... Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. Hawthorne's use of symbolism in The Scarlet Letter is one of the most significant contributions to the rise of American Literature. Much of Hawthorne's symbolism is very hard to find but several symbols are also obvious. In the first chapter Hawthorne describes the prison as "the black flower of civilized society". The prison represents the crime and punishment that was incorporated in the early Puritan life. He also contrasts the prison with the tombstone at the end of the novel by ... red letter A in the sky. While Pearl is playing near the bay shore sh...

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• Grade Level: High School

... of bygone years. It was none the less a fact however, that, in the eyes of the very men who spoke thus, the scarlet letter had the effect of the cross on a nun's bosom."" Then we see in the seventeenth chapter, The Pastor and His Parishioner, the novel beginning to come to an end. But, The last third of this novel takes place between Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne. Here the reader finds Hester Prynne in the woods waiting for ... reveals his ever-long secret to the community by exposing his chest, which has been scarred with the letter A'. This scene further proves that the...

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• Grade Level: High School

... how sin isolates people. In the first chapter we see a plant which stands out, "But on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild rosebush, covered with its delicate gems" (Hawthorne). This rosebush is like Hester, for it too stands out as wild and different. She wears her scarlet letter among the solemnly dressed Puritans as this rosebush wears its scarlet blossoms amidst a small plot ... to another, as if telling the sad story of the pair that sat beneath, or constrained to forebode evil to come" (Hawthorne). Their sorrow is so intense even the natural worl...

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... with Dimmesdale. She does not consider it something that was immoral. In chapter 17, when she is finally reunited with Dimmesdale she says: "What we did had a consecration of its own. We felt it so! We said so to each other!" Her love is immortalized in a contrasted way that just the scarlet letter "A" as a representation of sin in this situation. She sees their actions in a different perspective ... the scarlet letter is completely different than that of the townspeople. She wears the scarlet letter with no shame. The scarlet letter is extravagantly sewn and placed on her bosom. "That ...

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• Grade Level: High School

... in the 17th century. The following will explain the nature of evil in the stories, "The Scarlet letter" and the "Minister's Black Veil". The Scarlet letter deals with guilt, fervor, and hypocrisy in a tough Puritan society. Hester and Dimmesdale's experience relates to the story of Adam and Eve because, in both cases, sin results in expulsion and suffering. But it also results in knowledge, specifically, in knowledge of what it means to be human. For Hester, the scarlet letter ... really the nature of evil for the sin she has committed? The book argues that true evil comes from the clos...

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• Grade Level: High School

... transformed from one of "antique gentility" (42) when Hester's sin affects her social image and her emotional state. Hester's change is an example of the permanently warping effects that a sinner's offense has on him. While standing on the scaffold in the first chapter, we learn through the flashbacks Hester has that in past she led a life of gentility and happiness. "Reminiscences, the most trifling and ... immaterial, passages of infancy and school-days, sports, childish quarrels, and the little domestic traits of her maiden years, came ... the form of the scarlet letter and she "must...

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"The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne The extract from "The Scarlet Letter" gives a good view of what life in Salem was like and the way people act towards people's personal issues. The language used in the extract keeps the reader in captured in the wait for the confession from the Reverend to take place. The morals and ways of life in Salem were quite different from now, and because of this, the extract has a huge impact on the reader. To see the difference ... had the "scarlet letter on her bosom". A climax is reached in this chapter of the book. Here, the characters' secrets are pub...

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... multitude of ways. First, the rosebush outside the prison; in the first chapter, it is used as a symbol of hope, or maybe a symbol of redemption. It represents a glimmer of happiness outside the grim, ugly walls and heavy oaken door of the prison. Later in the book, when asked of where she came by the governor, Pearl says she was "plucked off the bush of wild roses that grew by the prison ... the father of her baby was during the first scaffold scene. Perhaps the most complex symbol in the book is the most obvious and prevalent one, the books namesake, The Scarlet Letter itself. At its f...

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... in the beginning of the book Dimmesdale comes up as the hypocrite and the coward, throughout the story the author describes his suffering and shows why he did what he did. Dimmesdale has been feeling guilty ever since Hester was shamed for the affair. He envies Hester for being able to be true to herself. For example, in chapter 17, Dimmesdale says to Hester, "Happy are you, Hester, that wear the scarlet letter openly ... nice and helpful Hester is, they speculate that maybe the letter "A" stands for "Able" instead of "Adultery. In conclusion, the scarlet letter "A" on Hester's chest is...

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... 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 the story goes on. These three sinners, in the eyes of the puritan community are the beautiful Hester Prynne, the esteemed Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and the cold-hearted doctor, Roger ... until he finds what he is looking for, but not with destroying Dimmesdale's life even more. Hawthorne illustrates this event when he remarks, "N...

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... the theme of a war between passion and responsibility throughout The Scarlet Letter. Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth are all each individually caught in a struggle between passion and responsibility. However, it is Roger Chillingworth who best manifests this internal struggle. As a result of Pynne's and Dimmesdale's affair, Chillingworth becomes torn between his responsibilities to them and his selfish desire to seek revenge on them. Chillingworth's desire for ... former self. Chillingworth's ugliness is magnified after he is consumed by sin. The townspeople an...

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• Has Bibliography

... this world already knows sin. The women of the town criticize her for embroidering the scarlet letter, the symbol of her shame, with such care and in such a flashy manner. This seems to declare that Hester is proud, rather than ashamed, of her sin. In reality, Hester just learns to accept her sin as a part of herself, just like her child. Chapter five deals with one of the major questions of the book: why does Hester ... that have happened to her here for her to leave. Additionally, he adds, Hester feels bound to Pearl's father, who apparently continues to live in Boston. But there seem...

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• Grade Level: High School

In Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter", life is centered around a rigid, pure society in which one is unable to show his or her deepest thoughts and secrets. Every human being needs the opportunity to express how they truly feel, or the emotion is bottled up until it explodes. Unfortunately, Puritan society did not permit this expression, so characters had to use different ways to relieve themselves ... is presumed that you need only yourself, and therefore should hold no feeling of need for a "shoulder to cry on". But, for people in the Puritan way of life in which Hester and Dimmesda...

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... It's Many Ways The author of The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne, has different views of how one doesn't have to hold sin inside of them forever. At the start of this novel, Hawthorne chooses to begin his novel with a prison. This is an appropriate symbol for the punishment that the protagonists will suffer. The Scarlet Letter deals with the adultery sin of Hester Prynne and Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, the revenge of Roger Chillingsworth, and the towns people's ... the more irresistibly, the darker the singe that saddens it." Chapter 5, Page 73. In the end of the novel he is ruined on...

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• Grade Level: High School