...Essay 1 Arthur Dimmesdale was a leader and pillar in the Boston community but he concealed a major sin from his congregation. Dimmesdale was the father of Pearl, meaning that he had an extramarital relationship with Hester Prynne. Hiding his affair from his church caused Dimmesdale massive amounts of guilt and internal suffering. He was emotionally tortured and driven to the verge of insanity to preserve his place in society. When Hester Prynne was publicly shamed in chapters one and two the entire town found out about her sin. Dimmesdale was extremely guilty that Hester went through the humiliation alone. He wanted Boston to know his part in the affair but also did not want his parish to reject his teachings. Reverend Dimmesdale was...
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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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...Jennifer Cifuentes Scarlet Letter Essay April 3, 2014 Coach Roberts Chillingworth’s Revenge in The Scarlet Letter Admittedly, some people have a twisted vision of justice and evil. The scarlet letter is a historical fiction romance novel written by Nathaniel Hawthorne that gives a great example of this. This story takes place in the late 1640s in Boston, Massachusetts. In this particular society of puritans there seems to be no room for error. Hester Prynne is the main character whom commits adultery with the Reverend Mr. Arthur Dimmesdale and is forced to wear a scarlet letter upon her bosom. As a result of this sin, a child was born whom Hester named Pearl. When the rest of the town found out, Hester was forced to stand on the scaffold which was right in the middle of the town. She would stand holding little Pearl as everyone crowed around her to ridicule. That was when Hester’s husband who was missing for two years shows up and sees his wife has been unfaithful. At this point, no one knows who the father of Pearl is and Hester refuses to speak his name. Her husband is filled with hurt and anger that his wife would betray him this way. He then makes the decision to seek justice for himself. He takes on the alias of ‘Roger Chillingworth’ and takes the role as the town’s physician. He starts to torture Hester and Dimmesdale, confusing justice with revenge, and becomes evil. These things can really take a person’s life over. In this novel, Roger Chillingworth starts seeking...
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...occurs in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a book about a Puritan reaction to adultery. In the novel, the adultery of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale causes Roger Chillingworth, who is the betrayed husband, to react negatively to the events outside of his control, showing that Chillingworth has been removed from his role as the important male figure in his marriage to Hester. Dimmesdale, who is the minister, removes Roger from his legal role as a dominant male figure in Hester’s life by first sleeping with Hester and, later, by continuing the relationship despite Chillingworth’s disapproval. The two culprits of the adultery are Hester Prynne, the unfaithful wife, and Arthur Dimmesdale, the Puritan minister of the community. Hester and Roger are married, but that does not mean that they are in love. They are together because it is against the Puritan lifestyle for a man to go unmarried, so Roger takes Hester to be his wife. Since the women of this time have little say in what happened, Hester and Roger marry. Arthur is the man that Hester is in love with, and she shows the proof of that fact through their adultery and having Pearl Prynne. They are so in love, they want to move back to England to be together: “It begins for Dimmesdale during the forest interview when he pledges with Hester that the two would leave Boston and thereby live for “self” (Davidson 368). Not only do they want to live together, but they also want Pearl with them. Dimmesdale tries to influence...
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...humiliated, or feeling guilty for an action that you did, or completing a conquest for oneself? Well, the scaffold scenes are some of the most important scenes that occur in The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. These scenes provide insight as to how much of a significant factor the scaffold was in Puritan society. In puritan society, the scaffold was used as a symbol for one’s sin. In The Scarlet Letter, there are three different scenes that occur at the scaffold at different times during the book. All of the book's main characters are present in each of these scenes; Hester Prynne, Pearl, Arthur Dimmesdale, as well as Roger Chillingworth. Along with these characters being present, so is the novel's primary symbol, the scarlet letter. In The Scarlet Letter, even though the scarlet letter was the main symbol, the scaffold portrays...
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...Lindblade Mrs. Byrne English 11 Honors 1 November 2013 Role of Secret Sin in The Scarlet Letter In many of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novels, secret sin plays a large role throughout the stories. Hawthorne’s novel “The Scarlet Letter”, contains the theme of secret sin which plays a very important role in the story of the novel. Secret sin in the novel “The Scarlet Letter” plays an important role because it both physically and emotionally damages the characters throughout the story. The character of Roger Chillingworth undergoes a very drastic emotional and physical change throughout the novel due to secret sin. In the beginning of the novel, Hester goes up to the scaffold since she is punished to public humiliation for committing the crime of adultery. Her husband, Roger Chillingworth, comes to the town to see that his wife has cheated on him with another man and now bears a child that is not his. The result of Hester’s partner’s secret sin on Chillingworth changes his inner and outer emotions immediately. Hawthorne writes “ A writing horror twisted itself across his features, like a snake gliding swiftly over them, and making one little pause, with all its wreathed intervolutions in open sight. His face darkened with some powerful emotion” (Hawthorne 45). By using very descriptive imagery and similes, Hawthorne showed that the secret sin was starting to change Roger’s inner and outer emotions. Before Roger saw Hester he was a normal person but once he saw her he started to change...
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...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 also...
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...concept of feminism has always been around throughout the course of human history. Indeed, in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, the protagonist attempts to subvert the patriarchal society within which she resides. Hawthorne positions Hester Prynne as a proto-feminist, standing for women and their rights in a time where women were looked down upon. To begin, Hawthorne describes the prison and the scene around the scaffold in the center of town. Hester had been imprisoned for having adulterous relations with her Reverend, Arthur Dimmesdale, which led to the creation of a child, Hester's daughter Pearl. The town is waiting to see Hester and watch her as she stands on the scaffold for three hours while the town looks upon her, wearing a scarlet 'A' on her bosom as her punishment. The women of the town discuss the harsher punishments they would have given her, proclaiming that "this woman has brought shame upon us all" and declaring she "ought to die" (Hawthorne 49).When Hester exits the prison and a town beadle offers her help, "she repelled him, by an action marked with natural dignity and own free-will" (49). From the moment she steps out of the prison, Hester displays a free will and determination that will become a large part of her life. Despite the women's hostility towards Hester and the "heavy weight of a thousand unrelenting eyes," (53) Hester stands tall and strong on the scaffold. Her eyes gaze over the town members, and towards the back she notices one person:...
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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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...Chillingworth’s revenge in The Scarlet Letter develops into a lifelong obsession. He tells Hester Prynne that whoever the father is will be punished just as bad as she was. The reader can foreshadow that Chillingworth is greatly affected because of Hester’s sin and is becoming evil. Chillingworth easily could have exposed Hester’s secret but it didn’t give him the same pleasure as torturing Dimmesdale. He was happy to see Dimmesdale suffer. Instead of being DImmesdale’s doctor, Chillingworth makes him worse by using psychological techniques to mess with his mind. Chillingworth becomes destroyed by revenge. Not only is he destroyed but his appearance drastically changes. Chillingworth turns evil and transforms into a devilish looking figure....
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...noble qualities. The novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne centers on the story of a heroine by the name of Hester Prynne. The novel is set in New England, where Hester resides in a strict Puritan community. From the beginning one learns that Hester is condemned to public humiliation for her crime of adultery. All through the novel Hester deals with the pressures from her community, from motherhood and from the men in her life as she attempts to redeem her freedom. Hester Prynne accepts the consequences of her actions by transcending the harsh criticism and shame from the Puritan community; therefore, she proves to be a pertinent heroine...
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...The Scarlet Letter By Nathaniel Hawthorne “The Scarlet Letter” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a historic novel that shows how symbolism plays a role not only in a novel, but in life itself. The Scarlet Letter begins in the seventeenth century in Boston, Massachusetts during the time of the Puritan settlement. The Scarlet Letter tells the life story of Hester Prynne who is a loving and passionate woman, but however gets mistreated because she sin. Although, Hester faces criticism and judgment throughout her community she decides to stay, deal with the hatred, and the feeling of being alone for the rest of her life. The scarlet letter takes place in the seventeenth century during the puritan settlement in Boston. Hester Prynne and her...
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...The Scarlet Letter, the protagonists in each book face harsh conditions in their life. These difficulties arise from their community and their marital life. In times of trouble, these characters sought refuge from the cruel treatment of both their communities and their husbands. But both characters had different forms of refuge. Hester shut herself off from the community of Boston, while Celie confided in her close female companions to help pilot her life. These perspectives of refuge reap different results. The characters of Hester Prynne and Celie share similarities in their marital life, both character’s husbands are cruel and heartless people. But, the characters differ in social...
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...Chillingworth prevents Hester and Mr. Dimmesdale from escaping together. Chillingworth prevents Dimmesdale from getting away without public shame. If Mr. Dimmesdale could just leave, he never would have to truly confront the full extent of his sin, not just the adultery, but also his failure to take responsibility for his actions. Chillingworth now despises Hester, despite any early idea of returning to her in marriage. It may be more accurate, however, to call this hate a form of self-loathing. The initial mistake, marrying a woman who did not love him, is finally reaching its way back around to him. It is, of course, the supposed witch who can see the truth. In this case, Mistress Hibbins claims she already knows the extent of Hester and Dimmesdale's crimes. In the forest, it seems, there is no need for confession, because people live with their actions and take responsibility for them, whereas in town, there are rules and therefore sins, with so much fear and shame attached to sin that people deny the sins in the hopes of preserving their appearances among others. Hester's location, directly next to the scaffold, is the strongest indicator that the climactic revelations will occur in this hallowed place where sins are...
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...In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Arthur Dimmesdale is a weak individual. Dimmesdale expresses how he is selfish, co-dependent, and a coward. Throughout the course of the novel Dimmesdale conveys his struggles and emotions, portraying Dimmesdale as a weak individual. Arthur Dimmesdale demonstrates varies emotions and symbols throughout the novel, but the character himself is selfish. His emotions toward the community and towards Hester are so diverse and two-faced allowing him to not recognize the real situation. All of his actions are for the benefit of himself, not caring about the repercussions it has for anyone,...
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