... , Roger Chillingworth, Pearl, and Hester Prynne (Schneider). The scarlet letter is a sign by which the colonial authority seeks to fix the crime of adultery and the criminal, Hester Prynne. The "A" both indicates, yet hinders the Puritan community's authority over Hester's identity. As the novel progresses, the letter changes meaning from adultery to ability, in the eyes of the people around her. Through the scarlet letter, Hester become a sympathetic heroine, and the Puritan society becomes not only bigoted and joyless, but ... symbolizes the ability of nature to endure and outlast man'...

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

... infraction. Otherwise, Hawthorne's description of the crowd is almost objective. He tells the reader that poised at the scaffold, relatively courtly at the scaffold, a place of mortification and shame. Hester's crime caused her to be an outcast and caused the community's people to wonder about her, themselves, their faith and devotedness. Mr. Hawthorne's tone during his description of Hester is subtly ... mystified and filled with wonder. His tone at the description of the crowd is sorrowful, irked. Although significant, tone is not Hawthorne's only weapon of choice. The Scarlet Letter w...

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

... by Pearl to do good and tries to expel her guilt. Pearl acts indirectly as Hesters moral compass, because every time Hester looks at Pearl she sees the potential good in herself. Thus, In the novel The Scarlet Letter, Pearl exists solely as a symbol of Hester's sins, positive traits, and past self, not as a character in her own right. Pearl is compassionate solely to her ... to harm Hester and Dimmesdale, when she encounters him with her mother, she tells her mom to leave because the old Black Man with catch [her]...but he cannot catch little Pearl (Hawthorne 92). Although she does not ...

• Word Count: 1245
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... and Arthur Dimmesdale's daughter. Impulsive, uncanny, and ungovernable, she is a symbol of natural instinct and distinction. At one point in the novel the elders of the colony try to take Pearl away from Hester because they think she is a demon-child. During her first three years, Pearl, who is named because she came of great price, grows into a physically beautiful, vigorous, and grateful ... little girl. She is radiant in the rich and elaborate dresses that Hester sews for her. However, Pearl possesses a complex character. She shows an unusual ... vivid natural images describe her as...

• Word Count: 1147
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... further evil as he states "Even thus early had the child saved her [Hester] from Satan's snare." (p. 120) Hawthorne is referring to Mistress Hibbins" requests to Hester to meet her in the forest to worship the Black Man. Hester declined this invitation because the governor allowed her to keep Pearl. Many times during the novel, Hawthorne has the readers wondering if Pearl is "human" or not, and ... , and prison." (p. 47) This says that while the Puritans wanted to build a perfect society, one of the first things they built was a prison for criminals. Right from the beginning Hawthorne hi...

• Word Count: 843
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The Scarlet Letter Essay In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, The Scarlet Letter, there are many different themes portrayed throughout the book. Hawthorne develops these themes through many different symbols in his novel. Besides the obvious symbol being the Scarlet Letter, you can find many other examples of Hawthorne's use of color. The colors that he repeats in the book besides red are gray, gold, green, and black. Gray represents the strict Puritan society. Gold represents passion. Green is ... is being held in prison with a crowd of Puritans waiting outside to see her humiliated. Many times d...

• Word Count: 506
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... 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 also shows the truth these situation because she is letting the people recognize her sin and acknowledge it. She chooses not to hide the truth from them, unlike reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. At one point during the novel, Dimmesdale ... is so fixed on his sin that it has caused his downfall and worn him away. In this scene, he goes to the ... does not hide it. She shows this through her scarlet letter, and she in...

• Word Count: 623
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... The Scarlet Letter, Arthur Dimmesdale has many opportunities to acknowledge his wrongdoing. He could have confessed during the first scaffold scene as Hester stood in front of the townspeople. Dimmesdale preached to her about her sin, although he was her co-sinner. He could have admitted his sin and endured the wrath of the Puritan society as Hester does, but he lacks the courage. When Dimmesdale went to the scaffold during the ... sinner because she admitted her sin and took her assigned punishment. She wore the scarlet letter, only once in seven years lying about its meaning. To repen...

• Word Count: 898
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... emphasize suffering and torment in Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. Throughout the book, the scaffold has been the symbol of puritan society's harsh punishment for sinners. The three scaffold scenes in The Scarlet Letter convey the theme of sin not being tolerated whatsoever in Puritan Society. Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale is tormented throughout the story and in all three scenes with the scaffold. In the second scaffold scene, Dimmesdale is "overwhelmed with shame, and stand[s] where ... Hester Prynne had stood" (pg. 139). He "shriek[s] aloud" (pg. 136) as he remembers the torture he...

• Word Count: 598
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850, is a book that was set at a time where the strict Puritan way of life was key. Hawthorne wrote about an intimate romance between Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. The various relationships and feelings behind these relationships are intense, one can never really be quite sure of the true emotion. The moral of the story is to be true, yet each ... Chillingworth moves in with Dimmesdale to help keep him well, but his real intentions are revealed only to the reader. The underlying aspects of the characters in the book and their "twist...

• Word Count: 995
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... is thereof death" (Hawthorne 56). Different cultural upbringings and different thoughts influence truths to be understood differently. The Puritan belief encompasses that an adulterer must be put to death, yet instead, the ministers did not enforce their laws completely like the way it was meant to be. In a sense they did kill her, not by hanging, but by turning her and her child ... attempt to protect Minister Dimmesdale. Pearl and Hester are "tainted" because they have sinned and once a woman's reputation is sullied it is nearly impossible to clean it up. Society judges women quickly ...

• Word Count: 1931
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... prominent feature of her appearance. In truth, she seemed absolutely hidden behind it"(72). The reflection of the scarlet letter is made to look larger than life, just like society blows it out of proportion in the beginning of the novel. This occurs during a time when Hester is questioning herself due to her guilt, and she even question whether it is worth living if your life is so ... shows the novels theme. The theme of guilt in The Scarlet Letter is a rather prominent one. The moral of the story is also based in guilt; it is better to be forthcoming and honest, the oneself, to ones ...

• Word Count: 915
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... prominent feature of her appearance. In truth, she seemed absolutely hidden behind it?(72). The reflection of the scarlet letter is made to look larger than life, just like society blows it out of proportion in the beginning of the novel. This occurs during a time when Hester is questioning herself due to her guilt, and she even question whether it is worth living if your life is so ... shows the novels theme. The theme of guilt in The Scarlet Letter is a rather prominent one. The moral of the story is also based in guilt; it is better to be forthcoming and honest, the oneself, to ones ...

• Word Count: 917
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... isolating Hester. She comes to a point where she cannot go out during daylight. Wearing her sin on her chest caused her to be isolated by the townspeople. They are all hypocrites for being the same people who go to church weekly repenting their sins. Hawthorne uses many symbols throughout The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne uses the colors red, black, and white to represent Hester's emotions and ... sin. Hawthorne also uses black and darkness as symbols throughout The Scarlet Letter. Black is used to represent evil and hiding. Hawthorne calls the prison the "black flower of civilized society,...

• Word Count: 1044
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... were not permitted to cut their hair, and when out in public they must wear a scarf. During the 1850's Puritan goals were to purify the Church of England (Internet Source 2). To purify the Church of England would require rules that allow little room for tolerance. "Spare the rod, spoil the child"(KJV, Proverbs) was abused. If one did not go by their standards they may very well ... would argue that Dimmesdale was not a father, most would have to disagree. It is not that he was not a father, for Pearl was the evidence of the act he committed. However, the reality was that he was not a go...

• Word Count: 2000
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

Scarlet Letter 1.Setting: Where and When does the action of the story take place? The story begins in seventeenth-century Boston, during a Puritan settlement. It takes place in Salem and Concord, Massachusetts; late 1840. A young woman, Hester Pryne, is led from the town prison with her infant daughter, Pearl, in her arms and the scarlet letter "A" on her breast. A man in the crowd tells an elderly onlooker that Hester is being punished for ... specifically that earn her this reprieve? Would she have behaved this way is she did not have something to prove? Hester has become more active in soc...

• Word Count: 1337
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... of having done something wrong, improper or immodest. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, Arthur Dimmesdale struggles to overcome sin, guilt, and public shame in Puritan society. Arthur Dimmesdale reveals his guilt and shame towards the end of the novel when Hester and Pearl stand with him on the scaffold while he confesses his sin to the townspeople. To feel shame or guilt, one must have a clean conscience ... if one behaves according to one's own beliefs or instincts. Dimmesdale's mentality is affected severely by shame. Mentality affected by shame is caused because whe...

• Word Count: 939
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... reappear and grow in significance during the course of the novel. However, this is also the same gesture that Hester Prynne makes when remembering the scarlet letter upon her own bosom. Hawthorne brilliantly connects Hester Prynne's openly displayed shame with Reverend Dimmesdale's secret shame by having both characters touch the same spot where the scarlet letter is displayed. We see the same motion of weakness again when ... upon him for corrupting her. Hawthorne uses the scaffold as a tool through which he demonstrates the public revelation of one's sins. Public penitence upon the sc...

• Word Count: 2932
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School

... a scarlet letter is no big deal, but try to raise a child who questions almost everything while wearing the letter. Her town branded Hester for all that saw her to know of her sin. Before the trial and the standing on the scaffold, Hester was viewed as a nice, pretty, young, puritan woman whom no one would really expect of committing this adulterous act. The frowns, the scoffs, the casual comments, the seclusion, the whispers ... will be kept separate of law thus people are given more leeway compared to the Puritan society where religion is law. How was Arthur Dimmesdale affected by fai...

• Word Count: 4111
• Approx Pages: 16
• Grade Level: High School