... . She is the mother of her only daughter, Pearl, who was conceived in sin with the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Arthur Dimmesdale is the reverend of the small puritan society, and Hester's partner in sin. This also makes him Pearls Father. It most certainly appears that ... the Reverand reveals his weakness to her in public by pleading with her to reveal her partner in sin, secretly. Hester chooses not to reveal Arthur Dimmesdale's identity because she does not want to hurt him. This leads him down a long road of depression and masochism. Had Hester revealed him ... allows the drama in the...

• Word Count: 855
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... symbol in the novel is the scarlet letter, which affects each character in a different way. The characters who are affected by the letter are Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth, Pearl, and Hester Prynne (Schneider). The scarlet letter is a sign by which the colonial authority seeks to fix the crime of ... watched very closely by the community. Because of her public shame and constant ridicule, Hester becomes an outcast to society. Her love for Arthur Dimmesdale, their minister, and the creation of Pearl, her daughter, has forced her to live in seclusion. The only times she even come...

• Word Count: 1366
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... identity. Hester Prynne, the woman who commits a sin that forces her into ignominious solitude, uses her crime as leverage for her own personal development. Arthur Dimmesdale, believed to be a pious reverend, is provided as an example of conformity. He rejects his sin and is constrained to what the puritanical society believes ... to be as orthodox. And Pearl, who is the offspring of Hester and Dimmesdale, is unlike either of the two. She does not face the dilemmas of her identity clashing with society's view of her. Instead, she is ... ). Through Hester's tribulations, she is able to s...

• Word Count: 1053
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... her mirror image of the scarlet letter itself. In more ways than one, she is analogous to her mother, Hester Prynne. Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale are also severely affected by the presence of Pearl. In an ambience of guilt, Pearl serves as innocence. When comparing the actual scarlet letter ... it, and his only remedy is confessing. It is at this point where Pearl forgives her father. However, Pearl also brings out a new existence of Dimmesdale. Donald A. Ringe states "As he takes Pearl by the hand, there comes to him "what seemed a tumultuous rush of new life, other life t...

• Word Count: 1115
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... would rule. The greatest proof of Hester's strength and Hawthorne's idea that women were stronger than anyone believed was the difference he made between the two lovers Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. They were two people, drawn to each other like a moth to the flame, yet they were worlds apart. From the beginning, Hester revealed her sin and shame publicly. Even while ... ordained a "Sister of Mercy" by some. Many people refused to interpret the meaning of the scarlet letter as adultery but instead as "Able." Where Hester had honesty, Dimmesdale had deceit. Where Hester had streng...

• Word Count: 1087
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

Scarlet Letter And Pearl One of the most complex and elaborate characters in The Scarlet Letter is Pearl, the misbegotten offspring of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Throughout the story Pearl, becomes quite the dynamic little individual, as well as an extremely important symbol- one who is constantly changing. Pearl's involvement in the complex history of her ... parents inadvertently forced her to be viewed as different and is shunned because of her mother's sin. Pearl is a living scarlet letter to Hester, Dimmesdale and finally the reader, acting as a constant reminder of Hester's, a...

• Word Count: 1158
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... sentence. She accepted her sin and accepted herself. She learned to love who she was. In total contrast to Hester, Pearl's secret father, Arthur Dimmesdale, the town minister, does not confess his sin until after it completely destroys him. He hides his adultery and fails to claim Pearl as ... is guilt and self-condemnation, increased by the torture by Roger Chillingsworth; Hester's undisclosed husband and the town's physician. "Happy are you, Hester," says Dimmesdale, "that wear the scarlet letter openly upon your bosom! Mine burns in secret!" (188). As his shame and inner guilt increase...

• Word Count: 1175
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... novel, Hester flees from her life in Europe, which she didn't like, and moves to America. She settles in a puritan community, where she meets Arthur Dimmesdale, a young puritan minister, and she commits the act of adultery. Several months later the town realizes she has committed adultery, due to the fact ... his heart. Serving as a symbol that he shares the same pain as Hester and that Hester shouldn't be the only one who suffers. Dimmesdale suffers incredibly because of the letter A, due to the fact that he is afraid, primarily from Roger Chillingsworth, Hester's husband who came from ...

• Word Count: 1035
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... little daughter Pearl; a strange, but gentle child. People in the community though, looked at her as an evil, elf-child, born from sin. In the meantime there was a priest named Arthur Dimmesdale who was secretly living in shame; for he was the father to little Pearl. His fatherhood was kept a secret for fear of jeopardizing his priesthood, so Hester took all the ... blame from the public. Although Hester had to face public humiliation, Mr. Dimmesdale suffered with the symbol of shame burned into his chest never to be revealed, and eating at his conscience. Little to the old priests know...

• Word Count: 566
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... midnight for self-torture. Hester joins him, and there they are seen together by Hester's husband, Chillingworth. At the end, the exhausted and death-stricken Dimmesdale totters to confess his sin at last to the incredulous and only half- comprehending crowd, and to die in Hester's arms. Gomez 3 On the ... shame at all; its only meaning was Gomez 4 defined by her not for her. Now, she chooses it to symbolize the man she loved and lost, Arthur Dimmesdale. Sometimes, the meaning of the letter can shift within a scene. In Governor Bellingham's house, it exists in four different versions at ...

• Word Count: 1915
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... governor passes away, and finally the "A" comes to mean able as a result of Hester's ambition and compassion. Without question Hester is guilty of adultery. She engaged in a relationship with Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale while she was still married to Roger Prynne (Chillingworth). As a result of her sin she is condemned to wear the letter "A". The "A" is meant to humiliate Hester. Her refusal to ... being the beacon from Hester's breast the letter "A" is presented in several forms. It is on the armor breastplate in Governor Bellingham's garden, in the sky on the night of Dimmesdale's scaffold...

• Word Count: 661
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... to the man thou wottest of. Shouldst thou fail me in this, beware! His fame, his position, his life, will be in my hands. Beware!" (68). Later, we discover that Arthur Dimmesdale is the man Hester had the affair with. ...

• Word Count: 461
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... is. Hester came to the colonies without her husband. Living in a very self-righteous, rigid Puritan community, she made the mistake of having an affair with the esteemed town priest, Arthur Dimmesdale. When the town elders found out that she was pregnant, they demanded to know her partner in sin, though she declined to name him. She was sentenced to wear a scarlet ... ...

• Word Count: 1229
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School