Pearl Stay With Hester example essay topic

The Scarlet Letter By: Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter has four main characters, Hester Prynne, the woman accused of Adultery, Roger Chillingworth, Hester's husband from Amsterdam. They are still married and no one knows that they are. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the man who Hester committed the crime with, and Pearl. The story takes place in Boston, where Hester is accused of adultery and has to wear the letter A on her chest. Hester receives her punishment on a Scaffold. The Reverend Dimmesdale asked Hester who the other person was that helped her commit the act of adultery with her.

Hester doesn't reply. As Hester is on the Scaffold, she is holding her child, Pearl. After a while they leave Hester on the Scaffold in the hot sun for more than one hour as part of her punishment. Then they took her to jail where she stayed for more than a year. While Hester and Pearl are there, Chillingworth comes into the picture and pretends that he is a doctor and goes to take care of the women and the child. There, Hester and Chillingworth talk about what happened, and asks her who is the father of this child?

Hester would not tell the identity of Pearl's father. When Hester doesn't say, Chillingworth makes her promise that she will not tell that he is her long last husband. Hester says yes, but Chillingworth tells Hester that he will stay and he will find out the name of Pearl's father. Then he leaves Hester and Pearl.

One year later, Hester was released from jail. Hester cannot live in town because of what happened, the town people think that Hester is evil. They don't want her there; they use Hester as an example of what happens when a person commits a sin in the Puritan life. So now Hester lives in the country where she makes cloths in order to make a living for herself. She shows off the wonderful clothing for Pearl. Pearl, at the moment, is the only friend Hester has.

Later in the story, Hester goes to take a pair of gloves, which she made, to the governor. She sees the governor outside of the house; he is with Mr. Wilson, Arthur Dimmesdale, and old Roger Chillingworth. When they see her and Pearl, Pearl starts to act up. They walk up to them and say that they are going to take Pearl away from Hester, and make her go to church every morning. Hester refuses to let them take Pearl away from her. She pleads with them not to and she asks for Dimmesdale's help, because he is the reverend and he knows Hester wants the best for Pearl.

So they let Pearl stay with Hester. As Hester and Pearl are leaving, Mistress Hibbing comes out from a window and asks if she will see Hester there in the woods. Hester replied by saying, "no", but if they had taken Pearl away from her, she would gladly go with her. Dimmesdale is then getting sicker because of the sin he has committed and Chillingworth is slowly killing him. After Hester sees Dimmesdale walking, he can barely walk now because of the fact that he is dying, Hester goes to see Chillingworth and tells him that she is going to tell Dimmesdale the truth about him.

By this time Chillingworth has found out he is Pearl's father. So Hester and Pearl go to the edge of the woods and wait for Dimmesdale to be walking by. Dimmesdale finally shows up. When Hester sees that Dimmesdale is very sick she tells him right away.

Dimmesdale is mad at first because Hester didn't tell him sooner. Then they started to talk about leaving Boston and going to Europe. There they have better hospitals that can take care of Dimmesdale. Hester tells Dimmesdale that Pearl is starting to look like her father. Dimmesdale is worried about that because he is her father. Pearl asks Hester why Dimmesdale holds his heart and if it's the same reason why Hester wears the letter A on her chest.

Even later within the story, Dimmesdale decides to tell everyone that he is Pearl's father and that he committed the sin with Hester. Dimmesdale does this after church is over. He goes up there with Hester and Pearl, and tells all the town people that he has committed a sin. He tells them that he is the father of Pearl.

Then Chillingworth goes and gets mad at Dimmesdale and the Dimmesdale tells everyone that Chillingworth is Hester's husband. Chillingworth dies after the Scaffold is decided and Dimmesdale dies one year later. Hester and Pearl end up staying in Boston. This was an extremely well written story. It gave a great example of what will happen when you commit a sin in the Puritan life. Life today is much more relaxed on the subject of Adultery, and this book shows how harsh the laws were.

I think The Scarlet Letter is well written and a part of history. I like the plot about a young woman drawn between two men. One that she once loved and the one that she loves now. If this book, I feel, was read by many in our society now, maybe some of them will stop and more families would stay together.