... 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...

• Word Count: 1118
• Approx Pages: 4
• 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...

• Word Count: 471
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

"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...

• Word Count: 755
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... 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...

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