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  • Difference Between The Puritans And Hester
    1,336 words
    Hester Prynne Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, a dark tale of sin and redemption, centers around the small Puritan community of Boston during the 17th century. In the midst of this small community is Hester Prynne. She is a woman that has defied the Puritans, taken the consequences and in the end conformed with the Puritans. It did, however, take great effort to settle down and become a women of honor again. Hester Prynne, through the eyes of the Puritans, is an extreme sinner. She has ...
  • Puritans Towards Hester's Letter
    700 words
    The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a tale set around the lives Puritan people, and how a women branded by them learns to live with their hypocrisy. The story strikes many points about Hester's inner struggles, her relationship with her daughter Pearl, and how to except herself, but one of the greater focuses does not lie within her, but with the Puritans themselves. What I speak of is how Hawthorne criticizes the Puritan people on their hypocrisy. Specifically, by use of the Scarlet L...
  • Scarlet Letter
    642 words
    Scarlet Letter - Punishment and Death Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter deals with many themes, among those including punishment and death. Utilizing the theme of punishment, the central character, Hester Prynne, was forced to wear an embroidered scarlet letter on "her bosom" for the rest of her life as a sign of her sin of adultery. This object; however, has the opposite affect as a punishment and as people of the community begin to forget the original significance of the letter it comes to bear a n...
  • Dimmesdale And Hester's Relationship And Conscience
    594 words
    Most novels usually have a main symbol, which teaches a character, or the reader, a very important lesson or moral. This is true in Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic The Scarlet Letter, where Hester Prynne's daughter Pearl serves as the most extensive living symbol in the entire novel. She is much more of a symbol than an actual character. Pearl symbolizes Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale's concealed love affair and plays a key character in The Scarlet Letter as well. Little Pearl, the so-called ...
  • Scarlet Token On Hester's Breast
    1,403 words
    The Scarlet Letter: The Symbol of the Scarlet Letter In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne's scarlet token liberates her more than it punishes her. First of all, Hester's soul is freed by her admission of her crime; by enduring her earthly punishment, Hester is assured of a place in the heavens. Also, though her appearance is much hampered by the scarlet letter, her mind is freed by it, that an intellectual passion rises from her isolation and suffering. Finally, it defines ...
  • Scarlet Letter A Way The Public
    607 words
    The Scarlet Letter, written in the 1800's by Anti-Transcendentalist Nathaniel Hawthorne, tells the story of Hester Prynne. Young Hester lived in New England, about the same time witch trials were still conducted, and she is found guilty of carrying a baby whose father she refuses to confess. The punishment for this crime is from then until the rest of her life, Hester had to bear a stitched 'A'; on her breast. This 'A'; carries the namesake of the book, The Scarlet Letter. Although thought to be...
  • Hester Prynne As An Adulteress
    800 words
    Symbolism is traditionally a sign or token of something. In the matter of literature, the definition of the literary device, symbolism, is more complicated. Symbols of literature are usually metaphysical. Themain symbol of The Scarlet Letter is the red 'A' that Hester Prynne was sentenced to wear on her chest. Nathaniel Hawthorne's intention was to make the meaning of the crimson token worn on the bosom of Hester Prynne is highly ambiguous. In this he was successful. Although the'A' means 'adult...
  • Hester's Hair
    463 words
    By: Anonymous Throughout The Scarlet Letter, the author Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many literal and figurative items to illustrate the significance of various characters or themes. Coupled with the tangible evidence given, the reader can make many miscellaneous assumptions of the importance of these items to directly and indirectly contribute to the issues of the novel. One cryptic item that symbolizes more than it seems to is the appearance of one of the main characters, Hester Prynne. Hester Pry...
  • Pearl The Appearance Of The Scarlet Letter
    472 words
    Symbolism is the practice of representing things by symbols. The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a book of much symbolism. Set in 16th century New England, the book starts with the public punishment of Hester Prynne, a convicted adulterer. One of the most complex and misunderstood symbols in the book is Hester's illegitimate daughter, Pearl. Throughout the story, she develops into a dynamic symbol - one that is always changing. Pearl represents her mother's punishment, a rose, and the...
  • Much Symbolism The Scarlet Letter
    585 words
    The Scarlet Letter: Much Symbolism The Scarlet Letter is a book of much symbolism. One of the most complex and misunderstood symbols in the book is Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne. Pearl, throughout the story, develops into a dynamic symbol - one that is always changing. In the following essay, I will explore some of the symbolism which Pearl came to represent throughout the novel. In The Scarlet Letter, Hester, for her sins, received a scarlet letter,' A' which she had to wear upon her che...
  • Burrs On Hester's Scarlet Letter And Hester
    797 words
    Throughout the novel The Scarlet Letter there are many symbols. One of the biggest symbols of the novel is the scarlet letter A that Hester Prynne is sentenced to wear after she commits adultery. It is a symbol that is sewn onto her clothes for everyone to see. It is a punishment that is meant to humiliate her for the duration of the time that she stays in Puritanical Boston. During the novel, the scarlet letter changes and evolves from meaning adultery to meaning ability and even physically cha...
  • Hester Prynne
    564 words
    Scarlet Letter: Who Should Punish A Sinner? Religion, Society, or Individuals Who should punish a sinner? Should it be religion, society, or the individual? In Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter all three affect the main character Hester Prynne. Religion punishes her with the Scarlet Letter, society ostracizes her as punishment, and individually she was able to move on in life but still returned to her haunting past where she died. Religion plays a big part in the Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne wore the ...
  • Hester Without The Scarlet Letter
    1,349 words
    Analysis of Character and Conflict: Change With nothing now to lose in the sight of mankind, and with no hope, and seemingly no wish, of gaining anything, it could only be a genuine regard for virtue that had brought back the poor wanderer to its paths. (153) With his precise diction Nathaniel Hawthorne displays an interesting conflict based on a disagreement between the protagonist, Hester Prynne, and the strict Puritan society around her in his novel The Scarlet Letter. This disagreement is br...
  • Scarlet Letter
    769 words
    In the Scarlet Letter, the author uses many different types of symbols. The different settings of the story are ways in which he describes his environment and how it has treated him as a child. One symbol he uses a lot was the scarlet letter. The scarlet letter takes on different meanings as the course of the story progresses. It also takes on various appearances and symbolism. In the Scarlet Letter, there are many different forms of the letter A, not only that, but the letter A also acquires a ...
  • Sin Of Reverend Dimmesdale
    454 words
    Scarlet Letter- Results of Sin By: Alan Eugene Sims, Jr. There are many ways to interpret literature. Nathaniel Hawthorne is considered a very influential writer of the American Transcendentalist era; his writing deals a lot with the Puritan times, including his famous novel, The Scarlet Letter. The Scarlet Letter deals with the adulterous sin of Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the vengeance of Roger Chillingsworth, and the townspeople's attitude towards Hester and her daughter Pea...
  • Dimmesdales Scarlet Letter On His Chest
    512 words
    The Letter and Human Frailty Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author of The Scarlet Letter, tells a tale of human frailty and sorrow through each and every character. When you first meet Hester Prynne, the main character, she seems quite innocent. Only guilty of not naming her lover. Yet she is treated like an evil demon by the Puritan community of the 1700's because she broke the seventh commandment The way they yelled at the very least, they should have put the brand of hot iron on Hester Prynne. (Haw...
  • Sin And Punishment Of Hester Prynn
    405 words
    Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter is centered on the sin and punishment of Hester Prynn, but Hester is a far more complex character than these black and white terms. The women of Boston gossip in the opening chapters of the book about Hester's crime, suggesting that she be branded or killed instead of having to wear a red A. In the opening of The Scarlet Letter, Hester Prynne is a mystery En Medius Res. We are only shown sketchy details of her life before the events of the book begin. In fact, what...
  • Hester's Rejection Of The Scarlet Letter
    1,099 words
    "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is an allegorical novel filled with a great deal of symbolism that is both veiled and explicit. The scarlet letter "A" on Hester Prynne's chest may seem easy to interpret, but in reality, it is one of the most ambiguous symbols in the book. Furthermore, various characters can construe the scarlet letter differently. As time passes throughout the story, it takes on multiple indications from an extremely deplorable offense to a fully contradictory view....
  • Symbol Of The Scarlet Letter
    834 words
    What price should a person have to pay for a mistake, or sin? In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, the cost paid by Hester Prynne is very high and very public. The consequences of her actions and choices were widely felt, because they affected many people. Hester's relationships with society, with her daughter Pearl, and with her lover Arthur Dimmesdale were forever changed by the scarlet letter embroidered "A" she wore upon her chest. In that way, the letter served its ultimate pu...
  • Roles Of The Towns People And Hester
    1,432 words
    ThereHester's Letter Hester's Letter There are numerous characters in The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, that play noteworthy roles. The character that stands out the most is Hester Prynne. Hester changes significantly during the course of the novel. In the beginning of the novel she is conceived as an extreme sinner through the eyes of the Puritans; she has gone against Puritan ways, committing adultery (Chuck). For this irrevocably harsh sin, she must wear a symbol of shame for the re...

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