Nathaniel Hawthorne used his writing skills to appropriately show the strict intolerant ways of the disciplined Puritan America of 1850, with his novel The Scarlet Letter. This novel has become a classic, because of the accurate portrayal of the conservative Puritan ways. His novel is one of few to tell of the true Puritan lifestyle. The Scarlet Letter is a novel that is set in Salem, Massachusetts, the Puritan New England of the seventeenth century. The book begins by ... commandments, adultery. She is thrown out of the town and is no longer a community member. The Puritans' beliefs' is what...

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

... Chillingworth, Hester's anonymous husband, caused the destruction of his character and inevitable death. The story dealt a great deal with the idea of sin, the punishment that comes from it, and the repentance that some undergo to cleanse themselves of that sin. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, the author uses the scaffold scenes to depict the idea of private versus public sin. The first scaffold scene establishes the tone for the novel. Here, Hester Prynne is ... taken before her Puritan town from the prison. On her bosom she bears the scarlet A for "adultery" and in her ar...

• Word Count: 1460
• Approx Pages: 6

... truth to common place reality, especially as found in natural scenes". Nathaniel Hawthorne was an anti-transcendentalist and believed in the dark side of man, hence his dark romantic novel The Scarlet Letter. This allegorical novel depends heavily on symbol and character. The novel is chock full of symbolic dimension of images, characters, and descriptions. The Scarlet Letter defines the American Romanticist movement while using symbolic characters and places that give ... the book seemingly two different stories. The first story denotes the story going on in the book, including the cha...

• Word Count: 1687
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, there are many characters that transform; one of them is Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. Dimmesdale committed a great sin of the puritan society, he slept with another mans wife and Hester Prynne became pregnant. Hester was punished for her sin but Arthur Dimmesdale had not admitted to it, so he lives ... finally relieved himself of guilt after seven years of letting this eat away at him and torment him. The people still saw him as a great man and he was never really seen as a dirty man. In The Scarlet Letter by...

• Word Count: 1308
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... of pride and inner beauty. Not long after this story was published, did women start rebelling against their so-called "position" in society. Hester would have been very proud. The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, is an amazing story of Hester's strength in exposing and accepting her sin, choosing to wear bold apparel, and helping Dimmesdale deal with his inner conflict. She is truly a model ... for advocates of the early women's right movement. Although the scarlet letter burned a hole to her heart, Hester wears it and never denies it, which shows a true strength from within. Whe...

• Word Count: 1678
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... one's shadow-self lead to self-reliance? The nature of sin exists internally and externally and affects one's state of mind. Set in the mid 17th century, the three scaffold scenes developed by Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Scarlet Letter depict the moral, emotional and psychological effects of Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, and Roger Chillingworth. Also, the Scarlet letter "A" that Hester is obligated to wear affects ... her persona and shadow self along with the community in which she lives. Each scene exemplifies the theme of sin along with the nature of ... this change is expressed w...

• Word Count: 1995
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... guilt, however, and we would realize the relative ease of time in our room. In The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne similarly develops the concepts of guilt and the freedom gained by confession. In the first of three distinct scaffold scenes, Hester Prynne stands alone under direct scrutiny from the public. By the second of such scenes, the story is in the middle of its development, and the guilt of Arthur Dimmesdale has fully developed ... . Though he is unable to confess to the townspeople, he tries ... ...

• Word Count: 1627
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... is when a weaver connects them together that they form a beautiful tapestry. Each thread then contributes to the quality of the tapestry and is bound together by the common picture that is formed. In a work of literature, each thread is an idea and the common picture is a theme. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, each thread is an ironic element of setting, and together, they demonstrate people's tendency to seek ... shelter from, instead of in, society. Vivid yet ironic descriptions are used by Hawthorne, just as a weaver uses bright threads to draw more attention to the fine...

• Word Count: 1828
• Approx Pages: 7
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School