefore he...
Words: 1031 - Pages: 5
...In the book The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne uses many symbols throughout the book that help give a contrast to the outside world. One of the symbols that he uses is the woods that represent a place of evil but also privacy. When Hester enters into the woods with Pearl, Pearl mentions a story about a Black Man who “ haunts the forest and carries a book with him... this ugly Black Man offers this book and an iron pen to everybody that meets him here among the trees; and they are to write their names with their own blood” (p. 161). When hearing this quote, it sounds as if the devil is living in the woods and that is the man that Pearl is talking about. Whenever people think about the devil their minds immediately go to thinking...
Words: 370 - Pages: 2
...The Role of Sin in The Scarlet Letter Sin is something society has had to deal with since mankind has known evil. In most circumstances, the sin only becomes a problem when it is kept within and develops itself into something larger than it was in the first place. Keeping secrets is an impairment to one’s life, which in a larger picture affects a whole society. In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, “secret sin” is a predominant theme, which in this novel leads to changes in both emotional and physical being. In the early days of the Massachusetts colony, they are neither welcoming nor accepting of sin or different ideas and are suspicious of anything that may topple their perfect settlement. Evil should never be kept secret because it always leaves a deep mark. Hester Prynne hides a substantial amount of sin inside of herself, which only adds to sins that have been made an issue of public interest. Committing adultery is Hester’s sin, and all her secret sins are results of this one. Pearl’s father’s sin, which is closely related to Hester’s sin of adultery, is the reason Pearl is alive. She refuses to tell even under extreme pressure, “I will not speak! And my child must seek a heavenly Father; she shall never know an earthly one.” (Hawthorne 47). We later learn that the father is Arthur Dimmesdale, and this lack of communication cause a barrier between them. Her refusal consequently denies any hope of reconciliation between the two for an extensive period. Hester...
Words: 967 - Pages: 4
...The Scarlet Letter “He had been driven hither by the impulse of that Remorse which dogged him everywhere, and whose own sister and closely linked companion was that Cowardice which invariably drew him back, with her tremulous gripe, just when the other impulse had hurried him to the verge of a disclosure” (Hawthorne 134). Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale constantly battles between these two emotions throughout Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. In the story, Dimmesdale struggles to manage the sin of adultery in his life, as the evil Roger Chillingworth, husband of Hester Prynne, impresses upon him. Hester must also deal with this sin, through the exhibition of a scarlet “A” on her bosom, as she struggles to raise Pearl, the child that she conceived through her sin with Dimmesdale. Both Dimmesdale and Hester struggle to be rid of the darkness that plagues their worlds, and their inmost beings. Hawthorne skillfully develops the theme of light versus dark in The Scarlet Letter. In each of the scaffold scenes, Hawthorne uses either light or darkness, not only to expose truth, but also to conceal it. In the first scaffold scene, which takes place in the daytime, “[Hester] took the baby on her arm, and, with a burning blush, and yet a haughty smile, and a glance that would not be abashed, looked around at her townspeople and neighbours. On the breast of her gown, in fine red cloth, surrounded with an elaborate embroidery and fantastic flourishes of gold thread, appeared the...
Words: 1279 - Pages: 6
...The Scarlet Letter Critical Reading Journal This novel is written in Historical context and is under the genre of fiction. It is written by Nathaniel Hawthorne and was published in 1896. It is intended for an audience of readers who are quick to critique a person for a mistake they have made, and consider it “unforgiveable”, or grand enough of a cause to consider them an outcast, when in reality the people they look up to the most can be guilty of mistakes as severe as theirs. The message the story conveys is that when people are disapproving and judgmental of a person right away, they can easily influence others to join them in their criticism and they become ignorant to consider how their actions and words might affect their victim. At an early point, the neglect and feelings of shame Hester Prynne received from the town caused her to go as far as wanting to end her own life, had it not been for her baby being the only thing stopping her from doing so. For all of her life Hester is rejected and looked upon as an example of sin and temptation to evil by ministers and society for her commitment of adultery. The scarlet letter she has to wear as a part of the Puritan government’s punishment comes to be a part of her that she never removes, and even when she can remove it she continues to wear it because the guilt she holds within makes her feel that she should live that way for the rest of her life for what she did. After a while, a previous beautiful Hester Prynne becomes a...
Words: 1333 - Pages: 6
...In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses rhetorical devices in a unique manner to add depth to the story plot that goes much deeper than an adulterer and her consequences. The use of these devices is what makes the novel worth reading. In the novel, irony aimed at the puritan actions which Hawthorne had strong opinions about. Also, the symbol of the scarlet letter plays a key role throughout the novel which surprisingly is transformed into something new. Lastly, out of many devices, another device used is diction. Hawthorne cleverly chooses specific words and phrases to lock in the reader to look deeper into what he is really trying to convey. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston, religion has a very strong influence over the community and society in which Hawthorne uses irony to project the...
Words: 902 - Pages: 4
...In the scarlet letter, Pearl is the scarlet letter in flesh and blood. Pearl is the being that makes Hester’s sin known. In the beginning of the novel, Hawthorne foreshadows Pearl’s symbolism of the scarlet letter when “but that first object of which Pearl seemed to become aware was--shall we say it?--the scarlet letter on Hester's bosom” (Hawthorne ). Pearls fascination and fixation with the scarlet letter is repeated numerous other times in the novel, including when pearl makes her own scarlet letter out of seaweed (Hawthorne 174) and when she points out the scarlet letter on a suit of armour in the Governor's mansion (Hawthorne ). Pearl's name itself was given to her by Hester as a reminder of her sin: “But she named the infant ‘Pearl’ as...
Words: 554 - Pages: 3
