... is because of the Puritan beliefs of the time period. This is the driving force between the actions of the characters. The setting of a religiously intolerant village is also the main reason behind the conflict that lies in each plot. The conflicts in both works of literature are also similar. They are both caused by the same thing, the excessively devout town in which the setting takes place. The conflict in The Scarlet Letter that occurs between ... his daughter is sick, and the people in court in The Crucible are similar to the townspeople in The Scarlet Letter. Part of this is due t...

• Word Count: 1327
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... are Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, both bearers of a Scarlet Letter of Adultery, one public and one private. Hester Prynne, the bearer of the scarlet letter in public, is the central character of the book. However, the suspense of the story revolves around Dimmesdale and his private mark of adultery. Antagonist The antagonist is the effort to hide the identify of the male adulterer, who is Pearl's father. Both Hester and Dimmesdale fight to ... he finds Dimmesdale's glove on the scaffold, he returns it to the minister and blames the devil for having dropped it there. He refers to ...

• Word Count: 1929
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... would have burned away in torments;" by prolonging his life, Chillingworth allows the minister to confess before his death (157). In The Scarlet Letter, therefore, sin ironically leads to the purity of youth and of public confession. Hester's daughter and Dimmesdale's confession may be regarded as "sweet moral blossoms" springing from an unsightly plot of weeds. Hawthorne shows that relief may be brought only by voluntary ... penitence and acknowledgment of sin: one must "be true! Show freely to the world, if not [one's] worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred" (236). He...

• Word Count: 1485
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... seven years makes them doubt the reality of the moment. The dramatic interchanges in which forgiveness is asked, withheld, and given and in which plans are made reveal much about the two characters and their futures. Also, it is there Hester Prynne is strong and is able to both analysis the situation and plot for their actions, and "undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter, and, taking it from ... her bosom, threw it to a distance among the whither leaves." On the other hand, Arthur Dimmesdale is well respected in Boston and do not wish for his affair with Hester ... ...

• Word Count: 2453
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... awe, yet with reverence too." ( Hawthorne 260). The scarlet letter also forges a link between the characters. Pearl, for instance, can't see her mother without it; the scarlet letter had become a part of her mother. The scaffold is another important symbol in the novel. It symbolizes Judgment Day and repentance. Hawthorne uses it whenever the plot takes a shift, as a sort of turning point, "each of the scaffold scenes brings together in a moment of ... moral, emotional, and psychological tension the major characters and forces of the story" (Martin 109). At the beginning, the scaffold i...

• Word Count: 2338
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... beautiful and brings joy to Hester. Yet every rose has its thorn, and likewise Pearl is the living reminder of Hester's sin. The rose-bush is also a symbol of Hester's passion and survival. "Before this ugly edifice, and between it and the wheel-track of the street, was a grass-plot, much overgrown with burdock, pig-weed, apple-peru, and such unsightly vegetation, which evidently ... found something congenial in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of civilized society, a prison. But, on one side of the portal and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rose-bush, covered...

• Word Count: 1487
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... those members deemed sinful and uncovers the hidden evil in even the most pious of preachers. He achieves this by developing plot lines focusing on interactions between ignorant and often malevolent religious characters and sinful but relatable protagonists. The novel The Scarlet Letter, The Ministers Black Veil and Young Goodman Brown all unite upon this common thread. The opening scene of chapter 2 in The Scarlet Letter describes a gaggle of gossiping women viewing ... Hester Prynne's punishment. Hawthorne writes, ""The magistrates are God-fearing gentlemen, but ... ...

• Word Count: 1379
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... 's attic and among these, he discovers a manuscript bundled with a gold-embroidered patch in the shape of an "A." The manuscript was written by a past surveyor who detailed events some two-hundred years before the narrator's time. He later decides to write a fictional story based on the events from the manuscript and calls it The Scarlet Letter. The narrator then goes into his book which takes place in 17th century Boston ... afterward. It was said that he was lost at sea. Apparently, while waiting, Hester had an affair with another since she had given birth to the adulterer's child and ...

• Word Count: 1497
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... , had quite forgiven Hester Prynne for her frailty; nay, more, they had begun to look upon the scarlet letter as the token, not of that one sin, for which she had borne so long and dreary a penance, but of her many good deeds since " (147). The truth of Hester's scarlet letter changed; it no longer represented her weakness and evil, instead, she was now seen as ... to someone else. Are humans born innately good, evil or both? "Therefore, as a man who has not thought and philosophized in vain, I seek no vengeance, plot no evil against thee. Between thee and me, the scale hangs fairly bala...

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

... a life ahead of her. The final scaffold scene is a powerful conclusion to the end of the novel. Hawthorne perfectly structures The Scarlet Letter around the three scaffold scenes. In each scene Dimmesdale is closer and closer to his confession. The first is the introduction to the novel, the second is the climax of the novel and the third is the conclusion to the novel. The first scene, located in the first few pages of the book, Hester reveals her ... Dimmesdale tries to tell her he sincerely wants her to reveal his name. She does this in the light of day in front of all the townspeopl...

• Word Count: 1498
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... ; at least, no violence; and yet, with every tremor of his melancholy voice, the hearers quaked."" It is at this stage of the plot that Hawthorne separates his readers from the Puritans. Now that the reader is lead to stop the criticism of Mr. Hooper, after all he is still the same kind man, but the Puritan people do not let down. It's as if people realize that ... the veil is nothing but a piece of crape, but yet enjoy tormenting Mr. Hooper. " How ... of Hawthorne's tales where a Puritan separates him or herself from the rest of society due to cruelty and fear of evil. The reader can b...

• Word Count: 1634
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School