... a reality that we can assume, safely, that the commonwealth acted as so, however, to a certain extent. In the introduction of The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne writes about his various meetings with Ellery Channing, Henry David Thoreau, and Ralph Waldo Emerson (Hawthorne pg. 27). These people and their ... Imagination is what creates moralistic intuition in the writer (Jacobsen pg. 34-33). Another example that may support morality in the production of The Scarlet Letter, as a historical document, is the study Yvor Winters claims that "Puritans had allegorical morality," as well as the charac...

• Word Count: 1014
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... 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...

• Word Count: 435
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... 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...

• Word Count: 710
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... many months in prison, stand on the scaffold for three hours under public scrutiny, and attach a scarlet letter, "A" on her chest every day as long as she remained in the town of Boston. The letter "A" was to show Hester Prynne as an adulteress and as an immoral human being. Her refusal to ... let go of this sin led to her alienation and isolation. This is shown in the story through her experience on the scaffold, her complete change of appearance, and ... to reveal the name of whom she committed the sin with. Having a heart blinded by love Hester choose to stay in the town and wear th...

• Word Count: 833
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

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...

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

... 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...

• Word Count: 723
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... 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...

• Word Count: 1211
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... 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 ...

• Word Count: 765
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... 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...

• Word Count: 578
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

The Power of Guilt Repressed guilt and emotions will inevitably destroy a man. This was surely the case in Nathaniel Hawthorne's, The Scarlet Letter, a novel set in Puritan times that describes what guilt and sin truly are. Two main characters that live with guilt and sin ... forth into the sunshine, which, falling on all alike, seemed, to her sick and morbid heart, as if meant for no other purpose than to reveal the scarlet letter on her breast (72). As an outcast Hester will live a life of solitude and will no longer be a respected member of society. Hester's guilt will show ... in very s...

• Word Count: 748
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

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...

• Word Count: 330
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

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 ......

• Word Count: 998
• Approx Pages: 4