SETTING The Scarlet Letter is set in the seventeenth century, puritanical, New England colony of Massachusetts. The complete action is set in the town of Boston with the scenes shifting within it. The crucial scaffold scenes ... and openly accepts Hester and Pearl, who have long suffered in silence. Ironically, Hester is "freed" by the confession, no longing bearing the Scarlet Letter alone. But Dimmesdale is also freed; although he dies after the confession, he is finally freed from the guilt of unconfessed, hidden sin and ... reflecting her inner character and strength. Dimmesdale, in co...

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... . Both of them lead joyless lives. Dimmesdale, however, suffers much more intensely than Hester. Hester is made to publicly acknowledge her sin. A scarlet letter "A" is permanently placed on her dress to symbolize her adultery, and she is made to stand on the scaffold with her baby for several hours ... and kindnesses for other people. Even though her life is difficult and drab, Hester, through her own doing, rises about the scarlet letter "A" on her chest. In complete contrast to Hester, Dimmesdale does not publicly confess his sin, and it eats away at him bit by bit. His health begins ...

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... the excessively devout town in which the setting takes place. The conflict in The Scarlet Letter that occurs between Dimmesdale, Hester, and Chillingworth is caused by the townintolerance for sinners. Hesterlife is spent in complete loneliness because of the way the town treats her. Chillingworth, Hesterpast husband, is ... mainly accuses the people of being witches. Also, both works of literature include ignorant townspeople who contribute to the main conflict. In The Scarlet Letter, these people are the ones who loathe Hester, but love Reverend Dimmesdale. The people in Reverend Parri...

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... also an example of symbolism. Her name means she came of great cost; all Hester had. Pearl is the living image of the Scarlet Letter and, like the letter on Hester's bosom, causes her much pain and embarrassment by breaking nearly all moral codes of this Puritan community. Pearl's role was ... climbed the scaffold with Hester and Pearl before all Salem to confess his sin. At this moment, Pearl's role is complete. A final example of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter is the behavior of the sunshine. The sunshine is meant to represent purity or innocence. At one point in the novel ... to the...

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... Puritans inquisitorially quested personal godliness and doctrinal correctness in addition to believing in absolute sovereignty of God, the total depravity of man, and the complete dependence of human beings on depravity of man, and the complete dependence of human beings on divine grace for salvation. They stressed the importance of personal religious experience (Williams 12). But this some what "impeccably ... strayed from typical Romantic writings with their darker tales concerning sin and morality (www.trackstar.com). The following pages will examine the way sin affected the Puritan C...

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... book and the symbols used to represent them. Hester Prynne, the town's seamstress, committed adultery and for her punishment she has to wear the scarlet letter. The "A" stands for her sin, but as the people come to know her over the years, they think of the "A" as her being ... a connection between Hester and Dimmesdale, and she believes that it has to do with the scarlet letter. At the end of the story, when Dimmesdale lets everyone know that he is the father of Pearl, then she becomes complete. Dimmesdale, the town's minister, looks up in the sky and sees a red "A" ... formed by a met...

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... books seem to depict this standard of living in two different ways. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, conflicts the effects of the conjunction of church and state while The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, conflicts the inability to perfect human nature regardless of any assistance given by a created lifestyle such as Puritanism. Although these conflicts are different in body, they ... life of Puritanism. Puritan life is one of servitude to a higher calling that is socially and spiritually demanding. The conjoining of church and state was not as evident within The Sc...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... , and the forest throughout the novel are the undefined characters. An understanding of these symbols is vital to a complete comprehension of the complexity of the story; Hawthorne technique of using symbolism is brilliant and it helps the reader understand the whole concept. In The Scarlet Letter, images increase the reader's understanding of the characters. The first chapter sets the tone for the story ... live for profit, people, mostly women, bring her their troubles and seek her counsel. And there she returns to her chest the symbol of this "dark tale." Only now, "the scarlet letter...

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In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses many different objects and people as symbols to express his message throughout the book. He begins using a plant, then the ... complex symbol in the book is the most obvious and prevalent one, the books namesake, The Scarlet Letter itself. At its first entrance, the letter is used as a symbol of shame, or grief. The magistrates of the town have placed the letter on Hester's breast as a way to let everyone in the town know of her adulterous ... able. For Hester, being called able amongst the townsfolk is beyond a regular compliment. After being a...

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... crucial scaffold scenes and many characters that are all related and tied together. The story is essentially about Hester Prynne who is sentenced to wear a scarlet letter as a symbol of her adultery. Hester's life is torn between two men, her husband, Roger Chillingworth, and Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister and ... and guilt leads Dimmesdale to create the novel's second scaffold scene. In this scene Dimmesdale mounts the scaffold, clutching his naked breast which held the scarlet letter, permanently etched there. On the scaffold he screamed aloud, without power to restrain himself. He the...

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... society is too judgmental and it always has been. Even in the time Hawthorne wrote of in The Scarlet Letter and in "The Ministers Black Veil" people judged before they knew the truth. Objects were judged even though they had no relevance on what really happened. ... to show how superficial the people were. The ministers own fiancee left him because no one knew anything about the veil he wore. Again in The Scarlet Letter, I can think of two more major examples where an object was used as a sign or omen. The first is of course the ... that the weeds grew because flowers could not. People ...

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... Analysis - Roger Chillingworth In Nathaniel Hawthorne"s The Scarlet Letter, a character by the name of Roger Chillingworth had committed the worst sin of all; he basically killed another character, Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Everyone has been in a position where they have ... on Dimmesdale. Once Chillingworth had reached Dimmesdale's body, he swiftly removed Dimmesdale's church robe and saw the scarlet letter on the chest before him, which ended Chillingworth's search for the father of Pearl. Now that Chillingworth knew Hester and Dimmesdale's secret, his change to evil was complete. ...

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... such significant events occurred in her life because of the overall effect it had on shaping her identity. Hester even continues to wear the scarlet letter, no longer because of its negative connotation, but because it played such a prominent part in her life that she does not wish ... and further advancing her role as an empowering woman. While the letter was originally meant to be a source of shame and a representation of her unforgiveable sin, by the end, it represents something else entirely. Hester has complete ownership over this symbol emblazoned on her and forces society to ... r...

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There are many images of truth shown in Hawthorne's novel, "The Scarlet Letter." These images give the reader a look into the minds of the characters and a different perspective on the situations at hand. Many of these images show a turning ... society. In the beginning of the novel, there is a scene in which Hester was forced to stand on the scaffold and have everyone scorn her. She shows the scarlet A on her chest for all to see, and braves their criticism. Although Hester is one with a great sin, according to the Puritan society she lives in, she ... would be too late to be saved anyway. T...

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... Nathaniel Hawthorne was an anti-transcendentalist and believed in the dark side of man, hence his dark romantic novel The Scarlet Letter. This allegorical novel depends heavily on symbol and character. The novel is chock full of symbolic dimension of images, characters, and descriptions. The ... Scarlet Letter defines the American Romanticist movement while using symbolic characters and places that give the book seemingly two different stories. The first ... acts. She stands strong and takes whatever consequences come to her. Hester proves she has complete and utter pride in chapter fo...

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... Dimmesdale has a difficult time finding a way to relieve his sin. The Scarlet Letter's scaffold holds more importance than just somewhere to condemn prisoners, and, for Dimmesdale, it is a place to find peace. It is the one ... culture, the scaffold is used to humiliate and discipline prisoners, be it witches at the stake, thieves in the stocks, or a murderer hanging from the gallows. In The Scarlet Letter, the scaffold was viewed more as a place of judgment, "Meagre, indeed, and cold was the sympathy that a transgressor might look for from such by-standers, at ... scaffold puts oneself...

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... feel man has good intentions but those intentions can be overrun by the devil. Nathaniel Hawthorne points out that the former is true of all people in the novel The Scarlet Letter. In this novel, there are three main characters who commit evil and sinful acts, but each act is at a different degree of sinfulness. For example the sins get worse as ... of man but that there are different magnitudes of evil; some choose to fight it, like Hester, and some choose to give in, like Chillingworth. In the novel, Hester received a scarlet letter, "A," for her sins, which she had to wear upon her c...

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... number of outside conflicts may force this balance towards evil, yet anger and revenge are the most powerful. In the gothic novel, The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorn carefully interlaces the theme of good and evil throughout the complex characters of Chillingworth, Hester, and Pearl. Both the potential ... cannot abandon her evil behavior until recognized by Dimmesdale as his daughter. Pearl, from birth has a keen sense of the pain that the scarlet letter brings Hester. After Hester asks Pearl who her heavenly father is, Pearl, "whether moved by her normal freakishness, or because an...

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... themselves, and subsequently the entire human race. They degrade from perfect creatures into sinful individuals influenced by temptations, greed, pride, and evil. Similarly, Nathaniel Hawthorne's characters in The Scarlet Letter develop into less humane creatures as a result of the evil around them. The influence of evil leads to the corruption and degradation of those characters' souls and identities as members ... Roger strategically connects what he learns through his conversations with Dimmesdale, until finally, the last piece "the "A- on Arthur's chest "is fit into place and the puz...

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The Crucible Most great novels and dramas have dynamic characters as the protagonists. A dynamic character is one who is modified by the actions through which he or she passes and the consequences he or she experiences. In The Crucible, John Proctor and John Hale are the protagonists. John Proctor is a farmer and a village commoner who similarly is faced with an inner turmoil. Proctor has committed the crime of adultery. He has absolutely no intentions of joining in the witch trials unless his pregnant wife has been involved. After his wife becomes involved and eventually set free due to the f...

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... it!'" (p64) Pearl is Hester's hope, life, friend, and pardon. Although Pearl is definitely a positive, spirit building, influence on Hester's life, Pearl's main role as the scarlet letter proves to challenge Hester's resolve. Pearl is "the scarlet letter, only capable of being loved, and so endowed with a millionfold the power of retribution- (p64) As a symbol of her sin, Hester dresses up Pearl to look ... ; so strong was Hester Prynne, with a woman's strength." (p113) Pearl grows in her understanding of life in the Puritan society and in her understanding of her mother and father. The ...

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... on those who sinned or were deemed unfit for society. Two works of literature that display both aspects of this society very accurately are The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. The Scarlet Letter displays a society that treats two people very differently who commit the sin of adultery together. The woman, Hester Prynne, admits her sin, is forced ... girls. What starts as children dancing in the woods leads to the accusation and execution of many innocent people for witchcraft. The two works of literature, The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter ha...

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... has not "sinned alone," she knows that other feels the shame that she feels. In her public and private suffering, represented by the scarlet letter in her life, she remains a pillar of strength. Hester's selflessness also reflected in the services that she renders to the poor, needy ... wounds inflicted by her reputation and plague by the scarlet letter. Her weakness revealed in her private vent of her grief through tears. Her silent suffering eventually wins the sympathy of others but still fails to gain her complete acceptance by the Puritan society that surrounds her. Committing ......

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The Scarlet Letter is about a Puritan woman in Boston, Massachusettes, named Hester Prynne who commits adultry and is sentenced to wear a scarlet A on her breast. In result of the affair Hester Prynne had a little girl, Pearl. The letter "A" that was sown onto the bosom of Hester had become a symbol of sin and was intimately associated with her. Hester set forth towards her social life, which ... . The punishment received by Hester in the novel was based upon the Puritan religious, social, and governmental beliefs, structured into a single ideology, which was formed from their English experien...

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Hester Prynne, the leading character of The Scarlet Letter, and Edna Pontellier of The Awakening, are both women with striking similarities and distinctions. Both of these women live in a culture in which women have no rights and must live a ... women have realize that they are being deprived of independence and must live life as they are told, not as they would like. Hester first lost her independence to the letter "A" stitched on her chest by the puritans and this left her unable love, but gradually as she became more independent of the culture and her emotions overran her she realized ......

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